60-453: The Korg Wavestation is a vector synthesis synthesizer first produced in the early 1990s and later re-released as a software synthesizer in 2004. Its primary innovation was Wave Sequencing , a method of multi-timbral sound generation in which different PCM waveform data are played successively, resulting in continuously evolving sounds. The Wavestation's "Advanced Vector Synthesis" sound architecture resembled early vector synths such as
120-752: A Performance can also transmit and receive multi-timbrally on eight parts, Multisets are generally superfluous. The Wavestation was designed by a team which included Dave Smith , who designed the Prophet-5 and, along with Roland , helped to invent the MIDI protocol in the early 1980s. His synthesizer company, Sequential Circuits , was purchased by Yamaha in 1988. The division was renamed DSD (intended by Yamaha to stand for Dave Smith Designs). The team, ex-SCI engineers Dave Smith, John Bowen , Scott Peterson, and Stanley Jungleib , then went on to Korg in May 1989 and designed
180-690: A Wavestation SR when scoring episodes of the X-Files . The sound of the Wavestation is familiar to users of the Apple Macintosh , since the startup chime that has featured on every Mac from the Quadra 700 to the Quadra 800 was created by Jim Reekes on a Korg Wavestation. Reekes said, "The startup sound was done in my home studio on a Korg Wavestation. It's a C Major chord, played with both hands stretched out as wide as possible (with 3rd at
240-611: A collection of software-based versions of its classic synthesizers, called the Korg Legacy Collection. With the Wavestation it incorporates the entire library of the original Wavestation's samples, wave sequences and presets making the vector synthesis concept more affordable and known to a wider audience. A native version for iOS , named iWavestation, has also been released. Bibliography Korg KORG Inc. ( Japanese : 株式会社コルグ , Hepburn : Kabushiki-gaisha Korugu ) , founded as Keio Electronic Laboratories ,
300-420: A finite duration; they may also be synchronized to the Wavestation's internal clock (at a user-adjustable tempo) or to MIDI clock signals from a sequencer . The result is a continuously changing sound, producing either a smooth blend of crossfaded waves, or semi-arpeggiated and rhythmic sequences, or a combination of both. In a Patch, different wave sequences can be assigned to each of the four oscillators, thus
360-459: A male falsetto singer. Some of these songs are linked to the cult of the grapevine and many date back to the eighth century. The songs traditionally pervaded all areas of everyday life, ranging from work in the fields (the Naduri, which incorporates the sounds of physical effort into the music) to songs to curing of illnesses and to Christmas Carols (Alilo). Byzantine liturgical hymns also incorporated
420-554: A manufacturer of guitar amplifiers. KORG was the exclusive distributor of Marshall Amplification products in the US for decades. This arrangement ended in 2010. Kato died of cancer on 15 March 2011. The new line of more accessible digital synthesizers, including the wavestate, modwave and opsix, are featuring a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3. In September 2022 Korg bought Darkglass electronics. Polyphony Polyphony ( / p ə ˈ l ɪ f ə n i / pə- LIF -ə-nee )
480-579: A prototype of a Sequential Circuits Prophet 2000 sampler and literally hacksawed the analog-to-digital converter circuitry from it, soldered that and a digital interface to the Wavestation's ROM bus to create the first prototype of the Wavestation A/D. The prototype convinced Bryan's colleagues of his idea. The Wavestation is known as one of the best synth pad generators, and has been used by many musicians to explore uncommon synthesis textures. A few notable mainstream artists that used Wavestations in
540-436: A prototype, and 18 months later Mieda returned with a programmable organ. Keio sold the organ under the name KORG, created by using the first letter of each founder's name plus RG from their planned emphasis on products targeted for the organ market (emphasizing the letters R and G in the word organ ). In 1970 the firm name changed again to Keio Giken Kogyo Inc. (京王技研工業株式会社). Keio's organ products were successful throughout
600-498: A single, complex Performance may use up all of the polyphony in the Wavestation with only one or two keys depressed, so multiple complex Performances would result in extreme voice-stealing. The other drawback is that effects are vital to the overall sound of the Wavestation, but a Multiset cannot have 32 effects. So it ignores the original effects in Performances and assigns two new effects for use with all 16 Performances. Since
