Waldorf M

[buffered]

https://waldorfmusic.com/en/m

[over9000]

Was reading this and thought nice, could be interesting
Continued reading and was impressed
Clicked on buy to see the price tag -- aaand my fascination is gone

[2latuile]

Was reading this and thought nice, could be interesting
Continued reading and was impressed
Clicked on buy to see the price tag -- aaand my fascination is gone

It ain't cheap for sure

[dubdub]

LOVE that old Waldorf sound. So unique.

I can't afford it though.

[Lost to the Void]

Was reading this and thought nice, could be interesting
Continued reading and was impressed
Clicked on buy to see the price tag -- aaand my fascination is gone

Waldorf are convinced it is the 90`s and therefore you can charge whatever fantastical price you want for pro audio because there is hardly any competition and sound people are raking it in from all the pop musics people are buying in the record shops.
I`ve heard they will start offering mortgages on their new synths.
It still blows my mind that they charge extra to unlock the sample features of the Blofeld..
It's not even like you are getting premium build quality either..
I saw the price of this and laughed.

[Ben Kohonays]

They're a bit slow off the mark with this really. I mean, I know Waldorf were THE wavetable dudes back in the day, but times have changed.

We have the Argon8, the Hydrasynth, the Modwave - and all at approx 1/3 of the price of this.

They might get away with these high prices when offering something special/different/out of the ordinary, but although this does offer more than the above mentioned competition it just doesn't seem anough for the massive price difference.

They should take a leaf out of Dreadbox's book, who just launched a 6 voice VCO synth at £599.

[Lost to the Void]

They're a bit slow off the mark with this really. I mean, I know Waldorf were THE wavetable dudes back in the day, but times have changed.

We have the Argon8, the Hydrasynth, the Modwave - and all at approx 1/3 of the price of this.

They might get away with these high prices when offering something special/different/out of the ordinary, but although this does offer more than the above mentioned competition it just doesn't seem anough for the massive price difference.

They should take a leaf out of Dreadbox's book, who just launched a 6 voice VCO synth at £599.

It is 4 voice but other than that, not very exciting. Hydra synth is better featured I would say.
For wave table I'd rather get the modwave.
Waldorf is a strange company.

[buffered]

They're a bit slow off the mark with this really. I mean, I know Waldorf were THE wavetable dudes back in the day, but times have changed.

We have the Argon8, the Hydrasynth, the Modwave - and all at approx 1/3 of the price of this.

They might get away with these high prices when offering something special/different/out of the ordinary, but although this does offer more than the above mentioned competition it just doesn't seem anough for the massive price difference.

They should take a leaf out of Dreadbox's book, who just launched a 6 voice VCO synth at £599.

It is 4 voice but other than that, not very exciting. Hydra synth is better featured I would say.
For wave table I'd rather get the modwave.
Waldorf is a strange company.

It's not so expensive. 200 more than the hydrasynth deluxe i think. This has 6 outputs and analogue filters which sound amazing. Basically two microwaves + new synth in a single box with clear large screen to see what is going on. Which is pretty handy when dealing with complex modulation.
yeh i'd rather a modwave also but i like the fact that waldorf aren't pandering to the easy sell market. They are making very high quality instruments that have a lifespan.
The enclosure dual flange construction is carried on from the Iridium and erm...Kyra which is almost kickstarting a new era for them in terms of product coherance. I like this sort of thing. They look very focussed, after some years in the wilderness.

[Lost to the Void]

They're a bit slow off the mark with this really. I mean, I know Waldorf were THE wavetable dudes back in the day, but times have changed.

We have the Argon8, the Hydrasynth, the Modwave - and all at approx 1/3 of the price of this.

They might get away with these high prices when offering something special/different/out of the ordinary, but although this does offer more than the above mentioned competition it just doesn't seem anough for the massive price difference.

They should take a leaf out of Dreadbox's book, who just launched a 6 voice VCO synth at £599.

It is 4 voice but other than that, not very exciting. Hydra synth is better featured I would say.
For wave table I'd rather get the modwave.
Waldorf is a strange company.

It's not so expensive. 200 more than the hydrasynth deluxe i think. This has 6 outputs and analogue filters which sound amazing. Basically two microwaves + new synth in a single box with clear large screen to see what is going on. Which is pretty handy when dealing with complex modulation.
yeh i'd rather a modwave also but i like the fact that waldorf aren't pandering to the easy sell market. They are making very high quality instruments that have a lifespan.
The enclosure dual flange construction is carried on from the Iridium and erm...Kyra which is almost kickstarting a new era for them in terms of product coherance. I like this sort of thing. They look very focussed, after some years in the wilderness.

They generally aren`t very high quality instruments though. Not when it comes to build quality. Their tech is great, but their build is questionable and inconsistent.

[td3l]

It is 4 voice but other than that, not very exciting. Hydra synth is better featured I would say.
For wave table I'd rather get the modwave.
Waldorf is a strange company.

Worth pointing out is that according to the manual, only 1 of the 4 parts can run the so-called "Modern" waves, meaning the remaining 3 will be constrained to 8-bit waves w/ no anti-aliasing. So that's a sharp limitation on what would otherwise be a useful 4-part multitimbral synth.

I have to agree that Waldorf is missing the plot on this one. In general I'm very keen on digital oscs paired with analogue filters and VCAs, but not at that price and for a single-mode filter. Novation is eating their lunch here w/ the Peak/Summit.

Also, the QC on the Iridium/Quantum has been abysmal and that puts me way off from spending any kind of serious $ on a contemporary Waldorf product.

[td3l]

They are making very high quality instruments that have a lifespan.

Gotta politely disagree with you here -- go read up on some of the QC horror stories on Iridium and Quantum threads.

In a particularly egregious instance, an artist I follow had their Quantum's touch screen completely fall free of its chassis, seeing as it was merely glued into place. Waldorf refused to fix it.

[Lost to the Void]

They are making very high quality instruments that have a lifespan.

Gotta politely disagree with you here -- go read up on some of the QC horror stories on Iridium and Quantum threads.

In a particularly egregious instance, an artist I follow had their Quantum's touch screen completely fall free of its chassis, seeing as it was merely glued into place. Waldorf refused to fix it.

Yeah I've heard about problems with Iridium and Quantum. Give it a year to find out what parts need changing and what falters. That's my take, by next year the consensus will come in. But yeah, Waldorf QC is pretty hit and mix.

[buffered]

They are making very high quality instruments that have a lifespan.

Gotta politely disagree with you here -- go read up on some of the QC horror stories on Iridium and Quantum threads.

In a particularly egregious instance, an artist I follow had their Quantum's touch screen completely fall free of its chassis, seeing as it was merely glued into place. Waldorf refused to fix it.

Oh shit i was wrong on that. Sorry!
Took my opinion from the old xt q units which are very solid. No mechanical fix on a touchscreen is risky in this application. Although in modern tech this is becoming more and more prevalent as enclosures are not allowing space required for fasteners. In this case though, i'd imagine ample room to standoff or snapfit. Software bugs on a complex machine like that is to be expected though.

[td3l]

And another one bites the dust

[Lost to the Void]

Knowing waldorf they will charge for a fix.

[td3l]

Well, potential long-term QA issues aside, I had to admit that the demos continuing to trickle out of the M are leaving me more and more impressed. By all reports and indication, it seems like Waldorf's devs for the M put a lot of time and energy into making it sound right rather than packing it with features. Comparisons are being made to the SQ-80, Prophet 5, etc. I might've gotten the wrong first impression of this thing.

[antiodromia]

This has 6 outputs and analogue filters which sound amazing. Basically two microwaves + new synth in a single box with clear large screen to see what is going on.

You know what's a cool name for a small but awesome wavetable synth?

The Microwave

[td3l]

Okay, I'm prepared to eat crow on my original impression/comments on the M: my curiosity got the best of me and there was a gap in my setup for a quality digital-osc synth, and I'm a sucker for digital oscs through an analogue filter/VCA chain, so I sprung for one.

This is a great synth. Unlike the Iridium (which I have not used) or the Hydrasynth (which I have used), Waldorf was plainly not trying to shove an entire kitchen sink's worth of options into the M. No FX, no mod matrix (though it's very modulation-capable), no candy-colored LED pads -- just straight forward, high quality wavetable synthesis. It's basically Waldorf's version of the Prophet 5 reissue, but for the MW1.

The classic 8-bit waves sound *great* and you can switch to "Modern" mode with just a button press. There still seems to be the limitation of multi-timbrality in Modern mode, but I'm not too worried about that since the classic mode just sounds so good.

Time will tell how good the build quality is, but it feels very solid on the outside. The pots are smooth and sturdy (much better than on some other desktop synths I've had in this price range) and the push-encoders seem solid enough. Some of the button faces are a little wobbly (as some have complained about on the Iridium), but the buttons themselves (as in the component underneath the plastic face) feel good. It seems like this one was built to last.

The price is steep, but in terms of features-per-dollar it's still light years more advanced than something like your P6/P5/OB-6 in the same price bracket, and those sell like hotcakes because they are straightforward and sound great. The M has that same sound mojo.