From: ross-c@DCS.LEEDS.AC.UK (The Brown Bottle) Subject: 01/W Date: 7 Feb 92 14:50:03 GMT Re: Is the 01/W a sample-playback or a synthesiser? I finally got my hands on one, so therefore can argue more intelligently than before. Unfortunately, I stuffed up my own experiment to see how much "distancing" this machine is capable of. (1) Going through the combinations, I was very impressed by the sound of this synth, probably the best I've heard yet. Korg gets an A+ for market strategy (I must look into buying shares). This is especially when you consider that this is a tweaked M1 with probably little development cost (unless they busted a gut getting the extra polyphony). (2) After familiarising myself with the factory programmes, I took the piano 8' patch, put the filter wide open, removed as many effects/envelopes/ etc as I could find, and went through the P.C.M. (Note: This is where I stuffed the experiment). In the first 255 PCM waves I went through, I found very little that could explain the excellent sounds. There were a few (e.g. "Thing" (several) and "Crickets" (several) where some of the good bits of the sounds I had been hearing were basically just playing back PCM.) Unfortunately, it wasn't till I had left the store that I remembered that there are a lot more waves on the machine (another two banks?), and the key parts of other patches may have been in there. (I will have to check this out). The PCM was useful-sounding, but hardly imaginative material (Disclaimer: I am not claiming that the "sounds", i.e. patches/combinations are unimaginative). All the usual PCM was in there, and of course I didn't look at all the PCM, and it sounded (this entire sub-review is highly IMHO) like a well-thought-out basis for synthesis, rather than a collection of gosh-wow sounds to be played straight back in the store to impress people. (3) Using mainly the "Sine" and "Saw" waves I went through the different waveshaping tables. I wasn't able to actually figure out what this is meant to do, as far as I could see it added some grunge or distortion to the sound, or, let it through basically unchanged. My IMHO conclusion from this is that it doesn't add much to the synthesis process, certainly less than putting real resonance on the filters would. (4) The filters did sound nice (IMHO), but people may have noticed my bias for a certain sound-shaping tool that's missing here. Anybody reading this far? At least you've got to give me one point for actually going and listening to the machine. Ross-c From: JSIMON@TRINITY.EDU (Jonathon Simon) Subject: Re: Korg 01/W Date: 5 Mar 92 20:33:19 GMT The waveshaping can add a little more realism to some of the acoustical sounds. It O.K., its just nothing to write home about. It might stand out in a solo with a quite accompaniment. You can also exaggerate the waveshaping effect to create some weird sounds from some not so weird samples. True, you don't have the wave molding capability of the Wavestation, but with a little bit of creative effort you can get away from some of the boring playback sounds. Also, if you have a computer you can have it dynamically change some of the 01/W patch parameters as you play (simulating the dynamic sound color of the Wavestation). But, no - its not a Wavestation - and was never intended to be one. One the other hand, if you are in to composing, scoring for acoustical instruments, want a super grand piano sound, etc., the 01/Wfd is great. It has a 50,000 note sequencer, a disk drive to save sequences, very clean acoustical sounds, excellent drum sounds, and a great effects section (effects very similar to the Wavestation). If you don't have a computer/song-sequencer then the 01/W 16 track sequencer may be an important feature for you. If you really want to compose at the wave (sound) level, and are not so much into song writing (or already have a good sequencer), then you'll be a lot happier with a Wavestation. One other point. The 01/W, unlike the T series EX models doesn't have sample RAM - you either run with the samples installed at the factory or buy additional samples on PCM cards. I've heard, however, that Frontal Lobe makes a device that pretends to be a PCM card but has its own sample loading hardware. I know the Frontal Lobe works with the M and T series, and would guess that it is compatible with the 01, as well. In fact, I've even wondered if the sample RAM wasn't left off of the 01/W, because this 3rd party solution is now available?? That helps Korg to hold down the price of the 01/W, since many folks don't care about creating/adding their own samples.