Patch Tricks
You can get more out of your patch-storage space if you keep in mind the fact that you don't necessarily HAVE to use all the elements in each patch every time you call upon it. In other words, you could have a patch with all four oscillators containing something in the settings, yet only actually USE one (or two, or three) of them for your present needs. This way, you don't have to create a one-oscillator patch (taking up that valuable space out of the available 35 per RAM bank), but instead can use an existing patch that CONTAINS the wave you need (provided that it has the envelope and other qualities you require), and get the other ones out of the way via the FX-BUS. What makes this most beautiful is that you don't sacrifice any polyphony by doing this...ONLY the waves that are enabled take up any polyphony. The other oscillators, though listed in the patch's WAVES page, are out of the picture entirely when set to OFF for all four output busses.
[Note: for this to work, you must have every instance of this patch appearing in the PERFORMANCE page set in DETAILS so that FX BUS equals PATCH.]
By the way, if you WERE to set the volume of a wave (on the WAVES page) to zero, that would have the same effect as above (as least, if I remember correctly), and that wave wouldn't cut into your polyphony either (OR be audible, of course!!) But, why mess with a good patch mix, when you can accomplish the same effect by simply switching-out the unwanted waves in the FX-BUS setting, leaving the full patch to play with elsewhere? (Of course, if you include these waves in another Performance slot and have the DETAILS page set so that the FX BUS is anything other than PATCH, that particular position of the patch will use polyphony for that wave, but for that position only.)
Borrowing waves from existing patches can speed up your sound designing efforts, and obviously makes the best use of your Patch memory. So, you really had MORE than 35 patches per bank, effectively anyway! Isn't that grand? :-)
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To which John Lehmkuhl added this bit of WS history and some caveats concerning using the FX-BUS page to switch-out waves and save on polyphony:
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Sire Terry L. Britton wrote:
>On the subject of the factory patches, I've been meaning to ask why the >routings on the FX-BUS page are always so, so... odd?? Especially taking >into account that the DETAILS pages hardly ever (never?) set the >EDIT/DETAILS:FX BUS routing to PATCH?? Is the FX-BUS page (that's the >EDIT/PATCH/FX-BUS page for clarity, folks!) REALLY so impotent as I >thought when not referenced by the DETAILS page? Or was there method to >the, uh, ... ?
If the truth would be known (and it's kind of funny so I'll put it up) - we voicing people and a small handful of the software engineers are the ones that implemented the patch bus capabilities with out seeking or getting approval from Karl Hirano (who was the head of Korg R&D at the time). Once it had been implemented and was working (you would hit the button that now says FX BUS but at the time it was still blank !!) we showed it to the management people at Korg !
We set up most all of the patches to have some sort of FX BUS routing ; our method of working on the Wavestation was not like what we used on the M1/T-Series/O-series where we wrote only programs first and then wrote combinations - we did a mix of both since some performances are only 1 patch while others are using all 8 patches to make up a single performance. So, we had some programs that we selected that were not used in performances yet (these were mostly the element type of patches) and so we simply guessed as to how it would be useful to set up the FX BUS page.
*Also, the discussion on saving polyphony by using the FX BUS page and assigning the details panning to PATCH works to make a 2 or 4 osc. patch a true 1 oscillator patch. However, you will find that if you have 1 osc. not assigned in a 4 oscillator program that you will still use 4 notes of polyphony. Also, if you assign osc. b and d to off in a 4 oscillator program, I believe that you still use 4 voices of polyphony. If I recall the discussions we had at the time, the voice optimization only works save polyphony if only the a oscillator is assigned on the FX BUS page.
What great times we had making this sucker. Ben Dowling (Mr. 21st. Century, Station Platform, DebussyOnWheels etc.) and myself would fly up from Los Angeles and literally live in a hotel in Milpitas for 3 - 5 weeks while finalizing the programming - and we did this 3 times (I also met my future wife on a blind date in San Francisco while up there) !!
Now thanks to email (!?$#?#?#?) I do most of the programming and parameter specification discussions via email. Although I still get to go to Japan in May for the Z1 programming (please don't ask what the Z1 is, Korg introduced it in Frankfurt and you will hear a lot about it soon but I can't talk about it right now).
Hope this kind of clears things up........
-John
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John Lehmkuhl
Real-Kuhl Productions
Sherman Oaks, CA
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