The Korg Wavestation - Orbital's Halcyon+On+On Synth

One of the greatest synth pads of all time IMHO - this video came about discovering ‪@GyuBeats‬' breakdown of Orbital's Halcyon+On+On - link here... • ORBITAL - Halcyon and ... - and then finding (courtesy of synth legend ‪@jodywisternoff2414‬) that the intro pad was made with the Korg Wavestation.
I have a Wavestation SR in my rack of 90s stuff, so thought it might be good to show how to program it. Or at least try to program it.
Edisyn - the PC/Mac editor I use later in the video can be found at github.com/ecl...
Korg's Legacy Collection or Wavestation plugin can be found in all sorts of places. I still haven't forgiven them for not being able to fix my MS20ic back in 2006... and have sadly been without an MS20 ever since 😢

[@bleepsandboops]

Yes. I know. It was meant to be funny.

[@Isaacandjed]

Halcyon is one of those tracks that's got a super strong sense association for me - first heard it in the opening of Hackers, and now whenever I'm at a window seat on a flight it plays in my head when the plane starts to descend. Even hearing it in this video, I started feeling a pressure change in my ears haha

[@bleepsandboops]

Ahhh, Hackers.... 😍

[@solominder]

Great job! So much nostalgia in this tune, I’d heard it in Mortal Kombat’s final scene for the first time and was amazed how beautiful it is.

[@bleepsandboops]

Thanks! Wow, yeah, I'd forgotten it's in MK!!

[@solominder]

By the way, looking forward to hear something from Plaid!

[@GyuBeats]

Great video! Thanks for the shout out :) (you even pronounced my name right) I genuinely laughed out loud at you using the synth with the little plastic hand. Nice one

[@bleepsandboops]

Thank *you*! 🙏🙏 Everyone should use novelty hands for small Korg synths.. 😁

[@CoLD.SToRAGE]

Hahaha! Loved the quick flash of the Chems. 😂

[@bertiemango2810]

ahha i shouldve looked before commenting myself

[@bleepsandboops]

(Hartnoll) Brother's gonna work it out...

[@petedi-murro1826]

It's not the Chemicla Brothers, it's the Aphex Twins.

[@bertiemango2810]

@@petedi-murro1826 double lolz for you 🤣

[@YershJRSZ]

One of my favs tracks ever, it always puts some kind of peace for me. Really nice contrast to the more acid-ish sounds of Lush, Impact and Remind

[@bleepsandboops]

Agreed!

[@niceguy235uk1]

This track was dedicated to their mother who was addicted to the tranquilliser 'Halcion' for many years. Also, the reversed vocal sample is a sample from a kirsty Hawkshaw track, who also starred in the video for the Orbital track.

[@bleepsandboops]

Indeed! I didn't get round to putting the Opus 3 sample in, but that's a great shout!

[@niiranen]

I have the Korg Collection also and as you loaded the Wavestation I had to do the same. Damn it is the same patch now after a few modifications! Thanks!

[@bleepsandboops]

You're welcome, enjoy!

[@jack3361]

dope, well done.

[@bleepsandboops]

Thanks for watching!

[@jdrukman]

congrats, you appear to have cracked the YT algorithm. loving your vids. i had a wavestation ex in early 90s, loved the crap out of it. i probably used debussy on wheels on some tracks back then in fact. editing on the SR is even worse than the EX. the plugin makes it all a piece of cake. recommend that for anyone who wants to get into some wavestation goodness in 2024.

[@bleepsandboops]

😂😂 Thanks! Ahhh KZbin is so fickle with these videos, some get recommended, others I *think* would make interesting content get so few views it make me wonder why I went to the trouble! The Wavestation plugin was one of my first VSTs, loved using that alongside the MS20... Really wanted the EX, but it was just at the point that they started getting pricey... The SR is great but yeah. Programming is not for the faint hearted!!

[@goodseats1643]

More videos like this please. Love your commentary.

[@bleepsandboops]

Thanks! I'm trying... difficult to find a balance between uber-nerd and hyperactive kids TV presenter...! 😎👍

[@TheUnfinishedSynth]

Nice video. Made all the better by the hand.

[@bleepsandboops]

Thanks!

[@starsky101]

Great video, and being of a certain age the incidental music brings back some memories from the countdown to the school tv programmes.

[@bleepsandboops]

😁😁 Thanks! I'm surprised no one spotted it sooner!!

[@rkic5440]

Superb deconstruction! Please do Forever from Snivlization🤓

[@bleepsandboops]

Thanks! Ooooh, good shout! Will add to the list 😎👍

[@FLiNToN77]

+1 for his shout. legendary track.

