Waldorf Microwave XT

Easy and fast user interface. There is functions in menus that still me open manual from time to time.. but that also is a sign of a good synth which is filled with functions and parameters.

There is something that newer Waldorfs lack -like some exotic filter modes.. also option to add aliasing to sound is great! There was 5 stages of that i think. I am too lazy to check from it now but that's not important.
What is is that there is understood that sometimes ugly can be very beautifull! Like some of those filter modes. :D
When used with certain wavetables they help to create sounds that reminds me of tortured monsters. :)

If it is used with other gear it has enough polyphony even without expansion. It's no workstation.

Sounds are extremely good. Many people claim from their synths that this or that is best synth in the world but with Waldorf XT even i have to use that clichee.
Soundwise it's best i have ever heard. And i have used lots of stuff including analogs, FM-synths, VA's, PM's, iPD's and samplers.

It has some sort of X-factor which makes sounds incredibly delicious.

I also have Waldorf Q and OK, it that has some improvements, especially in effects section but i have to say that XT is capable to even more unique and sweet sounds than that.

It has been reliable, without one incident. When i won it from EBAY and i turned it on it's display was flashing. When i opened it i found out that there was one ribbon cable loose, i corrected it and it worked just OK after that.

No OS crashes etc.

Build quality is good. Knobs and buttons act promptly.

No opinion.

It would be last equipment that i sell if i run totally out of money. And first thing i would buy back!

I've submitted a review of the Microwave XT before, but I feel like it deserves an update. Any criticisms I had initially were errors on my part before I had time to become more accustomed to using it. There still may be a slight learning curve for some people, but once you discover the logic of the layout, both programming this synth and navigating through its menus becomes a breeze! It's inspiring, and rarely ever is my creative process stifled when I create with it.

The feature set is enormous and slightly overwhelming at first, otherwise there's no way I can complain about all this power. Waldorf provides full MIDI implementation over all of the parameters within. I have 10-voices of polyphony in my XT which is fine for my purposes, but you can increase it to 30-voices if you purchase and install the optional expansion card. The programmable arpeggiator is awesome and the effects section--though not the world's best--is certainly a welcome and usable feature. Still the Mod Matrix has to be my most favorite thing about this instrument, next to the patch randomize utility. As a whole, the wealth of all the internal modules and wavetables take sound programming to levels far-far beyond what's possible with most other synthesizers.

If small children are nearby, you should use the Microwave XT with extreme caution! This synth is a menacing beast that's capable of producing nightmarish, insane, and freaky other-worldly sounds to no limit. Though you'll definitely want to create your own patch libraries--or even your own wavetables--there are a number of different user sound sets and factory sets available on Waldorf's website that are absolutely outstanding. One that I really like: the wavetable "1-2-3-4-5," demonstrates the Microwave's ability to actually synthesize speech!

9-years owned and still no problems.

Phenomenal. I've proudly used my XT for nearly a decade and can't imagine that I will ever sell it. The sound potential is virtually limitless and the quality is beyond compare. The vintage PPG Wave sounds the closest in nature to the Microwave XT; other than that, it's nearly impossible to describe. If you ever get a chance to really dive into it, you'll know exactly what I mean.

It's not too terribly hard to program once you get the hang of it, but there is a definite learning curve. Still, if you've ever tried programming a PPG Wave, you'll probably find the Microwave XT significantly more intuitive. The patch randomize function is awesome for creating new patches with beastly-wild-alien characteristics, and the versatility of the mod matrix is destined to blow your mind. Now as for programming sounds that can be easily used in musical ways???(without consuming the entire frequency range of your mix)???you???ll need to put a bit more time & effort into it. It's SO well worth it when you do though. Also, the user's manual is absolutely necessary if you want to explore the magnificent power of this synth, so if you don???t have one you should download the PDF version of it on Waldorf???s website. In my opinion, it???s very well written and clarifies everything in a concise step-by-step fashion.

The feature set is enormous and slightly overwhelming at first, otherwise there's no way I can complain about all this power! Waldorf provides full MIDI implementation over all of the parameters within. I have 10-voices of polyphony in my XT which is fine for my purposes, but you can increase it to 30-voices if you're able to purchase an expansion board???which has now become difficult to find. The programmable arpeggiator is just incredible and onboard effects are nice. This is a dedicated synth module, so there???s no built in sequencer or multi-track recording capabilities???but that???s the job of a PC anyway.

Let me be forthright...If small children are nearby, you should use the Microwave XT with extreme caution! This synth is a menacing monster that's capable of producing nightmarish, insane, and freaky other-worldly sounds to no limit. DO NOT expect to get grand pianos or other typical kinds of sampled instruments out of this synth. That???s not what it???s designed to do. But if you want something that???s far more unique, with distinctive and ???Massive??? sound characteristics; then this may be a dream-come-true for you just as it was for me. Not all the presets are great. Many are decent but a few are fascinating; especially some of the patches that are available for users to download free online. Patches like ???1-2-3-4-5??? demonstrate the Microwave???s ability to produce robotic sounding voices and words from scratch!

I've had mine for nine years and it still works like new.

Phenomenal. The only reason I've given it a "9" instead of a "10" is because it can be somewhat tricky to program. I???ve proudly used my XT for nearly a decade and can???t imagine that I???ll ever sell it. The sound potential is virtually limitless and the quality is beyond compare. The vintage PPG Wave sounds the closest in nature to the Microwave XT; other than that, it???s nearly impossible to describe this synth. If you ever get a chance to really dive into it, you???ll know exactly what I mean.

no so easy to grasp. take your time with it.

8 voice. how I want the 30 voice expansion. anyone know where I can find it? all i have to say is 44 knobs and an incredible filter.

sound quality is classic. thank you waldorf.

tank build.

great people...waldorfarians.

excellent vintage buy. this synth will gain value. nothing sounds this great in a mix.

What software version are you using?
Latest and last OS update.

How do the presets sound?
Not sure i can actually remember as they are loads of soundsets you can upload to this thing. In the case of the soundset i am using at the moment it sounds great, harsh clanging leads, expansive and growly pad and some mad squeely noises that come from god knows where.

How hard is editing patches? Does a patch editor make a big difference?
Very hard editing a patch, you can tweek here and there, but with the advent of patch editors (which this doesn't have) and soft synths it really is a chore getting into the guts of this thing.

How is the manual (if there is one)?
Thick and moderately useful of you've got the time. The contnes and index can usually send you to the right area that you need.

Features are listed in the reviews below. To add to that in the last few years their have been a number of both hardware and software synths that put the features of this fella in the shade, there are effects and arppegiators, but they are pretty basic.

In a word mad. There is no other synth that sounds like this. It can create the most distinctive insane noise you could ever hope for. How useable these are depends on what kind of track your making, but for pure fun you can't knock the racket this fella makes.

No probs

Waldorf in currently attempting to come back from the dead. There are on various other web sites OS updates, FAQ's sounds sets and all sorts.

Couldn't do without it. Bought it about 4 years ago and love it to bits.

Still using version 2.09 from around 1998. The presets remind me of my Jupiter 8 with effects added. Other presets are very cool and some are lame. Editing seems pretty simple and the manual is OK. I, for one, can not figure out how to process external sounds at all. If anyone can help me there please email me (use the contact form on my web site www.anti-m.com). Please help.

No problems with polyphone and the built in effects are good. Handles midi quite well without errors (I have an old roland w-30 and it has midi errors all the time).

The sounds are much more expressive than some of my other keyboards (korg wavestation and korg trinity plus. Better onboard fx too. I am using this for very heavy synth rock and techno. Kind of like if Depeche mode did harder stuff. It sounds great for this kind of thing. The synth basses are cool but the tech drum sounds are kind of lame. Not really a realistic sounding synth but it's not supposed to be, in my mind anyway.

