A Legend Returns

35 years ago we released our 1st instrument, the Microwave... Its vibrate and distinctive sound transported the early wavetable sounds of the 80s into the rising electronic dance music of the following decade. Massive bass lines, enigmatic wavetable modulations, brutal attacks and pads smooth as silk have inspired generations of musicians. The Microwave defined hybrid synthesis at its best with its unique interpretation of wavetable synthesis combined with analogue filters. Now we bring this magical instrument back to your digital workstation: Microwave 1 Plug-in.

Massive bass lines, enigmatic wavetable modulations, brutal attacks and pads smooth as silk have inspired generations of musicians. The Microwave defined hybrid synthesis at its best with its unique interpretation of wavetable synthesis combined with analogue filters. The Waldorf Microwave 1 Plug-in was painstakingly recreated from the original hardware with all its distinctive features and singularities. This multi-year project was a labour of love. Waldorf analysed and modelled the original instruments down to the finest sonic details of every aspect of the hardware. Its unique sound was based on proprietary digital and analogue designs long before the following generations of DSP-based instruments were conceived.

Only the 1st 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 flavour of wavetable sound unparalleled to none. No one else than the inventor of Wavetable Synthesis of the eighties, Wolfgang Palm, helped to design this unique chip. Waldorf took a huge effort to analyze and recreate this integrated circuit within the plug-in.

Digital Section (ASIC)

Internally running with 250 kHz sampling rate to match original ASIC sampling rate
Modeling of digital-to-analog converters for each voice (DAC)
Two oscillators based on same wavetable per multi instrument
Unique digital noise generator based on ASIC technology
Digital mixer of oscillators and noise based on original ASIC including overflow bug
Faithful recreation of non-interpolated pitch generation

Wavetables

All original wavetables of Microwave 1 based on the original coding and bit-identical to original
Including algorithmic and speech wavetables
Faithful recreation of 8-bit quantization and aliasing
Easy to use wavetable editor based on internal control tables
Full waveform catalogue of original instrument can be accessed
User waveform editor

Filter

Faithful modeling of revision A and B analogue filters
Voice individual calibration of cutoff and resonance to model detuned hardware
Cutoff and resonance modulations
Frequency response graphic animated by live modulations

Amplifier

Modeling of voltage controlled analogue amplifiers and panning section
Faithful recreation of control voltage DACs including stepping effects

Modulators

Recreation of unique envelope and LFO timings based of original 68k code
Modeling of beautiful micro variations in timings due to limitations of the original hardware
Filter envelope with ADSR and additional delay parameter
Volume envelope with ADSR
All filter and volume envelope timings and levels can be modulated
Unique 8 stage wave envelope with variable key-off point and looping
Wave envelope levels and timings can be modulated
Attack-Decay envelope for LFO1 with additional delay
2 LFOs with various waveforms, symmetry and humanize parameters
LFOs can be phase shifted to each other
LFO1 with global option, rate & level modulation

Non-Standard Tunings

4 user tunings can be individually edited
Will be stored into user presets

Multi-Mode

Up to 8 instruments which can be layered and split or any combination of both
Split by key zone and velocity range
Multi instrument mixer with volume, panning, detuning, transpose and many more parameters
Individual tuning per instrument possible
Huge catalogue of all original multi sounds

Polyphony

8 voice polyphony like the original hardware
Dynamic assignment of the voices to the multi instruments

Presets

All factory single and multi presets included
5 additional original sound sets
2 new sound sets from contemporary sound designers
Can import original .mid and .syx files with preset dumps including user tables and wavetables
User presets store all additional data like user wavetables and tuning & velocity tables

Hardware Control

Plug-in can be used to control original hard in single mode via MIDI interface
Control optionally in live mode where each control is transferred automatically

Extras

Configurable spectrum analyzer
Resizable graphical user interface

What's new in Version 2.0

Additional voice cards (increasing original polyphony from 8 to 32 while keeping micro timing and variations)
Multi modes like Round Robin and Random Robin
Polyphonic Arpeggiator for each instrument part
Global Arpeggiator including round robin modes
Creative delay effect including diffusion and pitch shifting
A completely redesigned preset browser with favourites and direct instrument part loading (also in v1.3.0)
Multi-level Undo / Redo for parameter editing (also in v1.3.0)
Simultaneous editing of multiple instrument parts (also in v1.3.0)
New presets from renowned mixer, engineer and producer Chuck Zwicky (also in v1.3.0)

Features

Rebuilt digital noise, with all its wonderful artifacts
In addition to user wavetables, also user waveforms can be created
All the original wavetables are available with their control structures and the full original waveform catalogue
Modelled old-school digital-to-analogue converters of the original hardware with their non-linearities
Additional randomization modes make wavetable editing fun and sonically surprising
Quick layering of single sounds to create the most complex and exciting sonic structures
Graphical representations of the wavetables, envelopes and filter response curves
Sophisticated functions, such as tuning and velocity tables, have been implemented and can be modified within the UI
Ultra high sampling rate of 250 kHz, regardless of the DAW sampling rate
Recreated digital waveforms have been bit-by-bit compared with the original to be 100% identical
Artificial detuning and recalibration of the analogue components included
GUI reveals many aspects of the synthesis engine which were hidden in the original hardware
The user can now easily edit existing wavetables and create new ones

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