The Korg 01/W is a master ambient synth from 1991
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- čas přidán 26. 06. 2024
- JD-990 who? Don't sleep on the Korg 01/W. The successor to the Korg M1 is still a sleeper for those that don't know. Yea, the waveshaping is cool - but the thing just sounds incredible overall. Warm, open, and out of this world. Used by the likes of Vangelis, Enigma, Paul Hardcastle, PFM, and many more artists across all genres #synthesizer #korg01w
I promise I'm not a Korg shill
Patreon: / thoughtforms
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Need atmospheric pads / fx samples and presets? I gotcha: thoughtforms.gumroad.com
0:00 The Korg 01/W
01:07 A few sound demos
03:39 Waveshaping Overview
04:50 Waveshaping Demo 1 (Sound FX)
05:30 Waveshaping Demo 2 (Arpeggiator / Lead)
06:20 Emphasis Effect
06:51 Better than a JD-990?
07:45 Prog: B26 Resi Bass
07:52 Prog: A11 DigiPiano1
08:06 Prog: B00 DreamWeave
08:20 Prog: B25 EtherBells
08:25 Prog: B29 Percussion
08:37 Prog: B35 Gamelan
08:46 Combi: B10 BellMotion
08:52 Combi: B20 Nebulae
9:17 Combi: B29 BugForest
9:44 Combi: A31 AfterBells
9:59 Prog: B58 Pulse Pad
10:18 Prog: B60 AirFlight - Hudba
Very Nice video, TF - I was part of the original voicing team behind the Korg O1W series (I made/edited all of the drum samples, made all the drum patches and tons of Patches and Combinations) It was one of our favorite synths to voice (this synth was developed before the internet really blew up so we did multiple trips to Japan to meet in little rooms in Tokyo to vote and or at times fight between the 8 of us to get our patches in the machine - now there are no flights and it's all spreadsheet based voting which is not the same.) The Waveshaper as you show does cool things to synth sounds but it also does MAGICAL things to acoustic instrument samples. If you look at all the factory patches, we used waveshaping to add missing harmonics in the samples based on how hard you hit the keys - this is something samples alone can't generate and made acoustic instruments have added life in the O1W. It's surprising future synths/samplers have not incorporated these abilities in today's instruments. Anyway, keep making cool videos like this.
Wow!!
Always said one of the things these boxes and what came before them i.e. M1 which make them the classics they are is the voicing, even though it's old this thing is still making relevant music today and is so flexible by not being over processed or having too much of a baked in sound. Out of interest how were the samples created and edited? Did you use something like Jupiter Systems Infinity (Later Antares) for looping the waveforms or something similar?
That's awesome!
Thank you for this! The Waveshaping feature is for me what makes this Synth shine! ❤
DO YOU THINK KORG WILL EVER MAKE A SOFTWARE EMULATION OF THIS SYNTH ?
A friend of mine bought the Korg 01/W when it came out. We both had an Amiga and liked Vangelis and Jarre. That one patch Vangelis used still comes to mind. We visited several Jarre concerts as well. Unfortunately my friend died of cancer early June 2018, just short of turning 50 years old. He still had his 01/W but it was lost when his family cleaned up his house and belongings. At that time in 2018 I started buying synthesizers as well and have been enjoying the hobby since. My synthesizers are technically superior, but I still remember my friend often when playing and I remember his Korg 01/W with fondness. Cheers
Im sorry to here you lost your friend which mirrors my own experience. I lost my best friend a week before my 50th and several months before he would have celebrated his.
Thank you for sharing about the good memories with you and your friend, sounds like some great times. Very sorry to hear about your loss
wow soo many classic pads i hear in DnB/Jungle came from this unit!
Exactly. Instant DnB, add water and break beat to taste.
yea! Artemis used these old Korg boxes a ton, can hear it all over his songs (likely an X3, but could have been one of the other incarnations)
For me 01/W is an instant early “Enigma” sound. Those pads are so great!..
i'm hoping Korg add this to the collection as a VST some day.
C22 FreeFlight - I remember that sound like it was yesterday. Listened to it while I played the Korg in the store back then. That exact sound made me fall in love with synths. That's the one! Still catches my attention, 30 years or so later.
Vangelis - Conquest of Paradise, probably last track from soundtrack :-)
@@Martin_Demsky My thoughts exactly!
My first 'professional' synthesizer/workstation in 1991. 4 years ago i found one at a flea market for 50 euros. Instant buy.
Wow 50 Euros? That's awesome!!
50 euros!!!!! insane
I still have my 01/W. Bought it brand new in 92 and it has never left my studio...and it never will.
you can hear the 2:34 sound at the start of Pinta, Nina, Santa Maria by Vangelis in the 1992 Conquest of Paradise soundtrack
100%!