No problems other than it didn't like my power strip that everything else liked. Had to upgrade the strip. Pretty industrial.

This is a unique unit, I wouldn't want to part with it. We are using the following. Kawai k4, Korg Wave station, Korg trinity plus, Akai s5000, Eventide ultra harmonizer, Roland Jupiter 8, Kurzweil pc2x, Roland juno 60, roland w-30 and a lot of racks for fx. Recording in digital performer 4.5.

The only thing that I hate is not being able to figure out how to process external input. Please help if you can.

I bought this via eBay for ?425. I was looking for a PPG 2.2/2.3....
I know what I want it to sound like and that it is capable of producing the sounds - but it is a little tricky on the programming side. The slightest turn of a knob (and there are a glorious 44+ !!)can dramatically change the sound. This is especially true when changing wavetables or the wavetable envelope. But that said - it is fairly logical. The manual is pants...

Built in effects sound a little harsh to my ears.

Very broad range of sounds. Classic Wang Chung basses, trademark PPG sounds that are indescribable...so I won't try!! and some pretty wierd fx. Sould quality is very good.

Only had it 3 months - ok so far.

Not tried

Would either replace with same or splash out on a PPG 2.3

Other eqpt includes:
Access Virus Classic
Korg Wavestation
Yamaha SY77
Casio CZ1000

Very easy to program with its plethora of rotaries.The presets suck (big suprise).The manual is excellent,the best i've come across.Those crafty Germans actually give some synthesis theory and history in the well written manual( a novel concept)

10 voice polyphony is plenty to keep one occupied . I have not programmed many multi's yet . There could easily be some masking difficulties due to the deep sonic potential of individual "instruments" in a multi.More than a couple sounds per multi is almost always overkill. I would love a 30 voice version , it's almost scary to think about the 30 voice beast. There are plenty of Midi capabilities, way more than I need.No sequencer here . Extremely easy to use by anyone remotely familiar with subtractive\analog synthesis.

Very convincing piano, bells, organ, other than that ? It can sound much more "analog" than many give it credit for(route it thru a tube amp,analog effects etc.to give it the missing bite, you wankers)Formant wavetables make speech synthesis somewhat possible! This synth is best suited to electronic music due to it's relatively abstract approach to sound design and analog-like controls. John Tesh workstation lovers might be dissapointed? Intrepid psychenauts will be pleased.The effects are O.K. but I prefer my vastly superior outboard gear(doesn't everyone?)It seems nice and responsive to me but for those who want their synth to react like a concert piano I'm not so sure.It is anything but static with it's copious modulation and expression capabilities.It responds to velocity and aftertouch both of which I never use.This synth has a very wide range of sonic possibilites. All of your meat and potatoes synth sounds are in this box, but the wierd stuff is where it shines. Wavetable madness ,FM, lots o' filters, great envelopes, great arpeggiator, plus all those rotaries for real-time manipulation.

This thing is very sturdy BUT...Mine has some dodgy outputs .The right/mono output is loose and occasionally intermittent much to my horror. I hate companies for not making I/O ports indestructable as they are the achilles heel of all audio devices. The power cord is also very loose in its receptacle which is very disconcerting. These problems are most likely due to its former irresponsible owners not its construction. I will gig with it once I get it in a pop-up mixer case and fully programmed. It hasn't crashed or acted the least bit strange like some have described.

Out of buisness what a shame and how unnerving.

If I lost this I would buy an Xpander.I've been playing for 5 years and own 2moogs ,2oberheims and a prophet+lots of boutique pedals+home studio.It can be made to sound analog or can sound like a modded speak and spell. I compared it to a nord lead 2 and a novation nova . I liked both but thought the XT was the best value and a little more unique( and German!)I wish it had more outputs a digital out and an analog filter(waldorf Q+) With its great interface and sound this is very condusive to the creative process. These synths are going pretty cheap and blow away most of the V/A competition, and they look really psychedelic." The aim of the game is to feel real good"

Using latest software version. The prestes are uninteresting but good starting off points, mostly they do not take much advantage of wavetable synthesis. Editing patches is a pleasure compared to most synths thanks to the 44 knobs, not to diffucult at all.

I have the ten voice version, which can be frustrating at times for how I use it. 2 Wavetable Oscillators, ring mod, noise source, sync and FM, 2 LFO's with delay, 4 envelopes, one being a very versatile multi-stage envelope for wavetable sweeping, although it can be applied to most anything, flexible arp. though not as much as say the Nova's which I used to own, probably had the best arp I've used. There is a rather generous supplly of filters along with the usual multi-mode lo, hi ,notch and band-pass, Sinus Lowpass, Which is more full and grungy then a standard low-pass, FM lowpass, which uses OSC 2 as the source, Wave-shaper, which can create some truly destructive filtering, depending on the wave-shape selected from the current wave-table, Low-pass+Band-pass ( self explanatory), and a SH lowpass filter for low-fi. Effects are pretty tame, chorus can be either on or off per program, and the overdrives are pretty weak, I do like the delays and wahs though. The modulation matrix makes this a very flexible synth, although not to complicated, since you can just alter what you will without getting to crazy with every slot available. Some of the wavetables I can take or leave, like the saw and pulse wavetables, I really like clipper, X-mas bells, and the formant waves and I wish there was more of these.

Well, this is where it let's me down. I could see this synth falling in to the love it or hate it category. Sometimes I really enjoy working with it, other times I just can't stand the tone of it. It can have a kind of a cheap quality to it dare I say. You might have heard it sounds very digital which is true. I have a love hate reltionship with this synths sound in general, if theres a fantastic rich sound lurking in there the presets don't hint to it. Sometimes wavetable synthesis to my ears sounds kind of silly and uninteresting, and at times it can sound like a glorified arpeggiator, I prefer FM, and wish they'd make an FM synth with this kind of interface and filtering. I think I'll probably go the software route in terms of wavetable, for all the criticizing I delivered to a basically decent synth it has grown on me... a little, and the software wavetable synths offer much more to work with and cost much much less. I'll probaly end up selling it and putting the money towards a very good analog synth, like an Xpander or Andromeda, which software can not accomplish for a fraction of the price. I try to keep my set-up minimal and don't make much money, so if I want to get something else, I usually have to sell whats not essential, but I will be sad to see this synth go I think, eventhough theres quite a few things about it I don't care for. I used to be primarily interested in extensive modulation and diverse synthesis, but now I'm more concerned with tonal quality, and the tone of this synth just does not agree with me, a pity. I'd like to see Waldorf go the analog XT + route and add 2 extra oscillators and more interesting wavetables and see how that sounds, but it's probably a pipe dream. It should be noted that I never made my own custom wavetables or processed through an effects unit that was not budget.

I have not ever had a problem with it malfunctioning, as it is I think it is a very reliable machine. It's also very well built.

I e-mailed them once about a power cord I needed and never got a response. The HC keyboard forumites were much more helpful ( wish I didn't get banned for to much posting when I was... ahem...soused). Waldorf can be forgiven for not responding I suppose as the future of the company was uncertain at the time and I'm sure they had they're hands full.

I think even though it's not quite for me all together, I'll say yes it is well worth what I paid, although software provides a lot of competition, hmmm... If it was lost or stolen I'd out of luck wouldn't I? As you can guess I probably would not buy it again. I've been playing synths for five short years, my other gear includes a K2500X with all ROMS, a Virus B, and a ESQ-1 ( won't be selling these anytime soon) along with the XT, a micro-Q, and a MKS-70, trying to sell these and put them towards a decent analog then go the software route, I also have a intel celluron 1.8 GHZ computer running FM7 (fantastic and fun to use) Absynth, Fruity loops, Pro52( yechh..) and Tasman(great). I was considering getting a Nord Modular when I got this but didn't like having to rely to heavily on computer editing, I might look into it or the G2 down the road as I've heard much praise and really great interesting songs made with it. I wish the XT had better wavetables, 2 extra oscilltors, LFO's with fade in hold and fade out, a better patch randomizer, where you could slightly randomize an existing patch or just randomize the mod matrix etc, and better filtering at high resonance levels, hell better filtering over all. All this said I think some people will find this synth to be a kindred spirit, and will love what it can do and how it sounds. Listen to some of the demos, the one at vintagesynth.org gives you a good clue to what the tonal quality is and to a lesser extent what it can do. Contact me if you'd like to buy one cause I'm selling mine. Almost good.

