Waldorf MicroWave as a plugin?

[Erik_Lucas]

I realize the dust hasn't even settled on the Microwave 1 plugin. But who would be up for a plugin version of the Kyra "VA" synth from Waldorf? I always thought Kyra sounded good. But it's quite large and I think many of my current plugins can cover similar ground. However, a Kyra plugin would still be cool, IMO.

Pretty sure you cannot have a Kyra 1:1 as it uses FPGA processing.

There is nothing particularly different with how FPGAs process instructions. The real hurdle is that the Kyra was a dud, and there are plenty of great plugins that can make similar sounds. Just buy Dune 3.

Besides the upsampling, right?

[SouledOut]

Do you have an issue with Nave's preset browser whereby the presets listed in the right column will not scroll properly? It's like the browser won't let me scroll past however many presets will fit in the vertical height of that right column. Whenever I try to scroll down to see more presets, the list of presets "snaps back" to last preset selected. (I know that might be hard to visualize. I will post a screenshot of the behavior if need be.) So I basically just need to use the preset increment/decrement buttons to audition presets.

I'm using a 14" M1 Max MacBook Pro running macOS Sonoma, btw.

No, I have no issue, the "patch" column in the browser works fine, meaning I can scroll, click wherever and the selected preset appears on bottom. I tested this for quite a while, but boy, did they fix this well this time. But I am on Windows and I updated to 1.18 version just today. Mac versions are still 2 years old and on 1.17 as can be seen on their server.

I mean I have no issue NOW, because on previous version the preset browser was hanging like insane, making the instrument unreliable and unusable.

I don't see the point of buying the Microwave 1 if while having Nave already, well, maybe to steer the original hardware synth that I actually own But whatever suits you. I love the Nave's sound and I'm an arpeggiator junkie.

Thanks for your feedback. Hopefully Waldorf will release v 1.18 for the Mac before long.

Well, after some more testing I got to say the graphics lag bug still occur even in v 1.18. It does not make the Nave plugin hang totally and become irresponsive as before, but it does make the graphic lag bad, including the preset menus. Can be reproduced by using Wave editor, esp. switching from wave 1 to 2 or vice versa and then trying to go back to Env view. Sigh.

[osiris]

No mono? I heard this complaint elsewhere.

[martiu]

Do you have an issue with Nave's preset browser whereby the presets listed in the right column will not scroll properly? It's like the browser won't let me scroll past however many presets will fit in the vertical height of that right column. Whenever I try to scroll down to see more presets, the list of presets "snaps back" to last preset selected. (I know that might be hard to visualize. I will post a screenshot of the behavior if need be.) So I basically just need to use the preset increment/decrement buttons to audition presets.

I'm using a 14" M1 Max MacBook Pro running macOS Sonoma, btw.

No, I have no issue, the "patch" column in the browser works fine, meaning I can scroll, click wherever and the selected preset appears on bottom. I tested this for quite a while, but boy, did they fix this well this time. But I am on Windows and I updated to 1.18 version just today. Mac versions are still 2 years old and on 1.17 as can be seen on their server.

I mean I have no issue NOW, because on previous version the preset browser was hanging like insane, making the instrument unreliable and unusable.

I don't see the point of buying the Microwave 1 if while having Nave already, well, maybe to steer the original hardware synth that I actually own But whatever suits you. I love the Nave's sound and I'm an arpeggiator junkie.

Thanks for your feedback. Hopefully Waldorf will release v 1.18 for the Mac before long.

Well, after some more testing I got to say the graphics lag bug still occur even in v 1.18. It does not make the Nave plugin hang totally and become irresponsive as before, but it does make the graphic lag bad, including the preset menus. Can be reproduced by using Wave editor, esp. switching from wave 1 to 2 or vice versa and then trying to go back to Env view. Sigh.

this is too bad, it has potential, raw interesting sound

[Dumpster Fire]

ohhh surprised, never heard of this synth, was it used by some known artists, ambient cds etc?

are there sysex to download?

The Microwave is an absolute classic. It hasn't been used on as many records as something like the Prophet 5 or Jupiter 8. But it's still a revered synth.

There are a number of free patch banks available on the Waldorf site. Here's the link to download them:

https://downloads.waldorfmusic.com/clou ... fT63P9nxMK

I would recommend using the MIDI (.mid) versions of these bank files as there seem to be more of them than in the SysEx (.syx) folder.

There are also third-party commercial patch banks. I suspect there will be a lot more now that the Microwave is available as a plugin.

[Dumpster Fire]

I realize I'm stating the obvious here. But one less-than-ideal solution to the lack of a patch browser in the Microwave 1 plugin is to use the preset management system in your DAW. For instance, the "Media Bay" in Cubase is actually quite advanced and is arguably a better content manager than the browsers built into most plugins. There is support for lots of metadata tags.

Of course, that would mean saving each of the nearly 400 patches (6 banks times 64 patches per bank) that come with the Microwave 1 plugin individually, applying tags, etc. That's a lot of work. And I would have to do it for every third-party Microwave 1 patch bank that I might purchase in the future. I'm not that much of a glutton for punishment.

The only reason this occurred to me is that I had spent nearly 40 minutes programming a really intricate patch in Nave and it crashed Cubase when I went to save the patch. Argh! Fortunately I was able to load a backup version of my Cubase project and all but the last few Nave edits were retained. So I was able to save my patch as a .vstpreset.

At least for Nave, that's how I plan to proceed in the future given how buggy the plugin still is after all of these years. I wish Waldorf would pull it together.