[@kunekshan]

On the 3rd time of watching (first time on the big telly tho) I finally understand what’s going on here. Thanks. I guess the TL:DR is that there is a lot of mileage to be had in swapping out individual waves in the patches, rather that building them yourself in the mentally complex workflow! There are not really many good vids on programming the VST, like at all, so more of this kinda thing would be v welcome 🙏

[@bleepsandboops]

Thanks for watching, and noted! The wavestation really is a monster to program, will see if I can do something else on it

[@shortattentionspa.....]

Your videos are through the roof thee days, love the hands btw. Great work and thanks for sharing! Thanks for the tips on edisyn! Most excellent find!

[@bleepsandboops]

Thank you!! And you're welcome! Edisyn is awesome - makes short work of programming a TX81Z too!! 🤓👍

[@RollrightKnights]

Such an evocative sound!

[@bleepsandboops]

And still sounds contemporary today..!

[@RivetHead999]

My wife’s step dad has this, as well as a few other synths I may try to get from him. He hasn’t touched any of them in years, but man he has a lot. I got a Yamaha RY30 from him a couple years back that I love for making old school industrial, like Skinny Puppy and Frontline Assembly, or really old hocico, but has other essentials for older trance, and early electro, Depeche Mode stuff, and so much. Next time I go out that way to visit them, I’m going to see what I can get.

[@bleepsandboops]

They're awesome synths - they do take a while to get used to the editing but the effort is totally worth it!

[@bertiemango2810]

cant be bothered to see if anyone else had mentioned, but you know thats the chemical brothers in the pic at the beginning. also excellent post as per :)

[@shortattentionspa.....]

haha I came to say this too, im guessing it was a wee joke:)

[@bleepsandboops]

Thanks! 😁😁

[@uuuUNUuuu]

Nice job! Thanks for video 🙂

[@bleepsandboops]

Thanks!

[@TheSheepPimp]

Always makes me appreciate how we have it nowadays when you see what they had to do back in the day to make tunes

[@bleepsandboops]

And that's before we've even got on to the "loading samples off the floppy disk" dance..!! 😂😂

[@OriginalRaveParty]

You are a fountain of knowledge 😮❤

[@bleepsandboops]

😂😂 Thank you!

[@AppaBoy]

You’ve conveniently made a video on all of my favourite songs

[@bleepsandboops]

😂😂 This is good! Anything missing?

[@davidbanner9001]

I saw a working Wavestation for sale the other day. 100 GBP I would have bought it for that price, but was miles away for me to pick it up. A wonderful sounding synth.

[@bleepsandboops]

Agreed, great sounding synth. I think a lot of people had them thinking they were romplers without releasing they could be programmed, or bought them thinking they could be programmed before realising just how difficult that was! £100 is a steal though!!

[@oupahens9219]

@@bleepsandboops Yeah, U initial statement, to compare that to Roland LA synthesis was a good starter. Start with a "Bleep" and continue with "Analog". (I do like my D110 still though, because the analog section there has a lot to offer, especially when U stack) But in the Wavestation U could stack in time as well much more precisely, and more. That is a MF shit of a piece of a son of a Genius, who really liked to play 8-dimensional chess.

[@bleepsandboops]

@@oupahens9219 it's a hugely complex beast!! I can see why the rebooted Wavestates have software editors...!

[@richrobertsuk]

Omg! 6:29 is that the start of 'my kingdom' a track On future sound of londons album 'dead cities' stuck out like a sore thumb to me!

[@bleepsandboops]

Ozric Tentacles' Phalarn Dawn if you believe WhoSampled...

[@AndrewJohnClive]

Orbital with a picture of the Chemical Brothers? Thank man - especially for the free editor. Might try that on my SY…

[@bleepsandboops]

😁😁 No worries! See how you get on with edisyn, it's stupidly powerful

[@reedster_]

Amazing work!

[@bleepsandboops]

Thank you!

[@JustDatBoi]

Programming early late 80s/early 90s synths must have been a nightmare. I even thought programming an Ensoniq ESQ was hellish. Give me an MS2000 anyday and I’ll make do.

[@bleepsandboops]

🙏 MA2000s are great VAs - was always on my wish list but then got the Nord instead...

[@doktorwer]

Absolutely amazing thank you for posting this one! I wonder if you'd ever consider working out Impact by Orbital for a hardware only recreation.

[@bleepsandboops]

Thanks for watching!! Oooh, maybe - I need to find the samples... someone said Escape from the Planet of the Apes somewhere, but then Orbital themselves reckoned it was a French sci-fi film dubbed into English??

[@sea-saw2654]

He will now.. AudiopPilz are you listening.. 📢

[@bleepsandboops]

😂😂 There's likely a lonnnnng queue...