Come on. This thing has 44 knobs! Once you figure out the menus, this thing is very easy to use. I read the manual while first playing with it to make things easier. The wavetable synthesis may be harder for people to get a grasp on though.

I have gone through plenty of the soundsets for this (available on their website) and emulate many, many other synths! I can't even begin to explain how easy this thing is to knock out a quick, simple patch.

Pretty wicked features, I'm sure you know if your reading this. The best thing about this is the mono input. You can run beats through the Wavetable Filter, and it sounds nice!

You can make almost any sound with this thing (although acoustic sounds are much harder and requires wavetable work). Great for slammin bass, soft pads, sharp leads, weird blips blops beeps etc. I've also heard great presets of the hammond organ, rhode sounding keys etc.

OS and synth have never given me a problem. Damn stable, I would use it on a gig without a backup. I would also take good care in moving it though as with any synth! :)

Never had to deal with them. So I'll leave this blank.


ALBATROSS!!

I would cry, then probably try to find a shadow XT!

I'm using some version of OS 2. The presents sound fantastic! Totally unique. Capable of fat analogish lows, grinding industrial noises, sparkling highs, FM edges, and gutteral speechlike sounds. Or you can start with one and morph to another with the mod wheel. It's very easy to program, with lots of great-feeling knobs to work with and a screen that shows a lot of information. I don't use a patch editor, but I want to try Soundiver so I can make my own wavetables. Manual is great--much better than those Korg or Roland wastes-of-time. It actually explains what the synths features do, how they work, and why you would want to use them. What a concept! The only reason I didn't give a 10 here is because it's sometimes tricky to move the knobs by very small amounts, and because I prefer sliders for envelopes over knobs. (With sliders, you can move more than one at a time.)

10 voices is OK for playing single sounds, and this synth is so good I'd take whatever they offered, but more voices would be great. I haven't looked into the 30-voice expansion, because I've been lead to believe that it's expensive and hard to find. I don't know if that's really true. The built-in effects are OK--not the best, but again, the synth sounds so great on it's own that the effects are reduced to what they should always be: icing on a cake that that tastes great on its own. This cake tastes great! MIDI features are fine, no onboard sequencer (but the arpeggiators are programmable), no keyboard. Wonderful matrix modulation that allows easy realtime sonic mangling. Analog-style detuning, and PPG-style aliasing, both of which can be enabled or disabled. The knobs are "infinite spin," so there's no jump in the sound when you turn one--they're always set to the values stored with the sound. Once you play these, it's very hard to go back to knobs that make the sound jump somewhere unexpected when you turn them. Why aren't all synths made with these knobs? There is a wide range of fantastic-sounding resonant filters. Some are traditional low- band- or high-pass, and there are a number of other more esoteric ones that lend themselves very well to experimentation. They all sound great. I don't miss the analog filters of the original microwave at all. And the wavetables. Aaaahhh. After programming this synth, static waveforms will start to sound so, well, static. My only complaint is the external power supply. Somehow, though, I find myself much more willing to forgive Waldorf of this transgression than Kurzweil or Korg.

No realistic acoustic instrument sounds. That's what acoustic instruments are for, or perhaps romplers. I play synthesizer, so I want something that sounds like a good synthesizer. This one exceeds my expectations. If it had more voices and a 76-note keyboard, it would be the only instrument I play. It can do the VA thing very nicely, and can sound so fat and thick that the pictures might fall off the walls. It can sound bell-like and edgy like a good FM synth, it can do the evolving pad thing like a Wavestation or Prophet VS, and it can practically speak. It's super-expressive, and you can tailor its responses to your playing to the Nth degree. Digital clarity and flexibility with analog warmth and body. To be fair, many VAs have 3 oscillators, not 2, and the Wavestation's wavesequencing was more flexible than this synth's wavetables. But when I play this synth, I couldn't care less. The sound is so rich that I don't miss the third oscillator, and the Wavestation didn't have nearly the range of highs and lows that this one does. With a sampler and a computer program, you can make your own wavetables that sound however you want them to. Since you can get anything from harsh and ugly to subtle and pretty, with analog- or digital-sounding characteristics, I would say that this synth would be perfect for any type of music that called for synthesizer sounds. Bluegrass? Maybe not. Jazz, industrial, trip-hop, classical, ambient, rock, R&B, pop? Absolutely!

Never a single problem. I do gig without a backup (because nothing could fill in for this synth).

What a relief it is to deal with a company like Waldorf instead of ones like Kurzweil, Roland, or Korg! The people at Waldorf get back to you right away, their answers are informative (and they make sure you understand what they tell you), they're polite, and they seem to care that you're getting the most out of their instruments. Contrast that with Roland et al, where the employees don't know anything, give you attitude about it, and respond to your questions with facts lifted from advertising brouchures. Who would you rather give your money to?

Best purchase I've ever made. It would be a serious blow if this one were stolen, since they're not made anymore and since I have the cool black version. I'd buy another from eBay right away, maybe two. The Q would be the only other model worth considering with its (rudimentary) wavetables and endless encoder knobs, but it's not as good--wavetables don't come close, not as many filters. I've played for 9 years or so. I currently own a Kurzweil PC88 (wall wart, great keyboard action), an E-mu Proteus 2500 (nice Z-plane filters and great CP80 sounds), and an Ensoniq ESQ1. The ensoniq was my previous favorite, and it's got some great sounds in it still, but it can't touch the XT. I've owned a big variety of other synths, starting with a Jupiter 6 and ending with a Korg Triton Le that I couldn't sell quickly enough (awful keyboard, me-too corporate sounds, nasty wall wart). I love almost everything about this synth, most importantly the sound. What do I hate? Well, I don't like the lump-in-the-middle power supply, but it's not as bad as it might be because I velcro it to the inside of the rack that the XT lives in, so a regular-style power cord is what sticks out the back. Plus, the synth is so great that such things seem to matter less. I wish there were sliders instead of knobs for the amp envelope, or maybe some assignable sliders. Again, though, it's hard to be too disapointed about this. Overall, I think this could well be the best synth ever made. I'm hoping that Waldorf dicontinued it because they're about to release an even better successor.

Until it croaked, very EZ/intutive, great wavetable sounds than can be manipulated to the Nth degree. Waldorf manuals are generally very good.

Spectral wavetable synthesis at its spine-tingling best. All 44 knobs are continuous except for volume. Neat orange color. Impresses girls.

With tweaking, sounds range from whimisical to terrifying. Tinny and cold at times, yet can rumble a condo complex like nothing else.

Unit quit on me 6 weeks after I bought it new. Has been sitting in repair shop 4 months waiting for replacement circuit board from herr motherland. No word from W on when this might happen (see below)

After repeated runarounds as to the status of my fried XT, I contacted Waldorf's American distributor. I was informed that since the XT line was discontinued and to no longer supported by Waldorf (much like the Nord Modular), the possibility of getting a new board was remote--or lengthy at best. I explained that I had just signed a contract to develop a video-game soundtrack, sold to the client thru the XT's wavetable sonics. The distributor then sent me a Q Rack as a "loaner" until the XT gets repaired (ain't holding my breath.) But what a great move! Thanks GF!!!