[DrGonzo]

I realize I'm stating the obvious here. But one less-than-ideal solution to the lack of a patch browser in the Microwave 1 plugin is to use the preset management system in your DAW. For instance, the "Media Bay" in Cubase is actually quite advanced and is arguably a better content manager than the browsers built into most plugins. There is support for lots of metadata tags.

Or alternatively, use something like Komplete Kontrol. That way you can use the presets you tagged up in any DAW.

[Dumpster Fire]

I realize I'm stating the obvious here. But one less-than-ideal solution to the lack of a patch browser in the Microwave 1 plugin is to use the preset management system in your DAW. For instance, the "Media Bay" in Cubase is actually quite advanced and is arguably a better content manager than the browsers built into most plugins. There is support for lots of metadata tags.

Or alternatively, use something like Komplete Kontrol. That way you can use the presets you tagged up in any DAW.

That's a good suggestion. However, I'm a little leary of investing any more in the Native Instruments ecosystem, at least until I see how everything shakes out. NI haven't been able to update any of their plugins to include resizable interfaces (except the browser in Kontakt 7 and Massive X which was resizable from the start). That doesn't inspire a lot of confidence (in me at least) that NI will be able to maintain Komplete Kontrol over the long haul.

But you're right. Converting Microwave 1 patches to Komplete Kontrol presets would be a way to keep the patches "portable" across different DAWs.

[zerocrossing]

For some reason the LFO does nothing for me. LFO1 or LFO2. It must be user error, as I have tried this on 2 DAWs and same issue.

I go wave 1 modulation under Oc1 and turn the Mod 1 knob to the right, the source is set as LFO1. And...nothing. I try every shape every speed, and I still get nothing. Velocity mod works fine. LFO2 does not work. It's odd. Anyone else dealing with this, or am I just doing something wrong here?

Ah... that's easy to fix. You have to set the other LFO value (control) to Maximum (or Mod Wheel if you prefer). There is an LFO slot under that you don't have to deal with the controller of the LFO. But yeah an easy fix. I had problem with it as well. It's actually a cool feature.

Similar to how the M worked, which was quite confusing at first.

[DrGonzo]

I realize I'm stating the obvious here. But one less-than-ideal solution to the lack of a patch browser in the Microwave 1 plugin is to use the preset management system in your DAW. For instance, the "Media Bay" in Cubase is actually quite advanced and is arguably a better content manager than the browsers built into most plugins. There is support for lots of metadata tags.

Or alternatively, use something like Komplete Kontrol. That way you can use the presets you tagged up in any DAW.

That's a good suggestion. However, I'm a little leary of investing any more in the Native Instruments ecosystem, at least until I see how everything shakes out. NI haven't been able to update any of their plugins to include resizable interfaces (except the browser in Kontakt 7 and Massive X which was resizable from the start). That doesn't inspire a lot of confidence (in me at least) that NI will be able to maintain Komplete Kontrol over the long haul.

But you're right. Converting Microwave 1 patches to Komplete Kontrol presets would be a way to keep the patches "portable" across different DAWs.

Yeah, I completely agree. With all the things that is going on with Native I feel anything can happen with them at the moment. Yet - a 3rd party wrapper / plugin for tagging presets is probably the best route to go if you see yourself changing DAW or working with more than one. If you feel you will stay with Cubase for the next ten years, Media Bay is not bad at all.

[DrGonzo]

For some reason the LFO does nothing for me. LFO1 or LFO2. It must be user error, as I have tried this on 2 DAWs and same issue.

I go wave 1 modulation under Oc1 and turn the Mod 1 knob to the right, the source is set as LFO1. And...nothing. I try every shape every speed, and I still get nothing. Velocity mod works fine. LFO2 does not work. It's odd. Anyone else dealing with this, or am I just doing something wrong here?

Ah... that's easy to fix. You have to set the other LFO value (control) to Maximum (or Mod Wheel if you prefer). There is an LFO slot under that you don't have to deal with the controller of the LFO. But yeah an easy fix. I had problem with it as well. It's actually a cool feature.

Similar to how the M worked, which was quite confusing at first.

Same with u-he Repro and Hive. But that's not activated by default (thankfully) you have to set that up in the modulation slot.

[martiu]

what do you mean by lack of patch browser? it has a browser for banks and presets, it even creates user bank on first saved user preset

[beely]

I realize I'm stating the obvious here. But one less-than-ideal solution to the lack of a patch browser in the Microwave 1 plugin is to use the preset management system in your DAW.

Yep, I do this somewhat routinely for third-party plugins for Logic, as I can search and organise patches in a consistent manner, do patch changes via MIDI etc. Here's the Waldorf microwave1 presets I saved out as aupresets for Logic:

https://www.logicprohelp.com/forums/top ... ent=918665

Of course, that would mean saving each of the nearly 800 patches that come with the Microwave 1 plugin individually, applying tags, etc. That's a lot of work.

I've saved out over a quarter of a million presets for third-party plugins so far... (!)

[muki]

I've saved out over a quarter of a million presets for third-party plugins so far... (!)

wow!
super thanks !!!

[muki]

speaking of the waldorf preset collection....:

i cannot get the set "mueller.mid" from "other_sounds" to import
and there was another of those waldorf soundsets that gave me an error upon importing

anybody else ? why ?

"franke" and "heinhorn" do work without problems...

and,
is it possible to organize the soundsets in subfoldes ?
like (for example):
factory > others > franke

i've tried it by organizing the folders in the finder - but it didn't work...