It was love at first sight with the M for me. I don't know what it is. I love it's character. Warm, lo-fi (not in a "hypsterish way" more in a 90s "grungy" way), dreamy. I love its "simplicity".
Fantastic demo. It’s sold me on the synth. These presets are all the types of timbres I like to program and to see they’re available OOB is a tremendous time saver.
This was such a great video to show up on my YT Recommended tab 😄 This was a fantastic watch Tim, really nostalgic sounds and just a joy to watch. Thank you!
Beautiful Song. Reminds me of Tangerin Dream. I could hear this for hours....The M sounds absolotely great, from icecold digital to warm analog. I have an M in my collection, but unfortunately I had no time so far to get my hands on it. After this, I will do...
I see it's the tune you built up later. As a Tangerine Dream and Klaus Shulze fan, I loved this as something in a similar style. The core sounds were bang-on, of course, but so was everything else, especially when you started going more your own direction in it.
Thanx for the demo Tim. I have this Synth for a while now and I‘m really in love with it. I also have the Iridium and you can do real great wavetable sounds out of it. The M really sounds different. The analog filter is great and you can do really weired things with it in the 8 bit mode using the Acid Bug. The Envelopes are great and the additional digital filter opens lots of sound design options. Waldorf does a great job in firmware updates and they adding new interesting features (same with the Iridium). You are absolutely right….you didn’t really go for a special sound…..it is an experimental machine
You showed once again you're quite good at Berlin school music! When my PPG Wave 2.3 broke down the third time I sold it and spent most of the money on a used Waldorf M and a new Iridium Keyboard. I had considered the 3rd Wave but I found the price and taxes too high. A comparison video with the M and the PPG shows that the former can replace the latter so I have no regrets losing my beloved PPG. Before the PPG I used to own a 30 voice XTk but in my opinion the sound is inferior to the new Waldorfs and even the Blofeld.
Thanks for all the reviews Tim. One of the few on TH-cam that combine intelligent opinions and good music . I take your opinions seriously if I’m thinking of buying anything you have. I have an iridium keyboard and like the M it can sound very warm. So many ways to distort the sound in a pleasing way. Like my old XT. Keep on noodling,doodling and talking.👍
Nice track it reminds me of my childhood in the mid 1980s. I had many synths and still have far to many 😅 but the M is my favorite of them all. Yes it has it’s quirks and the analog filter is not calibrated the way I wanted. It’s the same filter like in the UDO Super 6 but the resonance sounds more pleasing on the UDO. I mostly use the digital filters, fortunately Waldorf is very good at making beautiful sounding digital filters.
Nice track Tim. A good instrument inspires and takes you in a different direction. I can hear how you’ve been on a journey with this track. The sounds are great, but not really anything that any number of my existing synths could do. I’m gonna sit on the fence with this one for now. Beautifully shot video as always tho!
Thanks for the demo! The M sounds nice but nowhere near the brachial dinosaur like raw sound quality of the Microwave with its beautiful round musical filters. Filters, ultra fast oversaturated enveloper are key in the Microwave. But even the wavetables seem to sound more direct, clear and raw
@@IzopticMusic Me too. One of the top ten synthesizers ever built! Hopefully Waldorf is able to match the MW 1 someday. As far as I know better filter chips in original Curtis quality are available now, but we’re not used in the M. Faster envelope chips could be available, too. Oversaturation can be applied, but they didn’t. Wolfgang Palm‘s original MW chip is still unmatched. I wonder why? Well , he’s a genius. That’s why.
@@IzopticMusic It is fantastic gear. There are 7 persons on the planet (2 are gone) to thank for it: - Wolfgang Palm, inventor of wavetable synthesis and creator of ASIA ES2 chip of MW1 (PPG 2.3 voice card packed in one silicon) - Andreas "Andy" Busse - Software for MW1. Passed away, but I learned from his code and converted it to use in the M and M is one post-mortum homage to his genius - Thomas Kirchner - electronics design for Microwave 1 - Frank Schneider - the oldest employee of current Waldorf Team. Electronic and mechanical design for all Waldorf synths. - Stefan Stenzel - the second software developer and response for OS 2.0 of Microwave. He created half of Wavetables, Robot talking, User Wavetables load, etc, etc. Also Microwave 2 and Blofeld, Pulse and Attack, Q and STVC - real man. - Wolfgang Dueren - founder and CEO of the Waldorf Electronics GmbH. He was a fire starter for Microwave. and last but not least - Doug Curtis (passed away) - the creator of CEM3389 IC, which is probably one of the best if not best analog VCF ever created.
