Overview
The Wave is the big Waldorf. After the Microwave proved the PPG approach could live on in a rack, Waldorf built a flagship keyboard that put the same wavetable engine under hands-on control. Wikipedia gives 1994 for its release, the year Sound On Sound reviewed it. Wikipedia puts production at around 320 units, against roughly 1,000 PPG Wave 2 units, so it’s far rarer than the PPG it follows. It came with 61 or 76 keys and in several panel colors.
Sound On Sound’s 1994 review describes a 16-voice, 8-part multitimbral synth, expandable to 48 voices. Each voice has two wavetable oscillators and a noise generator, followed by waveshapers, a mixer, and analog filters: Vintage Synth Explorer lists a 24 dB low-pass and a 12 dB high-pass. Waldorf called the method Dynamic Spectral Wavetable Synthesis, the same name it used on the Microwave. Modulation runs through a large routing system that Sound On Sound calls the Modifier Table, which pulls together LFOs, envelopes, and MIDI controllers as sources. Memory holds 256 patches and 256 performances, according to Vintage Synth Explorer. Sound On Sound noted that the Wave shipped without onboard effects, with a sequencer promised for a later operating system update, so its depth came from the oscillators and filters alone.
The Wave sits between two generations of Waldorf. Before it came the Microwave, the rack module that first carried the PPG tables; after it came the DSP-based Microwave II in 1997 and the Q virtual analog synth in 1999. The Blofeld of 2007 later combined the Q and Microwave engines in a small desktop module, which is the most direct way to hear that lineage in a current Waldorf.
How its wavetables worked
Sound On Sound lists 128 wavetables on the Wave, 64 of them factory presets, with 64 waves in each, the same table length as the PPG. Neighboring waves are related harmonically, so moving through a table gives a sweep with a steadily changing spectrum. Up to four modulation sources can move the position, and Sound On Sound reports that the Wave interpolates smoothly between waves rather than stepping, which sets it apart from the PPG’s audible jumps.
The Wave can also build a wavetable from a sample. Sound On Sound describes a wave analysis feature that takes a sampled sound and extracts a wavetable full of spectra from it, which you can then edit. That’s the same idea as WaveStack’s import of a pitched recording, where each cycle becomes a frame, though done on 1990s hardware. There’s no documented way to load a WAV wavetable into a Wave, so WaveStack can’t export to it.
For Wave-style tables, build 64-frame tables in WaveStack with gradual spectral changes from frame to frame and export for a synth that interpolates between frames, such as Iridium or Serum. The analog filters are outside WaveStack’s reach, so use the target synth’s filters for that part of the sound.
Specifications
| Wavetables | 128 (64 factory) |
|---|---|
| Waves per table | 64 |
| Voices | 16, expandable to 48 |
| Multitimbral parts | 8 |
| Filter | Analog 24 dB low-pass and 12 dB high-pass |
Things to know
- Some sources, including Vintage Synth Explorer, date it to 1993; Wikipedia gives 1994 for its release, and Sound On Sound reviewed it in July 1994.
Frequently asked questions
How is the Waldorf Wave related to the PPG Wave?
It’s the PPG idea scaled up. Waldorf was founded by PPG’s German distributor after PPG closed, and its first instrument, the Microwave, used the PPG Wave 2.3’s wavetables. The Wave took that engine into a flagship keyboard with 64-wave tables like the PPG’s, analog filters, far more voices, and a full panel of controls. Sound On Sound also reports smooth interpolation between waves, so its scans sound less steppy than a PPG’s.
Can I load my own wavetables into the Waldorf Wave?
Not from WAV files, as far as any source we found documents. The Wave has 128 wavetable slots, 64 of them factory presets, and it can create a wavetable by analyzing a sample. Sound On Sound describes that wave analysis feature, which extracts spectra from a sampled sound into a table you can then edit. WaveStack has no export route to the Wave, so for your own tables use a modern Waldorf like Iridium, which WaveStack exports to directly.
Why is the Waldorf Wave so rare?
Wikipedia puts production at around 320 units, compared with roughly 1,000 of the PPG Wave 2. It was a flagship keyboard with 61 or 76 keys and a panel covered in controls, built in small numbers by a young company. Waldorf later declared insolvency in February 2004, and the Wave has never been reissued, so the surviving units are all there is.
Did the Waldorf Wave have analog filters?
Yes. Sound On Sound’s review calls it a digital/analog hybrid, with the wavetable oscillators feeding analog filtering. Vintage Synth Explorer lists an analog 24 dB low-pass and an analog 12 dB high-pass filter. That combination, digital wavetables through analog filters, is the same layout as the PPG Wave and the original Microwave, and it’s a big part of why these instruments sound the way they do.