KORG WAVEDRUM MINI PREVIEW
Posted on Wed 13 April 2011 in entries
I’ve got to say that Korg are really on a roll at the moment! At NAMM 2011 they brought out the Kronos, which in my opinion blew all the other products out of the water (with the exception of the Dave Smith Instruments Tempest, which I also thought was REALLY cool)! And now at MusikMesse, they seem to be following a similar trend! Of course, they’ve not done anything in the same monstrous league as the mighty Kronos, but once again they have released some of (if not THE) most exciting products of the show! I thought the Monotribe was a brilliant little idea! It’s not one of those products that is going to change the scene, but it does offer something a little bit different and unique compared to what is currently on the market, and it also sounds great, which always helps! Click here to read my Korg Monotribe review.
In a similar way, the new Korg Wavedrum Mini isn’t going to be a product that becomes a staple part of every professional recording studio, but it’s a useful piece of kit, it offers something a little bit different, and it’s amazingly fun to play with… and after all, making music should be fun!
KORG WAVEDRUM MINI – INTRODUCTION
The Korg Wavedrum has already been around for a while, offering the user a kind of electronic bongo, capable of playing back a variety of different drum sounds! Korg even recently released the Wavedrum Oriental for those of you out there who want access to a drum capable of producing some classic Asian vibes. And now, the Wavedrum has been released in a new, more compact, but equally as exciting form… it’s the Korg Wavedrum Mini! It’s battery-powered and it features a built in speaker, making it ideal for portable drumming fun, but perhaps most exciting of all is the revolutionary sensor clip that it comes with that can be used to transform almost any object you choose (e.g. your foot, a table, even your face if you fancy giving yourself a slap… although not sure why you would) into an instrument! More on this later on in my blog…
KORG WAVEDRUM MINI – 100 SOUNDS, ONE MINI DRUM
The Wavedrum Mini bases itself on the original Korg Wavedrum technology, offering 100 professionally programmed sounds, which are instantly accessible and ready to play! The variety of presets included in the Wavedrum Mini ranges from acoustic-sounding drum and percussion sounds to cutting-edge synth sounds. It’s fair to say that despite only being slightly larger than your hand, this thing certainly provides an impressive amount of diversity! You can even play instruments such as bass, tuned percussion, and stringed instruments by drumming on the instruments pad, allowing you to create rhythmic and melodic performances in a way that gears itself to the strengths of the percussionist.
KORG WAVEDRUM MINI – THE PAD
Just like a real acoustic drum skin, the tone of the Korg Wavedrum Mini changes depending on where you strike the pad, and the force that you strike it with, so your performances are automatically elevated from a rigid electronic sound, to a natural dynamic sound. It's touches like this that lift the product from 'toy' status to actually being a useful professional product!
KORG WAVEDRUM MINI – THE EXCITING CLIP SENSOR!
This is definitely my favourite part of the new Korg Wavedrum Mini! I know, I know, I usually save my own opinions for the 'Summary' section of my blog but this just excited me too much! And I’m not even a drummer!
The new clip sensor comes with the Korg Wavedrum Mini, and as i mentioned in my introduction, it allows you to transform any object or surface into a playable percussion instrument! This gives you a way of creating a second sound to accompany the Wavedrum Mini’s pad, allowing you to create even more complex performances. What’s even cooler is that the sounds you create will differ drastically depending on the object or surface that you attach the clip to! This gives you the opportunity to get really creative… the more wacky you get, the less likely it is that anyone else is producing sounds like you! Check the video below at time 4:55 for inspiration… e.g. attach the clip to your foot, attach it to a can, or a table, or even another instrument!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNMoxGLrB6c
To add to the portability of the Wavedrum Mini, it also comes with a convenient strap, allowing you to attach it to your thigh and perform without a table! With a bass drum assigned to the sensor (attached to your shoe), and a snare drum assigned to the Wavedrum Mini’s pad, you’ve created a portable (very) basic kit!
KORG WAVEDRUM MINI – BUILT-IN EFFECTS
Yes, the Korg Wavedrum Mini even features built-in effects! Ten of them to be precise! These make it easy to morph the original sound into new and interesting forms. Each of the 10 high-quality multi-effects provided with the Korg Wavedrum Mini combines a variety of effects, from spatial effects such as delay, chorus, and reverb, to other types of effect including filters and pitch-shifters to really mess up and personalise the included sounds. There are even distortion effects to give your sounds an added analogue warmth characteristic, and the Wavedrum Mini makes it extremely quick and easy to apply any effect to any sound.
KORG WAVEDRUM MINI – RHYTHM PATTERNS
As well as the 100 preset sounds, the Korg Wavedrum Mini also comes with 100 rhythm patterns covering a wide range of styles. These patterns have many uses. They can be used to help the beginner with keeping time, or you can simply have fun and jam along! If you utilise the pad, the sensor clip, and the rhythm pattern, you can create a three-part performance in real time!
KORG WAVEDRUM MINI – LOOPER WITH UNLIMITED OVERDUBS
The in-built looper function allows you to record and playback your Korg Wavedrum Mini performance. Whilst it is playing back, you can then overdub and record another part to the performance over the top of the existing track… and you can do this again, and again, and again, and again, etc! This way you can create complex patterns built up of multiple mini-rhythms, all within the Wavedrum Mini itself. Please note that the total recording length is limited to 25 seconds though, so you cannot produce whole songs with this one piece of equipment alone… (unless you’re songs are less than 25 seconds!) But it is good to create little loops and ideas!
KORG WAVEDRUM MINI – PORTABLE COMPANION
The Wavedrum Mini is an excellent piece of equipment, but it is also extremely portable, and weighs just 1 kg! With it’s option of battery power (it also comes with an AC adapter), and it’s in-built speaker, the Korg Wavedrum Mini is ideal for impromptu jam sessions, or when you just get that vibe and have to start drumming! It even features a mini headphone jack and 1/4" jack output for recording.
KORG WAVEDRUM MINI – SUMMARY
This is a very exciting product, and it looks like a whole load of fun to play with! I want to get my hands on one just so I can experiment with the sensor clip and see what strange sounds I can come up with! I’m not a drummer, but I can imagine that if I owned one of these things I would be hooked! There’s not much more I can say about the Wavedrum Mini as I haven’t used it yet… but out of all the MusikMesse products that I’ve seen so far, this is definitely one that stands out…
For more information on the Korg Wavedrum Mini, click the link below: