Waldorf Music
Waldorf Music AG was a German synthesizer company. Waldorf is best known for its Microwave wavetable synthesizer and Q virtual analogue synthesizer lines. On 5 February 2004, Waldorf Music AG declared insolvency at a German court. In Summer 2006 a new company Waldorf Music GmbH (GmbH = limited) was formed officially.[1] The new companies' Management board: Joachim Flor (former director of sales), Stefan Stenzel (former director of research and development). The new company is not a legal successor for the old Waldorf company.
History
The company was founded in 1988 by Wolfgang Düren. Before this Wolfgang Düren was the German distributor of PPG. The name of this company refers to the German town Waldorf (near to the former capital of West Germany: Bonn) where the company was founded. The company was headquartered in Schloss Ahrenthal.
Personnel
- Wolfgang Düren, Managing Director
In alphabetic order:
- Christian Bacaj (software, iOS development)
- Holger Bahr (administration, network infrastructure and business software)
- Ralf Bächle
- Andy Busse (software R&D in the early days of Waldorf)
- Jürgen Fornoff (software)
- Wolfram Franke, developer
- Florian Gypser, production & quality management
- Axel Hartmann, industrial design and corporate identity
- Chris Mercer
- Frédéric Meslin (software, hardware)
- Niels Moseley (software, hardware)
- Martin Neideck, central buying & organisation
- Frank Schneider, production manager
- Holger "Tsching" Steinbrink, Product Manager
- Stefan Stenzel, R&D Director
- and some freelancers working in and outside the castle:
- Claudius Brüse (product manager and manual of the WAVE)
- Albert Huitsing (software)
- Jörg Hüttner, (product support)
- Thomas Kircher (circuit design)
- Michael Marans (WAVE Manual Production and Design)
- Oliver Rockstedt (Writer, Microwave 2 Manual)
- Wolfgang Palm, designer of original PPG technology and the resulting "Waldorf ASIC" used in the Microwave and Wave synthesizers. Not an employee of Waldorf Music!
- Joachim Flor, sales
- Jay Metarri (notable user)
Products
1989
- Microwave. Rack wavetable synth and developed from the PPG Wave.[3] Built in two different hardware revisions: the first ones had a backlit LCD. The later ones a lit character display. They use a different Curtis CEM analog lowpass filter chips. Later called Microwave I due to the 1997 introduced Microwave II
1990
1991
- Microwave Waveslave. 1 HE voice extension for the original Microwave (adding another 8 voices)[5]
1993
- WAVE. A wavetable synthesizer. This was a deluxe extrapolation of Microwave technology, with additional features for wavetable creation and resynthesis that even today is not available on any other synthesizer. Available in 4 colours. 61 or 76 keys. 16, 32, or 48 voices and expandable to 120.[6] Retail price in 1994 was $9000.00 with less than 200 made. The WAVE was used by for example Depeche Mode, Hans Zimmer and The Orb.
- 4-pole. Table top analog filter box.[7]
- EQ-27. Compact (table top) programmable and MIDI controllable stereo 7 band equalizer.[8]
1994
- Microwave I V2.0 ROM upgrade, which added additional wavetables,[9] a facility to algorithmically create custom wavetables, a speech synthesizer, and numerous other improvements. The Waveslave was not compatible with this upgrade, but a trade-in program was offered where the user could upgrade to a full Microwave for a small fee.
- A limited edition Mean Green Machine was released at the same time as this upgrade, being a Microwave with a new "Nextel" rubberized finish in a green color, a certificate of authenticity, special cone-shaped metal feet, and comical silkscreening (the power switch was labeled Life, and the card slot was labeled Food.) Normal Microwave units from then on featured the Nextel finish in the usual blue color.
1995
1997
- Gekko Arpeggiator. Very compact passive powered Midi tool[13]
- Microwave II. Motorola DSP driven wavetable rack synth, containing many features of the original Microwave with improved mixing, modulation, effects processing, and multimode filter.[14]
- Pulse+. Monophonic analog rack synth with additional audio in and MIDI / CV/gate interface[15]
1998
- x-pole. Programmable stereo (in/out) analog filter in a 2HE rack module. With full MIDI, CV/Gate and ACM support.
