Waldorf Pulse 2: officially released (OS updated to v1.18)

[Ingonator]

Hi everyone,

it turned out today that the Waldorf Pulse 2 analog synth seems to be officially released now.


Here are links from the Waldorf website and the Waldorf Music facebook page:

http://www.waldorf-music.info/en/pulse-2-overview.html

https://www.facebook.com/WaldorfMusic

The Waldorf website also includes a few audio demos (in the player at the right border of the page).



The Pulse 2 manual (in german and english) is available now:

http://www.waldorf-music.info/en/pulse2downloads.html



------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE:

Waldorf Pulse 2 Version 1.18 available now

http://www.waldorf-music.info/pulse2downloads

Changelogs:


Changes since V 1.17

- correcting bugs in paraphonic mode
- restoring individual notes timeout
- fixing readme document
- Arpeggiator delayed start with various DAWs.
- Arpeggiator imprecise swing calculation with clock divisions
superior to 1/8.
- Oscillator 1 & 2 (PW, Saw, Tri waveforms) glitches with close
to G1 note on all shapes
- Pages refreshing bug when receiving program changes
- Paraphonic oscillators relationship with ENVA.
Improved fading system, taking in account of trigger modes.
More logical influence of env. fading on PWM rates.
- Faster distortion noise gate attack

Changes since V.1.16-2

- fixed midi dump issues

Changes since V.1.15 :

- Program change bug introduced in version 1.15 fixed
- Complete (MSB, LSB, PGM) program change message is sent
over MIDI / USB when selecting a preset from front panel
- Correcting the arp "auto-starting" bug occurring in Reason /
Live when looping patterns with arpeggiator disabled.

Changes since V1.14:
* Restoring missing sound categories (DUB, LUSH, STRG ...)
* Fixing oscillator bug (very problematic with glide)
* Fixing program change reception (now respect the MIDI Specs)
- Only "bank LSB" is interpreted, bank selection loops from bank 0 to 4
- Program change is clamped to 0 - 99 to select patches within the bank
- Bank is retained as stated and reseted on reception of "Reset All Controllers"
* Fixing major USB stack (following the sending of a patch)

Changes since V1.13:
* Pulse 2 polychain mode
* Improving envelopes / voice allocation for paraphonic modes
* Improving internal clock precision
* Fixing oscillators clicks
* Removing snappy envelopes tone
* Fixing arp synchronisation problem with some DAWs / sequencers
* LCD no longer flickers on reception of controller #7 (volume)
* Implementing breath controller
* Implementing MIDI for setting / getting global parameters
* Implementing pattern blank / random in Arp page
* Saving global parameters however the global page is left
* Fixing a critical bug in update micro-software
* Some GUI improvements

Changes since V1.12:
* Osc1/Osc2 shape selection fixes
* Amp Envelope in unison-P not going to release sometimes - fixed
* Popup message inconsistency fix
* Global/Pan controllers hidden (not accessible from global menu anymore)
* Class selection improved
* VCF Env Amount in Mod Matrix
* Panic function in Utility (using <Utility-Shift> too)
* Glide rate modulation fixed


Changes since V1.11

* Better handling of MIDI start / stop / continue events
* No freezing of interface with important MIDI streams

(using CC automation)

* Sending / receiving global parameters via sysex
* Auto-tuning of filter after new update
* Corrected edit of Unisono / paraphonic modes detune parameters
* Faster preset selection with external controller
* Master volume (volume knob) on MIDI CC 7
* Master panning on MIDI CC 10
* Preset volume (VCA volume) CC 57
* Preset panning (VCA panning) CC 59
* MIDI through cannot stuck anymore
* MIDI merger fixed when using USB
* MIDI clock is transmitted via MIDI through
* Bank / Sound CC message is filtered by TX Parameters
* Better handling of TX Arp Notes / TX Arp Clock with MIDI through
* Switching back and forth from Paraphonic / Unison modes preserve the oscillator 3 volume


Changes since V1.10

* Arp / clock troubles when sending clock with MIDI & USB
* MIDI thru can freeze the user interface
* Active sensing works with all clock modes
* Envelope attack time cannot overflow
* Envelope short attack / decay / release time are accurate
* Envelope looping modes fixed
* GUI fixes (redrawing, selection)
* MIDI clock sync / autostart of the arpeggiator
* Spurious behavior when receiving Unimplemented sys. common messages
* New modulation sources / destinations

Changes since V1.05

* Improved hardware / filter tuning
* Corrected VCA curve
* CC remapping with legacy mode working
* New modulation sources
* Sound selection saved on power down
* GUI fixes (parameter selection / editing)
* Corrected drive gain
* Reduction of scanning noise
* Preset / Bank selection fixed



Some tips for loading the OS to the Pulse 2:

- i am using Windows and the free MIDIBar utility from MIDI-OX seems to work nicely for sending the MIDI file to the Pulse 2
- For Sysex files (.syx) i am using Send SX v1.22
- update should noot be a big problem via USB but you could also try via MIDI cables (which is the safe way)
- You could try to press the SHIFT + Mod buttons while you power on the Pulse 2 which starts a special mode for receiving sysex data like the firmware/OS.

