22 thoughts on “Polivoks Filter Mod For Waldorf Pulse Makes It ‘A Synth On Steroids’”

1. What’s with the sanded off part numbers on the PCB shown in the pic on the main page?

   1. photoshop

      1. Seems like more effort than it’s worth once the first customer buys the item and posts a pic of it. What would the point of using p’shop to remove the part number be?

         1. I don’t know for sure, but I looked at it closely following your comment, and I think I see artifact from the Photoshop tools. Maybe they want to protect their design, I don’t know…

            I must say I’m the guy that commented below too,”louis”. I messed up the usernames. For the sake of transparency, just sayin’ :).

2. What a completely random upgrade (in a good way)! The original Pulses are already monsters. Nice that this doesn’t remove the original filter.

3. Count me very interested. The Pulse is already a very special mono synth. The filter card sounds really really good to my ears… If we end up having CCs for all four filter parameters, I’ll definitely pay for the upgrade. Between this and the new OB6/Prophet6 firmware upgrade, my setup is getting better and better, for not too much money : always appreciated.

   1. I don’t like how this filter sound, I much prefer the stereoping version with the oscar,
      https://www.stereoping.com/pulscar/?lang=en
      Too bad it never made it to a products.

      1. This seems to be a very subjective point of view. You’re free to express it, but expect people to fell the exact opposite. I really like the behavior of the filter shown in Virtual Music the videos.The filter seems to offer a controlled mayhem. And it’s harmonically very rich. Not the -boring- filter type. That’s exactly what I need. Too bad for the Oscar mod, but then again, the Polivoks is well regarded as a cult synth design. I just ordered a Pulse + to house the new filter and I’m currently selling my Pulse on Reverb heh !

         1. Shore I respect what you said, And It’s nice to have anyway, Especially considering the random function!
            Maybe they should demo it with the OSC’s turn down more, Like 15%-20%. maybe 50% still overdrive the filter feedback/resonance too easily and make it sound very overdriven.

            I Also have both the Pulse and the Pulse+ versions but the “+” let me down a bit so I’m not using it.
            It’s CV’s is not working like I wished (jittery timing and force chromatic), Poly chain is very buggy and it’s much noisier, Maybe it’s faulty.

            Great you order it, If it will sell well maybe they will make more versions and maybe stereoping will make the oscar vcf two:)

            1. Yes I heard bad things about the CVs of the Pulse +. I’m basically buying this version only to use its audio IN with the new filter card.

               You say that your Pulse + has more noise at its output than your Pulse ? Or does it become noisy in polychain setup ?

               I’m pretty excited to test the new synth + filter, I feel like the Pulse became a new synth & a complete filter station overnight. I was already looking for this type of product (fIlters with Midi control to process anything) but I never thought I’d find one that uses the Polivoks circuitry… Pretty badass if you ask me… 😀

               1. There is something, well, “Pulsing” at about 25-45Hz -50dB => -70dB, possibly a fault with this unit only but if you have the time I will be happy to know if you hear/see something on your unit.

                  The CV is an Add on. It’s simply a two way converter they installed inside so you send to it CV that converts to MIDI and then back to CV. Strange way to do that but not the first time I notice this (Vermona DRM1 trigger inputs is somewhat the same), I guess they wanted the front LED to blink when you input analog gate but there is timing/Jitter and chromatic issues.

                  1. Ok no problem, I’ll come back here to keep you updated about the Pulse + output. Try to be notified of new messages so that you don’t miss it :). & yes I agree, it’s a strange way to implement CV. Won’t be used ^^’…

                     1. Cheers will do. It may save me some money on repair, I appreciate your help!
                        btw, It was sold to me by Moby on reverb, I don’t know if he notice this issue, He seems to did not notice it was the “plus” version 🙂

                        1. @lowlou, Did you get it? is there noise on yours?

4. Nice work, although i prefer using an external filter with my pulse pluses (mapped through cv out). No osc3-filter FM though

   1. I will be happy to have real CV/GATE input, Not the junk they made on the Plus version that’s going through the midi (jittery and force chromatic)

5. One could use a Shruthi-1/Phoenix with Polivoks filter as an external filter. Just as good.

   1. You can always do that with any synth input but it will be after the VCA and you loose the pulse VCA paning, not a biggy…

6. Hmmm, this is interesting, when someone carry where Waldorf left.

   There is also a FX slot in Waldorf Pulse 2, which Waldorf never managed to get use of …..hmm….

7. Keyboards.de, If you read this my wish for upgrading the pulse will be encoders instead of pots that pick up the parameters position. Say the first click showes the paramter status on the screen and next step will change it.
   I like the matrix control but with pots it’s a stupid design.

   1. I bet they’re reading your comment and springing into action.

      1. I really hope so, God bless