- Microwave XT. Microwave II with 44 knobs and audio input, in 5HE package with bright orange color.[16]
- Microwave XT Limited Edition. Microwave XT in charcoal gray/black color scheme, in a limited edition run of 666 units.
- d-pole. VST filter plug-in[17][18]
- Terratec Microwave PC. Synth module for the TerraTec EWS sound cards, featuring a fully functional Microwave II in a drivebay package.
- Wavetable Oscillator for Creamware Modular
1999
- Q. DSP driven virtual analog synth. 58 knobs! Colours: bright yellow "sahara" and WAVE blue, the latter became popularly known as the Halloween edition.[19][20][21]
- XTk. The Microwave XT with a 49 key keyboard[22]
- Q rack. Rack version of the Q synth.[23] Fewer knobs. Yellow and dark blue.
2000
|
|
- PPG 2.V VST plug-in synthesizer to emulate the blue PPG. wave 2.x wavetable synthesizers[24][25]
- microQ. Even more compact and affordable Q rack with only 7 knobs and different DSP. Differences: 25 potential voices compared to the original models,[26] due to shared operation and effects chip. A 75 voice expansion is available. The upgrade must be done by Waldorf or licensed repair center. Typical usage depended upon complexity of patches, unlike the Q or Q Rack which feature 16 note polyphony, upgradable to 32 voices. The microQ did not include the step sequencer.[27]
2001
2002
2003
2004
- On 5 February Waldorf Music AG declared insolvency at a German court.
2006
- In April 2006 Waldorf Music was reformed. Even though during August of that same year the website experienced intermittent availability resulting in multiple pronouncements of its demise, in November the Waldorf user mailing list/forum was resurrected.
- No new products were announced.
2007
- Blofeld (released December 2007)
- At the start of 2007, Waldorf announces their new line of synths and electric pianos. These include special editions of their famed Q, Q+ and Micro Q line relabled as the Phoenix Edition and the introduction of brand new synths the Blofeld and the Stromberg. This is also the first time that Waldorf have ventured away from synths and produced an Electric Piano with the new Zarenbourg.
2009
- Blofeld Keyboard (released January 2009) - The Blofeld Keyboard is a Blofeld housed in a compact metal case and features a four-octave semi-weighted keyboard and 60MB sample memory in addition to the Blofeld module.
- License SL - Blofeld License SL Sample Upgrade, is a software license that expands the Waldorf Blofeld desktop module with 60 MByte sample memory
- Largo - a software synthesizer that works as a VST and AudioUnit instrument.[32]
2010
- PPG Wave 3.V (released December 2010) - a software version of the PPG Wave keyboards that works as a VST and AudioUnit instrument.[33]
2011
- Lector - a software vocoder that works as a VST and AudioUnit plugin.
2013
2014
2015
2016
- kb37 Eurorack - a eurorack based modular synthesis system that contains a 37 key keyboard with a mounting surface for modules up to 107 hp.[43]
- mod1 - a eurorack based analog synthesis module that offers three types of modulation parameters.[44]
- dvca1 - a eurorack based analog dual VCA circuit with input summing and parallel control of separate parameters.[45]
- cmp1 - a eurorack based analog compressor module that offers both RMS and peak modes of operation.[46]
2017
- vcf1 - a eurorack based analog multimode filter module with distortion.[47]
only distributed
- Emes Studio Monitors
done for Steinberg
- SMP 24 (for Atari ST)
- SMP II (for Atari ST)
- Midex+ (for Atari ST)
- Topaz (Harddisk recording, Mr. Wolfgang Palm was involved too)
References
- ↑ http://www.waldorf-music.info/en/
- ↑ https://www.docdroid.net/5H1Magm/waldorf-staff.pdf.html
- ↑ "Waldorf Wave". Sound On Sound. July 1994. Archived from the original on 15 September 2014.
- ↑ http://till-kopper.de/midibay.html
- ↑ http://till-kopper.de/waveslave.html
- ↑ http://unofficial.waldorf-wave.de
- ↑ http://till-kopper.de/4pole.html
- ↑ http://till-kopper.de/eq27.html
- ↑ "Waldorf Microwave 2.0". Sound On Sound. August 1995. Archived from the original on 7 June 2015.