--------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE:

Hi,

i just optimized my patches (90 at the moment) for use in OS v1.10:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... update.zip

Besides a text file (.rtf format) with a list and a short description of my patches this includes following folders:

- All factory sounds with IW OS 1.10 update:
415 factory sounds with my update for OS v1.10 (other patches still at the old version)

- Bank files:
A MID + SYX file with all of my 90 patches in one bank (locations P001 to P090)

- Firmware:
MID files of OS v1.07 and OS v1.10

- Single patches:
90 single SYX files for all my patches. Those could be loaded to the desired location using a Sysex tool like e.g. Send SX (first load to the edit buffer and the use SHIFT + Store at the desired location)

- Sysex text files.
The Sysex data of the bank file as text files


Maybe i'll also try to correct the other factory sounds before an official update for all patches is offered.

If needed here are the factory sounds compatible with OS 1.07 (415 sounds):
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... 0V1.07.zip




Ingo

[Ingonator]

A) developers + sound designers:

Developers of the Pulse 2 are: Frédéric Meslin, Frank Schneider, Stefan Stenzel

There should be more than 400 presets in the Pulse 2 (around 58 from the Pulse 1) and maybe there will be more with an update soon.

Sound designers (also mentioned in the manual) of the new presets (not sure aboutthe Pulse 1 ones) with initials (used with the patch names)in brackets are:

- Stefan Stenzel (hard- + software developer and CEO, no initials)
- Jürgen Driessen (JD)
- Christian Gritzner (CG)
- Till Kopper (TEK)
- Dirk Krause (DK)
- Rob Lee (RL)
- Ingo Weidner (IW) (= me...)


B) oscillator waveshapes

The final version of the Pulse 2 contains several additional Osc waveshapes.

This is copied from page 19-21 of the manual:


The following shapes are currently available:

• PWM (only OSC 1 and OSC 2) selects the pulse waveform. This waveform produces a hollow / metallic sound. If the PWM waveform is selected, the
parameter Pulsewidth is used to change the pulsewidth of the waveform.

• SQR (only OSC 3) selects a square wave with a fixed pulsewidth of 50%.

• SAW selects the sawtooth waveform. A Sawtooth wave has all the harmonics of the fundamental frequency in descending magnitude.

• TRI selects the triangular waveform. The triangle mainly consists of the odd harmonics with very low magnitudes and sounds close to a sine wave.

• APW (only OSC 1) means "Alternate Pulse Wave". The positive effect is that you get PWM like sounds but with constant energy, at the cost of having to tolerate a subharmonic one octave below.

• UNISON M (only OSC 1) creates an unison in mono mode by using a cluster of eight pulse oscillators at once. So if you play a single note, all eight
oscillators play this note, slightly detuned to enrich the sound. Detuning (UNISON DETUNE) can be controlled with Keytrack.

• UNISON P (only OSC 1) creates an unison in polyphonic mode by using a cluster of eight pulse oscillators. If you trigger one note only, all eight oscillators will be played with the same root pitch.
If you trigger eight different notes, every oscillators plays its own pitch. Detuning (UNI-DETUNE) can be controlled with the Keytrack parameter.

• UNIAPW M (only OSC 1) creates an unison in mono mode (same as UNISON M) by using a cluster of eight APW oscillators at once.

• UNIAPW P (only OSC 1) creates an unison in polyphonic mode (same as UNISON P) by using a cluster of eight APW oscillators at once.

Keep in mind: If one of the Unison shapes is selected, the Keytrack parameter controls the detuning of the poly pulse oscillators.
w If one of the Unison modes is selected as Shape, you cannot use OSC 2 and OSC 3. Both oscillators are not accessible then.

• Para-8 (only OSC 1) creates a special paraphonic mode where all eight PWM oscillators sound with frequencies according to the held notes. So if you
play a chord with up to eight notes, that chord is played by the oscillators. In this special case, the the Keytrack parameter controls the fading of the
pulsewidth modulation. The rate also depends on Attack and Release of the amplifier envelope ENVA.

Keep in mind: If Para-8 is selected as Shape, you cannot use OSC 2 and OSC 3. Both oscillators are not accessible then.
Keep also in mind: The signal path of the Pulse 2 is mono. All eight voices need to use one VCF and one VCA.

• Para-4 (only OSC 1) ist he same as Para-8. But two oscillators per note are used. This will reduce the polyphony to four voices. You can set up pulsewidth, pitch and fade individually.
w Keep in mind: When Para-4 is selected as Shape you cannot use OSC 3. This oscillator is not accessible then.

