Modwave Native Wavetable Synthesizer A powerful synthesizer with characteristic wave tones, Kaoss Physics and Motion Sequencing 2.0. Modwave, released in 2021, builds on the legacy of DW and transforms it into a modern monster synth with incredibly deep waveforms, great filters, incredibly flexible modulation, a sophisticated pattern sequencer and macro controls to create unique, powerful and highly customizable instruments, sounds and phrases.
Factory library
What is a wave table?
Wavetables are sets of single-cycle digital signals arranged in a specific order. The “position” of the wavetable determines which waveform is produced. Moving the position using an envelope, LFO, or other modulation source results in subtle or dramatic changes in timbre. Some wave systems switch abruptly from one waveform to another; others fade smoothly between them. Modwave can do any of them.
Modifiers
Use over 30 modifiers to change the character of any wavetable during loading. For example, isolate odd or even harmonics, add weight with quantization or saturation with anti-aliasing, or redefine the gritty nature of old-school wave synths with Vintage 8 and 12 options.
Transformation
13 morph types let you stretch, shrink, flip and otherwise alter wavetables in real time , changing their timbre and – when modulating – creating additional movement in the sound. Sync creates classic swept-sync tones using just one oscillator. Three special Morph types – FM, AM and Ring Mod – modulate Osc 2 with Osc 1, and the last two even apply to samples.
A/B Blend
Using a unique A/B mode, oscillators can blend any two wavetables with phase-locking precision – as opposed to simply layering voices – revealing the dimension of intermediate waveforms. For example, add body to subtle waveforms or a little sizzle to a soft tone. Even the attenuation between two different “modifier” versions of the same wavetable. Of course, the A/B mix can be modulated in real time.
Version 1.2.4
Known Issues
- Ableton Live: Program changes are slower than expected for VST3 instruments in general, on both Windows and macOS. The slowness is more noticeable for plugins with a large number of automated parameters, including modwave native. On macOS we suggest using the AU version of modwave native as a workaround. Ableton is aware of this issue.
New Features
- Added new user-requested modulation sources:
Pitch Bend+ and Pitch Bend- use only positive or negative pitch bend movements as a modulation source, ignoring other polarities.
Kaoss X+, X-, Y+ and Y- allow you to create four independent modulation paths emanating from the center of the pad.
Random 1+ and Random 2+ generate random positive numbers unique to each voice when a note is played.
Random 3 +/- and Random 4 +/- are similar, but the numbers generated can be either positive or negative.
Constant Max generates the maximum modulation value (which can be represented as 1.0 or 100).
Motion Seq On allows you to create modulation depending on whether a motion sequence is enabled or disabled.
Step Pitch allows you to modulate parameters via Pitch Lane. For modulation directions using semitone units, modulation intensity +1.0 produces one modulation semitone for every one semitone change in the Pitch band. This is useful, for example, for modulating the filter cutoff. Please note that this means that the overall signal level may be very high. - All LFOs have been updated to include Free-Run mode (including trigger control), Curve mode (symmetrical/asymmetrical) and delay.
A new Sync Notes Mode setting controls behavior when Sync Notes is enabled.
Sync Notes: The initial phase is synchronized with the highest note, but with note-specific modulation. This is classic “Sync Notes” behavior.
Free Run: All notes share a single LFO, which is triggered when a sound is selected and only retriggered when specially triggered. - Scale editing is now supported. See the manual for more details.
- Changed the export file extension for scales to .korgscale, and for wavetables to .korgwavetable. Old wavetable and scale files stored in packages will still be loaded. This is the first version to add custom scale editing, so there should be no pre-existing custom scale data.
- Reverb sends now include Pre/Post switches.
Pre: The signal is routed to the send before Layer Volume is applied. This means that the send level is independent of the layer volume. To get 100% reverb, set the switch to Pre and turn the layer volume all the way down.
Post: The signal is sent to Send after Layer Volume is applied. This is the default and is how modwave used to work. As you increase or decrease Layer Volume, the proportion of dry and reverb sounds remains the same. - Now supports MIDI CI function for connecting to Keystage.
Other Improvements
- Program transpose is now divided into two separate parameters: Octave (+/- 4) and Transpose (+/-12). Previous settings will be saved in the new format; for example, the old Transpose +30 setting will now display as Octave = +2 and Transpose = +6. Note: This will invalidate the previously created Transpose automation.
- Fixed an issue with graphics displaying when entering an intensity value in the mod list (as opposed to using the slider).
- Previously, if Kaoss Physics was turned off but autorun was enabled in the preset, Kaoss Physics would momentarily display the starting X/Y points before snapping to the center point. If Lag Time was non-zero, it could be heard. This has now been fixed.
- Copy/paste/paste improvements for Motion Sequencer steps.
- Previously, after canceling a Before/After insertion in a motion sequence, reinserting would not work. This has now been fixed.
- Previously, in a library, if you had multiple items selected, clicking the Favorites icon in the information panel could accidentally change the item names. This has now been fixed.
- A progress bar is now displayed during lengthy operations in the Librarian, such as importing a large number of wave tables.
- Previously, the “Favorites” status was disabled after undoing deletion or duplication actions. This has now been fixed.
- Previously, clicking the heart icon in the Librarian inspector moved the keyboard focus to the Name text editor. It is now moved to the Librarian’s main list.
- The librarian now does not allow empty names of sounds; if you remove all the characters, the title will revert to the previous text.
- When editing Mod Knob names, the editor will now prevent you from entering names that are too long, invalid characters (such as backslashes), or empty names.
- Previously, on-screen graphics for LFO Random 1 and Random 4 waveforms may not display correctly. This has now been fixed.
Version 1.1.4
- Versions 1.1.0 – 1.1.3 could save LFOs in a state that worked correctly with native modwave and modwave hardware version 2.0 and higher, but did not work when exported to older versions of modwave hardware. This has now been fixed. Additionally, the first time you run the program, all programs and executions in the database are checked for this problem and corrected if necessary. If you subsequently import data that was saved in this state, you can run the verification/correction process manually using the new Verify Sound Data menu command.
Updating custom sample banks now stops the arpeggiator.
When importing into a library, if the imported data contains only factory sounds, the UI will now ask if the user wants to update the factory sounds. (This is different from the behavior with a group of mixed factory and user sounds, where the system will first prompt you to skip the factory sounds and then prompt you to make unique copies of any duplicates).
