Korg Modwave

Well I’ve never wanted to make 31 modulation routings to unison stereo spread before, but now I do.

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Now this reminds me somehow of the MatrixBrute and the Syntrx. I love both for their flexibility of routing and combining modulation sources.

With the option of creating my own wavetables I fear, that your post pushed the ModWave very high up on my shopping list :smiley:

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Looks like this synth has about everything one would want! Hopefully it sounds good too.

Curious if it can do key tracked audio rate modulations of things like wavetable scanning. A lot of parameters sounds really good with audio rate modulation. But usually only patchable synthesizers give you the possibility.

Damn, impressive looking synth. As others have said, covers a lot of similar ground to the Hydrasynth and seems to have a pretty similar level of depth.

The addition of step sequencers (the HS can do kind of do this with step LFO but it’s more limited), samples and the rich selection of mod destinations (e.g. being able to modulate the sequence parameters themselves) gives it an edge in some areas.

On the other hand the HS has MPE, poly AT, CV… does the Modwave have macros? That’s a great feature of the HS. It will be interesting to see how the interfaces compare. This is more hands on at first glance, but will result in the interface frequently out of sync with the patch and possibly the deeper controls will be more awkward to access than on the HS.

Hopefully ASM respond with some killer updates :smiley:

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We’ll have to see but as long as the key tracking can be scaled upward, I don’t see why not. Those are both a valid source and destination.

The modulators can modulate other modulators. So at worst, perhaps a workaround that utilizes key track to modulate LFO frequency up to audio rate, which modulates wave morph.

Yeah, that could be a solution. But it can be hard to get an lfo to track that way. I have tried several times on my Peak to modulate lfo rate with keytracking.

I was thinking of getting an Opsix in the future, but this one seems more for me.

Hopefully you can add some wavetables without any interpolation for hard stepping through the wavetables. Like Monomachine mk2. Loved doing stuff like that.

This would be a concern for me. The Hydrasynth UI actually does a fantastic job of making a lot of complexity very accessible, without many dedicated knobs. Some questionable decisions such as dedicating a whole 8 knob section to the arp, but generally it’s very thoughfully designed. I wonder if this could feel a bit menu divey and/or lots of (non-endless) knobs switching betwen shifted positions a lot…

Yes, it does, which is why I bought the desktop to use with my MPE controllers, not the keyboard Hydra with PAT. I was just planning to add the keyboard Hydra, too, but I think this Modwave will be a better fit for my last remaining place for a synth in my main setup. With that plus my Wavestate and GR-1 for granular, I think I’ll finally stop considering the Iridium.

You can always hold out for the Modwave SE.

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Fun that the parameters controlling the “physics” of the pad are themselves modifiable.
And so how the pad reacts to your motion and gestures can be changed which in turn affects the output of the pad which themselves are modulation source for other things.

There is limitation to the source of those pad modulation, they say:
Kaoss Physics can be modulated only from Channel or Performance sources, or from the Velocity/Release Velocity and Note Number of the most recent note

Don’t know this absolutely but i think the pad is single touch, which is OK, but changes the way you can gesture —you don’t have the open/stretch/shrink two finger thing, or the rotate object, or multipoint control. I also don’t know about pressure sensitivity, again it may be simple which is OK. (I’m a Sensel Morph and iPad user, which is a pretty high bar. Other synth controls, the Morphée on the Arturia PolyBrute, and the Expressive E Touché are comparable as well.)

Again changing the control’s physics is a really cool possibility. How this all works and feels under your fingers is still up in the air, but i’m definitely interested.

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I’m finding the same thing as you tdmusic. The muscles i‘ve developed using the HS are useful for considering the Modwave. (Hey what abbreviation shall we use — MW ?)

I am thinking that the four red “Mod Knobs” along the bottom might be the equivalent. Given the one to many, many to one, capability with the modulation linkages on the Modwave (the HS does this too) these four Mod Knobs should function similarly to the eight Macro knobs on the HS.

From the Dan Phillips notes:
Also - all Mod Knobs can be destinations (using Performance sources only), as well as sources. For example, you can modulate Mod Knob 2 from Kaoss Physics Distance.

This is similar to the HS which allows you to have the Macros be modulation destinations too.

There are significant differences, i think these two may be more complimentary, than competitive. (At least for me.) I could see moving fluidly between the two, using one for certain needs, and the other in different situations.

Got to dig in a little more now with the Modwave. Is there a manual yet, i didn’t see one ?

ADDED: Still in the category of comparing MW and HS, they both have a randomization patch creation feature, that can be scoped up or down, and focused to what you want changed.

I like your dangerous line of thinking – I was thinking the exact same :joy: The keys on the HSK alone are reason to keep it, especially as I got it for a great price, and I am sure there’ll be areas where each excels.

No manual and no release date as far I can see yet!

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As well as the poly-aftertouch pads on the the HSD, with their various scale modes, for those so equipped.

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yea, and more to the point, this specific line from Dan:
a single source can modulate any number of destinations.

Mod knobs being a source. Yea, it’s a bonafide mod monster.

I am loving these newer synths (Typhon’s another example) that just go for it on modulation. These companies are wanting us to get weird with it. Love it.

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Note: that’s what I meant with “one to many”.

I’ve got to agree AdamJay, there are so many choices now for synths that have rich but sensible and musical controls.

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Ok this modwave is looking better and better. I don’t really care for the wavetable gimmick of scanning through the wave table with every note, but the insane amount of mod destinations and quantity of LFOs make this thing seem like a real treat.

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Somebody named Francis talking about modWave. No demos though, other than the Korg soundcloud ones… even though dude said he spend so much time programming sounds on it.
:face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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Let’s hope for a Kaoss physics, Motion Sequencing 2.0 stand alone sequencer…

Stop it prints, do you know what you’re doing to me?

I’m fighting the urge

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And you’ve got an Anyma Phi on the way too ! Shoot Prints, what’s your studio look like ?

OK (self confession)

I’m thinking of the Modwave too and I’ve got a Hydrasynth, and an Anyma Phi and an Osmose on the way too.

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