660-589: A wide range of processing algorithms, such as reverb , delay , chorus , flanger , phaser , etc. Similar in structure to the Ensoniq VFX and Korg's M1 , the Wavestation's top level of sound control is the Performance, which organizes up to eight Patches (parts) and two independent effect processors. A Performance also controls keyboard zoning, MIDI channel assignment, velocity switching, and other parameters. Each Bank contains 50 Performances. Producing
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#1732780688661720-533: A wide, if uneven, distribution among the peoples of the world. Most polyphonic regions of the world are in sub-Saharan Africa , Europe and Oceania. It is believed that the origins of polyphony in traditional music vastly predate the emergence of polyphony in European professional music. Currently there are two contradictory approaches to the problem of the origins of vocal polyphony: the Cultural Model, and
780-461: Is 255, and the maximum number of steps allocated per Bank is 500. It is therefore possible to exhaust the step memory in a Bank with two very long wave sequences. 32 wave sequences are available per Bank. The Wavestation's Multimode organizes up to 16 Performances (one per MIDI channel) and two effects into a Multiset, which allows for multi-timbral reception from a MIDI sequencer or master keyboard controller. Multisets have two major drawbacks. First,
840-576: Is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments , audio processors and guitar pedals , recording equipment, and electronic tuners . Under the Vox brand name, they also manufacture guitar amplifiers and electric guitars. KORG was founded in 1962 in Tokyo by Tsutomu Kato and Tadashi Osanai as Keio Gijutsu Kenkyujo Ltd. . It later became Keio Electronic Laboratories ( 京王技術研究所 ) because its offices were located near
900-598: Is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody , as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony ) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ( homophony ). Within the context of the Western musical tradition, the term polyphony is usually used to refer to music of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance . Baroque forms such as fugue , which might be called polyphonic, are usually described instead as contrapuntal . Also, as opposed to
960-506: Is also found at the Patch level. There are 35 Patches per Bank. Wave Sequences are at the bottom tier of the Wavestation's programming structure. The Wavestation treats these as if they are discrete PCM waveforms when assigning them to oscillators in a Patch, although a wave sequence itself is created from a list of PCM waveforms in ROM or Card memory. The maximum number of steps per wave sequence
1020-567: Is also found in North Macedonia and Bulgaria . Albanian polyphonic singing can be divided into two major stylistic groups as performed by the Tosks and Labs of southern Albania. The drone is performed in two ways: among the Tosks, it is always continuous and sung on the syllable 'e', using staggered breathing; while among the Labs, the drone is sometimes sung as a rhythmic tone, performed to
1080-406: Is arranged on a horizontal line or axis, and is interpreted as one-dimensional vector synthesis. Two dimensional vector synthesis requires a four-oscillator structure, with oscillators A & C arranged on the horizontal X axis and oscillators B & D on the vertical Y axis. A patch's mix envelope can be looped for a finite or indefinite amount of time as well as modulated by controllers. Moving
1140-601: Is common in Svaneti; polyphonic dialogue over a bass background, prevalent in the Kakheti region in Eastern Georgia; and contrasted polyphony with three partially improvised sung parts, characteristic of western Georgia. The Chakrulo song, which is sung at ceremonies and festivals and belongs to the first category, is distinguished by its use of metaphor and its yodel, the krimanchuli and a "cockerel’s crow", performed by
1200-580: Is described as polyphonic due to Balkan musicians using a literal translation of the Greek polyphōnos ('many voices'). In terms of Western classical music, it is not strictly polyphonic, due to the drone parts having no melodic role, and can better be described as multipart . The polyphonic singing tradition of Epirus is a form of traditional folk polyphony practiced among Aromanians , Albanians, Greeks, and ethnic Macedonians in southern Albania and northwestern Greece. This type of folk vocal tradition
