The synth can be programmed from it's own sliders/buttons, but the controller makes it so you can tweak everything much quicker and smoother. It's SUPER fun and much less tedious then the native synth menu diving.
You can also have the Roland UM-one midi interface which you can use to sync the synth to the Ableton/daw clock for arps.
The DW-8000 was Korg's second digitally controlled analog hybrid synthesizer released in 1985.
It has 8-voice polyphony and the the sound is generated by Korg's DWGS (Digital Waveform Generator System) and offers 16 digital basic and complex waveforms that can be split to 8, 4 or 1 huge monophonic voice with the 8 oscillators stacked. Additionally, the DW-8000 features an all-analog VCF and ADBSSR envelopes/