Vintage Electronic Drum: Korg Wavedrum (WD-1)

[@ezraschwartz5201]

Thank you bringing this beautiful instrument to awareness, Dino. It looks really well designed and built, and sounds great even on an iPhone after all the compressions!. Do you know why it new picked up in popularity?

[@dinoeliopulos3674]

Well from what I hear, it was pretty expensive (around $3k plus accessories) and perhaps the market had cheaper, all-be-they less capable alternatives. I also think the era of high end digital drums sort of faded as the big acoustic drum sounds of grunge and alternative became more popularized as a backlash to the 80s drum-machine sounds. All of this is speculation of couse.

[@codythomas5913]

I believe the band HEALTH was using this early in the live sets for the thunderclaps and monsoon/noise. they very much would pummel it and stab drumsticks into it etc. I never knew what it was but i think i've found it.. time to dig a little deeper, thanks for the video!

[@dinoeliopulos3674]

It’s fun to find this in the wild! Here Danny Carey is using one in his kit to great effect too kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKTWhn-EfLiNf6Msi=En1WbDyl8WJ2Hon7

[@MaxMirror108]

Thanks for the review! I play percussion and am a big Korg Wavedrum fan. There are 2 models WDX and Global. I made a small upgrade: repainted the worn rims, added an internal battery for portability, and also built an equalizer between the membrane sensor and the main board. It's a shame that Korg released a new model after WD Global. I think they could easily bring back some elements from the WD-1 model, such as midi connectors, an external equalizer, a more intelligible screen, for example, the ability to connect external triggers, like the Roland hpd. This is what many people were talking about on Korgforums 10 years ago. kzbin.infouxaAvukWSsI?si=wnPVMY_SC_O-wSgp

[@dinoeliopulos3674]

Nice work on the rims and battery. I hope features of the Wavedrum eventually end up in some new commercial products! For now let's hold on to what we got :)