The Wavedrum Editor

A spreadsheet based sound editor for the Korg Wavedrum WD-X and Wavedrum Oriental
V 1.0
2012 Ingo Debus

What can it do for you

Both the Wavedrum WD-X (I call it Wavedrum Silver) and the Wavedrum Oriental are marvellous
instruments. They only have one severe drawback: because of the very limited user interface it is
quite complicated to edit one's own sounds. There's just a few push-buttons and LEDs, one encoder
knob and a three-digit seven-segment available for editing the 54 parameters a wavedrum sounds is
made of. 16 of these parameters even are algorithm-dependent, this means they have complete
different meanings (and ranges) depending on which algorithms are chosen.
In the past, there have been computer editors to make the job of creating synthesizer sounds easier.
Usually the computer was connected to the instrument via MIDI, and sound information was
exchanged by so-called MIDI system-exclusive messages. Unfortunately the Wavedrum doesn't
have any MIDI or USB jacks, so connecting a computer directly to access sound data is not
possible.
However, the Wavedrum does have a digital interface probably not many owners are aware of.
Inside the instrument, on the main circuit board, there is MicroSD card holder containing a
MicroSD card. Among many other things, the 100 user sounds and 100 factory sounds (150/150 on
the Oriental) are stored on that card. The user sound bank and the factory sound bank are stored in
one file each, which can be read and written to on any computer that has a SD or MicroSD card
reader.
The sound editor described here can read the parameters of all 200 (Silver) rsp. 300 (Oriental)
sounds from the MicroSD card. The names of the parameters, even of the algorithm-dependent
ones, are displayed in full text. Where parameter values are not numerical they are displayed in full
text too. You can pick a sound from the user or the factory sound bank and change its parameter
values. This can be done by clicking on arrow buttons to increase or decrease the value, or by
entering a new numerical value. The new sound that was created this way can then be stored in one
slot of the user sound bank, overwriting the sound that previously resided there. Finally, if the edits
weren't done in parallel on the Wavedrum itself, a file can be created that replaces the file
containing the user sound bank on the MicroSD card.
Even if one does not want to open the Wavedrum and fiddle with the MicroSD card this editor can
be of some use. The factory sounds are already in there. It can help you to organize your own
sounds (remember, the Wavedrum does not display sound names), and it can also be used to
exchange sounds between Wavedrum owners.

Hardware requirements
The Wavedrum editor basically is nothing more than a spreadsheet in Open Office Calc format, so
all you need is a computer capable of running spreadsheet programs. If you want to make use of the
Wavedrum's Micro SD card you need a card reader of course.
I created the editor using Apache Open Office 3.4.0 which can be downloaded for free here:
http://www.openoffice.org/
The editor might run on other spreadsheet programs that can read .ods format; however, since it
uses macros there can be compatibility problems. For instance, as far as I know, the macro
languages of Open Office Calc and Microsoft Excel are not compatible.

How to start
Everyone who is into Wavedrum sound programming should read WaveDrummer's excellent
writeup first. At the end of this thread there's a link where a pdf version can be downloaded.

The Wavedrum editor contains macros. When you launch it, Open Office will ask you if you want
macros to be enabled or disabled, or will disable the macros right away depending on your macro
security level setting. In the latter case you can either lower the macro security level setting to
medium, or add the folder where you have put the .ods file to the trusted file locations list. Both
can be done via the Preferences menu: go to OpenOffice.org->Security and click on the macro
security button.
To avoid the trouble of maintaining two versions, one for the Silver and one for the Oriental
Wavedrum, I decided to support both models with one editor version. This means, first you have to
tell the editor which Wavedrum model you're using. Open the spreadsheet, go to the sheet Model
and select the Wavedrum model:

If you own both models, it's probably best to make a copy of the .ods file and use one copy for each
Wavedrum.
If on your Wavedrum no sound ever has been altered, in other words, the user and the factory sound
bank contain the same sounds, then you're ready to go now. You can move on to the next chapter.
However, if there already are edited sounds in your Wavedrum's user sound bank, you may want to
import these into the editor. Of course you can enter all the parameters manually, but especially if
there are many altered sounds it's probably much easier to read these from the MicroSD card.
To access the MicroSD card inside the Wavedrum, one has to remove the drum head and the cover
of the pressure sensor. It's described in the owner's manual how to remove the drum head (see page
28). Then just two more screws need to be unscrewed to remove the pressure sensor cover. The SD
card holder is on the on the left side of the circuit board covered by a piece of sticky tape. Remove
that tape, slide the metal cover of the card holder to the right and you can remove the card.