@@vladimirsalnikov5806 Thank you, I really appreciate to learn these things directly from a Waldorf engineer! Waldorf is my favourite synth manufacturer. Right next to the MW1 in my rack, there is a Pulse Plus, which I also love dearly. My dream is to own a Quantum one day - sooner or later it will happen. By the way, my remark was not in any way meant to dismiss the new M. It is a beautiful synth, and I find it very reassuring to see that Waldorf is still invested in this uncompromising approach to sound synthesis. I wish you all the best at Waldorf, and I'm looking forward to the things you guys are going to build in the years to come!
Hi mate great vid. Can you tell me how you think the M stands up to the far more expensive 3rd Wave from the wavetable point of view? I know the 3rd Wave can do VA and FM etc so that would be unfair.
Risky business influence is strong on this track! Love it. I am a fairly recent convert to wavetables via the Iridium Keyboard. For me the joy is in making my own however.... I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying that sampling random bits from ASMR videos on youtube and converting them to wavetables via the "Analyze" function is the most fun I've had using samples since about 1987. Does the "M" allow you to create your own wavetables I wonder?
M allows user wavetable import with 64 frames, 256 samples per frame, in 8 bit. It's a very manual process though, it won't analyze samples and automagically build wavetables. The 3rd Wave synth will, however :)
@@quinnzender thanks for the response and the process involved. I love the sound of the M but I think the Iridium more or less does everything I want in an easier fashion.
Thanks for video. Did you record the M the same way as the 3rd Wave? I'm asking because the M sounds little brittle/shrill/resonant here. On your other video of the 3rd Wave single waveform oscillator sounds more pleasant in the upper range and overall more chunky. I was going to buy the M to add to my collection of Sequential P-6 & OB-6 desktop modules. I hope it is worth it because I don't want to spend 5K for a single synth. Thanks and keep your great work.
Excellent track, it really had something enigmatic to it, very well done (though personally I'd leave the red section as a separate track). But I'll be listening to that a few more times
Sounds great Tim I am eyeing this M up too. My conclusion and I can only go from 'demos' is compared to the Iridium *Wavetable Engine) the M has a more 'Raw' Wavetable sound? either way I like the sound of it to me sounds more PPG like than Iridium
Hi Tim, thanks for the beautiful track and presentation! One note, the reference for the M was actually Microwave 1, and it was presented in 1989 instead of 1999. The year 1999 it's an era of Microwave 2 which is, yes, pure digital. The M has mostly MW1 engine with some elements from Microwave 2. Interesting fact that almost all patches you are using were converted and derived from that time. For example, the Zen-Bass Patch even was in the factory bank of MW1 back in 1989. Very cool melody and arrangement. The next step, probably, will be to do the transitions as drums to round the picture up for this synth (M-only track) Greetings from Remagen Vladi
Tim - inspiring video. Vladi - love this synth and all the history behind it, thank you for your dedication to it. Are there any more resources on the replay transitions? I saw what you wrote when you put out the firmware release and understand basic functionality (how to load, play and loop) but would love to understand more about it. At a base level is it another form of sample play back with the warm of the analog filters and still having use of the other oscillator? Is it intended to be used to modulate the other oscillator? Each of those or other things? just want to make sure I'm not missing the magic. Thank you both!
TBH I have a load of different stands, all different sizes, some specifically for DJ's others general purpose for laptops. The ones on my desk are by reloop and gravity
Hi Tim, thank you for the amazing demo. Could you please tell, how much mod capabilities are comparable to Blofeld or maybe Iridium (from the point of wavetable synthesis)? Waldorf says, M doesn't have a dedicated mod matrix, unlike their more recent synths. Also, maybe you could shortly describe what you feel regarding the sonic character of M vs more recent synths. Is it possible to do something on M that is hard/impossible to achieve on quantum/iridium/blofeld?
Great video and track as always. On a side note, i see you have the Waldorf Pulse and Studio Electronic SE1X. Do you not find they cover similar territories? (Used to have a Pulse and loved it’s tone but was frustrated with the lack of continuous encoders on the matrix editor)
I got the SE-1X quite recently so am still evaluating. It can definitely do "that Moog sound" which the Pulse can't but I'm finding the shift button user interface of the SE-1X extremely frustrating...... 🙄
Thanks for specifying the preset names as they make their appearance. I lose interest in videos that just play through presets without revealing the names of the presets. Nice sounding demo song. Very Tangerine Dreamy!