Well, the Q rules, and I gave W a 10 for their generousity in loaning me something worth much more. Although the Q is not pure spectral wavetable (although it does have a PPG LP Filter)it still outdoes the XT in so many other ways. However, I miss the big orange beast. So I guess when (if?) it gets repaired I'll have to make a choice. Perhaps I will never see it again.

>>>>>BUYER BEWARE<<<<< If you see one for sale (not from a dealer) it's a definite risk, since support on this product is waning.

It's fairly simple figuring out the machine once you get the hang of the wavs matrix. The manual is very thorough and insightful and explains all the functions very well.

The effects aren't that great, but everything else is rocking. I love the fact that you can have 16 sources and destinations per voice.

The sounds are FANTASTIC!! This thing is psychodelic as fuck, great for really long sounds that morph over time, great bass, stabs, pads. This thing does it all

Never has failed me. I would use it on a gig without a backup.

Haven't had to deal with at all.

I would cry if it got lost or stolen. Well, maybe not cry, but there would definately be some pouting going on. I would probably try to find another deal like the one I got, cause I wouldn't be able to afford a new one.

Software: 2.33. Presets are fairly good and shows what you can do with it. Waldorf has few soundsets and I'm going to check them soon. Editing is easy since you know what you are doing.

I have 10-voice version and that's enough for me since I have some other synths. Built in effects are good since you have outboard reverb. Nothing stunning but very usable effects. There should be at least 6 outputs, 4 is not enough. Well you know all the specs. My only complain is lack of the outputs.

You can do both wavetable and analogue-like sounds(there are all basic waveforms). Quite digital and harsh sounding. Dreammachine for industrial musicians! It can sound very dirty thanks to wavetables, variety of filters and internal overdrive/distortion effect. It can sound very sweet and ethereal if needed. At first, when I got it in 1998, I just sat and pressed one key and really amazed the sound! Just used a bit aftertouch and modwheel to change dramatically sound. Sound started move to other dimension. Cool. Very Wavestation-like(have owned EX and SR). After two years I bought Microwave I but it was pain to program without computer editor or controller(PC1600 etc) so I kept the XT and sold MW I. XT is not ment to be everything. Very unique sound and character.

Very reliable. Knobs are top class and feels very good. I wouldn't ever gig without backup. So far so good, 10.

V-e-r-y good. Couldn't be better.

Never sell it. I make electro-ambient and this is machine for me. My gear: Roland Juno 106, Roland Jupiter 6, Roland XV-3080, Yamaha AN1x, Yamaha FS1r, Kawai K5000R, Novation Nova, Elektron Sidstation, Elektron Machinedrum, Waldorf Microwave XT, Waldorf Pulse. There is something for every electronic musician.

I use software version 2.33. The presets give you a good impression of the XT's overall capabilities, but you'll find yourselves tweaking the presets a lot. Editing the patches is very convenient. All major parameters can be directly accessed via "infinite action" knobs, which are, by the way, very well built (like the rest of the XT). Nonetheless you'll end up using the edit matrix often, as many important parameters are hidden within the various submenues. Personally, I would have liked a dedicated instrument/sound select knob for multimode instead of the glide time knob which isn't so important after all. The two mod amount knobs are pretty useless as well, as you are likely to forget the first two modulation destinations anyway. They should have been replaced by more useful functions. Anyway, the overall ease of use is very good. So is the manual, which gives you a decent first look at subtractive and wavetable synthesis.

Polyphony is 10 voices. There is an upgrade available adding another 20 voices. If you plan to use the XT as your main sound generator, you should buy the 30 voices version. I sometimes experience note stealing, especially with long release rates and dual voice assignments per note (this sounds fatter). You can play up to 8 timbres ("instruments") at once on up to 8 Midi channels. The first 3 instrument have an effects processor. The fx are mediocre. The chorus and flanger are a bit boring, so are the auto filters. The overdrive totally sucks, the signal gets way too low and the sound is crappy. The delay is decent, though. The XT has got an arpeggiator for every instrument which is syncable to midi clock. There's an editible user pattern, which is very cool. I like the arpeggiator a lot, although I got the problem that Logic doesn't send an all notes off command at sequencer stop which means the current arpeggiator note gets stuck and you have to panic your Midi interface or your XT. If anybody could tell me how to force Logic to send an all notes off command at sequencer stop I would greatly appreciate it. There are 3 bugs whith the XT which I find pretty annoying. First, when switching through the presets, sometimes notes get stuck as you select a new preset sound, especially with long amp release rates. Second, some sounds have a randomly occurring click at the beginning even if you increase the amp attack rate. Waldorf states as a workaround that you have to switch the sound to mono mode, which actually does NOT solve the problem. Third, the save all edit command which is supposed to save all edit buffers to their preset destinations DOES NOT WORK. This means that after editing the sounds within a multimode setup you have to manually save EVERY instrument within the multimode, which sucks bad! One more thing: the XT has an "initialize random sound" option which will give you the weirdest sounds you could ever imagine. I sample these a lot. Everybody out there making industrial/noise/ambient might check out the XT for this reason alone! It can do FM as well. You can feed the signal from the external audio input through the synth engine, ah yes, there is an audio input, as well as 4 outputs.

Well, this one is obvious: the XT is a very unique instrument. The 64 wavetables offer you a great amount of different timbres to create sounds never heard before. Fortunately, every wavetable contains the classic "analogue" waveforms triangle, saw and square, so can use the XT as an ordinary VA synth. Sometimes, a soft sounding preset can turn into a nightmare sound with a simple twist of the wavetable knob. The filters are great, too, especially the waveshaper which drastically distorts the input signal and greatly makes up for the poor overdrive in the fx section. I find the standard lowpass / highpass filters a bit boring, and the resonance is a bit too whistly / not dirty enough for my taste. But don't worry, nearly everybody out there seems to love the Waldorf filters, so I guess it's just a matter of my strange taste :-) The envelopes are very good, especially the wave envelope can give a sound a very dynamic quality. There's also a modulation matrix with 16 slots that can have individual modulation sources and destinations as well as 4 modifier slots where you can use boolian operators to logically connect two paramters. E.g. you could use the amp envelope multiplied by aftertouch for filter modulation, or have the negative section of an lfo cycle mirrored to the x-axiy resulting in a camelback-like shape. The mod matrix makes the XT very flexible. There are numerous ways to manipulate the sound forming parameters to your liking. This way, you can create sounds that evolve until forever.
But how does it all fit in your mix? I must admit that I have mixed emotions about this one. I often find myself browsing through the presets looking for just an ordinary sound, like a soft pad or a lead I haven't used yet. I come across the weirdest sounds, but often, they just don't fit. Sometimes I find it too difficult to find just a bread-and-butter sound. I don't think the XT is a "does it all" machine. It's a great addition to a studio which already contains a VA, a sampler and maybe a rompler or sort of that. For instance, if you already got a Virus/Supernova/Nordlead/Q or whatever and you're looking for a nice addition to your setup, go for it. If this is going to be your first synth, you might get a little disappointed by the exotic nature of this instrument. The overall characteristics of the sounds might be described as brittle, harsh, digital and often bell-like. With some tweaking, however, you'll be able to get decent analogue sounds out of it. It's great for all sorts of electronic music. I use it along with a Yamaha A3000, a Quasimidi Polymorph and an Ensoniq DP/4 (which is acually an fx processor, but I regard it as an instrument) and it fits perfectly.

This thing is build like a German Wiesel tank. The knobs are very smooth and sturdy, the case is stable. But wait: wall wart plug! Yuck! I haven't had any problems with it reliability-wise. Deutsche Wertarbeit!

I often look up the user forum at the waldorf homepage. User questions are answered by Joerg Huettner, a friendly costumer support guy at Waldorf. You can download the current OS version, user sound sets, editor software and much more at their website. Excellent support!