It's also crazy that it's 32 kHz, but sounds so crisp full warm and fat.
And many of its patches like FreshAir, DynoPiano, Ampheralds, are still irreplaceable
Maybe exactly because of that...
Many synths of that era were like that. For example, many Ensoniq synths, except ASR10, MR, ZR, Fizmo and ASR-X (EPS16+ had switchable sample rate up to ~70KHz, but with very low polyphony), Roland JV line is another example.
I love when you go into the technical implementation details like here with unusual waveshaper. Or just like in the video showcasing the effect of random resonant filter on the Korg's ambient pad patches.
Thanks! Now I know where one of Vangelis'ambient patches used on 1992 comes from.
I noticed the Vangelis sounds too!
I have a 990 and a Wavestation A/D. This honestly looks pretty cool! I dig the different textures you were showing off :D
thanks tokyo! the 990 and wavestation is a killer combo. starting miss the a/d more and more....
@@Thought-Forms The aftermarket card for the wavestation that lets you load your own samples is a game changer for it honestly.
I recently bought an 01 R/W ... and I deeply love ist.
solid move getting one into your arsenal. enjoy it!
@@Thought-Forms
Hell ... YEAH! 😃👍
I'm still looking for one myself (I specifically need the rack version my studio can't account for the keyboard), you're so lucky to have it!
@@Wulframe
I am, I am! 🙂
I purchased my 01W/FD back in 1992. Years later, as I was young and with no money, I sold it to buy some new gear. One of my biggest regrets. Just recently I purchased a 01W/R in top conditions (it’s basically new) for a very low price. Just replaced the internal battery and sent it to my trusted technician for replacing the original screen with a backlit one. Can’t wait to start working with it! ❤️
We've all been there! Rad to hear you got one again, and in mint condition at that. With the new battery, screen, and once over from the technician that thing is ready for many more years of sound creation. Enjoy!
where are you from where you can find such nice deals like this...ugh I'm so jealous! Happy for you though!
Korg pads=love!
The best there are from factory for sure. I love my korg workstations
One of my biggest regrets was selling my 01/Wfd. That thing was awesome, but I got the "grass is greener" mentality after a few years and thought it was outdated. What an idiot I was! Very good demo of some of the best sounds on the unit!
Excellent video, and thank you for giving the 01R/W and 01/W series the love it deserves, i got mine in February, looking in absolute mint condition, a newly placed classic color LCD screen and 2 card sets for a real bargain price. I only had to drive back and forth to the north of the Netherlands and back to the south, but it was worth the trip! Thanks again!
Amazing!! A trip worth it indeed. Which cards did you get with it? Enjoy mate
I love those late 80s Korg pads .... I’ve got the korg vsts and they sound sick
🔥🔥🔥🔥
I bought an 05/RW back in 93 and still use it today.
I love that the Korg 01/W was, like you said, an M1 on steroids, but that waveshaping basically makes it a Wavestation and M1 all in one which is spectacular. Korg has soft synths of the Wavestation and M1 yet nothing for the 01/W which is seriously a crime.
Korg, PLEASE make this into a VST!
The wavetables don't exist in any other Korg synth but the O1W. The Wavesequencing of the Wavestation is altogether different (it's a sequence list of waveforms you can set up that cycles from one to the next while waveshaping is a form of distortion). I'd love to see Korg release a software version of the O1W but I'm not sure they can - the wavetables in the O1W were created in a special way that I don't think is transferable to software outside of the special hardware they used to do the wavetables. I really hope I'm wrong and that it does appear someday.
Some beautiful sounds there!
Really are! Nothing like going through the internal presets for the first time and stumbling across some of those mind blowing pads
It’s so nice to see Dr. Yoshimura’s vision kept alive 👍
I had an 01/W at that time. It was deeply nostalgic to listen to the old patches and combis in your video. Some of those are purely magical. Now I want to locate a good VST of this classic synth!
Cheers mate! Really holding out that Korg will drop this in a Korg Collection update....
01/W is cool, I have one! Well... Korg's definitely had a "JD-990" counterpart and it's called Wavestation A/D :) and that thing is DEEP! And let's throw Yamaha TG-77 in and we have the holy trinity (JD990, A/D, TG77). Another Korg gems: X5DR and N1-R. I bought most of them back in the mid 00's when they would set you back maybe a little more than the shipping itself, most expensive was 990 with Vintage card, 300 notes. Not that I don't like plugins, but these ROM-plers sounded spectacular per invested $$$, so I bought them all. Hey, I am a simple man.
