Korg musical instruments

Introduction to OASYS

pizzicato, and sforzando, as well as four-level velocity

switching and crossfading to ensure a natural range of

expression.

Reed instruments such as sax and oboe were sampled

for extended times to include natural-sounding vibrato

produced by the player.

The drums that are so important for the overall

character of a track also use stereo sampling, with long

samples that capture the natural decay and four-level

velocity switching and crossfading for natural

dynamics.

Wave sequencing – generating textured tones or

rhythmic sounds

In addition to simply playing back the PCM

waveform, the HD-1 High Deﬁnition Synthesizer’s

oscillators also support Korg’s proprietary Wave

Sequencing functionality.

Wave sequencing successively switches through PCM

waveforms, crossfading between different sounds to

create textured tones or rhythmic sound designs. Made

famous on Korg’s WAVESTATION, wave sequencing

has been redesigned to be even easier and more

creative than ever.

You don’t have to stop with simply playing back PCM

waveforms in succession – you can freely specify the

timing, length, and pitch of each waveform. The

timing at which waveforms are switched can even be

synchronized to the tempo. You can also use AMS

(Alternate Modulation Sources) to obtain sound design

possibilities that are completely unthinkable for a

conventional PCM synthesizer; for example, you can

use the output of an envelope generator to control the

timing at which waveforms are switched.

Advanced Vector Synthesis – create not only

sounds, but also sound ﬁelds

The OASYS includes Advanced Vector Synthesis,

which lets you synthesize spatial sound-ﬁelds.

In Combination mode, you can assign each timbre to

one of the four directions (up, down, left, or right), and

use the front-panel Vector Joystick to control the timbre

volumes or effects.

In Program mode, you can use this for realtime control

over the balance between oscillators 1 and 2 or for

controlling effects, giving you a powerful tool to create

sounds with dynamic movement.

In addition to controlling the Vector position manually

in realtime, you can use the ﬁve-point Vector Envelope

to control vectors automatically. For each point, you

can specify the Vector position, how long the envelope

will hold at the point, and how long it will take to

transition to the next point. Transition and hold times

can use either absolute time, or rhythmic values

synchronized to the system tempo.

Ultra high-precision ﬁlters are the core of sound

design

Because of its power and conceptual ease of

understanding, subtractive synthesis (the technique of

creating sound by selectively removing portions from

an overtone-rich waveform) has become the standard

for synthesizers today. One of the most important

components of subtractive synthesis is the ﬁlter.

The ﬁlter section of the HD-1 High Deﬁnition

synthesizer provides four ﬁltering types (low pass,

high pass, band pass, and band reject) and four types

of routing (single, serial, parallel, and 24 dB).

The amazing power of the OA (Open Architecture)

synthesis system produces natural and beautiful

ﬁltering that does not weaken the sound, delivering

smooth ﬁlter sweeps and resonance.

The amp of the OASYS contains driver circuitry that

covers a wide range of distortion, from the mild and

warm overdrive characteristic of classic analog

synthesizers, to the sharp distortion produced by

audio signal feedback.

In addition, the key tracking generator allows the

ﬁltering to vary according to the keyboard range; you

can apply subtle ﬁltering for convincing simulation

sounds, or aggressive ﬁltering that produces drastic

changes in ﬁltering as you play up or down the

keyboard.

Dive into an ocean of creative potential – ﬂexible

modulation routing, EG, LFO, and AMS

OASYS takes advantage of its lavish amount of

available processing power to produce ultra-fast and

ultra-smooth EGs (envelope generators) and LFOs.

EGs allow you to specify how the sound develops over

time, from its onset to its end. The HD-1 High

Deﬁnition Synthesizer lets you adjust the curvature of

each EG stage (attack, decay, slope, and release), giving

you detailed control over how the tone and volume

change over time, and making it possible to program

anything from simulated acoustic sounds to vintage

synthesizer sounds in the utmost detail.

The HD-1 provides a common LFO for each timbre and

two LFOs for each voice. You can choose from eighteen

types of LFO waveform, and also adjust the phase of

the waveform, the curve, and the center value of the

amplitude to create distinctively modulated sounds

that have never been heard before. Since the waveform

itself is generated with extremely high precision, you

can create perfectly smooth sweeps. You’ll appreciate

the LFO’s tightness and accuracy not just at high

speeds, but also for low-speed modulation. It goes

without saying that you can also apply key sync so that

the same modulation occurs each time a note is played,

or synchronize the modulation speed to the tempo to

create rhythmical tonal changes.

Korg’s AMS (Alternate Modulation Sources) give you a

rich array of modulation possibilities, with 52 different

modulation sources you can use to control the sound in

complex ways. The OASYS takes this classic Korg

feature even further, via the AMS Mixers. These let you

create even more detailed modulation designs, such as

mixing two modulation sources together, multiplying

one modulation source by another, or modifying the

shape of the modulation source in various ways.

Detailed Speciﬁcations

• Advanced Vector Synthesis: Use the vector joystick

and vector envelope (tempo synchronization