Great track! I am so happy that you used my sound "Spike Bass" that I created for the factory library!
Thanks for the hard work you put in the process of creating great sounds/,design...👍
It was love at first sight with the M for me. I don't know what it is. I love it's character. Warm, lo-fi (not in a "hypsterish way" more in a 90s "grungy" way), dreamy.
I love its "simplicity".
Sounds great, demo track reminded me of Tangerine Dream - Love on a real train. Wicked stuff. Cheers!
Beautiful demo! I ended up ordering the 3rd Wave instead of this for the extra layers, but man this synth sounds so good. Great demo Tim!
You're going to love the 3rd wave
@@RedMeansRecording thanks Jeremy! Super pumped, your video was a big reason I finally pulled the trigger. :)
the 3rd wave looks awesome If I had the space I would have considered it. It also just gorgeous.
3rd Wave is on my GAS list 😂
@@Iofflight78 just got it today. It’s dope. Gonna be posting a video soon on my channel!
The investment in time is absolutely true with this kind of instrument
Fantastic demo. It’s sold me on the synth. These presets are all the types of timbres I like to program and to see they’re available OOB is a tremendous time saver.
Sounds glorious, thanks for the upload and thank the person for the loaner, TGD vibes for sure!!
This was such a great video to show up on my YT Recommended tab 😄
This was a fantastic watch Tim, really nostalgic sounds and just a joy to watch. Thank you!
Sounds so nice...
Beautiful Song. Reminds me of Tangerin Dream. I could hear this for hours....The M sounds absolotely great, from icecold digital to warm analog. I have an M in my collection, but unfortunately I had no time so far to get my hands on it. After this, I will do...
Grazie Tim, dai sempre ottimi consigli, il tuo brano è molto bello, 👍🎶
Very nice Tom, thanks. I agree, lovely warm sound!
What an absolutely incredible soudning synthesizer, just wow
Thanks for sharing this, as ever Waldorf sounds great, .
If there ever a time I was tempted to move on my ancient blofeld
Great vid!
Love the demo!! Thanks for sharing!
Just came into to my feed ,, I'm Diggin!! Lov the flow!!Cheers! Nice tweaking! ;-)!
this is fantastic Tim !
Lovely, Tim. Thanks :) Hope you do a full blown review of this beauty!
That opening tune: fantastic
I see it's the tune you built up later. As a Tangerine Dream and Klaus Shulze fan, I loved this as something in a similar style. The core sounds were bang-on, of course, but so was everything else, especially when you started going more your own direction in it.
Lovely teaser. Look forward to an in depth video Tim if decide to one.
Tangerine dream sounding👍
Thanx for the demo Tim. I have this Synth for a while now and I‘m really in love with it. I also have the Iridium and you can do real great wavetable sounds out of it. The M really sounds different. The analog filter is great and you can do really weired things with it in the 8 bit mode using the Acid Bug. The Envelopes are great and the additional digital filter opens lots of sound design options. Waldorf does a great job in firmware updates and they adding new interesting features (same with the Iridium). You are absolutely right….you didn’t really go for a special sound…..it is an experimental machine
How worth do you think would it be to get the 16 Vs 8 voice?
You showed once again you're quite good at Berlin school music! When my PPG Wave 2.3 broke down the third time I sold it and spent most of the money on a used Waldorf M and a new Iridium Keyboard. I had considered the 3rd Wave but I found the price and taxes too high. A comparison video with the M and the PPG shows that the former can replace the latter so I have no regrets losing my beloved PPG. Before the PPG I used to own a 30 voice XTk but in my opinion the sound is inferior to the new Waldorfs and even the Blofeld.
i compared the XT and Blofeld, XT sounds bigger definitely!, not so metallic and thin
Thanks for all the reviews Tim.
One of the few on TH-cam that combine intelligent opinions and good music .
I take your opinions seriously if I’m thinking of buying anything you have.
I have an iridium keyboard and like the M it can sound very warm. So many ways to distort the sound in a pleasing way. Like my old XT.
Keep on noodling,doodling and talking.👍
Somebody finally made an awesome demo of the M!
I've actually got the 3rd Wave, but I'm sure there is some magic in the M's analog side.
Your demos always feed the G.A.S. Nice gear for sure 🙂
Nice track it reminds me of my childhood in the mid 1980s. I had many synths and still have far to many 😅 but the M is my favorite of them all. Yes it has it’s quirks and the analog filter is not calibrated the way I wanted. It’s the same filter like in the UDO Super 6 but the resonance sounds more pleasing on the UDO. I mostly use the digital filters, fortunately Waldorf is very good at making beautiful sounding digital filters.
