Microwave technology has proven itself at its best thanks to its unique interpretation of waveform synthesis combined with analog filters.
Now Waldorf Music is bringing this magical instrument back to digital workstations worldwide with the release of the Microwave 1 plug-in.
Thirty-five years ago, Waldorf Music released its first instrument, the Microwave, which captured the hearts of leading musicians and producers of the 1990s. Its vibrant and distinctive sound carried the early wavetable sounds of the 1980s into the burgeoning electronic dance music of the following decade. Massive baselines, enigmatic waveform modulations, brutal attacks, and silky-smooth pads inspired generations of musicians. The Microwave’s unique interpretation of wavetable synthesis combined with analog filters defined hybrid synthesis at its best.
Now is the perfect time to bring this magical instrument back to the digital workstations of producers and musicians worldwide in software form. The Waldorf Microwave 1 plug-in has been painstakingly recreated from the original hardware, complete with all its unique features and remarkable capabilities.
New version 2.0 Features marked in blue
Faithful recreation of Waldorf’s first generation Microwave Synthesizer based on the famous Waldorf ASIC chip (Application Specific Integrated Circuit).
Digital Section (ASIC)
- Internally running with 250 kHz sampling rate to match original ASIC sampling rate.
- Modeling of digital-to-analog converters for each voice (DAC).
- Two oscillators based on same wavetable per multi instrument.
- Unique digital noise generator based on ASIC technology.
- Digital mixer of oscillators and noise based on original ASIC including overflow bug.
- Faithful recreation of non-interpolated pitch generation.
Wavetables
- All original wavetables of Microwave 1 based on the original coding and bit-identical to original.
- Including algorithmic and speech wavetables.
- Faithful recreation of 8-bit quantization and aliasing.
- Easy to use wavetable editor based on internal control tables.
- Full waveform catalog of original instrument can be accessed.
- User waveform editor.
Filter
- Faithful modeling of revision A and B analogue filters.
- Voice individual calibration of cutoff and resonance to model detuned hardware.
- Cutoff and resonance modulations.
- Frequency response graphic animated by live modulations
Amplifier
- Modeling of voltage controlled analogue amplifiers and panning section.
- Faithful recreation of control voltage DACs including stepping effects.
Modulators
- Recreation of unique envelope and LFO timings based on original 68k code.
- Modeling of beautiful micro variations in timings due to limitations of the original hardware.
- Filter envelope with ADSR and additional delay parameter.
- Volume envelope with ADSR.
- All filter and volume envelope timings and levels can be modulated.
- Unique 8 stage wave envelope with variable key-off point and looping.
- Wave envelope levels and timings can be modulated.
- Attack-Decay envelope for LFO1 with additional delay.
- 2 LFOs with various waveforms, symmetry and humanize parameters.
- LFOs can be phase shifted to each other.
- LFO1 with global option, rate & level modulation.
Non-Standard Tunings
- 4 user tunings can be individually edited.
- Will be stored into user presets.
Multi-Mode
- Up to 8 instruments which can be layered and split or any combination of both.
- Split by key zone and velocity range.
- Multi instrument mixer with volume, panning, detuning, transpose and many more parameters.
- Individual tuning per instrument possible,
- Huge catalog of all original multi sounds.
•New modes for triggering parts in Round Robin and Random Robin orders.
•Simultaneous editing of multiple instrument parts in absolute or relative mode.
Polyphony
- 8 voice polyphony like the original hardware.
- Dynamic assignment of the voices to the multi instruments.
•Up to 3 additional voices cards with 8 voices each increasing total polyphony to 32.
Polyphonic Arpeggiators
•Advanced Polyphonic Arpeggiator for each instrument part.
•Global Arpeggiator including round robin modes.
•Animated piano roll for arpeggiator output.
Effects
•Creative delay effect including filter, tremolo, EQ, diffusion and pitch shifting.
Presets
- All factory single and multi presets included.
- 5 additional original sound sets.
•4 new sound sets from contemporary sound designers. - Can import original .mid and .syx files with preset dumps including user tables and wavetables.
- User presets store all additional data like user wavetables and tuning & velocity tables.
•Preset browser with favorites, search and direct instrument part loading.
Hardware Control
- Plug-in can be used to control original hard in single mode via MIDI interface,
- Control optionally in live mode where each control is transferred automatically.
Extras
- Configurable spectrum analyzer.
- Resizable graphical user interface.
•Multi-level Undo / Redo for parameter editing.
- You must have the latest version of TEAM R2R System installed
- After installation, register using WM_Waldorf.r2rwm
