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Which hardware synths have wave seq'ing feature


cowby

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Hi, found WS is very interesting & fun. May I know which hardware synths has such features. I know that Korg at least has one called "wave station" ?! How about any other contemporary synths? BTW, Nord got one?

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Cowby

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Okay, let's reason this through, and see what we've got.

 

The DX-7 does indeed possess waves (well, sine wave operators).

 

It also has MIDI IN.

 

Bear with me here.

 

So technically, if you were to trigger notes from the DX-7 via an external MIDI sequencer, you would in effect be "sequencing" the "waves."

 

Okay, I'll shut up now.

 

:)

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Okay, let's reason this through, and see what we've got.


The DX-7 does indeed possess waves (well, sine wave operators).


It also has MIDI IN.


Bear with me here.


So technically, if you were to trigger notes from the DX-7 via an external MIDI sequencer, you would in effect be "sequencing" the "waves."


Okay, I'll shut up now.


 

:) Sine waves and MIDI IN :cool:

 

Alright, for those who didn't know, please bear with me.

 

:bear:

 

The DX7 envelope generator behaves in a peculiar way that can be exploited as a wave sequencer. If you set the first stage of the envelope below certain (low) level, the evelope rate parameter will act as a simple delay not as a slope shaper. In other words, when you hit the key, the envelope will kick in after some time set by the rate parameter, instead of rising gradually.

 

Now create up to 3 different waves, from simple waveforms to complex timbres and shape them with the remaining 3 stages of the EG that can serve as Attack, Decay or Sustain (not both) and Release for each operator. Position them on the global patch envelope that you create by summing the individual envelopes of each wave.

 

[edit] ^^^You are actually left with 4 envelope stages out of 5 and you get full ADSR on the sequenced waves. I confused stages with nodes, sorry.

 

Creating all the classic waveforms using two operators belongs to basic FM tutorials readily available on the web, no point of me wasting my time to explain it here. But, yes, you can wave sequence plain sines too :thu:

 

The limit of 3 different waves stems from the arrangement of operators in the algorithms. You don't have more than 3 independent stacks of operators in the DX7.

 

It's a lucky coincidence that I've posted audio examples of the DX7 wave sequencing in this thread on another forum:

 

Blaster Beam Challenge!

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I think some people are confused a bit by the terms.

 

Wave sequencing refers to sample chaining/crossfading as made famous by some Korg products. Wavetable synthesis is quite different using a modulatable pointer to move through a table of single cycle waves in realtime.

Occasionally you can get similar results from both types of synthesis but usually the results are quite different.

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:)
Sine waves and MIDI IN
:cool:

Alright, for those who didn't know, please bear with me.


:bear:


The DX7 envelope generator behaves in a peculiar way that can be exploited as a wave sequencer. If you set the first stage of the envelope below certain (low) level, the evelope rate parameter will act as a simple delay not as a slope shaper. In other words, when you hit the key, the envelope will kick in after some time set by the rate parameter, instead of rising gradually.


Now create up to 3 different waves, from simple waveforms to complex timbres and shape them with the remaining 3 stages of the EG that can serve as Attack, Decay or Sustain (not both) and Release for each operator. Position them on the global patch envelope that you create by summing the individual envelopes of each wave.


 

Dude, that's like saying a Little Phatty can do "wave sequencing" by assigning the LFO to the waveform. Sure, it changes the waveform, but its not wave sequencing.

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I think some people are confused a bit by the terms.


Wave sequencing refers to sample chaining/crossfading as made famous by some Korg products. Wavetable synthesis is quite different using a modulatable pointer to move through a table of single cycle waves in realtime.

Occasionally you can get similar results from both types of synthesis but usually the results are quite different.

 

 

Mathematically the latter technique includes the former as described above as a subset (unless there are additional subtleties), as one could move the pointer from one wave to another (or not) and cross-fade and/or chain at the same time given sufficient number of wave table oscillators and sufficient modulation control.

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Dude, that's like saying a Little Phatty can do "wave sequencing" by assigning the LFO to the waveform. Sure, it changes the waveform, but its not wave sequencing.

 

 

Little Phatty cannot crossfade which is part of wave sequencing. DX7 is quite comfortable with it.

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Mathematically the latter technique includes the former as described above as a subset (unless there are additional subtleties), as one could move the pointer from one wave to another (or not) and cross-fade and/or chain at the same time given sufficient number of wave table oscillators and sufficient modulation control.

 

There are additional subtleties actually. Wave sequencing is linear while wavetables are random-access. Generally wave sequencing involves short samples while wavetables are single cycle waves...there's more but it's a PITA to type this on an iPod. ;)

 

When I get home to my puter I can pontificate more if anyone is interested. :lol:

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The closest thing from yamaha to my knowledge is the tg33 vector synth. But I'm not that familiar with their synths after the 90s. still pure vector based sound "morphing" is a lot different than wave sequencing. Ws is a technical term and refers to sample sequencing like carbon said. Arguing semantics = fail.

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The closest thing from yamaha to my knowledge is the tg33 vector synth. But I'm not that familiar with their synths after the 90s. still pure vector based sound "morphing" is a lot different than wave sequencing. Ws is a technical term and refers to sample sequencing like carbon said. Arguing semantics = fail.

 

The TG33/SY22 is a greatly under-rated synth that I happen to really love. :love:

 

However, this muddies the waters even more because "vector synthesis" is another form of synthesis entirely - where four sources are panned between during the duration of a note with a multiplex envelope and/or recorded joystick movement. The Korg Wavestation sported this method in addition to it's wave sequencing capabilitys. While sometimes the results can be similar to both wavetable and wave sequencing, it is not always.

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