Korg’s knob-per-function hardware synth modwave is now shipping
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08.07.2021

Korg’s knob-per-function hardware synth modwave is now shipping

(Source: Korg)
Words by Sam McNiece

Featuring a KAOSS pad with physics based modulation.

Korg have started shipping their highly anticipated wavetable synth, the modwave. The synth follows in the footsteps of their DW-8000 from 1985 which was a powerhouse at the time of release, combining analog filters with digital wavetables. The modwave expands on this adding Kaoss Physics, heaps of modulation options and effects to create fresh sounds.

What you need to know:

  • Korg’s modwave is a modern wavetable synth built upon the legacy of their DW-8000 synthesiser.
  • There’s a Kaoss pad which can interact with a physics engine to make your sounds literally bounce.
  • Modwave features over 200 wavetables with knob-per-function and is shipping to distributors now.

Read all the latest product news here.

Boasting an obscene 230 million wavetable variations, the Korg modwave is a powerful beast. It features 200 built in wavetables with the ability to add your own custom wavetables in both Serum and WaveEdit formats through it’s USB port.

For each patch, you have access to two fully functioning wavetable oscillators, plus a sub/noise oscillator and one of the 12 stereo filter types. You can make this sounds move via its five LFOs, four envelopes and the new features Motion Sequencing and Kaoss Physics.

Motion Sequencing 2.0 is an extension of Korg’s wavestate Wave Sequencing 2.0 function. With this iteration, timing, pitch, shape and four step sequences are separated into individual lanes with their own loop values. This is a really cool concept that means you can have independent loops running for which note will be triggered, the shape of the note and its duration.

In addition to this, you can randomise each individual lane in regards to its order which can be paired with the synths dual arpeggiators. Woah.

Wavestate features Kaoss Physics, which models a ball rolling on a surface or bouncing off walls. Utilising the Kaoss pad on the top right of the synth, you can add velocity to the ball which shows on screen, or trigger it with another source. With this feature you can set up to 4 modulation outputs, with the surface divided into quarters.

This dense feature allows you to even set a friction value of the surface which the ball interacts with or create valleys and peaks in the virtual environment. Remove the walls, make the walls bounce the ball with more or less acceleration, the possibilities are endless.

Combine this with all the other parts of the synth including A/B blends, over 30 modifiers for the wavetable, morph settings and gigabytes of samples, this may be one of the best wavetable synths around.

Check out this video below to see some of the cool sounds the wavestate can make below.

Check out the Korg website for more information and for local enquiries hit up CMI.