However, the San José‑based team's next development - termed Wave Sequencing - allowed up to 255 different waves to be involved. The transition from waveform to waveform in Sequential's Vector Synthesis, first seen on the Prophet VS, was a simple crossfade, and although two of these crossfades could be controlled or programmed by the joystick which was so integral to the Vector Sythesis system, the maximum number of waveforms which could be involved in a single sound was four. At the end of our last exciting episode, the ex‑Sequential personnel had parted company with Yamaha and had been taken under Korg's wing instead, where they continued to develop their concepts further. This type of synthesis was exemplified, in different forms, by the Fairlight CMI, the PPG Wave series, the Sequential Circuits Prophet VS, and the Yamaha SY22, which was designed by the Sequential team for Yamaha after Sequential's demise. In the previous part of this series (see SOS April 1998), I began to talk about what I've termed 'transitional' synthesis methods, where, broadly speaking, a sound begins with a given harmonic content and evolves, to end with a different harmonic spectrum.

Paul Wiffen continues to examine transitional synthesis, covering the Wave Sequencing facility, first introduced on the innovative Korg Wavestation, and concluding with Emu's Z‑plane technique, which may be regarded as bridging the gap between S&S and today's physical modelling.

Korg wavestation synthesizer