I strongly recommend against writing to the original MicroSD card of the Wavedrum. Better make a
copy of the card and keep the original MicroSD card as a backup. I successfully cloned the
MicroSD card on my Macintosh computer without any problems. The Mac creates lots of additional
hidden files on external media, but the Wavedrum doesn't seem to bother with these. It's a 1 GB
MicroSD card, and these are very cheap these days. Probably you need an SD-to-MicroSD-adaptor
anyway, and MicroSD cards are often sold with such an adaptor included.
There are two files that are of interest here. The file PRE_PROG.BIN (Silver Wavedrum, on the
Oriental it's called PRE_PROG.BOR) contains the factory sound bank while the file
WD2_PROG.BIN (WD2_PROG.BOR on the Oriental) contains the user sound bank.
Unfortunately these are binary files, so we can't open them with Open Office directly. They can be
opened with a hex editor however. There are tons of hex editors, on the Mac I had good success
with 0xED, available for free here:
http://www.suavetech.com/0xed/0xed.html
Load the WD2_PROG file into the hex editor, select all (Ctrl/Cmd-A) and copy (Ctrl/Cmd-C). If
the hex editor supports copy&paste at all, you can now paste directly into the spreadsheet. Go to
sheet HexString, select cell B8 if you're using a Silver Wavedrum or select cell B9 for the
Oriental Wavedrum. Then paste (Ctrl/Cmd-V). Finally click on the Import sound bank button to
import the user sound bank into the editor.

Note that here the hex editor generated an uninterrupted string of hex digits. However many hex
editors separate bytes by space characters, so the content of cell B8 or B9 looks like this:
00 00 00 01 00 36 00 38 00 64 00 00 00 1D 00 32 ...
It doesn't matter which format your hex editor generates, it is converted automatically.
If for whatever reason you want to replace the factory sounds with other sounds too, you can do this
also. Paste the hex string to the cell B3 (Silver) or B4 (Oriental) then.

An overview of all your Wavedrum sounds

On sheet View all Sounds you find a rather large table of all user and factory sounds with all their
parameters.

Scroll further down to view the factory sounds, these are marked with a P in the first column.
Although this sheet is primarily meant to display the sounds and their parameters, in column C you
can also enter your own sound names here. Note that sound names aren't stored at all in the
Wavedrum itself.

View a single Wavedrum sound

To examine the parameters of a single Wavedrum sound the View all Sounds sheet probably isn't
the best way. Have a look at the sheet View Single Sound instead:

With the two arrow buttons next to Preset Number in cell A27 you can select the sound you want
to be displayed. Use the two radio buttons User and Factory to select the bank which the sound
is taken from.
Note that non-numerical parameter values like Algorithm, PCM, Pre EQ and Reverb Type are
shown in plain text also. Moreover, the names of the algorithm-dependent parameters are shown
correctly (cells A14...A21 and F14...F21).
Do not enter any values in this sheet! To modify sounds, use the sheet Edit Sound described in the
next chapter.

Edit your own sounds

The sheet Edit Sound looks similar to the one described in the previous chapter, but some controls
are added.