Nice!
That stuff sounds 👍 relaxing
Nice track Tim. A good instrument inspires and takes you in a different direction. I can hear how you’ve been on a journey with this track. The sounds are great, but not really anything that any number of my existing synths could do. I’m gonna sit on the fence with this one for now.
Beautifully shot video as always tho!
Nice demo and commentary! Absolutely love my M. It definitely rewards you if you put some time and effort into patching.
The ending part!
Tangerine M. Cool track. Nice photography.
Nice and moody! Well done, Tim.
Lovely
Thanks for the demo! The M sounds nice but nowhere near the brachial dinosaur like raw sound quality of the Microwave with its beautiful round musical filters. Filters, ultra fast oversaturated enveloper are key in the Microwave. But even the wavetables seem to sound more direct, clear and raw
I will never sell my Microwave 1 Rev A. It still keeps surprising me, still fascinates me, after all those years.
@@IzopticMusic Me too. One of the top ten synthesizers ever built! Hopefully Waldorf is able to match the MW 1 someday. As far as I know better filter chips in original Curtis quality are available now, but we’re not used in the M. Faster envelope chips could be available, too. Oversaturation can be applied, but they didn’t. Wolfgang Palm‘s original MW chip is still unmatched. I wonder why? Well , he’s a genius. That’s why.
@@IzopticMusic It is fantastic gear. There are 7 persons on the planet (2 are gone) to thank for it:
- Wolfgang Palm, inventor of wavetable synthesis and creator of ASIA ES2 chip of MW1 (PPG 2.3 voice card packed in one silicon)
- Andreas "Andy" Busse - Software for MW1. Passed away, but I learned from his code and converted it to use in the M and M is one post-mortum homage to his genius
- Thomas Kirchner - electronics design for Microwave 1
- Frank Schneider - the oldest employee of current Waldorf Team. Electronic and mechanical design for all Waldorf synths.
- Stefan Stenzel - the second software developer and response for OS 2.0 of Microwave. He created half of Wavetables, Robot talking, User Wavetables load, etc, etc. Also Microwave 2 and Blofeld, Pulse and Attack, Q and STVC - real man.
- Wolfgang Dueren - founder and CEO of the Waldorf Electronics GmbH. He was a fire starter for Microwave.
and last but not least
- Doug Curtis (passed away) - the creator of CEM3389 IC, which is probably one of the best if not best analog VCF ever created.
@@vladimirsalnikov5806 Thank you, I really appreciate to learn these things directly from a Waldorf engineer! Waldorf is my favourite synth manufacturer. Right next to the MW1 in my rack, there is a Pulse Plus, which I also love dearly. My dream is to own a Quantum one day - sooner or later it will happen. By the way, my remark was not in any way meant to dismiss the new M. It is a beautiful synth, and I find it very reassuring to see that Waldorf is still invested in this uncompromising approach to sound synthesis. I wish you all the best at Waldorf, and I'm looking forward to the things you guys are going to build in the years to come!
Orange and teal colour palette
Hi mate great vid.
Can you tell me how you think the M stands up to the far more expensive 3rd Wave from the wavetable point of view? I know the 3rd Wave can do VA and FM etc so that would be unfair.
Cool camera work!
I still own my PPG Wave 2.2.
A real beauty with a fantastic presentation. Waldorf offers amazing synths ... unfortunately out of budget. But one may dream 😉.
Risky business influence is strong on this track! Love it. I am a fairly recent convert to wavetables via the Iridium Keyboard. For me the joy is in making my own however.... I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying that sampling random bits from ASMR videos on youtube and converting them to wavetables via the "Analyze" function is the most fun I've had using samples since about 1987. Does the "M" allow you to create your own wavetables I wonder?
M allows user wavetable import with 64 frames, 256 samples per frame, in 8 bit. It's a very manual process though, it won't analyze samples and automagically build wavetables. The 3rd Wave synth will, however :)
@@quinnzender thanks for the response and the process involved. I love the sound of the M but I think the Iridium more or less does everything I want in an easier fashion.