1260-431: Is dynamic timbre control over 2 or more voices (oscillators). On the Wavestation, vector synthesis can be applied on any two or four-oscillator patch. The volume blend (or mix ratio) between oscillators is varied over time via a dedicated mix envelope , in real-time via the front panel's vector joystick , or via other controllers such as LFOs , aftertouch , and MIDI. The mix envelope for a two-oscillator patch structure
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#17327806886611320-510: Is generally considered to be the oldest extant example of notated polyphony for chant performance, although the notation does not indicate precise pitch levels or durations. However, a two-part antiphon to Saint Boniface recently discovered in the British Library , is thought to have originated in a monastery in north-west Germany and has been dated to the early tenth century. European polyphony rose out of melismatic organum ,
1380-420: Is sung in a nasal temperament. Additionally, many paghjella songs contain a picardy third . After paghjella's revival in the 1970s, it mutated. In the 1980s it had moved away from some of its more traditional features as it became much more heavily produced and tailored towards western tastes. There were now four singers, significantly less melisma, it was much more structured, and it exemplified more homophony. To
1440-493: The Keio train line in Tokyo and Keio can be formed by combining the first letters of Kato and Osanai. Before founding the company, Kato ran a nightclub. Osanai, a Tokyo University graduate and noted accordionist, regularly performed at Kato's club accompanied by a Wurlitzer Sideman rhythm machine. Dissatisfied with the rhythm machine, Osanai convinced Kato to finance his efforts to build a better one. The company's first product
1500-697: The Republic of Georgia is arguably the oldest polyphony in the Christian world. Georgian polyphony is traditionally sung in three parts with strong dissonances, parallel fifths, and a unique tuning system based on perfect fifths. Georgian polyphonic singing has been proclaimed by UNESCO an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Popular singing has a highly valued place in Georgian culture. There are three types of polyphony in Georgia: complex polyphony, which
1560-514: The Sequential Circuits Prophet VS. Designed as a "pure" synthesizer rather than a music workstation , it lacked an on-board song sequencer , yet the Wavestation, unlike any synthesizer prior to its release, was capable of generating complex, lush timbres and rhythmic sequences that sounded like a complete soundtrack by pressing only one key. Keyboard Magazine readers gave the Wavestation its "Hardware Innovation of
1620-657: The Wagogo use counterpoint. The music of African Pygmies (e.g. that of the Aka people ) is typically ostinato and contrapuntal, featuring yodeling . Other Central African peoples tend to sing with parallel lines rather than counterpoint. In Burundi, rural women greet each other with akazehe , a two-part interlocking vocal rhythm. The singing of the San people , like that of the pygmies, features melodic repetition, yodeling, and counterpoint. The singing of neighboring Bantu peoples , like
1680-426: The mass attributable to one composer is Guillaume de Machaut 's Messe de Nostre Dame , dated to 1364, during the pontificate of Pope Urban V . The Second Vatican Council said Gregorian chant should be the focus of liturgical services, without excluding other forms of sacred music, including polyphony. English Protestant west gallery music included polyphonic multi-melodic harmony, including fuguing tunes , by
1740-535: The multiple-wavetable synthesizers realized as PPG Wave that was produced by Palm Products GmbH in the early 80s, and the vector synthesis realized as Prophet VS by Sequential Circuits, Inc. in 1986 and Kawai K1 in 1988. Wave Sequencing improved the vector synthesis on Prophet VS, by incorporating the ability to crossfade up to 255 waveforms, rather than only four. Moreover, a wave sequence can be programmed to "jump" to any PCM wave in ROM memory, whereas similar synths were designed to move sequentially through
1800-400: The species terminology of counterpoint, polyphony was generally either "pitch-against-pitch" / "point-against-point" or "sustained-pitch" in one part with melismas of varying lengths in another. In all cases the conception was probably what Margaret Bent (1999) calls "dyadic counterpoint", with each part being written generally against one other part, with all parts modified if needed in
