From: Christopher List Date: 27 Jul 95 15:47:00 EDT Subject: Re: WALDORF MICROWAVE: need your opinion/comments... Well the computers are down here at work this afternoon, and I've got some time to kill, so I'll give the long story... Posted to AH to give other bored regulars something to read today... Quick Microwave Specs - 8 voices. Two wave-table oscillators and one noise source feeding self-resonant analog LP filter on each voice. Modulation sources (routable to almost any parameter): 2 LFO's "Filter" DADSR "Volume" DADSR "Wavetable" Envelope - this is a time/level/time/level/time/level/time loopable envelope Midi Mod wheel (Controller 1) Midi Breath (Controller 9? 8? - I forget) Midi Pan (10?) 4 other user-assigned midi controllers (wish there were more) Midi clock (v2.0) Note: this architecture is one where the filter is ALWAYS modulated (at a depth of 0 - 127) by the filter envelope, but the filter envelope can also modulate other stuff... Standard Memory: 64 Wavetables - v1.3, 96(?I think) in v2.0 64 Patches 64 "Multi-Mode" setups - Not a lot, but it's easy to do Sysex dumps Stereo Outs and 4 mono-outs Impressions: My copy of the manual is very strange (I got the thing used and this is what came with it). It doesn't have any pictures just things that say stuff like "<< Fig. 3-4.1 ; Mod. Rout. >>" where the pictures are supposed to be - so the machine always had a certain mystique to it for me. The LCD is very small and so the names for things like the wavetables aren't too descriptive - I did a lot of learning through experimentation. One of my biggest problems with it is that a lot of the wavetables sound very similar and patches which scan the wavetables also sound kind of similar. I was very happy with a lot of the waves in the v2.0 upgrade - they weren't as "metallic" as the earlier ones. You can create your own wave tables, but as far as I know the only way to do this is with an MSDOS program that they send you with VERY shallow documentation. I've never used "C Synth" - but from what I've heard the Waldorf program is similar - you create waves using time dependent functions (ie. Amplitude(n) = Sin(t) - Cos(Amplitude(n-1)) kind of things...) you pass the program a description of a function - it chugs away and spits out a sysex file that you upload into the uWave memory using your favorite sequencer or midi-dumper software. As far as I know, there's no way to convert say a .wav format file into a uWave wavetable. If anyone wants to comment on this or tell me "You fool - this is the greatest thing in the world when you sit down and figure out how to use it!" - I might get motivated enough to learn more about it. My experience with stuff like this, though, is that the resulting waves either sound like something you've already got or sound like noise. Other things; 1. You can get them new from Waldorf - but they're expensive. - I don't know where else you'll find one. I just kept checking the Wanted Ads and calling the Dealers 'til I found one. I paid $900 a couple years ago - I think that's about average for used - and that was from Rogue here in NYC. 2. The only "Official Waldorf service center" is Music Tek in CA and they are, IMHO, jerks. 3. Some parts are discontinued and must be ordered from Germany. 4. The company is on the net and VERY friendly and supportive of their users. (by now you've probably guessed that I've had problems with mine!) 5. The oscillators can EASILY be overdriven into the digital distortion realm which sounds ugly unless you clap the filter down on them hard. It took me a while to get the sounds I wanted from it for this reason. The oscillators each have mix volumes from 0 - 7 and having both of them set to 4 can be enough to cause clipping. 6. Running just the filters with the oscillators off makes for great bass sounds. Note that resonance can be set from 0 - 127 and starts self-ocillating at around 70! 7. Very good for crazy hardcore machine-like sounds that don't sound like a lot of other synths. 8. Programming it is a pain in the ass without a software editor (I don't have one) or something like a Peavey PC1600. - The PC 1600 adds <> of value because it makes it "real-time-twiddle-able" - I only wish it responded to more than 6 controllers (4 + breath and Mod.) 9. Good at analog-esque sounds when programmed carefully. 10. Try to get one with v2.0 - it's definitely better. If you find one without it, try using that fact to lower the price - then get the upgrade from Waldorf for $80. - Hope this helps.... -Topher -- End -- Date: Fri, 28 Jul 1995 12:17:54 +0200 From: heja@neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de (Herbert Janssen) To: analogue@hyperreal.com Subject: Re: WALDORF MICROWAVE: need your opinion/comments... Hi, here's an addendum/counterpoint to what Christopher List wrote about his uWave experiences. [lots of useful tech specs deleted] > Stereo Outs and 4 mono-outs Mine has also 4 inserts between the oscs and filters as a mod - VERY nice. (high res phaser between oscs and filter..) > My copy of the manual is very strange [...] Must be an early copy of the manual. Mine is OK. If you want I can send you a copy. It doesn't discuss the V2.0 firmware though, only a little addendum sheet which is ... not so nice. > You can create your own wave tables, but as far as I know the only way to do > this is with an MSDOS program that they send you with VERY shallow > documentation. This command line stuff is boring. Some ed/libs support the wavetable editing though - I'm using Sounddiver and it works well. > My experience with stuff like this, though, is that the resulting waves > either sound like something you've already got or sound like noise. The wavetables tend to have a grainy quality (they're 8(9) bit/61(64) cycles after all) but you can do some neat stuff like morphing between waveforms/spectra. I agree that wavetable scanning via envelope or LFO almost always has this certain recognizable sound. Only way to avoid it is to have many interpolating entries in a wavetable (which limits the complexity of course). > 5. The oscillators can EASILY be overdriven into the digital distortion realm > which sounds ugly unless you clap the filter down on them hard. It took me a > while to get the sounds I wanted from it for this reason. The oscillators each > have mix volumes from 0 - 7 and having both of them set to 4 can be enough to > cause clipping. But hey, the distortion is analogue. What you set is the level of the digital osc output which can overdrive the filter. For sawtooth waves it is very nice to modulate the output level with velocity - tends to give a more energized sound. I like it a lot. It sounds really ugly for all those waves/wavetables with high level higher harmonics - scanning such a table with distortion adds switching-like noises. > 8. Programming it is a pain in the ass without a software editor (I don't have > one) or something like a Peavey PC1600. - The PC 1600 adds <> of value > because it makes it "real-time-twiddle-able" - I only wish it responded to more > than 6 controllers (4 + breath and Mod.) Yes, I think the UI is the foremost drawback of the machine. I set up my PC-1600 to edit some of the more important params (osc freq, cutoff, res, ADSR) via sysex, but it does not help for the (very important, IMO) mod-routings since it would be very uncomfortable to set them via sliders. Also too many params to edit ;-) > 10. Try to get one with v2.0 - it's definitely better. If you find one without > it, try using that fact to lower the price - then get the upgrade from Waldorf > for $80. Absolutely, go for 2.0! Let me add a few points: - The oscs have a grainy sound with lots of aliasing/quantisation artifacts especially at low frequencies. If this is good or bad depends on your taste. - The uWave "cuts through the mix" it layers very well with softer sound sources and a chorus does make the sound richer but not too diffuse (compared to other synths). - The modulation matrix is the best thing I have ever seen in a synth (OK I don't know the big Oberheim synths. - It does not have ROM presets. - Having said that the sounds on the Walddorf ftp server are very nice. Converted PPG stuff, some basics and the absolutely heavy "Hein Horn" soundbank. Helped me a lot in getting started with programming. - Get a RAM card for additional patch space if you want to get into programming. - This is a *great* synth. Nothing like it, very recognizable, in a way limited but extremely flexible and very good in the range of things it *can* do. ciao Herbert -- End --