Here a pair of arrow buttons is associated with each parameter to increase or decrease its value.
Alternatively, you can also enter the numeric parameter values in the cells in columns B, F, K and
O. Note that, unlike on the Wavedrum itself, the eight algorithm-dependent parameters are not set to
default values when you change the algorithm. Finally, you can enter a name for the sound in cell
B1.
Think of this sheet as an edit buffer. You are editing a working copy. When creating a new sound,
usually you start with an existing one. Choose one you want to start with from the factory or the
user sound bank selecting it with the arrow buttons in cell D27, next to Source Preset. You can
also enter the sound number in cell B27 directly. Use the radio buttons User and Factory to
select the sound bank. Note that these controls work in parallel with the corresponding ones on
sheet View Single Sound, if you change them on one sheet, those on the other sheet will follow
automatically. Once you have selected a sound you want to start with, click the button Copy from
Sound Bank. Caution, this overwrites all edits done on this sheet without warning!
Once you're happy with the sound you have created this way, you can store it in an arbitrary
location in the user sound bank. Choose the location number with the arrow buttons in cell D28,
next to Destination Preset. You can also enter the sound number in cell B28 directly. The name of
the sound that resides in this location up to now is shown on the right side of the arrow buttons, in
cell E28. Click on Copy to User Sound Bank to overwrite this sound with the one you just have
created.
Clicking this button has a side effect: the user sound bank is written in hex format to the clipboard.
If you want, you can open an empty file in a hex editor and paste. The size of the file generated this
way should be 10800 bytes for the Silver Wavedrum and 16200 for the Oriental Wavedrum. Save
the file as WD2_PROG.BIN (Silver Wavedrum) or WD2_PROG.BOR (Oriental). You can then
copy this file to the MicroSD card of your Wavedrum to update your user sound bank.
Back to editing. You probably have noticed that every parameter value appears three times on this
sheet. For instance, the head algorithm appears in cell B4, C4 and D4. The leftmost cell, B4 in this
case, contains the numerical value. You can enter numbers manually in columns B, F, K and O. The

arrow buttons affect these cells directly.

The values in these columns can get out of range. For this reason there are cells with range-limited
copies next to it, in columns C, G, L and P. If you enter an illegal value in cell B4 (0 for instance),
cell C4 will show the closest value that is inside the allowed range. The number in cell B4 will be
displayed in red italics then. The value of these range-limited cells are written to the WD2_PROG
file.
Finally there are columns E, I, N and R, showing the parameters in text form, if applicable.

Compatibility of the Wavedrum Silver and the Wavedrum Oriental

The sounds of the Silver Wavedrum and the Oriental are compatible, of course the Oriental has a
wider range of algorithm and PCM numbers. So the editor can be used to exchange sounds between
the two models. However, there is a thing that needs to be taken care of: the head and rim PCM
numbers in double-size algorithms. In double-size algorithms, neither of these are editable on the
Wavedrum, however, their values do seem to be important. On the Silver Wavedrum these numbers
range from 101 to 110; on the Oriental they range from 151 to 169. The numbering is
straightforward, for algorithm 27 (conga) the PCM numbers are 101 (Silver) or 151 (Oriental), for
algorithm 28 they are 102/152 and so on. I tried to load an Oriental sound with double-size
algorithm into my Silver Wavedrum, with PCM numbers above 150. When powering up the
Wavedrum, the display shows E99; and when I tried to play that sound the Wavedrum simply quit
working.
On sheet Edit Sound the editor takes care of this problem. When a double size algorithm is
selected the range limiting (see previous chapter) guarantees that the PCM numbers are always set
to their correct values. However, if you click the Copy to User Sound Bank, the parameter values
(range-limited of course) are copied into the sound bank. If you change the model on the Model
sheet later, no further sanity checks are done. That's why I recommend users who own both models
to keep their editors separated.

Thank you!
I'd like to thank all the people from the Korg Wavedrum forum, namely WaterDrum, for the
inspiration, suggestions and nagging me to get this thing completed ;-). Thank you guys, without
you I wouldn't even know that there's a MicroSD card inside the Wavedrum! And of course thanks
to Korg for these wonderful instruments.
As you probably have noticed, this is an open source project. There are no hidden formulae or the
like. If anyone wants to rearrange or extend things, go ahead! If you feel that you have improved the
editor, please share your work with us. I'm always open for suggestions, too.