The famous Microwave XT.... It's basically a Microwave-2, plus the addition of some 44 dedicated controller knobs & dials transmitting midi data... The unit is also upgraded from the MW2 to have a 5U rack surface area which is also tablemounting dj-mixer/plinth style, and as you can see it comes in black & orange colours... The extra rack-space compared to the Microwave-2 is required to facilitate all the extra controllers which upgrades & makes the XT a very powerful instrument with fast editing and hands on control thruought...
Well, what can you say about hese things?... One of the worlds most respected synth companies it would be fair to say, and the Microwave family is up there with the cream of digital synth's.... These MicroWave's family give everything from hard lead lines to the truly weird & wonderful - If you only have to buy ONE synth, look seriously at the Microwave range.
Spec's
- Multi Mode with 8 individual instruments
- 10 voices
- 128 multis
- 256 sounds
- 64 ROM wavetables
- 32 RAM wavetables
- 64 waves per wavetable
- 500 waves
- arpeggiator, syncable to MIDI Clock
- programmable arpeggiator rhythm pattern per sound
- 4 integrated effect units (1 Chorus available for any instrument in multi mode, 1 separate effect for each of the first 3 instruments in multi mode)
- all parameters real time controllable through MIDI continous controller
- 1 dial for page access
- 44 dials for parameter changes
- 2 buttons for parameter changes
- 1 master volume potentiometer
- 1 Play / Shift button
- 5 buttons for mode selection (3 buttons for "Sound", 1 button for "Multi", 1 button for "Global")
- 1 Standby button with alert function to assure that all edited sounds are stored
- MIDI In / Out / Thru
- 1 stereo input
- 2 stereo outputs
- 19"/5U, desktop unit and rack-mountable
Parameters Per Voice
- 2 oscillators
- oscillator synchronization
- oscillator FM, fully modulatable
- 2 wave generators
- noise generator
- ring modulator
- adjustable quality levels for aliasing, interpolation and clipping
- mixer, all levels (Wave 1, Wave 2, Noise, Ring Modulation, External In) modulatable with high resolution
- 2 multi mode filters, connected serially
- filter 1:
- low pass 12dB
- low pass 24dB
- band pass 12dB
- high pass 12dB
- sinus shaper with low pass filter 12dB
- wave shaper with low pass filter 12dB (selected wavetable determines the available shaper waves)
- Sample & Hold with low pass filter 12dB (real time sample rate reduction down to 23Hz)
- dual parallel filter with 12dB low pass and 12dB band pass, cutoff offset parameter for band pass
- 12dB low pass filter with filter FM (cutoff modulation through oscillator 2)
- filter 2:
- low pass 6dB
- high pass 6dB
- stereo amplifier, fully modulatable
- 8-time/level wave envelope with loop function, "one shot" mode, times and levels modulatable
- ADSR filter envelope, each phase modulatable separately
- ADSR amplifier envelope, each phase modulatable separately
- 4-time/level free envelope, bipolar, one shot mode, times and levels modulatable
- all envelopes work with separate trigger- and voice-modes, either monophonic or polyphonic:
- single trigger with zero return
- single trigger with return to last level
- retrigger with zero return
- retrigger with return to last level
- dual mode (two voices per note)
- unisono (all free voices at once)
- two LFOs, each with different shapes, syncable to MIDI clock, LFO 2 can be synced to LFO 1
- modulation matrix with 16 slots, all sources and destinations of the MicroWave and the Pulse plus new connections
- 4 freely usable modifiers with several operators and algorithms
Physical Controller knobs & dials
Oscillator 1 - Octave (with clicks)
- Semitone (with clicks)
- Detune
- FM Amount
Oscillator 2
- Octave (with clicks)
- Semitone (with clicks)
- Detune
- Sync (button)
Waves 1 / 2
Wave 1
Wave 2
Mix
- Wave 1
- Ringmod
- Wave 2
- Noise
Filter
- Cutoff
- Resonance
- Type (with clicks)
- Keytrack
- Env. Amount
- Env. Velocity
Amplifier
LFO 1
- Speed
- Shape (with clicks)
LFO 2
- Speed
- Shape (with clicks)
Mod Amount
Glide
Envelopes - (8 multi purpose dials)
- Wave Env 1-4
- Time 1
- Level 1
- Time 2
- Level 2
- Time 3
- Level 3
- Time 4
- Level 4
- Wave Env 5-8
- Time 5
- Level 5
- Time 6
- Level 6
- Time 7
- Level 7
- Time 8
- Level 8
- Free Env
- Time 1
- Level 1
- Time 2
- Level 2
- Time 3
- Sustain
- Release
- Rel. Level
- Filter / Amplifier
- Attack
- Decay
- Sustain
- Release
- Attack
- Decay
- Sustain
- Release
Other Microwave II/XT OS features:
- Adjustable Aliasing: "listen to aliasing distortion just like in the dawn of the first digital musical instruments like the PPG Wave or the first Microwave."
- Adjustable Time Quantization: "sometimes one might wish to add additional harshness to the lower end, just like the first microwave did, and this is what Time Quantization is for: The wave interpolation is overridden in five steps to get this extra fizziness."
- 2 Clipping Modes:
- Saturate - "This is the kind of distortion classic analog circuits will generate."
- Overflow - "The polarity of the signal's part above the maximum level will be negated."
- Random Patch Generator added (OS 1.303)
- Oscillator FM added (OS 1.307) - Osc1 is Carrier and Osc2 Modulator
- Arpeggiator Notes can be sent to MIDI out. (OS 1.500) - Adjustable globally in Sound Mode or by Instrument in Multi Mode.
Well... all I can say is... I wish I had one... Comments please...
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