Wavestation Parameter Sysex Implementation 

The Wavestation has one of the most powerful SYSEX implementations ever put in a synthesizer, yet few people know much about it or how to actually use it for their own purposes. (It seems so.. so.. SPECIALIZED!!!) It really is a cinch, mostly, and can make powerful changes in the way you program sounds and perform live, and in how you mold sounds in a track. 

For starters, none of this will work unless you go to your MIDI page and set the PARAMETERS setting to RECOGNIZE AND TRANSMIT. That will let your Wavestation send and receive its parameter-changes to and from the computer/sequencer. 

At all times, this PARAMETER SYSEX is active, transmitting out of ALL MIDI CHANNELS AT ONCE, but carries with it an indication of which MIDI channel the BASIC CHANNEL was set to when you transmitted/recorded it. For playback, the BASIC CHANNEL will have to be set again to the same MIDI channel it was transmitted on for the Wavestation to see it. 

Note: On some sequencers, there is an anomaly -- at least on Performer 4.2 for the Mac. If I have the sequencer set into MULTIRECORD MODE rather than single-record, one channel at a time mode, then the only TRACK(S) that will receive sysex from the Wavestation is MIDI CHANNEL ONE -- whether you have the BASIC CHANNEL set to channel one or not! But, to play back the parameter sysex into the Wavestation, for the Wavestation to see it, you MUST have the basic channel set to one... a detail who's rationale I just don't understand...  If you've been having strange behavior from sysex recording when in multirecord mode on your sequencer, this may be what's happening. It's possible also that in multirecord mode that sysex is sent to whatever midi channel which is assigned to track one, so as not to be recording the sysex data on all channels into all record-enabled tracks at once. (Thanks to Nick Rothwell for that suggestion!) 

So, as long as your sequencer is recording a track, you will record your changes. What changes, you ask?? Why, everything you could POSSIBLY manipulate, alter or change  on the editing pages, that's what!! Filter movements, envelope changes, vector MIX ENV modifications, patch-assignment changes, pitch-transpositions, effects settings, wave-sequence waves, all being edited on-the-fly and playable back into your synth at any time in the future! That's a lot of power! 

One caveat is that you should always make sure to start from a screen other than the one you wish to edit on if you are only out to record an isolated incident or event. Switching to the screen sends the information concerning precisely which patch/wave sequence/performance/etc. is being worked on at this time. Without this step, the changes will only take place if you are actually sitting in the window of that type of page upon parameter playback... and as such, could be used to change the parameters of a different wave or patch or performance than the original, but that has quite limited usefulness that I can see. 

One of the nicest uses for this ongoing parameter-sysex going out of the Wavestation into your computer/sequencer is in using it as a log of the actions you perform in the Wavestation when designing a new sound. Turn on the recorder right from the beginning, change to the performance number you are going to work on (as per the caveat above), and go to it editing! Every change you make will be recorded as you make it, in real-time. As you go along, you are making a record of all that you do. So, you are free to simply move along and try new things. When the inevitable happens (for me anyway) that you end up creating the audio-equivalent of yucky-green or cesspool-brown, you haven't lost those moments earlier when you were really on a roll. Simply rewind the recording and play it back from the beginning, and listen to your changes take place. (Of course, you should be recording the note and other information on a separate track, also.) When you reach a point where the sound was just FANTASTIC, stop the playback, and write the patch at that point to RAM. If there were changes to more than one level, you must remember to write the changes of the Patch info as a separate activity from writing the Performance info. (The wave-sequence info is self-writing as you go.) Then, you can restart the playback from the point where you stopped it so it sets up your Wavestation for the other great sounds you found during that session. Simply write and sysex-dump or store each version with a different filename or patch and/or performance number to save all your changes. (I use RAM1 exclusively as my editing-stock, and RAM2 as my saving place, then simply dump RAM2's patches and performances as sysex later to the librarian or to a sysex bulk dump, or I simply record the dumps on another track in the recording holding my design logs, so they are all together in one place.) 

Even more exciting than that to me (can you imagine?!) is the ability to make changes in real-time AS you are playing, and preserve those changes as part of the composition's playback/performance later. I often go into the EFFECTS and change parameters while I'm playing, or into a patch and change the waves I'm using to change textures -- all this becoming part of the sequenced track. (A curious thing exists here as regards the use of the sustain pedal. Although the sound will cut-out when changing wave or patch assignments in live performance (OS 3.19 WS/EX), the recorded performance will play back with the sustains intact!) 

Finally, this: you can record effects which would be hard or impossible to achieve live, and playback the sysex for those changes as you perform and record on another track, or during live performance! I have found that I can combine several layers of these little parameter recordings to play back at the same time, and they don't interfere with each other, enabling me to perform changes in real-time in several windows at once which otherwise would have been impossible... for that alone, the Wavestation design team deserves free tickets to anything they desire! 

Now, as your reward for reading through all this, here's a cute trick: Go to the Rotary Speaker effect, send an organ-ish tone through it, and then set the LOWEST SPEED to be FASTER than the FASTEST SPEED setting! Yes, you can do this ... no, it won't break anything. Record your playing around via Parameter Sysex, naturally. :-)