In his latest loopop video, synthesist Ziv Eliraz takes an in-depth look at the Waldorf Iridium synthesizer.
The Waldorf Iridium synthesizer is a new desktop synth design that shares many of the features of Waldorf’s flagship Quantum synthesizer. The Iridium offers twice the polyphony of the Quantum, but uses digital filters vs the Quantum’s analog filters.
The Waldorf Iridium is a 16-voice duo-timbral polyphonic synthesizer. Each voice features three oscillators, which can be any of five different oscillator types, dual stereo digital filters and a wide range of performance controls.
Topics covered:
0:00 Into
0:50 Disclosure jam
1:40 vs Desktop
2:35 4×4 pad matrix
4:00 Poly aftertouch
6:50 Macro buttons
8:05 Play section
8:25 Seq | Arp
8:45 Chord latch
9:25 Latch
10:10 Knobs
11:45 Mod mapping
12:20 Connectivity
13:05 vs Quantum
13:45 Price
14:10 Full tutorial?
14:50 A FEW TIPS
15:10 Templates
17:25 Osc intervals
18:35 FX mods
19:10 MIDI learn
20:00 Pros & cons
23:15 Some sounds
Check out the video and share your thoughts on the Waldorf Iridium in the comments!
I don’t care for those disclosures though..Was it a 5% discount or a 95% one?
Do you think people who buy an an instrument for full price and talk about issues or how wonderful it is on forums are really objective? And do you think they have enough experience to know what they talking about?
If Loopop would give it a really bad review that hurt sales he will probably not get a discount on future products so the disclosures are kind of meaningless, he also have a an interest to have brands cooperation. But still I think loopop have more reason to be objective than a regular buyer, and let’s face it, it’s not “black and white” I think most instruments today are pretty wonderful and people are mostly entitlement who shoot fast and have a shallow observation, I will actually suspect Youtuber who will give this kind of instruments a bad review that he is lacking in knowledge and technical experience (Stimming?/Shoebridge?) It seems from YouTube comment section most people confuse negativity with honesty.
Than again, who cares how much he paid or how much he like it/dislike it, use this kind of video to understand a little about the product, it is still an investment for a Youtuber like loopop that focused on videos and not on music and it’s not like his opinion his the indisputable word of god.
You probably know all that but If you interested use this kind of video to get to know the product but do an extensive resource of your own, RTFM, check the forums, search “Waldorf Iridium issue/problem” on google, maybe watch some videos (I usually don’t) learn about it as much as you can and try it yourself if it’s possible. Don’t FOMO, give it some months after you decide you are interested before you order it. Don’t worry it will not go anywhere.
I hope we see more of these Fatar keybeds with polyphonic aftertouch! 😀
The classic Prophet T8 had polyphonic aftertouch – I’d really like to see a modern polyphonic aftertouch keyboard from Sequential. (Their synths already accept poly pressure over MIDI, which is nice.)
I’d like to see a comparison of the polyphonic aftertouch keybeds on the Hydrasynth, Iridium, and UB-Xa (if it ever ships.)
I’m surprised that by now nobody yet made a standard keys poly-at midi keyboard. I think Beringer showed the PK61 just to scare others from making one 🙂
Most companies probably couldn’t do it much cheaper than the Hydrasynth or the Osmose, because a good poly-aftertouch keyboard requires high quality materials and construction, but would only appeal to a niche market. And I don’t think companies can just get a stock poly-aftertouch part to slap into their keyboards – Hydrasynth and Osmose were custom designs.
The Hydrasynth is a bargain for what you get, it’s like Kurzweil Kx000 keyboards were back in the day, one of the best synths available, but also an amazing controller.
This one is OEM FATAR so they actually can. Any brand that regularly use FATAR keyboards can possible make one, Like the top Novation or NI.
The hydrasynth seems pretty successful so it’s not that niche, maybe the engine parts are relatively cheap (The voice board inside is a very tiny digital processor) so excluding it will not make it seems like a good value for most.
I don’t know about “requires high quality materials” it’s only cooper sensors printed on a board underneath the keys, like a regular pad controller, this is why any midi keyboard based on pads support Poly-AT
https://imgur.com/gallery/Yt4Yq2U
I’m sure Studiologic, Arturia, and Novation will have polyAT controllers real soon.
Well, Studiologic IS Fatar, so I guess that it might be inevitable.
I was a very early adopter of both the Iridium and the Iridium Keyboard. The Fatar polytouch keyboard is something that needs to be experienced to be fully understood. I also have a Hydrasynth-49 that both in terms of form factor and use makes it impossible not to use for comparison. While the voice engines are, obviously, different, I think that they are very complimentary. However, while I find the Polytouch keyboard on the Hydrasynth quite serviceable, it is like night and day when comparing it to the Iridium’s Fatar action (very similar to the TP/8S). As a synthesizer, the Iridium is probably the most synthesist-oriented synthesizer that has been mass produced since Kurzweil introduced the K2000 thirty years ago.