• X3-PWM (only OSC 2) creates a PWM crossmodulation. Crossmodulation is a XOR combination of the waveshapes of OSC 2 and OSC 3 which can be used for creating very complex sounds with unharmonic frequency proportions.

• X1-PWM (only OSC 2) creates a PWM crossmodulation. Crossmodulation is a XOR combination of the waveshapes of OSC 2 and OSC 1 which can be used for creating very complex sounds with unharmonic frequency proportions.

Although Oscillator 1's or 3's square waveshape is used for crossmodulation, it does not mean that this square waveshape must be used as the source signal. Because the crossmodulation is purely internal, you can select another waveshape
for Oscillator 1 or 3 if you so desire. Please note that you can also modulate Oscillator 2's pulsewidth at any time. Additionally, you can switch
synchronization on and off independently.

• EXT (only OSC 3) switches off OSC 3 and enables the external audio input for routing its signal through the Pulse 2 synthesis path.

Please keep in mind, that an incoming signal can get to the output section only when the VCA envelope is triggered or the VCA is open. This means that the volume envelope ENV A has to be started by an MIDI note. This can be achieved
by playing on a keyboard or by activating the built-in arpeggiator.

• FB (only OSC 3) creates a feedback from the drive output back to the mixer. Depending on the filter settings this can create interesting resonance effects
that cannot be realized with the regular Resonance parameter.



C) Pulse 1 banks that are compatible with the Pulse 2:

- Stefan Trippler ("DocT"):

http://www.trippler.net/music/Download/Pulse/pulse.html
direct link for the patches:
http://www.trippler.net/music/Download/ ... Sounds.zip

- Waldorf Music (several free banks):

http://www.waldorf-music.info/en/archiv ... ounds.html


--------------------------------------------------------------

Just took a photo of the analog circuits in my Pulse 2 (my testing unit misses the CV out which will be fixed soon).

The major parts (OSCs, Noise, Filter, VCA, etc.) are printed at the board. I replaced those with red text to make them better readable.

Here is the picture (for full size either click on the link or open the picture with "open in new window):

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... ls%201.png

The Signal flow is from right to left (OSCs, Filter, VCA, Drive/Distortion).
The "Shapes" part seems to correspond to either the Drive curves or the envelopes.

Started to identify the ICs used for the analog circuits:

CPU: 1 x Freescale Coldfire MCF51JM128VLK
Filter: 3 x LM3046M BJT Transistor Array, 1 x LM13700 Dual Operational Transconductance Amplifiers with Linearizing Diodes, 2 x TL064BC Low Power J-Fet Quad Operational Ampflifier, 1 x HJ4051 High Speed CMOS 8-Channel Analog Multiplexer/Demultiplexer
VCA: 1 x LM13700 Dual Operational Transconductance Amplifiers with Linearizing Diodes, 1 x HJ4052 High Speed CMOS Differential 4-Channel Analog Multiplexer/Demultiplexer
OSCs: 3 x HJ4051 8-Channel Analog Multiplexer/Demultiplexer, 2 x HJ4053 Triple 2-Channel Analog Multiplexer/Demultiplexer, 4 x TL064BC : Low Power J-Fet Quad Operational Ampflifier, 1 x TI HC86 Quadruple 2-Input Exclusive-Or Gates
"Shapes": 1 x TL064BC : Low Power J-Fet Quad Operational Ampflifier, 2 x TL047C : Low Noise JFET Input Operational Amplifier

Besides that i did not find anything like a dedicated DSP chip (like in the Blofeld) yet.



ingo

[Ingonator]

UPDATE:
Here is a ZIP file that contains all of my current Pulse 2 MP3 demos (currently 66 single presets demos):

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... os%201.zip

Quality of the MP3 files is 320 kbps CBR at 44.1 kHz.

----------------------------------------------------------


I finished short audio demos for 59 of my patches (from currently 92 overall) for the Pulse 2.
I packed them into 6 MP3 files that each are around 7 minutes long. Those are single instances of the raw patches without any further FXs added.

Here are the MP3 demos:

Pulse 2 - IW Single preset demos 1

Pulse 2 - IW Single preset demos 2

Pulse 2 - IW Single preset demos 3

Pulse 2 - IW Single preset demos 4

Pulse 2 - IW Single preset demos 5

Pulse 2 - IW Single preset demos 6

In most of those examples aftertouch (e.g. vibrato) and/or Modwheel (e.g. Cutoff) modulation was used.

The patches are not sorted by category, they contain mixed categories.


-------------------------------------------------

I started creating some audio demos from some of my favorite patches from the other factory sound designers.

Again only raw single preset demos without additional FXs. Like in my other demos the Aftertouch and/or Modwheel was used in most examples to add additional modulations.

