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Waldorf Microwave in IOS?
Does anyone here like or use Waldorf synths? I have always liked their sound, especially in the vintage days. So, one synth I really like was the Waldorf Microwave XT. I'm wondering if any of their IOS synths sound close or similar.
Thanks
Comments
I’ve only owned a Blofeld (which I did love a lot) and I love the sound of the Microwave XT. The amount of control and modulation available on their synths is incredible.
That said, I don’t think Nave sounds exactly like anything they have, but it does have that Waldorf sound. Honestly none of the wavetable synths on iOS sound exactly like one (and I’m not sure if they’re even trying to) but Nave is probably the best bet. After that I’d say Electribe Wave from Korg has the most Waldorf sounding wavetable engine.
Thanks for your input. Do you mean the Korg Electribe Wave in hardware or IOS?
Hi had in past Blofeld, now Pulse 2 - on ios for me best is waldorf Nave
The iOS version. Synthmaster 2 and Buttersynth are amazing wavetable synths (and probably the 2 best on iOS) but as far was Waldorf sound/spirit I’d say Nave and Wave. Also just realizing they rhyme. Maybe it’s meant to be 😂
I think I’ll have to try the Nave. I have ButterSynth, but it’s not grabbing me yet.
Keep in mind Nave is IAA only. Not AUV3. Not sure if that’s a dealbreaker for you or not. Wave IS AUV3.
Oh no.. thanks for reminding me. I think I’ll pass. I only buy AUV3.
No problem! Korg usually does a half off sale in the fall/winter if you want to wait. Electribe Wave is great. As an AUV3 you only get the synth engine (which is very powerful) but standalone you get the full Groovebox capability.
Big fan of the Microwave XT here. I’ve owned a few different units over the years including a XTk.
Nave is the closet you’re going to get. It uses the same basic architecture and has all the XT wavetables. But does it sound like the XT? Sort of, but not exactly. The XT is so cold and gritty (in the best possible way). Nave is way smoother and cleaner. Nave is still one of my favorite iOS synths, shame it seems to be abandoned.
Agree with this exactly. I’ve only played the XT a couple times but owned a Blofeld (which had XT tables) and have seen countless demos. Nave is definitely the closest you can get. Korg owns, or at least distributes, Waldorfs synths now. Maybe they can convince them to come back to the iOS world, or even take over their iOS development. I mentioned earlier Electribe Wave. Imo, it’s the closest you can get to Waldorf in AU format.
I have Nave and those PPG apps. How do they compare?
+1
To the originals ? Not so much.
The PPGs are a continuation of W. Palm‘s work, but with a flawless sound engine...
Same applies to Nave, just not extending the original design as much as Palm did.
All are great synths
had XT .. fantastic synth, one of my personal 10 best HW VA synth ever made.. if there will be opportunity to buy it for good price , will do it again..
nothing on iOS comes even remotely close to it’s sound .. sorry.
regarding other walforf synths, had pulse 1 (dirty sounding fat beast), pulse 2 ( very good obe, but a bit clean/sterile when compared to pulse 1), microQ (another member of my personal top 10 hw vacleague) and blofeld (very similiar architecture than micro Q but i loved sound if micro Q way much more)
They are very unique in terms of sound…
Yes, this is the time when the hardware is non replaceable by software. I may have to hunt down a used XT.
I’d be surprised if there aren’t dumps of wavetables from these devices easily available to download or buy, and there’s plenty of synths to use them with on iOS.
Yep. Nave is the closest but every Waldorf synth has its own unique style and character. The Blofeld is the only WT I’ve had from them but I loved it. Had it for probably 5-6 years or more before selling. Also had a Streichfett and Rocket, both of which I loved as well. The Streichfett especially.
wavetable itself is just tiny fraction of overall sound… how wavetables are interpreted a eoss whole keyboard range (interpolation, oversampling), filte character, modulation inplementarions, envelope curves (how env speed of attack/decay/release is implemented - linear, exponential, logaritmic), lfo speeed (goes it into audio rate ?), for example XT has fantasric oscilltors FM modulation, etc etc …
by getting just wavetables, you get at best 10-20% of sound .. Blofeld has innit wavetables from microwave but sounds anything like microwave …
Interesting, I always meant to get a microwave when they were relatively cheap in a particular London store but never got round to it… it was the really low spec one, yellow as I recall and less than £200 for ages
yellow microwave 1 has even analog filters.. timeless synth.. look at reverb.com how they are priced now, you will cry
Yeah, I’ll save myself the grief thanks, I’ve too much of whatever the opposite of gas is on that account 😂
Definitely.
I wish I had one here to analyze 😊
promised myself when Bitcoin goes over $500k i buy all three microwaves - 1,2,xt and few another legends like Radias, nord lead 2,3, all viruses (a/b/c/ti), korg ms2000, jp8080, supernova IIr, and of course absolutely complete range of Elektron and Dreadbox products 🤣🤣🤣
The XT is a virtual analog synth... it‘s entirely software
(CPU is a Motorola 68k, just like the early Macintoshes)
that’s true but the quality of that code is pretty great .. i don’t know why is for modern VA and SW synths so complicated to achieve the quality which was present in 90’s generation of VA synths .. buy it’s just fact there is nothing which can be sonically compared to Microwave XT ..
Actually I think it was this one I was eyeballing back on Tottenham Court Road, only doubled in price according to reverb, so not that much grief 😄
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.soundonsound.com/reviews/waldorf-micro-q?amp
Plus that DSPxxxxx project seems to have a version that does the Q…
I have WaveGenerator and Infinite. So I don't have WaveMapper. And I also have Nave as well. However, I still haven't dived much into all of those, so I wanted to know more opinions
Either between them, or with references to PPG / Waldorf hardware.
The original wavetables were 8 bit, which added a significant amount of dirt and aliasing to the classic PPG and Waldorf oscillators.
Far from perfect, it‘s considered a character sound and even more: this gritty tone provides an excellent base for the analog filter following the oscillators.
(as in many „hybrid“ synths of that time, like SQ80, Oscar, Korg DW8000 etc)
The classic PPG synths were entirely new territory and (of course) suffered from low processing power. The sound was great, but digital control still was in it‘s infancy.
When Hans Zimmer wanted to use his Wave for the Batman soundtrack, he asked John Bowen to „recreate“ a more DAW friendly version because the Wave’s glitches were just too much for his work.
Waldorf had licensed their original wavetables to Creamware, and this Waldorf Osc (with a single fixed set of wavetables) became the core of countless instruments on the Scope platform, which John Bowen was using at that time.
@dendy Waldorf neither „opened“ that oscillator nor the wavetables, which are on duty for > 20 years without becoming boring.
Timewarp into IOS era... W. Palm found himself with a platform providing all he needed to overcome the flaws of the old development systems plus a great tactile interface.
And then there was WaveGenerator with a smooth anti-aliased filter and new ways to define wavetable traversals and envelopes.
WaveMapper is just a different interface approach, using the same sound engine.
Infinite continues the journey further into regions that were hard to implement before.
(W. Palm had some videos about the details)
Then he sold sold his assets to Brainworx and retired... which may seem sad, but imho he achieved all there was to achieve and his synths provide playground for decades.
Consider yourself lucky to have his devices
(it sux that Brainworx pulled them off the store, though)
Very interesting news..
A Q isn’t a Microwave in any case!