- ↑ "Waldorf Gekko". Sound On Sound. April 1996. Archived from the original on 7 June 2015.
- ↑ http://www.till-kopper.de/hohner_adam.html
- ↑ "Waldorf Pulse". Sound On Sound. February 1996. Archived from the original on 7 June 2015.
- ↑ http://waldorf.synth.net/gekko.html
- ↑ "Waldorf Microwave II". Sound On Sound. July 1997. Archived from the original on 6 June 2015.
- ↑ "Waldorf Pulse Plus". Sound On Sound. February 1997. Archived from the original on 6 June 2015.
- ↑ "Waldorf Microwave XT". Sound On Sound. October 1998. Archived from the original on 6 June 2015.
- ↑ http://www.waldorfmusic.de/en/archive/d-pole.html
- ↑ "Waldorf D-Pole Filter". Sound On Sound. November 1998. Archived from the original on 9 April 2015.
- ↑ http://waldorfmusic.de/en/products/q_keyboard
- ↑ "Waldorf Q". Sound On Sound. May 1999. Archived from the original on 8 June 2015.
- ↑ "Waldorf Q". Sound On Sound. December 1999. Archived from the original on 9 June 2015.
- ↑ "Waldorf Microwave XTK". Sound On Sound. March 2000. Archived from the original on 14 September 2014.
- ↑ "Waldorf Q". Sound On Sound. June 2000. Archived from the original on 8 June 2015.
- ↑ http://waldorfmusic.de/en/products/ppg_wave
- ↑ "Waldorf PPG Wave 2.V". Sound On Sound. September 2000. Archived from the original on 9 June 2015.
- ↑ "Waldorf Micro Q". Sound On Sound. February 2001. Archived from the original on 2 January 2016.
- ↑ http://waldorfmusic.de/en/products/micro_q_rack
- ↑ http://waldorfmusic.de/en/products/attack
- ↑ "Waldorf Attack". Sound On Sound. February 2002. Archived from the original on 9 June 2015.
- ↑ http://waldorfmusic.de/en/products/q_plus
- ↑ http://waldorf.synth.net/afb.html
- ↑ "Waldorf Largo". Sound On Sound. November 2009. Archived from the original on 9 June 2015.
- ↑ "Waldorf PPG Wave 3.V". Sound On Sound. April 2011. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015.
- ↑ "Rocket Synthesizer". Waldorf Music GmbH.
- ↑ "Waldorf Rocket". Sound On Sound. July 2013. Archived from the original on 6 June 2015.
- ↑ "Nave advanced wavetable synthesizer Overview". Waldorf Music GmbH.
- ↑ "Pulse 2 analog synthesizer Overview". Waldorf Music GmbH.
- ↑ "Waldorf Pulse 2". Sound On Sound. February 2014. Archived from the original on 6 June 2015.
- ↑ "2-Pole analog filter Overview". Waldorf Music GmbH.
- ↑ "Streichfett string synthesizer Overview". Waldorf Music GmbH.
- ↑ "Waldorf Streichfett". Sound On Sound. December 2014. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
- ↑ "nw1 overview". Waldorf Music GmbH.
- ↑ "kb37 keybed specifications". Waldorf Music GmbH.
- ↑ "mod1 specifications". Waldorf Music GmbH.
- ↑ "dvca1 specifications". Waldorf Music GmbH.
- ↑ "cmp1 specifications". Waldorf Music GmbH.
- ↑ "vcf1 specifications". Waldorf Music GmbH.
Further reading
- "Waldorf Microwave II". Future Music. No. 59. Future Publishing. August 1997. p. 32. ISSN 0967-0378. OCLC 1032779031.
- "Waldorf Pulse". Future Music. No. 41. Future Publishing. March 1996. ISSN 0967-0378. OCLC 1032779031.
- "Waldorf Microwave XT". Future Music. No. 77. Future Publishing. December 1998. ISSN 0967-0378. OCLC 1032779031.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Waldorf Synthesizers. |
- Homepage of the newly founded Waldorf Music GmbH
- Newly founded Waldorf Music's mailing list
- Waldorf User FAQs (faq.waldorfian.info)
- Archive containing manuals as PDF files, as well as all public OS versions of their products.
- Stefan Stenzel Interview NAMM Oral History Library (2011)