1860-486: The Evolutionary Model. According to the Cultural Model, the origins of polyphony are connected to the development of human musical culture; polyphony came as the natural development of the primordial monophonic singing; therefore polyphonic traditions are bound to gradually replace monophonic traditions. According to the Evolutionary Model, the origins of polyphonic singing are much deeper, and are connected to
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1920-414: The Georgian polyphonic tradition to such an extent that they became a significant expression of it. Chechen and Ingush traditional music can be defined by their tradition of vocal polyphony. Chechen and Ingush polyphony is based on a drone and is mostly three-part, unlike most other north Caucasian traditions' two-part polyphony. The middle part carries the main melody accompanied by a double drone, holding
1980-526: The PS series. In the early 1980s, KORG branched into digital pianos. KORG is credited with a number of innovations. The key transpose function was Kato's idea after a singer at his club needed her accompaniment played in a lower key, which the accompanist wasn't able to do. KORG was the first company to feature effects on a synthesizer, and the first to use a sample + synthesis sound design. The M1 workstation, released in 1988, sold over 250,000 units, making it
2040-546: The United States and even in places such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, and Australia, among others. Polyphonic singing is traditional folk singing of this part of southern Europe. It is also called ancient , archaic or old-style singing. Incipient polyphony (previously primitive polyphony) includes antiphony and call and response , drones , and parallel intervals . Balkan drone music
2100-404: The Wavestation is capable of generating four distinct wave sequences playing simultaneously during a single note. In Performance mode, up to thirty-two discrete wave sequences can be played at the same time by layering eight 4-voice patches, although the actual number of playable wave sequences may be less because an additional oscillator is required to execute a crossfade. Simply, vector synthesis
2160-425: The Wavestation, refining many Prophet VS concepts . The Wavestation A/D was the brainchild of Joe Bryan, then Senior Design Engineer at Korg R&D. A guitar player, he wanted "something that worked with a simple MIDI guitar that would merge the guitar, synth and effects, and could be controlled from one or two buttons on the guitar." The idea was of little interest to his colleagues at first. Nevertheless, he found
2220-655: The Year" award, and in 1995 Keyboard listed it as one of the "20 Instruments that Shook the World." The Wavestation lineup consisted of four models: the Wavestation and Wavestation EX keyboards, and the Wavestation A/D and Wavestation SR rackmount sound modules . In 2020, Korg released a new hardware 3-octaves-full-of-knobs keyboard version called Korg Wavestate, which integrate a much more powerful version of
2280-496: The audibility of the words. Instruments, as well as certain modes, were actually forbidden in the church because of their association with secular music and pagan rites. After banishing polyphony from the Liturgy in 1322, Pope John XXII warned against the unbecoming elements of this musical innovation in his 1324 bull Docta Sanctorum Patrum . In contrast Pope Clement VI indulged in it. The oldest extant polyphonic setting of
2340-529: The bestselling synthesizer ever at that time. The M1 is still to this day regarded as the perfect workstation. Yamaha Corporation has always been a major partner of KORG, supplying them with circuitry and mechanical parts. In 1987, shortly before the release of the M1 Music Workstation, Yamaha acquired a controlling interest in KORG. The takeover of the company was amicable, with Kato drawing up
2400-711: The earlier stages of human evolution; polyphony was an important part of a defence system of the hominids, and traditions of polyphony are gradually disappearing all over the world. Although the exact origins of polyphony in the Western church traditions are unknown, the treatises Musica enchiriadis and Scolica enchiriadis , both dating from c . 900, are usually considered the oldest extant written examples of polyphony. These treatises provided examples of two-voice note-against-note embellishments of chants using parallel octaves, fifths, and fourths. Rather than being fixed works, they indicated ways of improvising polyphony during performance. The Winchester Troper , from c . 1000,
