Sounds for the KORG wavestate: Overview

Sounds For the KORG wavestate: Overview

The KORG wavestate was released in January 2020, and became actually available in March, although strong demand meant that it was out of stock at many dealers until June–July. However, many sound designers already got their hands on a wavestate in the first wave (pun intended), and it resulted in many great sound sets.

If you haven't already gotten the grasp of the wavestate to make your own sounds, purchasing a third-party sound set and reverse engineering the sounds can teach you a lot about how patches for the KORG wavestate are put together.

Here is an overview of the current sound set offering for the KORG wavestate from various sound designers. If there is something missing, let me know by e-mail (details are on the About DigitalSynth.net page).

Marc Barnes Wavestate Sound Sets (five volumes)

The prolific Marc Barnes has created no less than five volumes of sounds for the KORG wavestate. They are all available for purchase on his Marc Barnes Synth Sounds website, with a bundle discount if you want them all.

Together, these sound sets comprise 101 performances and 370 programs. On Marc's website you can also find links to demo videos on YouTube for all the sound sets, but also this "best of" compilation demo of the sounds:

There's a lot of variety in the patches, so nearly everyone you should find something usable. I know I did: the Sleep More 1 ambient EP by Typealias uses some of Marc's Wavestate sounds.

UPDATE: Read our Q & A session with Marc Barnes!

LFO.store: Stratosphere and Cinematica Vol. 1 (and 10 free presets)

For LFO.store, sound designers Anton Bakhtin and Nick Klimenko have created one new sound set each for the KORG wavestate.

Stratosphere contains 40 performances, mostly very ambient and spacey textures. These sounds also proved useful in an ambient setting.

Cinematica Vol. 1 concentrates more on cinematic, wide-screen textures that would be great in scoring to picture. There are also Cinematica-themed sound sets for other synths available from LFO.store.

If you'd like to try before you buy, there is also a set of 10 free presets from the Stratosphere and Cinematica Vol. 1 sound sets.

App Sound Recreation and Recreation 2 by Matthias Sauer

The two Recreation sound sets by App Sound, developed by Matthias Sauer, concentrate on recreating classic synths sounds on the Wavestate. All sounds are based just on one layer (out of the four possible), so they are a nice showcase of what you can do even with a minimal setup.

Both Recreeation and Recreation 2 contains no less than 64 performances, so you will be exploring them for a good while.

CO5MA e.Motion Pads Vol. 1

The sound world of the e.Motion Pads Vol. 1 sound set by CO5MA is more dark ambient and drone.

It comprises 100 programs and 32 performances for the Wavestate. Check out these interesting soundcapes on this and many other videos on the CO5MA YouTube channel:

Brock Davisson KORG Wavestate Packs

Brock Davisson is a guitarist who has recently taken to the KORG wavestate, and created three sound sets that total 75 patches. Initially they were free, but since then there is a nominal fee.

These are no bread and butter sounds, rather they are, as Brock describes them, "ambient, experimental, sci-fi and weird stuff". Check out the demo video for the third and latest pack (and see the description for instructions on how to buy):

Support Independent Sound Designers

KORG has not (at least yet) released any additional sound sets for the Wavestate. There is a lot of material shipped with the synth, so you could argue there is less need for them to do that, unlike for the original minilogue, which so far has seven sound packs commissioned by KORG. That leaves more room for independent sound designers to create interesting stuff and try to build their own fan base. The fact that the Wavestate has been on the market for just over six months, and already has a healthy sound design ecosystem, speaks volumes for the versatility of this synth.

I've bought and used almost all of these sounds on my Wavestate. None of them are expensive, so support independent work and buy them if you like them!

Please note that I'm not quoting any prices here, because they vary, and the sound designers may have special deals or bundle prices that change all the time. Check the ones you are interested in from the original sites linked to above.

Buy KORG wavestate from Musikhaus Thomann

Here are direct links to Musikhaus Thomann for the KORG wavestate. If you follow them, they set up a cookie in your browser, and if you then end up buying something from them, I earn a small commission, which helps to keep this site up and running with no ads. Select your country if applicable.