Waldorf today introduced Microwave 1 for iPad, an emulation of the original hardware Microwave synthesizer.
The original Microwave “defined hybrid synthesis at its best”, with its combination of wavetable synthesis with analogue filters. Now Waldorf Music brings this instrument back as a standalone iOS app, as well as in the iPadOS AUv3 plug-in format.
Waldorf says that the Waldorf Microwave 1 Plugin was “painstakingly recreated from the original hardware, with all its idiosyncrasies and wonderful singularities.”
Waldorf says that this was a multi-year effort, and that they analyzed and modeled the original instruments down to the finest sonic details of every aspect of the hardware.
Microwave 1 for iPad Intro Video:
Only the first generation of the Microwave and also the Waldorf Wave were based on a custom developed integrated circuit called the Waldorf ASIC. In combination with the legendary Curtis filter chips and a very unique 68k CPU based controller software, the ASIC defined a very special flavor of wavetable sound unparalleled. the ASIC was designed with the help of Wolfgang Palm, a pioneer of wavetable synthesis.
As the original, the app runs the internal synthesis with the sampling rate of 250 kHz, regardless of the DAW sampling rate. The recreated digital waveforms have been bit-by-bit compared with the original to be 100% identical.
Even the old-school digital-to-analogue converters of the original hardware were modeled, with their non-linearities and tone shaping color which were leading into the two Curtis filter chips variants used for the revisions A and B of the original hardware. The plug-in allows further for artificially detuning and recalibrating of the analogue components.
But the Microwave 1 iPad app goes one step further: Its modern graphical user interface reveals many aspects of the synthesis engine which were hidden before in the original hardware by its minimal interface.
Users can also now edit existing wavetables and create new ones. All the original wavetables are available, with their control structures and the full original waveform catalog.
Even the more exotic feature like tuning and velocity tables have been implemented and can be edited in the UI. All the original factory single and multi-mode sounds are contained in the app in combination with new and modern sound presets. Original MIDI and Sys-Ex dump files can be imported, so you can load patches from the original hardware. Moreover, the app can be used to control the original hardware are a graphical editor.
If you an owner of a Microwave first generation, the app allows you to take your vintage hardware virtually with you wherever you like. The Microwave 1 iPad app can also be used as a standalone app as well as in the iPadOS AUv3 plug-in format.
Microwave 1 vs Original Hardware Microwave:
Pricing and Availability:
Microwave 1 for iPad is available now for $12.99 USD.