[@mmrva]

OMG! That hand! Wooooow!!! 😂😂❤️

[@bleepsandboops]

😂😂

[@MonkeyUnit]

The algorithm send me! You did it!!!

[@MonkeyUnit]

sent

[@bleepsandboops]

I did it 😎👍👍

[@andreievkalupniek5717]

Great video! Do you notice any sound difference between the hardware and the software Wavestation?

[@bleepsandboops]

Thanks! And not really - I've not done any null tests. The hardware*might* be slightly noisier but as far as the sound generation goes it's all digital anyway...

[@JustDatBoi]

Have either of you ever used the WaveState? I think it’s awesome Korg released a knobby Wavestation. Just curious how much easier it is to create deep patches and sequences on it

[@Existence_denied]

Shoutout to audiopilz

[@bleepsandboops]

Ticking all the boxes 👍👍

[@aristotlekumpis7095]

Really cool! I love this song and it's one of my favs. I remember listening to it over and over when it came out. Still an amazing track to this day. Do you know if Orbital used a Wavestation for the pad sound?

[@bleepsandboops]

Thanks! And yes, I think they did use a Wavestation for the pad sound! 😁

[@amonster8mymother]

❤

[@bleepsandboops]

Thank you!

[@AnalogFlava]

Very cool! Its a great track, perhaps a masterpiece. Do you know if the wavestation was used to make some of those famous 90s sample cds that has some amazing pad samples? Some of these samples are incredible and im not sure if the source is roland, korg or a mix. I have a feeling korg was used a lot to make those!

[@bleepsandboops]

Thanks! The whole of the Green and Brown albums are mesmerising!! Not sure about the wavestation as a source for sample CDs but it's highly possible - the pads are pretty unique sounding, and I can imagine them being resampled

[@Theaphextwin972]

I wouldnt mind seeing a cover of bentleys gonna sort you out by BRA

[@bleepsandboops]

Ooh, good shout - haven't listened to BRA in ages, will see what I can do...!

[@goob8945]

halcyoff

[@bleepsandboops]

😂😂

[@bangprints8816]

I guess the Plugin is probably easier editing Korg Classic Collection But truth be told I need to obtain some novelty finger hands

[@bleepsandboops]

Everyone needs to experience novelty finger hands 🖐🖐

[@dreamplace7469]

When looking at the supported Synths I only see the SR listed. Does it support the EX as well?

[@bleepsandboops]

Edisyn? It doesn't look like it. The developer has a thing for 1U rack synths by the looks of things!

[@chips989]

Would love to hear you do LFO leeds warehouse

[@bleepsandboops]

yeah - classic right out of the early Warp days!!

[@RealLifeMassMultiplayerRPG]

3:05 delicious

[@bleepsandboops]

Could literally listen to it for hours... 😁

[@ConnorTreacy]

Help me out, what's the tune in the background during the History sequence? 1:00 - 2 mins approx

[@bleepsandboops]

It's my cover of "Just a minute" - one of the pieces of music used during ITV Schools back in the late 80s, early 90s 🤓👍

[@ConnorTreacy]

YESSS instant nostalgia trip!@@bleepsandboops

[@jsca1082]

please do pacific 202 pls

[@bleepsandboops]

Depends if there's interest! Also didn't Capt Pikant do 808 State recently?! I can't compete with that!!

[@RalphGProject]

Hi nice video, but how to syncro this preset to daw tempo project?

[@bleepsandboops]

Thanks! So - all Wavestations (hw and sw) can do tempo sync either internal or external (MIDI clock) so it should just work... but how the sequence syncs to the clock can vary from patch to patch: for slow pads this isn't so much of a problem, but for shorter loop-based wavesequences you sometimes find that 1 step in the wave sequence is actually a dotted 1/8th note or something... so although your tempo might be 120bpm, the sequence is playing back at a different tempo. The plugin manual covers a lot of this, and it's all transferrable to the hardware (albeit more buried under the menu) Good luck!

[@RalphGProject]

@@bleepsandboops thanks for the answers my friend

[@PandaPotPies]

Can you please remake donkey kong country 2 music with the wavestation its really famous

[@bleepsandboops]

Mannnn... surely Aquatic Ambience?! 😁😁 David Wise really knew how to get the best from these beasts!! 🐵🐵

[@jamesconnolly741]

Mate that's chemical bros pic

[@bleepsandboops]

😁

[@devinthierault]

​@@bleepsandboopsthere's no recovery from this

[@bleepsandboops]

@@devinthierault BEHOLD, THEY'RE COMING BACK

[@totopolo2379]

going the best music not some mainstream nonsense

[@bleepsandboops]

There's a Venn diagram somewhere of music I like Vs music that's popular 😂😂

[@chrish5503]

Too much yapping and not enough playing.

[@bleepsandboops]

😂😂 fair enough