Monday, December 19, 2011

Korg Wavestation & Wavestation A/D brochure, 1991


Korg Wavestation & Wavestation A/D 8-page brochure from 1991.

Christmas is getting closer and time is running out. Added on to the regular pressures of work are the pressures of buying gifts (I dislike the whole obligatory gift thing), holiday get-together events (I have a general hatred for all humans), extra food eating (too many calories) and the extra exercise that has to follow (recipe for injuries). Bah humbug!

I get even more tired just thinking about it. Need to de-stress.

And lately, what are best ways to de-stress during the holidays? Well, if it isn't kicking a feral troll's ass or stompin' a goblin cutter while adventuring through "The Legend of Drizzt" board game with a few select geek friends, then the next best thing is mindless scanning. It takes me about ten times as long to scan any given ad or brochure because as soon as I start scanning one, I usually end up lazily paging through related reference info in other magazines and promo material. Good times... good times... the only thing missing is a hot tub and bubbles (not good for paper. Or scanners  :)

So, what starts with a Korg Wavestation 2-page intro ad, quickly turns into page-flipping/ebay-buying/scanning marathon sessions that could well provide blogging fodder well into mid-February.

And so it continues with this 1991 Wavestation & Wavestation A/D brochure. Flipping to the back of the publication, it looks like it might have been printed as early as March or June of that year, depending on how you read the print date/code on the back. It reads "1991 0306C0CGH". So, that 0306 could be either the month/day or day/month.

Either way, its still a fairly long time after the original Wavestation brochure came out (date code is 1990 0203CFOTH), and yet you have to give Korg creds for keeping to the original design while also making positive improvements. And, if it's unclear, I'm talking about both the brochure AND the Wavestation A/D itself.

Much like the A/D kept to the original synth design with all the same functions and capabilities, so does this brochure keep to the original by using a similar textural background. It also uses a very similar writing style and includes a lot of the same charts and diagrams. Recycling at it's finest!

The A/D also improved upon the original Wavestation through additional waveforms and effects algorithms, as well as adding those awesome analog/digital converters. Aside: A trademark sound from my main set included using a Dead Can Dance vocal riff (shush!) sampled into my Emax SE. Then, I would route the sample through the Wavestation's inputs with the vocoder effect, triggering both the sample and the wave sequence at the same time. Re-sample and repeat. Spectacular!

And this brochure definitely improves on the first brochure. The first thing to be noticed when looking at this brochure is that it is oriented vertically, while the first Wavestation brochure was horizontal. I have a love/hate relationship with horizontal brochures - from a design perspective it is creative and fun, but it doesn't always feel natural and is sometimes uncomfortable to hold. This second brochure is definitely easier to hold, open, and read. Also, readability is enhanced significantly in this brochure now that the textured background is removed from pages with actual information. Nothing beats black text on a white background. So much easier easier to read, especially with such a small font.

Well - I just thought of another one of my great stress reliefs. Watching Survivor! Time to hunker down in my pre-xmas-gift snuggie and watch Ozzy take victory! Go Ozzy go! 

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