■Rackmount drumsynth based on virtual synthesis aimed to emulate electro percussive sounds from analog drum machines. RACKMOUNT 2 units, 2 versions: green or blue. The main panel features a backlit display, 15 buttons, 6 knobs and a classic Waldorf red rotary data encoder found on the Waldorf Microwave.
■Motorola core handles 24 voices polyphony assignable to a single sound or kits programs. Each voice is composed by 2 digital oscillators that can be set to either:
- virtual analog modeling synthesis
- PCM waves
■FM The oscillators can be ringmodulated and OSC1 is able to modulate the OSC2 by FM frequency modulation. Relative frequency amount is set by either LFO or EG.
■VIRTUAL MODELING synthesis generates 6 shapes (triangle, sinewave, square, sample&hold, noise and saw) with variable or random start phase.
TIP: Sounds can be also played chromatically using the SPECIAL TUNED CHANNEL mode (only latest OS only).
■WAVETABLE ROM contains only 3 PCM samples: 2 x hihat (open + close) and crash internal.
TIP Special XOR function avoids to play some sounds at the same time like open/close hihat.
■ENVELOPE each sound has 2 freely assignable EGs (4-segments ADSR each) + special SHAPE function switches DECAY and RELEASE values to exponential or linear mode.
Most common EG routings are :
- oscillators pitches
- amplitude
- filter cutoff
Special CRACK function creates some analog clap-like sounds: basically it simply applies a kind of configurable saw-shapped Envelope demo HEAR crack
■FILTER up to 6 resonant filter models for each sound, in addition the filter system mananages an effective cutoff KEYTRACK function from -100 to 100% range.
Filter Modes: lowpass, bandpass, highpass, notch, EQ shelving, type bell EQ and S&H type.
■LFO each sound features 2 digital modulators freely assignable (typical routings: pitch, filter, amplitude and stereo panning) and triggered by velocity, wheel or breath controller. The LFO structure features 6 shapes (sine, triangle, square, saw, noise and random chaos) relative frequency can be synched to clock at different time dividers demo HEAR LFO
■SEQUENCER the PATTERN PLAY is not really a sequencer but a kind of quick 128 steps editor with variable time dividers, shuffled playback and gated note length. Each entered note can be assigned to 3 different velocity levels displayed on the LCD.
SYNC created sequences can be synched to external MIDI clock.
■ MIDI very limited implementation: just a few controllers like breath or modulation, but latest 1.05 OS adds some extra parameters like panning, volume and fx amount- full Midi Sysex system is supported.
■ MEMORY
- 1200 kits (programs) each contains 24 assigned sounds
- 50 programs performances to manage the kits in different configurations.
TIP: Sometimes internal memory must be defragmented using the REORGANIZING FLASH option, right into the UTILITY section.