Hey Don - thanks for the comment! Wavestation A/D is something else indeed....part of me regrets selling mine. That would be a solid trinity of synths to do some damage with. You got in a great time on that lot. X5DR is a beast in that little half rack. Out of all of those, I think the N1R gets talked about the least. I don't think many people know it event exists LOL. Almost a "best of AI2" box. Thanks again for the comment - hope to see some more JD-990 sound sets from you
Had the 01/W pro with 88 keys. It was our home piano!
Very glad I picked up mine for a reasonable price. Pads aside, we need another vid showing off the EXCELLENT rave stab/ punchy fx sounds you can get out of these things.
dan silk in the comments has some videos showing off those jungle techno stabs! the waveshaper really helps you get some bite on the attack. cheers mate!
I’ve heard this in a lot of video games.
Interesting piece of kit
I've an interesting little story, though I've no proof. In the 90's I phoned a Cheshire UK music shop (pre internet) called Aaron sound after spotting a music mag ad for a Korg 01rw. The guy on the end of the phone said the last person who owned it was none other than Gary Barlow of Take That!
Nice demo and explanation of the 01/W T-F. I used to have the M1R and M3 and had/have the Wavestation keyboard and now just own the module. I never realized how good this sounded until seeing your video. FYI, if you look at Urs' Zerbralette and Zebra VSTs, he implemented something like this with more modulation abilities. Each osciillator can have up to two things termed Osc FX from a selection of 26, including using the same one twice, in series which can be modulated by any modulator the synths have.
This thing is actually amazing. I love it!
Awesome video BRO ☺♥♥♪
That first patch heard in the video is in the chorus of Britney Spears - I'm a Slave 4 U (produced by The Neptunes)
Let's GO. What ever happened to Britney Spears
its an amazing synthesizer
💪
The Opsix has a 01/W operators that can waveshape using 60 tables from the 01/W. I have no idea how to use this but your great sounds may motivate me!
Depeche Mode used lots of sounds from the 01/W on their live tours 👀
Great to look back on, i always wanted one of these back in the day but was way out of my price ranges. Love that free flight preset, heard it so many times on tracks, absolutely love it :-)
1:09 - Kajagoogoo
I have an 01/RW in my rack. It's one of my favorite synths.
Sounds so lovely..
I had an O1/Wfd when it first came out. Just looked up the price and converted it to new money. I'm wondering how the heck I afforded it!! Amazing thing. It was my master keyboard for more than 15 years. Lovely to see it getting revisited. What they did with the waveshaping was brilliant. So lush and iconic.
I have the 01/w (workstation) fd (floppy disc) love it to this day not enough sound cards came out for it but its really cheap to buy now got mine in late 92 thanks for posting
Beautiful
i have a 01W and an M1 both rarely touched in decades. as nice as they do sound, its unmistakeably late 80s and early 90s, and having lived through the 80s and 90s theyre not decades id wish to repeat, although i can see why younger musicians may be just discovering that sound and like it. As a joke i say playing it makes anyone sound like Jean Michel Jarre.
I still have my original O1/Wfd from 1991…..the second highlight of that year for me (the other was the birth of my daughter) 😊
Still got mine. From new in 1994. I’ll never part with it. Renovated it recently, new buttons and cleaned and regreased the dx7 key bed.
Love it Peter! True dedication to the 01W. Such a good feeling to fix an old synth up and know it has much more life in it. Enjoy
1:07 I literally thought you were gonna bust into ‘Too Shy’ by Kajagoogoo for a moment there 😭😂
Came here to write this
oh man...thats crazy LOL
My Korg 03/W has been in the loft for the last 20+ years. I seem to remember the multitimbric parts were all routed to the same effects loop. It was also fiddly to program. I only stopped using it because I left the band I was playing keyboards for, and went back to playing guitar and bass for a few years. For convenience, and because I haven't got room, I just use a midi controller and VST instruments now. I've also got a Roland D10 in the loft to keep it company. I wonder if they still work...
We 👏🏽 need 👏🏽 multisamples 👏🏽 of 👏🏽 this 👏🏽 beauty!
Working on something 👊 (fist bump, I'm not punching you in the face)
@@Thought-Forms- I would be very careful releasing a sample library because all of the samples are copy written.
@@Thought-Forms were are these patches from are they the classic factory presets bank or are these all your own custom sounds?
Have definitely heard that Free Flight patch on some tunes from the 90s.
The story I heard is this was supposed to be called the M10 but somebody put the logo upside down.
1:46 Hey, I've heard this patch before! It's used in the Anachronox Sender Station Theme.