I love the XT. It's a great synth, although for the rather extraordinary and exotic sounds. If you want standard electronic sounds, you might be better off with a VA synth. The XT is a challenging box an not for the beginner. Programming it is a lot of fun and can lead to unpredictable, mostly great results. If you wander off the beaten track musically, this might be THE machine for you, as it stands apart from all other sound generators i know.

I consider the XT to be reasonably easy to find my way around except for when dealing with wave envelopes and the modulation matrix, a more visual approach would in my opinion be intuitive. I hope to purchase Sounddiver soon, so hopefully this will help me in these areas.

The only feature is the colour! Your just paying for the sound really, in my opinion u can forget multi mode unless u want a headache! The arpeggiator can be inspiring and the LFO's can easily be sync'd to a midi clock but thats about it. Leave the FX off. Nuff said.

The XT can sound awesome, of that there is no doubt, patience is needed though when trying to create sounds, the various filter modes can sound devastating with certain wavetables and not with others. Experimentation is the key. I try to make funky/trancey/progressive house and it is awesome for this, but I wish I had access to a higher number of good patches as a starting point. The factory patches that shipped with my machine were totally uninspiring. This synth could be the only one you need if you become adept at coaxing those elusive awesome sounds out of it!!

I had an original Microwave a few years ago that caused me alot of trouble but this one seems OK

In the UK the distributors handle everything

The XT is a brilliant synth with tons of character, it has the capability to surprise and inspire, I would like to get a Virus aswell as so many records seem to be being made with them and I would be able to compare, but I am constantly hearing Microwave sounds on alot of deep/prog/trance, to me you can tell them a mile off, they just sit at the front of the speakers right in your face!

Im constantly updating my software,and do not know what version it is.
Anyone with internet access,and a sequenser that plays .mid files,can update easy,check their site.
The presets are useful,and especially the moudulation routes are good to keep intact until you get used to working with them.
Manual is nice and easy,but after a while youll want to know more...
Thats when you start to check the web.

It have a bunch of effects,but no synkable delays.
The effects only works on 3 of 8 sounds in multitimbral mode.
This is a synth where the main thing is the sound,and not a bunch of
limited workstation features.
NO sequenser and such.
But the midifeatures wont let you down.
All knobs sends midi out,and the arpeggio (wich is nice)can be sent out on other midichannels,to other gear.
it got a external signal in,another nice feature.
But the 10 voices version is a bit limited if you keep on doing those big chords in your music.

Ohhh.
This is a synth made not to sound like anyhing else than a synth.
Youll find ways of making the moust personal sounds with this one.
Even though it is not a digianalogmodeling synth,its in that sort of style,but with a chirpy and punchy character....
This synth is for sonic experiments and journeys.

this is a very sturdy unit,and so stylish.very reliable and it will have a good secondhand value,fore long times to come.

They are the best.Ill send them a valentine

This is not a groovebox or such.Stay away from those,they are lots of fun for a start,but youll soon reach its limitations.
This is a synth that is only a synth.But itll grow with your music,and its a pleasure to spend time with it.You will discover new sounds and be creative with it.
Maybe its not so great for a complete biginner.If you are new to making electronic music,get some secondhand gear,and make shure that you wont loose to much money selling your gear in case they dont feel good to you.

The Xt is simply a slightly buffed up Microwave II tacked on to a more user friendly box. It is covered with knobs that control all of the basic functions of a subtractive synthesizer. However the Xt is capable of much more than that so there is also a menu system. The only real complaint i have is that it is difficult to select which patch you want the knobs to affect when in multitembral mode.

the average is 10 voce polyphonic and 8 parts multitembral. Polyphony can be increased to 30, allthough this only seems useful in very complex songs (as a single voice is capable of a very big sound). or when using extensive unison mode (10 voices detuned and stacked on top of each other like a jupiter 8 could do) patches. It has built in effects but they arent that good. They are mostly useful as a scratch pad before using an external effects box (it has two outputs so this is a practical solution in multi mode). Its midi implementation is very well thought out and very easy to use. Almost every parameter has dedicated midi controllers and every knob (save for main volume) sends midi data (it does a good job as a control surface for soft synths)

This is an electronic synth. It has a few wavetables for piano and organ sounds but frankly those tables do better at creating wierd spiky burbles than emulation. In terms of analogue emulation this box does an excellent job with only a few weak points.1 PWM tables only sound good when being rushed through at high speed.2 filter resonance does not effect low end of a sound(in a supernova II the degree to which this occurs can be controlled). In terms of experimental (read Bizzare sounds) this box is second to none. Its modulation matrix is extense enough to compete even with real modular synths.

I have never gigged with it but the only problem it has ever given me in my studio is occasionally it will boot up improperly and have to be restarted it has never failed once started though

ive never needed it.

if it were lost i would probably replace it as soon as i could. unless a real deal came along.
I personally find wavetable sounds great for pads and drones but difficult to work into melodies and percussive sounds (although it is very rewarding when it happens wavetable drums kick ass)

The is the easiest synth I have ever worked with. Most everything is right there in front of you. Takes about an hour to learn the basics. It also has a lot of depth to it, after 2 years I'm still doing new things with it. The manual is decent, if you know about synths you should have no problem. The only difficult part is the mod matrix, but even that's pretty simple to work with.
The presets are good for what they are, but they don't go near showing you what this synth is fully capable of.

Mine has 10 voices, but you can upgrade to more. 30, I think. It has wavetable sound source, many different times of filters, great envelopes, many knobs. No sequencer. A good arpeggiator that you can create your own patterns for. A headphone jack would be nice as this is a real headphone synth. But alas.
Their new q has many more features but also costs more and you don't really get that great wavetable sound.

Speaking of sounds, this is what is so fabulous about the microwave xt. I have heard no other synth make these sounds. It has a strange, analogue digital organic artificial sound, if that helps any. Like a breathing, living computer. Very psychedelic. The wavetables are the key. The filters are pretty too. They sound very analogue. In fact, the xt makes a decent virtual analogue, if you're looking for that. The effects are generic, but since I don't like effects myself I'm probably not the best person to rate them.
The xt is fully expressive. Because of the beautiful mod matrix you can route anything to anything so you could concievebly set velocity to filter res, envelope release, fm amount, lfo speed, panning, and many others all at the same time. But wait it gets worse.

I had a lot of crashes several versions ago. But in these last few versions I have had none. Whatever it was, they must have fixed it.
I trust it to always work, although occasionaly the external inputs won't accept sound and I have to turn it off and back on again. Speaking of turning it off (i never do) you have to hold the off button for a few seconds before it goes off. This seems pretty clever to me. I mean, I don't know about you but it seems pretty clever to me.
I'd give it a higher rating if I didn't have trouble with the external inputs.

Whoah man, they got some kind of customer support. They upgrade over the net, so you can do it yourself. (although the frequency of the upgrades has fallen since the q (which proves they're only human))
They also have a mailing list that they take a personal interest in.
I have never needed a repair, so I can't speak on something like that.

I bought this synth several years ago. It was my first expensive synth. I loved it, but was curious about other supersynths. I sold my xt and got a nord modular, which I returned within my thirty day trial period. I then tested other synths at stores and such. I came to realize how special the xt really was and ended up buying it again.
I just love the sound.
Don't get me wrong though, this is an expensive synth and it is not for everyone. If you are looking for a va you might do better elsewhere. If you are looking for acoustic emulation then you shouldn't even be reading this review. What are you doing here?
But if you are looking for something weird, unique but musical, psychedelic yet familiar, you couldn't do much better than this.

Version 2.33.
The Preset sounds good and can be quite useful as templates for making
other sounds.
The sound editing on this machine is quite good except for hidden
subdirectories which can make things really annoying.
A patch editor would make things a lot easier.

