Waldorf

ManualsBrandsWaldorf ManualsKeys8-Voice Polyphonic Wavetable Synthesizer

Waldorf M £1,649

Bruce Aisher checks out Waldorf’s newly unveiled hybrid synth

to see if it can conjure up some of that classic wavetable magic

CONTACT WHO: Waldorf WEB: waldorfmusic.com KEY FEATURES 2 independent wavetables per voice, 96 Factory Wave-ables + 32 slots

for User Wavetables, Analogue low-pass 24 dB/Oct ﬁlter with saturation, Analogue stereo VCA for each voice, 4 Envelope Generators (two loop-able) and 2 LFOs.

Arpeggiator, 8-voice polyphony (16 voices with expansion board), 4-part multitimbral (4 parts can be assigned to 4 individual stereo outputs)

REVIEWS

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Summary of content (4 pages)

PAGE 1
FM | REVIEWS Waldorf M £1,649 Bruce Aisher checks out Waldorf’s newly unveiled hybrid synth to see if it can conjure up some of that classic wavetable magic CONTACT KEY FEATURES WHO: Waldorf WEB: waldorfmusic.com 2 independent wavetables per voice, 96 Factory Wave-ables + 32 slots for User Wavetables, Analogue low-pass 24 dB/Oct filter with saturation, Analogue stereo VCA for each voice, 4 Envelope Generators (two loop-able) and 2 LFOs.
PAGE 2
Waldorf M | Reviews THE PROS & CONS + Two wavetable playback modes – Classic and Modern Great-sounding analogue filters Compatible with Microwave I SysEx band and sound transfer - Patch management could be better Limited range of user wavetable import options compared to software No built-in (analogue or digital) effects G ermany’s Waldorf have been around since the late 1980s, rising out of the ashes of Wolfgang Palm’s famed synth company PPG.
PAGE 3
Reviews | Waldorf M THE ALTERNATIVES Modal Argon 8M £499 Modal’s Argon is an all-digital, 8-voice desktop wavetable synth with an impressive spec and free desktop editor/ librarian app. modalelectronics.com Korg Modwave £679 Korg’s Modwave is another DSP-only affair and, like the Argon, hosts up to four wavetables per voice. It has built-in effects and some very interesting modulation/ sequencing options. korg.
PAGE 4
Waldorf M | Reviews few patches. I even loaded a renamed Word file, with audible, but gnarly-sounding results. Besides the oscillators, much of a subtractive synth’s sound comes from the filter design it employs. The M uses an SSI 2144 resonant 24db/ octave for each voice. This is a recent chip based around the circuitry of the classic SSM 2044 found in a host of classic synths (including the PPG Wave 2.2 and 2.3).