Thanks for video. Did you record the M the same way as the 3rd Wave? I'm asking because the M sounds little brittle/shrill/resonant here. On your other video of the 3rd Wave single waveform oscillator sounds more pleasant in the upper range and overall more chunky. I was going to buy the M to add to my collection of Sequential P-6 & OB-6 desktop modules. I hope it is worth it because I don't want to spend 5K for a single synth. Thanks and keep your great work.
very cool 🙂
Excellent track, it really had something enigmatic to it, very well done (though personally I'd leave the red section as a separate track). But I'll be listening to that a few more times
Sounds great Tim I am eyeing this M up too. My conclusion and I can only go from 'demos' is compared to the Iridium *Wavetable Engine) the M has a more 'Raw' Wavetable sound? either way I like the sound of it to me sounds more PPG like than Iridium
That demo song was deep.
Hi Tim, thanks for the beautiful track and presentation! One note, the reference for the M was actually Microwave 1, and it was presented in 1989 instead of 1999. The year 1999 it's an era of Microwave 2 which is, yes, pure digital. The M has mostly MW1 engine with some elements from Microwave 2.
Interesting fact that almost all patches you are using were converted and derived from that time. For example, the Zen-Bass Patch even was in the factory bank of MW1 back in 1989.
Very cool melody and arrangement. The next step, probably, will be to do the transitions as drums to round the picture up for this synth (M-only track)
Greetings from Remagen
Vladi
Hey, I do actually say 1989 and mention the original microwave...... 🤔
@@TimShoebridge I am hearing this as "This is Waldorfs recreation of their classic synthesizer that they released, I think, back in 1999" 🙄
OK, have listened to this triple times. You are saying 1989, confirmed. Sorry :) for it
Tim - inspiring video. Vladi - love this synth and all the history behind it, thank you for your dedication to it. Are there any more resources on the replay transitions? I saw what you wrote when you put out the firmware release and understand basic functionality (how to load, play and loop) but would love to understand more about it. At a base level is it another form of sample play back with the warm of the analog filters and still having use of the other oscillator? Is it intended to be used to modulate the other oscillator? Each of those or other things? just want to make sure I'm not missing the magic. Thank you both!
Part B was just beautiful, and then it just ended. 🤔
Flesh out Part B with vocals and you may a single on your hands.
Waldorf is so cool :)
Great demo, Can you please tell us what stands you are using for the semi-vertical mounting of the various machines on your desk?
TBH I have a load of different stands, all different sizes, some specifically for DJ's others general purpose for laptops. The ones on my desk are by reloop and gravity
Hi Tim, thank you for the amazing demo.
Could you please tell, how much mod capabilities are comparable to Blofeld or maybe Iridium (from the point of wavetable synthesis)? Waldorf says, M doesn't have a dedicated mod matrix, unlike their more recent synths.
Also, maybe you could shortly describe what you feel regarding the sonic character of M vs more recent synths. Is it possible to do something on M that is hard/impossible to achieve on quantum/iridium/blofeld?
Yes. very tangerine dream ish. in the PPG period (movie soundtrack era)
Tangerine M 😉
Nice tune, very 90s
The M is coming home soon to make friends with its Grandfather XT
Great video and track as always. On a side note, i see you have the Waldorf Pulse and Studio Electronic SE1X. Do you not find they cover similar territories? (Used to have a Pulse and loved it’s tone but was frustrated with the lack of continuous encoders on the matrix editor)
I got the SE-1X quite recently so am still evaluating. It can definitely do "that Moog sound" which the Pulse can't but I'm finding the shift button user interface of the SE-1X extremely frustrating...... 🙄
How worth it do you think it would be to get the 16 voice version?
Thanks for specifying the preset names as they make their appearance. I lose interest in videos that just play through presets without revealing the names of the presets. Nice sounding demo song. Very Tangerine Dreamy!
Great track, very Pink Floyd / Tangerine Dream, in the best way
Great job! Tangerine Dream couldn't have done better 🙂
Did you use external effects?
You have to, there are no effects built into the M.
I like complex audio demos. :)
But why is his voice so thin? It's clear, it doesn't hurt the ears, but it's thin. Why?
Sounds like a Jv-1080 or a Jd880 😁
I wanted a new Microwave so much, but I can't fall in love with the M. I don't like the filter at all.
This machine is cool but I don't think it's worth the hefty price.
The problem with Waldorf is their synths are always too expensive, and they do not focus on the budget market, unless you buy a Blofeld.
Streichfett? Rocket? Pulse 2? Their plugins?
The Pulse 2 is a great analogue monkeying _ especially when paired with the Aura VST Editor.
Monosynth _ drat predictive text
Thanks for posting Tim, I've been in the market for a poly for a while and man is this a contender. Love the sounds out of it.