Polyphony 30.
The build are impressive but the parameters are not very flexible.
Example:
The Delay effect go up and down in increment of 2 instead.
On the Roland JV2080, delay can be set in terms of milliseconds.
But that's another story.
MIDI capabilities are user dependent.
I don't use the onboard sequencer but the arpeggiator is wicked.
Overall, it is simple and friendly.
Start tuning the knobs if you don't believe me.

The sound quality is phenomenal compared to other instrument that
I've tried out. The resonance can be either piercing or metalic-like.
This toy is great for all sort of electronic music (House, Techno,...)
I use for Trance and Drum n' Bass. Yes folks, Drum n' Bass: You can
get those wicked distorted or elastic stuff.

Well, this is where I am going to hammer it !!!
The software is still buggy.
I have to restart it 2 or 3 times before it works properly.
For example, the sound will clip if started for the 1st time.
After restarting it for the 3rd time, everything is ok.

Quite helpful.
I was trying to create a TB303 type of setup on it using the four
main knobs.
Got a response within a day.
Got it together within minutes.

Overall, I chose this machine because it can do more than what
either a JP8000 or Nord Lead can. The sound quality is impressive.
I currently own a JV2080, Prophecy, AKAI 2800, and Yamaha SY55.
If you don't believe that the XT can do what I mentioned in the above,
then check out my music site at http://www.mp3.com/tksmusic/
Most the tunes that I have made include sounds made by myself from the XT.
I was to buy another instrument, I would have bought a Korg Electribe
(Rhythm) along with the XT.
They go together perfectly.

Well...44 knobs, what more can I say!? It's very easy to get a basic, great sound out of it. If you want to go deeper (belive me, if you buy this synth, you planned to go deeeep :)).
Personally, I'm not crazy about Mod Matrix'es, but this one is pretty good, and it's easy to find your way in it once you've used it a couple of times.

I've heard that some people doesn't like the 'endless' knobs, well, personally I love them. Next to motorised knobs, this is the best thing (if not better).

I've got the 10 voice version, I might get the 30 voice expansion later...who knows!? Good EFX that can fatten the sounds, but honestly I prefer outboards. I like the chorus though...

I smile just when I think about it. Personally, I LOVE the sounds you can get out of it. Spacey, organic and evolving drones...no problem! That's basicly what I'm using it for, but I think it's also wonderful for basses, leads. I can imagine that industrial musicians might enjoy it too, because you can get some really dirty, mean sounds out of it.
I would like to get and editor and mess around with the wavetables, cause that's pretty much why I got it. I love the sounds you can create with their help...

I bought mine used, but I don't think it was used much, cause I can't find a single scratch on it. The paint is 'crusty', and I don't think you can scratchy it easily, neither does your fingerprints show on it.
If you try really hard, I'm sure you can knock off one of the knobs, but why bother!? The shape is a bit...different. Great for fiddling, but they might get in the way.

They update the OS every now and then. I haven't really had anything to do with them.

I LOVE IT. Honestly, this is one of the best synths I've ever played with. My Nord Modular will get some tough competition in the future.

2.33 OS, Presets ,. Some are unforgettable in my opinion ans some are Lame but good for templates to start tweaking, I think that's more of the philosopy,. and believe it or not it's got one of the most potent Kick drum sounds I've ever heard,. Manual is decent,.. (I like clavia's more,. Roland's SUCK!!),. sometimes the user interface to me seems counter intuative,. but once you get the hang of it it's fast.
Some of the presets are too much alike,. but really it's not a "preset" synth,. but some of the presets are some of the most overused sounds in Modern electronica.

I have 30 voice (GET the 30 voice!!!),. it's a rack so no keyboard,.
One thing I will say is waldorf keep changing the knobs and the knobs I got the tips keep coming off,. some Crazzy Glue(tm) will fix that no problem,. but still,. come on,. the Knobs? it should have NICE knobs,. I don't use the build in effects (maybe delay)... to me the overdrive makes the patch so quiet is makes me mad.
It's not expandable past the 30 voice,.
no on board seq.
Midi capabilities are up to standard.

The microwave is all about sound as far as I can tell,. it's crazzy sounding at times,. not much real stuff,. but you know that,. is's totally modulatable all around,. everything you would expect and a lot more,. but some of the sounds you can get out of this thing blow my mind,. the only gripe that I have with the sound is that some of the Mono patches "click" and it's not an envelop time issue,. it's a bug (waldorf actually said is a bug there fixing now),. when that click issue is gone,. Look out,.. there is a lot of weird stuff that can be happening to make this synth actually sound a bit noisy to me at times,.(just a tiny bit more than a Nord),. but it may be just "intended" noise,. there are so many crazzy things going on in this synth,. with the glithces I still gotta give it a 10 becuase it just sounds so #$^ing good sometimes!

Yip, I would gig with it,. (the little tiny front part of the knobbies might fall off though,.. GRRRR!!),. just for that I give it 7,. but technically it's build like a brick ^&#t house!!

THE VERY BEST EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to give it a 9.5 really,. it's definaly a 10 out of the synths I've tried (or else I would have ought them instead,.)
I've been playing forever,.
I have all new pro gear,. EMU,. CLAVIA,. LEXICON,. TC,. Roland
I've it got scammed I would be really pissed cause I would have to get another one right away cuase it rulez.

The software version is 2.33, in the beginning it's a little complicated but after a week you can spend hours making sounds

10 voice polyphony it's ok, but I wanted more, the problem is that the expansion is a little expensive and is hard to find someone who can do this if you don't live in europe.
Effects are so nice and easy to use.

This is the best part, the sounds of this device are the best quality I've ever heard

It don't have drums, also you need a keyboard

They are fast and kind people.

I love the great variety of sounds you can make, you never get bored with this super synth

Hi,

I bought an xt yesterday ..... i've used many synths...
and program synths........

The presets apart from a few basses are cats arse......
To edit patches takes alittle getting into but if your able to understand basic synthesis and modulation stuff then you'll do fine.
The manual seems pretty ok...only ok.....would be nice to have alittle more detail..here and there.

Polophony is 10 voice...ok but i wouldn't attempt using it for multi work with that many...get the 30 voice expansion...effects are ok...
nice flanger etc....not convinced though...load of mid capabilities..
modulation possibilities......

Don't expect to get a nice acoustic modelled trumpet out of this one..
and don't take any notice of anyone who says the xt doesn't stand up to the q aetc etc as in some reviews...basically unless you prepared to edit this synth and use your head then you'll not get muchh more out of the xt than good leads and basses...very good though..very rich
sounding...and quite frakley not much different from the q...The xt
is not for commercial studios where people buy gear for presets and
for customers to choose sounds from...it's for editing....and.......

I use z1,jp800,nord2,wavestation a/d rack/and alot of samples and have
bought /samples to death and sold around 30 different analogue synths
and resynthsesied the remains to get some fairout sounds but never
found a synth which at times was so rich and lush sounding as the xt.
When it sounds good..this synth sounds very good...i've owned nothing like it and the possibilities for modulating sounds etc is huge....
Anyone who says this synth is lame compared to the q has basically
never programmed it .......

Don't buy this synth unless you program your own sounds...do dance or
ambient abstract music and want sounds that no other synth can make..
The waldorf sound is a classic sound....rich /lush and expensive and i only wish i had bought this synth when it came out...

who can say.....

who knows

If it were lst or stolen i would get another...no doubt...it's unique,
If i made a fortune i would buy a 'wave'....