C22 FreeFlight is like The Belle Of Atlantis by Solar Quest
I got the 03R/W some time ago (a little while after I started watching this channel). I have yet to fully explore it, but from what I have heard, it's wonderful.
while it doesnt have the waveshaping (and think the ROM is a little smaller), the 03r/w is still a solid 1u for folks who want an 01/w but dont have the space or want to save a little dough
sick
Blast from the past. Cool underrated synth. Kudos for showing Dark City, such a gem of a film. Watch the director's cut if you can, you'll thank me later ;)
If lm not mistaken here C22 FreeFlight was used on Bork’s Debut album on the last track just going off memory here.
The synth that launched thousands of worship bands.
Come on Korg make it as a VST!
0:19 that sounds familiar! Altered States sampled that! That's bad ass that it originally came from the Korg 01/w. I've been searching for some of the original sounds from Shadow Man for forever!
My first keyboard synth was a 01/WFD. Sold it to get something new I guess, I regretted selling it shortly thereafter, I have since passively had my eye searching for the rack version...
By 1:52 I was fully locked in 🫥
01W as Korgs answer to JD990? Great idea! Owning both, I can underline this impression 100%. Esp since I also got JV2080 and Trinity, which is a similar perfect pair in terms of overall sound and synthesis possibilities. To my ears the Rolands shine on warm pads with heavy use of internal chorus and flanger. The Korgs on more airy stuff, as you perfectly demonstrated here. Make sure to check out the Korg PCM cards for the 01W. As well as some patches out there from 3rd party suppliers. Soundsource Unlimited did some great!
Used extensively by Ron Wells aka Jack Smooth and Fast Floor on Basement Records, Sound Entity, Smooth Recordings and coupious other hits he made in Jungle Techno and his Jazzy early D&B. He is still using it in his most recent productions.
Waveshaping on this unit is still quite unique to this day. Ron's trademark sounds are nearly all made on the Korg 01 using Waveshaping.
His sounds inspired me so much I had to get one to learn how to do Waveshaping for those excellent harmonic distortions Tek Stab sounds!
Here is my rack version making a Tek Stab in one of my Jungle Techno productions!
czcams.com/video/mcmcncYuftI/video.htmlsi=Bqcy3oeTGitoJhR7
Lovely video mate
Amen! Checked out your vids before, spot on and props to the dedication to work it out. great tracks and usage of the 01rw mate
Dead Can Dance used it a lot
Reminds me of my Wavestation
A/D..
✌️
I've got both
C11 INIT giving me Photek feels
The digital piano sounds really nice.
Who recognized enigma sound!!! Thimbs up!
:)
Analog pad is Kajagoogoo too shy
Dude it sounds amazing. Sounds like Reload used this. Seems already expensive and justifiably so.
Oh man that sound is AMAZING, should I rush out and try get one (wife will kill me) or will VSTs cover this being all digitally equal? Cheers love your work :)
You should rush out and get one. Ask for forgiveness later :) thanks mate!
C22 FreeFlight, that was used by LTJ Bukem. I can't remember the track right now but I will edit this post when I remember.
yea i feel like i've heard it on one of his tracks before. my guess would be it showed up on a few sample cd's from back in the day as well
Hard to judge here via iphone and YT quality but from the sounds generated here, it seems to sound every bit as good as my jd990!
Gorgeous sounds!!! Is it easier to program than the Wavestation??
100 times easier! The Wavestation is essentially a Korg rompler with one mode: combinations. Layer in the odd Performance / Patch architecture - managing things becomes insane on the Wavestation. Change a patch and another performance gets messed up. 01/W is incredibly simple to create patches on - it's very straight forward & similar to the M1 in terms of ease of use
1:07 That synth is Too Shy!
hush hush!
I thought the same thing!😂
I have roland jupiter rack and noone talks about the amazing Ensonig VFX
yea ima look for one now lol
8:37 tokyo drift
the first note lol i thought the same
I think i heard some sounds they used in return to innocence
I got to use one when they first came out.
I was in awe at how realistic the sounds were, however the lack of a resonant filter was a serious buzz kill. I went with a Kawai K4 instead because i got a very good deal on it, but would have gone with a JV80/ JV1080 tbh had i the extra funds
I have been gigging with a ProX for decades. Smaller gigs I will bring my 76 key Pro.
Also have an 01R/W in the studio. I have my original bought new ProX for parts.
I have a JD-800 and I can't help but wonder if the 01/W actually sounds better 🤯
I have a JD990…I think it may be very similar or at least somewhere around the same level judging by the presets and non presets here. It has the same soundshaping capabilities it seems. Probably cant go wrong with either 😅
I'm actually hoping to get one myself, actually.