1.) This is a patch from Rob Lee who is a sound design genius IMO and is involved with Waldorf for some years now. He was one of the last to get the Pulse 2 so maybe he will contribute more patches in a future update (and/or in a full soundset).

Pulse 2 - Tech Stab RL

This patch does not use any VCA Drive.


2.) Another patch from Rob Lee that uses the Fuzz Drive to create a Guitar like sound:

Pulse 2 - Bad Rocker RL

3.) A third, paraphonic, patch from Rob that fakes a Delay by using the envelope loop mode (A-D mode):

Pulse 2 - Fake Delays RL

Tbh i first did not understand how this works until i noticed the loop modes.


4.) This is a patch from Stefan Stenzel (developer + CEO) which uses a resonant Bandpass filter to create a vowel like sound:

Pulse 2 - I

I have used a similar "trick" for one of my patches in my other demos.


5.) Another patch from Stefan Stenzel, this time an Arpeggiator sound. The Modwheel adds accent to the Arp steps.

Pulse 2 - Autobahn Bass


6.) This is an Acid like Arpeggiator sound from Jürgen Driessen. Aftertouch and Modwheel are used for further modulations.

Pulse 2 - Acidizer JD


7.) Last but not least one of my favorite patches from Christian Gritzner that uses the fuzz Drive to create a distorted paraphonic Organ sound:

Pulse 2 - Organics 1 CG

That demo is quite long (around 3 minutes). Again i have to mention that no additional FXs were added to this.

8.) A deep Bass sound by Jürgen Driessen:

Pulse 2 - Chorus Bass JD


-----------------------------------------------------------

factory sounds (both modified) that use only features of the Pulse 1:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... ks%201.wav
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... edited.wav

Two imported Pulse 1 patches (from the free Rob Papen bank) and two modifications of the second patch:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... 20BASS.wav
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... GTIQUE.wav
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... ed%201.wav
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/532 ... ve%201.wav




Have fun,

Ingo

[Ingonator]

Audio demos of other members/users:

1.) First official Waldorf demo video made by Jürgen Driessen:



2.) YouTube videos:





3.) audio demos from the Musikmesse 2013:

https://soundcloud.com/n2s1/messe13-wal ... impression

4.) Two videos posted at sequencer.de:

[faun2500]

Great news. If its officially released you can put demos up. I will sit here and wait. Thank you.

[milwel traamen]

Demo sounds


http://www.synthforum.nl/forums/attachm ... 1379943288

http://www.synthforum.nl/forums/attachm ... 1379943650

http://www.synthforum.nl/forums/attachm ... 1379945204

http://www.synthforum.nl/forums/attachm ... 1379945678

http://www.synthforum.nl/forums/attachm ... 1379946135

http://www.synthforum.nl/forums/attachm ... 1379947133

http://www.synthforum.nl/forums/attachm ... 1379948582

http://www.synthforum.nl/forums/attachm ... 1379948870

[Ingonator]

Great news. If its officially released you can put demos up. I will sit here and wait. Thank you.

It's nice that you allow but i'll wait for an official confirmation...

A few demos are already at the Waldorf website (see link at the OP).


Ingo

[suthnear]

Ingo - what does the cross mod sound like? I see they call it PWM cross mod and it seems to use a square derived from osc 2...

[Sequent]

Well, I'll take this as somewhat of an official confirmation...

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Pulse2/

[H.86]

[Ingonator]

Well, I'll take this as somewhat of an official confirmation...

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Pulse2/

At Thomann date is changed of October now so i guess they already sent all units they have:
http://www.thomann.de/gb/waldorf_pulse_2.htm


Ingo

[Ingonator]

Found that too today. Does not seem to be one of the Beta testers i know.


Ingo

[suthnear]

Looking at the p1's manual I see they used the same XOR approach there for cross mod so I guess it must sound very similar to the p1. The p2 has some very interesting features - Waldorf once again marches to their own beat.

[milwel traamen]

Well, I'll take this as somewhat of an official confirmation...

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Pulse2/

At Thomann date is changed of October now so i guess they already sent all units they have:
http://www.thomann.de/gb/waldorf_pulse_2.htm


Ingo

I am one of them

[Ingonator]

Developers of the Pulse 2 are: Frédéric Meslin, Frank Schneider, Stefan Stenzel

There should be more than 400 presets in the Pulse 2 (around 58 from the Pulse 1) and maybe there will be more with an update soon.

Sound designers (also mentioned in the manual) of the new presets (not sure aboutthe Pulse 1 ones) with initials (used with the patch names)in brackets are:

- Stefan Stenzel (hard- + software developer and CEO, no initials)
- Jürgen Driessen (JD)
- Christian Gritzner (CG)
- Till Kopper (TEK)
- Dirk Krause (DK)
- Rob Lee (RL)
- Ingo Weidner (IW) (= me !!)


Ingo