Since the late '90s, everything has become smaller, lighter, faster, cheaper, and more powerful, and advances in computer technology have started to reap a tangible benefit, because the fledgling technology of software synthesizers has been improving rapidly of late. With its greatly improved vector synthesis and wave sequencing, this gave everyone access to the expensive, 'produced' sounds that were once the preserve of million-dollar studios. The company repeated the trick two years later when it released the Wavestation. The result was the M1, the instrument that signalled the maturity of the digital synth, and established the form of the modern keyboard workstation. In 1988, Korg did it again, employing Yamaha's VLSI and surfacemount techniques to combine sample+synthesis technology with digital multi-effects units and 16-track MIDI sequencing. It showed that polyphonic synthesis had matured, and placed it for the first time in the grasping hands of impoverished musicians, myself among them.
Sure, there was nothing particularly radical in this, but it was a 'real' polysynth as opposed to a paraphonic string synthesizer on steroids, and it sounded superb. Its beguiling patchbay and external signal processor may have promised far more than they delivered, but the instrument nonetheless signalled a new maturity and accessibility for modular synthesis, placing it in the grasping hands of impoverished students, myself among them.Īnother prime example appeared three years later when Korg launched the 'Poor Man's Prophet 5', the Polysix. Take the Korg MS20, which first appeared in 1978.
Numerous examples exist if you look for them. Occasionally, an expensive and unattainable technology will mature to the point that something previously esoteric, distant and impenetrable becomes warm, cuddly, and practical. This month, we focus on the Wavestation plug-in. Now that Korg's Legacy Collection is properly complete, we follow up last month's preview with the first instalment of our three-part in-depth review.
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