Product Reviews by KVR Members

So I am an old Waldorf user who foolishly sold his Q years ago and has regretted it ever since. The software title is on Clearance in many Guitar Center's in the US now and I couldn't resist the $50.00 price tag so I bought one up.

I'm frankly a little frustrated that I've waited so long to get that Waldorf sound back in my kit. The Wavetable options are stunning and add so much character to this synth. You get five total Osc's (Two subs) and a pair of genuine Waldorf filters that sound every bit as good as my old Q. If you're in the market for a VA that sounds like the seventies, go elsewhere... the market is saturated with those and Waldorf isn't interested. This synth cuts through anything with its clean, bright presence. A little Drive on the filter sends you into teeth clenching euphoria and the Bass Boost button on the filter brings warmth, depth and meat to all of that sci-fi goodness.

Being an old school programmer with little use for presets I love the 16 option Mod Matrix. You can adjust every parameter with any parameter here for the amazing sonic possibilities. It is quite possible to program this synth into complete silence... which you might not want to do but it's cool that you can!

Now, the negatives: The LFO timing knobs are very fiddly. They offer a ton of options and odd-ball timings, which may contribute to their sensitivity but it literally takes a minute to find the time you want and get the knob to rest there. This is also true of the Delay times in the effects section. Simply giving me the ability to type the number I want in these fields would solve this. It's an annoyance, for sure. I'm not a preset guy, at all, so I don't really care about the browser, but as many others have said, it's ridiculously bad. The naming conventions for their sounds are more creative than necessary and leave very little to go on. It's just a random slog through an endless series of presets looking for something that doesn't sound like FM bells. Also, if you ARE in to presets you're likely to think that the Waldorf isn't much of a synth. The presets do it's amazing power no justice whatsoever. Flipping through presets on this guy is like taking a drive in a Ferrari with grandma at the wheel.

Overall, the GUI is intuitive and makes a lot of sense. I can't help but think the Waldorf developers spent a couple of precious minutes with the Virus interface before going into development, but that's not really such a bad thing. The sound is everything I had hoped for with the real legacy of the brilliantly unique Waldorf edge front and center on this synth. The Wavetables give a little taste of the Microwave XT (and could have gone a lot further and made me happy) and the filters are amazing!

At $250 it's a good value. At $50 US it is a stupid deal and frankly, there is no excuse for ANYONE to not have this edgy little monster in the virtual rack.