O.K. I just used this thing today...but I love wave synthesis. If you are a devoted electronic mmusician, you should have no trouble using the simple matrix, as it is set up rather well to edit your own sounds. Unless you live in on the moon most of the year, where you get screwed on prices on everthing, don't spend more than 1000 bucks on this thing (only cuz you can get it cheaper if you look hard). Anyway, its really neat. The presets should never be used as is ('is' if discussing the presets as a singular group, 'are' if otherwise)in a piece of music requiring a synth...the listeners will generally just jump up and say..."oh. i've heard that before...". SO, editing, and there is much editing on this machine, is handy and at your fingertips. I learned how to do it without the manual, but it seems complete (the manual that is...). If you can, get one. The only problem is the price. All this stuff should be 1/2 as expensive as it is. Good luck.

read the other comments for the polyphony and other info. I just can't understand why any of this stuff is limited to 'so many notes', 'so many voices'. Shame!

sexy soundscapes and groovy too.

I don't do "gigs", so I could care less about its reliability on a tour.

haven't dealt with the company yet.

I still can't get over the price of this shit.

I'm using OS 2.33 which is the latest that I know of. The presets are generally kind of boring aside from a few gems. Editing is so much fun and so easy. There's pratically a knob for everything. A patch editor is neccessary if you want to make your own waves and wavetables, which is what I do and recommend others to do. I believe Intellios has a good editor as well as soundiver. The manual is straightforward and probably has the best tutorial on wavetable synthesis this side of a University sound design paper.

I have the thirty voice version but its standard is ten voices eight part multitimbral. It has two oscillators driving one wavetable. Each oscillator can access different parts of the wavetable or sync up together. There is a noise generator, ring mod, frequency modulation of oscillator one from osc two. Osc two can be synced to one. There is the standard ADSR for amplitude and filter, plus there is an eight stage loopable envelope for wave control, as well a freely assignable envelope. The modulation matrix can hook up almost anything to anything as well as use mathematical procesess to modulate modulators. There are lots of filters including the usually 4 and 2 pole low and band pass, 2 pole high pass, sin shapers, waveshapers, sample and hold, fm and notch filters. There are some basic effects such as delay, amp simulator, flange, chorus, and the like. In multitimbral mode the first three parts use their effects while every part can use the glorious chorus effect. The appregiator is straightforward although I haven't gotten to really using it yet.

This beast sounds absolutely majestic. It is the best sounding synthesizer I've ever played with. It works well for techno, and especially industrial. I do noise and soundscapes and that is what this machine is really used for. Wavetable synthesis is one of the most interesting and useable forms of synthesis.

It can be finicky at times but for the most part it just requires an OS update.

I sent Waldorf an email once with some questions and got a response in ONE HOUR!!! It was the most professional and helpful service I have ever encountered from a synth manufacturer.

I would definetly buy it again if it got stolen. I love wavetable synthesis and Waldorf know how to implement it. I use it alongside a Korg Prophecy and a Yamaha TG77 and I love them all. They really compliment each other. More people should explore different forms of synthesis as opposed to s+s which is quite frankly extremely boring. I bought this for only $12000 Canadian for the thirty voice, from a rich guy who didn't know how to use it. Thank god for bloody idiots who buy really expensive gear and then re-sell for almost half price. I absolutely love it.

softwre version 2.14. Some of the functions are difficult to understand at first but everything is still very accessible and you can always just twiddle and tweak away to figure out what something does. The presets are OK. The thing is laid out pretty well and everything is clearly marked and easy to get your fingers on. plenty of room.

You can check out the features from the waoldorf site. I won't remember them all. 10 voices lots of great filters. Loads of knobs. Good arpegiator...8 part multi. Usable and creative FX. Complex modulation matrix. Very flexible routing. External input to filter (killer), 4 outputs. excellent midi capabilities.

this thing has a distinctive sound...but is capable of doing lots of different things. Really wierd phasey evolving drones/pads, plingy pangy percussive chopped distorted bells...staticy bass throbbing filter sweeping hits...and great bells, bass, bleeps and bloops, sine wavey pads, "pretty" things and aggressive industrial screaming vowel like noises....straight up percussion sounds..good kicks, hats etc, sub basses...and unearthly electronic sounds....i love it...it's sonic abilities are endless and I am always impressed with it.

never had a problem. software updates are a snap.

never had a problem but waldorf is prompt with answering questions.

If someone stole this from me I would definitely buy it again. There are things you can do with this synth that I've never heard anything else do. Someone compared this to a Q...why? I haven't heard the Q but I'm sure the Xt can do things that the Q can't and vice versa. They are diferent machines with different goals. The Xt is not a JV1080 or a supernova or a Q or wavestation..etc. it isn't meant to be. It is a different sounding instrument. Lots of hard edges with the ability to be very subtle. There aren't that many places that have waldorf stuff on the showroom floor. I was lucky enough to be near a place that does. So I played with the XT for a few hours on different occassions and one day I just couldn't leave with out it. I've used it on almost every track I've written since I bought it. If you write hand bag house or disco house the nthis probably won't be of much use to you..but if you write ANY OTHER kind of music the XT would find a nice place in your studio.

Following is a different approach to the other reviews. Yes, the XT has a signature sound. It lacks so much of what makes the Q so great though and, considering that that machine- the Q that is-- is THE Waldorf-- that`s bound to disappoint anyone who thinks to buy this unit via mail order sound (other than having downloaded a few demos)unheard.And since hardly anybody carries the Waldorf line that`s all the more reason for any potential buyer to be certain whatever vendor they purchase from allows returns due to simple customer dissatisfaction. We purchased the XT-with a 30 voice upgrade for in-house use here at our studio. In the end-after 3 weeks of having it sitting around as more or less nothing but than an object for the curious we returned it to the vendor-all boxes, manuals and etc. in the right condition, and got our money back. Perish the thought had we purchased from one of these on-line outfits who take returns only at their discretion, but fail to inform the purchaser of this policy until after the sale (No, that isn`t something that has happened to us, but we have heard several horror stories of late from friends who have been mislead by a few disreputable on-line stores with regards to what their REAL return policy is. Buyer`s beware, right?) By the way, my albeit personal impression of the XT is it doesn`t sound exactly like the real thing, but it`s still quite good nevertheless. If I had to chose though between the XT and the much pricier Q I`d save my bucks and wait for the Q to come out as a rack. The XT can`t touch the Q for flexibility and uniqueness of sound. EVERYBODY who frequents our little concern here loves the Q, even the acoustic mostly crowd tinkers with it and trys to find a place for it`s great sounds. The XT, by comparison, simply gathered dust.

Software 2.17, seems to be bug-free (I think). With 46 knobs on the front panel this ought to be easy to use and it is. However I can't give it a 10 because it's so damned DEEP. Getting a good sound out of this is the easiest thing in the world. However, getting the sound you originally planned to get, well that's a bit harder. Maybe it's just that I haven't conquered the thing yet. Still, you usually find a great sound ON THE WAY to where you were going, if you know what I mean.
Presets are ok. Impressive in the store but difficult to integrate into a song....but with all those controls you just tweak away until it's JUST right. Some very good alternatives available on the web anyway, including very impressive analog emulation patches. Great starting points for your twiddling. This is the tweakers synth.
Manual is iffy...barely touches on the effects of all those loop/retrigger functions.

Polyphony is only 10 notes, which isn't much for a machine of this price. Upgrade is not cheap. FX are good but no reverb...I suppose they reckon if you can afford a top-notch synth like this you've probably got a lexicon around somewhere....
The main feature is the knobs......46 ENDLESS knobs that transmit midi and don't "jump" between settings when recalling.

Well, it's bloody great. This thing can do it all.....stringy things pads drums (electro ones anyway) screaming leads, basses, analog, everything except a 303 although some claim to have achieved it. From good-sounding to out-and-out weird, it's got it covered. I can't imagine anyone NOT being able to use it in their music.

occassionally have to restart it.

A user mail ring with Waldorf techies on it helps a lot with any problems you may have.
Had no problems yet though, so I won't vote.