I wanted to comment on that first C00 patch, but I was too shy shy.
Good perspective on the 01/W. I skipped out on this synth for some reason. I have experience with the M1, and Trinity but I never got into the 01/W.
I liked the Trinity with the Z1 option. You could do 4 voices of physically modeled sounds. The actual Z1 was even better. I don't think there's a synth that sounds anything quite like the Z1
It's funny how a lot of early 90s synth were trying to do this waveshaping thing. It sounds neat. Great comparison to a tube amp. I'd go a little further and say maybe like a convolution reverb in how they can run an amp cab IR, only instead of using room or cab IRs, use whatever wave your snippet of any sound to effect the original sound. I do this a lot with REVerence in Cubase.
I might have to explore an 01/w. Funny how upside down it's an M/10
2.45 thats where lazer worshippers got name and sample from....
Got the keyboard version, it's heavy to move around!
its a hefty beast indeed!
From what I understand, there was supposed to be an M 10. Now, flip that upside down.😮
Is it multitimbral? A few of those pads stacked together would sound huge! My old rompler doesn't have enough voices to do that and play chords, so I just send the same note to 8 MIDI channels with a different patch on each channel, then sample it into Pigments. Makes some cool retro pads 😂
It is! Combi mode is god tier for stacking up a bunch of programs and getting insane sounds. hey you're working with what ya got which will certainly yield some unique sounds. love it!
I need to find a place on the internet where someone has samples of the patches on these 90s rompler/digital synths.. anyone know where i might find such a thing?
The Internet Archive is a great source of old media.
I have one of these and began working with the 01/W-series (mainly on the 01/W Pro 76-key instrument) immediately upon their release (I worked in sales at a S.F. Bay Area dealer who carried just about every synth line). This series was the workhorse for music writing I was doing at the time… I still have this rack piece along with my (2) JD-990s, and Wavestation A/D from this era.
I feel it necessary to say though I find it a little odd you positioning this piece as the follow-up to the M1… which it absolutely isn't. The Korg T-series instruments were the follow-up to the M1… I sold a good number of T-series.
Personally the T-series is the generation I skipped and found the 01/W-series to be where it got interesting again. Like you I have a Triton Rack w/ MOSS & Vintage Archives boards installed… I also have the TR-Rack and OASYS 76 & Kronos 73 workstations.
Is there some advantages to hardware versus emulated plug-ins?
Good Question. Everyone will have a strong opinion / point of view on this. Though I do think it's hilarious to me that its such a polarizing topic. From my perspective: 1) sonic quality - hardware tends to sound better 2) features. not all vst emulations of old gear have every feature integrated. example would be the Triton VST missing the ability to use custom samples in programs, something very important to me 3) when no VST equivalents exist. for example: there is no 01/W VST 4) kind of back to sonic quality...folks with outboard based setups (down to an analog mixer, fx units, etc...), you will achieve a sound not possible on computers
@@Thought-Forms Thanks for the answer! I wonder what makes the hardware sound better, since they are digital as well. Maybe some algorithms are trade secrets, so the best that plug-in programmers can do is estimate?
In my experience, I'd say it's mainly down to the grungier sounding D/A converters in those older machines, they just sound better.
this vid would be boring if it were a vst
How about the Korg Wavestation and especially the Wavestation A/D module ;)
I like the way you think! I sold my Wavestation A/D as the VST is so good, it became hard to justify. The Wavestation (I believe) uses nearly the same FX engine as the 01/W. Very similar sounding in terms sonic quality. An 01/W and Wavestation together is a killer combo
@@Thought-Forms I kept my A/D , and compared it to the plugin, and the hardware is in another league for me! Maybe the converters, something in the whole processing, but its not the same...
@@Thought-Forms oh there's a VSTi of the A/D too?
I have original hardware wavestation A/D but it's sadly broken, not sure what to do with it.
There’s still the Wavestation though, maybe make a comparison vid? 😅
Sadly sold the Wavestation A/D off a few months back :( Think they share the same FX engine / algos. A/D is a great sounding synth too
What are gear knots?
So what _is_ wave shaping and how _exactly_ does it work? Some samples here sound suspiciously like FM synthesis, and the diagram from the manual does not exactly explain it either.
Lazer Worshippers - Free Flight czcams.com/video/ac8GvgxtRfg/video.htmlsi=K33vBEyY-58CkIdJ you can hear Free Flight in this.. I always thought this bit was intricately pre-programmed...Had no idea this was a preset..lol. Great vid, thanks
is there a fl studio digital version of this available??
no vst versions of this synth, only exists in the hardware world