Q. How do I transfer SysEx files to my Korg Wavestation synth?

By Martin Walker

Korg's landmark Wavestation synth, as seen in the original review from SOS August 1990.
I bought some CDs of new sound banks for my Korg Wavestation off Ebay recently, only to find that most of them are in SysEx format rather than MIDI files. I've loaded sounds into my synths from MIDI files before using Cubase, but I don't know how to do it with a SysEx file. Can you help?

SOS Forum Post

PC music specialist Martin Walker replies: All you need is a small utility to download these SysEx files into your Wavestation. I use MIDI-OX (www.midiox.com) on my PC, which is a multi-purpose MIDI utility and SysEx librarian. Similar shareware or freeware utilities are available for the Mac, including Snoize's SysEx Librarian for Mac OS X (www.snoize.com/sysexlibrarian) and SysEx for OS 9 (http://members.cox.net/sgrace9/sysex/index.html). A quick Google search will turn up several alternatives for either platform.

I'd also suggest that you read my Korg Wavestation Tips article from SOS June 2002 for more details, because the Wavestation can be a little tricky to download SysEx to, as the files are so large in comparison with most other synths of the period.


Published September 2004