Synth Brochures

for anyone interested there are a number of synth brochures up for auction this auction.

Korg Wavestation.

Some synth history: when Sequential Circuits absolved, Dave Smith went on to Yamaha to work on the SY22 and TG33 Vector Synths, a direct descendant of the Sequential Circuits Prophet VS vector synthesizer. He then went on to KORG to produce the KORG Wavestation also a vector wavetable synthesizer. He finally ended up forming Dave Smith Instruments where he now produces the Evolver and Prophet '08 synths. An interesting note is that the Evolver line features both analog oscillators and the digital oscilators of the Prophet VS, but there is not joystick to morph between OSCs like his previous vector synths.

Note that the difference between a vector synthesizer and a wavetable synth like the PPG Waves and Waldorf line of wavetable synths is that a vector synth typically has four digital oscillators with various waveforms that you can adjust the volume of each with a joystick. A wavetable synth on the other hand has a wavetable with multipe single cycle waveforms that you can assign to each oscillator. You can then assign a modulation source like an LFO or envelope to sweep through that wavetable. This obviously makes the voice sound dynamic as you hold a key down. The Wavestation hand a bith of both. You could sweep through waves to create motion and you had the joystick to adjust the levels of each OSC. The one thing I am curious about however is if the Wavestation had wavetables in the sense of the PPG and Waldorf synth or if it rather swept through the different digital oscillator types. If you know, feel free to comment.