2460-502: The earliest harmonization of the chant. During the 12th century, composers such as Léonin and Pérotin developed the organum that had been introduced centuries earlier, and also added a third and fourth voice to the now homophonic chant. In the 13th century, the chant-based tenor was becoming altered, fragmented, and hidden beneath secular tunes, obscuring the sacred texts as composers continued to develop polyphonic techniques. The lyrics of love poems might be sung above sacred texts in
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2520-621: The early 1990s were Joe Zawinul , Jan Hammer , Phil Collins , Michael Cretu (used KORG WAVESTATION on the first five albums of his famous project " Enigma (German band) " (the factory preset "Deep Atmosphere" was most often used), as well as in many of his projects from 1990 to 2003)), Gary Numan , Keith Emerson , and Tony Banks of Genesis (who also used them on the band's 2007 European Tour) Depeche Mode , Steve Hillier of Dubstar , Michael Jackson , Ed Wynne of Ozric Tentacles , Ulf Langheinrich and Alan Clark and Guy Fletcher of Dire Straits . Soundtrack composer Mark Snow also used
2580-446: The end. This point-against-point conception is opposed to "successive composition", where voices were written in an order with each new voice fitting into the whole so far constructed, which was previously assumed. The term polyphony is also sometimes used more broadly, to describe any musical texture that is not monophonic. Such a perspective considers homophony as a sub-type of polyphony. Traditional (non-professional) polyphony has
2640-603: The form of a trope , or the sacred text might be placed within a familiar secular melody. The oldest surviving piece of six-part music is the English rota Sumer is icumen in ( c. 1240 ). European polyphony rose prior to, and during the period of the Western Schism . Avignon , the seat of popes and then antipopes , was a vigorous center of secular music-making, much of which influenced sacred polyphony. The notion of secular and sacred music merging in
2700-692: The form of bamboo panpipe ensembles. Europeans were surprised to find drone-based and dissonant polyphonic singing in Polynesia. Polynesian traditions were then influenced by Western choral church music, which brought counterpoint into Polynesian musical practice. Numerous Sub-Saharan African music traditions host polyphonic singing, typically moving in parallel motion . While the Maasai people traditionally sing with drone polyphony, other East African groups use more elaborate techniques. The Dorze people , for example, sing with as many as six parts, and
2760-400: The interval of a fifth around the melody. Intervals and chords are often dissonances (sevenths, seconds, fourths), and traditional Chechen and Ingush songs use sharper dissonances than other North Caucasian traditions. The specific cadence of a final, dissonant three-part chord, consisting of fourth and the second on top (c-f-g), is almost unique. (Only in western Georgia do a few songs finish on
2820-411: The iso-polyphonic singing and is related to the ison of Byzantine church music, where the drone group accompanies the song. The French island of Corsica has a unique style of music called Paghjella that is known for its polyphony. Traditionally, Paghjella contains a staggered entrance and continues with the three singers carrying independent melodies. This music tends to contain much melisma and
2880-640: The joystick whilst playing overrides the pre-programmed mix envelope, giving the user dynamic control over the timbre of the sound. The internal synthesis architecture was based on the "AI Synthesis" system used in Korg's previous M and T-series synthesizers. The Wavestation offered 32-voice polyphony , up to four digital oscillators per patch, with a non-resonant low-pass filter and an amplifier block for each oscillator. Modulators , LFOs and envelope generators were offered as control sources for those blocks. The effects section contained two DSP blocks capable of
2940-451: The late 1960s and early 1970s. Concerned about competition from other organ manufacturers, Kato decided to use the organ technology to build a keyboard for the then-niche synthesizer market. Keio's first synthesizer, the KORG miniKORG , was released in 1973. During the 1970s, KORG's synthesizer line was divided into instruments for the hobbyist, and large expensive patchable instruments such as
3000-401: The mid-18th century. This tradition passed with emigrants to North America, where it was proliferated in tunebooks, including shape-note books like The Southern Harmony and The Sacred Harp . While this style of singing has largely disappeared from British and North American sacred music, it survived in the rural Southern United States , until it again began to grow a following throughout
