Life’s Snapshot

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Korg OASYS + Wavedrum

OASYS together with MOTU’s dp5.1, PSP’s Vintage Warmer and some UAD Plug Ins

There were always instruments that impressed me. Yamaha’s VL-series is one example, Korg’s Wavedrum another one. The latter I could not afford and unfortunately disappeared to fast from the market without finding a new home in my studio. Now it is no longer available… so in case you know someone who is willing to sell his Wavedrum.. please let me know.

Korg’s Wavedrum had unique sounds of which you can hear some on Eric Persing’s sound collections. The Wavedrum’s pad was of course half of the secret and I am afraid there is no real way to compensate that within OASYS. But the number of different controllers like the VJS together with velocity and aftertouch could make a different approach feasible. Anyway this is not the place for it and there is most likely much more necessary…

Together with Ebse I recorded the following track which consists of Korg sounds only. Not very surprising the drumloop is a Wavedrum sound and even less surprising everything else comes from Korg’s OASYS.

1073

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News: free Randomizer

free Randomizer from Darren Richards aka Daz

OASYS Randomizer download

It’s very simple to use. Just run it up and set the MIDI port/channel, select the Program type (type of EXi #1) and hit Randomize. The Depth slider sets how many randomly selected parameters will be randomized. You can apply the randomization to existing programs or an initialized program, it really doesn’t care (or even know).

Currently the software supports AL-1 (99 params), PolysixEX (37 params), MS20EX (64 or so params). The PolysixEX randomization is the most conservative and gives some interesting results, the AL-1 is okay’ish and the MS20 randomization is generally bizarre.

The way this software works is very simple. In my development version of this app I can put it into a learning mode and when I change a bunch of parameters for the selected EXi type the software records the MIDI/System Exclusive commands used to change each parameter and the maximum and minimum value seen. That “learned” data is then built into the application and when you hit Randomize it looks at the learned data for the selected EXi type and uses it to generate a spray of random parameter values. Without a sysex spec, this is the only way to make it work. The generated parameter changes are always valid because they are based on the learned max/min values.

It would be easy to add support for all the Oasys engines including HD-1 and of course any new engines. I suspect STR-1 would be very interesting to work with. The app just needs teaching about those, which can be a rather long procedure (setting the maximum and minimum values of every parameter on the Oasys !).

It’s a Universal Binary, but I haven’t tested on Intel yet. I don’t think there is any code in there that would be affected by running it on a different processor so it should be fine.

Enjoy … oh and keep the Oasys volume turned down, the results can get pretty wild !

Daz.

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The SAW comparison: AL-1 / MS-20 / Polysix

During programming and playing some sounds on the OASYS I became curious about the differences of all these internal VAs one has access to.

There are many obvious ones, for example the number of Oscillators, Waveforms, Filter types, Modulation Sources and Targets etc. But this is not what I am interested in, you can find that on your own either in OASYS or the manual. But for example, how do the SAW waveforms in AL-1, MS-20 and Polysix sound? Is there an audible difference or at least a visible one? And what about the Filter?

Screenshot of dp5.1 project showing MIDI file and corresponding audio file of AL-1, MS-20, Polysix and a “reference”

So I decided to program INIT files for each of OASYS`VAs as there are non by default. Each one consisting of a single oscillator, playing a SAW waveform. The different Filters and their CutOff (CF) are completely open (depending on the VA this means value = 10 or 99) and Resonance = 0. For MS-20 the High Pass Filter was not touched. Additionally I tried to set the envelopes to the same settings within the different synthesizers and deactivated Keyboard Tracking and other Modulation Sources as most as possible.

I recorded then with MOTUs dp5.1 a MIDI sequence consisting of one note played legato. During recording I closed the filter (CF: Max -> 0) and after reaching 0 I increased Resonance to Max (R: 0 -> Max) and opened the filter again (CF: 0 -> Max). Afterwards CF was kept @ Max and R was put from Max -> 0 and finally the filter closed at the end. This MIDI File was copied to two more channels in dp5.1 to get equal MIDI Data for transfer and trigger AL-1, MS-20 and Polysix.

Audio files were recorded by using OASYS’ ADAT Out which feed as usual ADAT In of Lynx Audio Interface (OASYS WordClock Sync was set to “external”). Audiofiles were exported from dp5.1 to Bias’ Peak which was then used to make screenshots of the thre + audio files.

Canditate 1: AL-1

Screenshot of AL-1 audiofile recorded with MOTUs dp5.1

AL-1 audio file

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Canditate 2: MS-20

Screenshot of MS-20 audiofile recorded with MOTUs dp5.1

MS-20 audio file

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Canditate 3: Polysix

Screenshot of Polysix audiofile recorded with MOTUs dp5.1

Polysix audio file

…. last but not least the “reference”

Reference:

Screenshot of “reference” audiofile recorded with MOTUs dp5.1

Reference audio file

The process of changing CF and R of the “reference” file is not as fast as in the other files. The generated MIDI file used for AL-1, MS-20 and Polysix could not be used. Voyager was used to give listeners an idea of how a Moog behaves in a similar situation.

It would have been interesting to compare the LAC brothers to their hardware ancestors, no doubt about that. Anyway, I would like to congratulate the person(s) who programmed all the different VAs and most of all the one who did the Polysix. I remember myself posting @ korgforums shortly after the LAC release that the Polysix sounds a little “moogish”…..

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News: KORG Legacy Analogue review in Sound On Sound April issue

OASYS Legacy Collection reviewed in Sound On Sound April issue.

For e-subs SOS KORG Legacy

Sound On Sound

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