3060-468: The original Wavestation, called "wave sequencing V2". The two primary synthesis concepts designed into the Wavestation were Wave Sequencing and vector synthesis , the latter Korg dubbed "Advanced Vector Synthesis". Although the Korg Wavestation was the first keyboard that used Wave Sequencing, its roots can be traced back to the preceding variations of wavetable-lookup synthesis , including
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#17327806886613120-466: The papal court also offended some medieval ears. It gave church music more of a jocular performance quality supplanting the solemnity of worship they were accustomed to. The use of and attitude toward polyphony varied widely in the Avignon court from the beginning to the end of its religious importance in the fourteenth century. Harmony was considered frivolous, impious, lascivious, and an obstruction to
3180-563: The people of Corsica, the polyphony of paghjella represented freedom; it had been a source of cultural pride in Corsica and many felt that this movement away from the polyphonic style meant a movement away from paghjella's cultural ties. This resulted in a transition in the 1990s. Paghjella again had a strong polyphonic style and a less structured meter. Cantu a tenore is a traditional style of polyphonic singing in Sardinia . Polyphony in
3240-524: The same dissonant c-f-g chord.) Parts of Oceania maintain rich polyphonic traditions. The peoples of New Guinea Highlands including the Moni , Dani , and Yali use vocal polyphony, as do the people of Manus Island . Many of these styles are drone -based or feature close, secondal harmonies dissonant to western ears. Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands are host to instrumental polyphony, in
3300-464: The synthesizer voices are Patches, the middle tier in the programming hierarchy. A patch consists of 1, 2, or 4 digital oscillators (A, B, C, and D). Tone generation is achieved by assigning any of the 20-bit PCM samples and single-cycle waveforms or a wave sequence to an oscillator. Each oscillator has its own digital filter, amplifier, amp envelope, general purpose envelope, two LFOs, and numerous modulation routings. The mix envelope for vector synthesis
3360-623: The terms, and the two companies continued to independently develop their product lines and compete in the marketplace. In 1989, KORG recruited the design team from Sequential Circuits as they were relieved of their duties by then-Sequential owner Yamaha. In 1993, after 5 successful years under Yamaha's control, Kato had sufficient funds to repurchase most of the Yamaha shares. KORG has since diversified into digital effects, tuners, recording equipment, electronic hand percussion, and software instruments. In 1992, KORG acquired Vox , then primarily
3420-468: The text of the song. It can be differentiated between two-, three- and four-voice polyphony. In Aromanian music , polyphony is common, and polyphonic music follows a set of common rules. The phenomenon of Albanian folk iso-polyphony ( Albanian iso-polyphony ) has been proclaimed by UNESCO a " Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity ". The term iso refers to the drone, which accompanies
3480-455: The top, if I recall)." The sound in question is a slightly modified "Sandman" factory preset. The Wavestation remains one of the most evocative, unusual, creatively-designed synths ever... The OASYS (2005) and Korg Kronos (2011) workstations have full-blown wave sequencing and vector synthesis implementation (complete with joystick), along with virtual analog, sample-based synthesis, and 16 MIDI + 16 digital audio tracks. Korg now produces
3540-529: The wavetable. By combining wave sequencing with vector synthesis—the process of mixing and morphing between multiple waveforms of audio samples—the Wavestation differed from other sample-based synthesizers of the digital era. A wave sequence is a programmed list of PCM waves playing in succession. Each step in the wave sequence can have a different duration, pitch, fine tuning, level and crossfade amount. Additionally, wave sequences can be looped (forward or forward/backward directions) to play indefinitely or for
3600-729: Was an electro-mechanical rhythm device, the Disc Rotary Electric Auto Rhythm machine, Donca Matic DA-20, released in 1963. The name "Donca" was an onomatopoeic reference to the sound the rhythm machine made. Buoyed by the success of the DA-20, Keio released a solid-state version of the Rhythm machine, the Donca matic DE-20, in 1966. In 1967, Kato was approached by Fumio Mieda , an engineer seeking to build keyboards. Impressed with Mieda's enthusiasm, Kato asked him to build
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