I've been building a setup for a couple of years now, and this is my first "expensive" synth......and I'm really pleased. It cuts through mixes really well and sounds great. I use it mainly with an Audity and sampled drums and it covers almost everything. Only letdown is polyphony cos you want to use it for everything. I had originally thought I'd be saving up for a Virus to make those really hard sounds, but this thing does those too, so I'll buy some monitors instead(when I can...). Just wish the poly upgrade was cheaper.....hence the 9.

Software v1.17. Presets are OK. This is one of the only synths that I prefer to edit manually rather than with a software editor, probably because of the 44 knobs. Still, there are some menus to navigate, but they're logically laid out. A software editor would give you access to the advanced functions -- like building new wavetables. The manual is adequate.

The standard model has 10-note polyphony, the expanded model has 30. Simple but usable set of effects. Very powerful modulation possibilities (via a matrix). Has an audio input for routing though the filters and effects. The internal software is updateable, and Waldorf occasionally adds new features.

This is a rough, dirty, and heavy sounding synth that is perfectly suited to electronic and industrial music. Very responsive, great for endlessly-morphing pads.

No problems.

There's a lot of interesting synthesizers out there. If my Microwave XT was lost or stolen, I'd consider an Access Virus or a Supernova, but I'd probably end up with the MWXT again since it sounds so unique. I find that each of my synths is good at a particular thing... The Z1 is great at soft pads and strings, as well as zingy electronic sounds. The prophecy is great at synth basses and leads. The Nord modular is great at arpeggiated synth lines. The MWXT is great at hard-edged industrial soundscapes and ripping leads. So, in summary, it's not for the faint-hearted: used properly, it will add some real balls to your music.

I learned it in one night. If you buy this, I assume you are familiar with synthesis. Considering that, the unit is very easy to learn and use. They also have in their website a small essay that explains some of the unique features. The synth engine is pretty basic, except for the wave tables. I am using version 2.17 which seems almost stable. the unit has frozen upon bootup twice on me, and I have had it for one month. So I had to unplugg it and re plug it in. That seems to fix it.
But the OS is user upgradeable via MIDI. with a computer.
Editing the patches is easy if all you want to do excludes modifying wave tables. Which is impossible from the front panel. You can do almost everything very quickly, but to cover all, get an editor.
The manual is concise, very nice. They don't waste time explaining and describing unnecesary things.
Oh, and the user interface reacts quickly when you push any buttons. Which invites me to edit the sounds on it. Not like some of the Korgs and Yamahas out there.
Additionally, when you turn any knobs, they pick up where the parameter was. (they are enless rotary knobs) So you don't hear the sound jumpingt to the current knob position. Nice design style!

10 notes polyphony. I have a module so, there is no keyboard.
Built in effects are very good, but there is no reverb. Of course, since most people buying this thing probably already have a whole studio set up, reverb would not be needed. You can expand the unit to 30 voices. It is a factory modification, so you will have to take it to a dealer. The unit takes no cards, but if you have an editor or librarian, you won't need it.
There seems to be a full MIDI implementation, which includes your choice of sysx or continuous controller for each and every knob.
There is an onboard arpegiator. It can accept user patterns, which I have not yet tried to edit, but it looks very useable. It syncs to incoming clock messages, or you can use an internal clock.
In multi mode, you have up to 8 arpegiators, on each of the 8 possible parts. From the 8 parts, the first 3 have the same effects they have in play mode. Plus there is a chorus effect available from within each program, that does not take any effect processing or voices (NEAT!) so you can have chorus and delay in a sound at the same time. The chorus sounds like it would be using an extra voice (like a detune). It is not adjustable thoug, you either have it on or off.
I would appreciate a category search like some of the new synths (yamaha EX-5, W7 and Korg Z1)
Since it has 256 sounds, it would be nice to find them by category. But on the other hand, the presets are well organized, so, all the basses, are together, all the pads, and so on.

Don't expect any realistic instruments on this unit. But do expect realistic sounding filters.
That's right. This is the only machine I have seen that can do "EVERYTHING" with the filters, just like an analog synth. You can make them oscilate, and you can sweep a very wide frequency range with them.
But most of all, you can sweep very fast with them. Other synths will have a built in "lag" that makes the filter sound smooth, but makes it impossible to make very fast sweeps from MIDI.
In the Microwave, you can choose to have a lag or filter on controller data, to eliminate any quantization caused graininess, or you can remove the lag, to have fast filters. Or anywhere in between. It's your choice.
The onboard effects are good, especially because it has no reverb. It was a good design decision. You will find choruses, flangers, phasers, delays, and other standard stuff. But there is a lot you can do with the synth engine, (ring modulation, simulating lower sampling quality, etc. You don't need a lot of help from the effects.
It is very dynamic on most sounds. Others are static, so you have a wide palete to choose from. Many pads are evolving forever, literally!!
It reacts nicely to velocity and aftertouch. It can reroute any MIDI input to anything in the synth engine.
OH, and the synth engine is the fastest I have in my studio. seriously, Instant response time! Good thing they limited the polyphony. A company like Yamaha would have tried to triple the polyphony with the same synth engine, making response time very poor. The envelopes can track as fast as you want them. When compared to a Korg Z1, the envelopes in the Z1 seem more limited (when creating short cutting sounds)
The Microwave can definately handle short and cutting sounds with ease.
The overall character of this instrument is edgy although easy on the ears, which I love!!

Looks solid. There are many knobs (moving parts) which could fail, but that seems unlikely.

Never dealt with them, rumors are they are great!

If you are looking for something weird, evolving pads, very good analog emulations, grainy textures, wacky distorted stuff, or even a TB-303 emulation, this is your machine.
It has many sounds, you have heard before in hit records, the weird sounds, not the bread and butter ones. For bread and butter, get a Korg N5 or something in the same category.
It is the most inspiring instrument in my rig, even though it is not the most capable one. It actually complements my other instruments (Korg Z1, Yam W7 and EX5 and Emu Orbit). It has the lowest poliphony of all my keyboards, but it is fast, intuitive and gives me a sense of control over the sound no other instrument has given me.
Keep in mind that at $1250 it is a high ticket, so be sure you also look at the Roland JP 8080, Novation Supernova, etc.
I bought it cause I fell in love. You will fall in love too once you try one.

using OS2.14/quite difficult to rate the ease of use because on one hand you have everything at your fingertips (well *almost* everything) while on the other you can easily drown in the amount of interacting parameters and loose the vision of the sound you where about to create... however, if you have some experiences using analog synths tweaking is pretty straight forward -- presets show the power of the machine but are mostly of no use for me; Manual is quite bad especially if you are a beginner / well, this synth isn't for beginners OTOH :-)

Its easily one of the most powerful synths of these days, capable of almost everything -- but, hey: It's a *synth*! That means: no natural sounds, no samples, no drums (well: just a few like a sine-BD). But everything else (and more)! OS is upgradable via MIDI sysex-dump , which seems necessairy since the current version (2.14) is quite buggy. This does mostly not affect the sound engine itself, but the control signals (Modifiers, LFO etc). Since it is based on a wavetable synthesis that allows up to 64 harmonics, almost every sound is possible. With an additional wavetable-editor (which is available for PCs / for Macs in the near future) the possibilities are expanding to infinity...

Now - that is why you buy a synth, right? Well this one is worth a try or two. It is just one of the best sounding synths around, very smooth filter operation, smooth, when distorted, tasty effects, and the most versatile engine for the raw wave material. The basic sound (if you could talk about this since it can change so much) is however, a bit harsh (this is because the waves are stored as 8-bit samples, corresponding to some roughness when xpanded to the D/A-format) and right into your face. Go and see if you like that - if so, it'll be a must.

So far it seems quite sturdy; but: lot's of knobs == lot's of potential hassle. However, it seems to be constructed rock solid and Waldorf has a good reputation for building reliable machines. One thing: the OS is a bit buggy still but they will fix it and continuesly release updates with bug fixes/feature additions. The sound engine stops for a short time when changing a PRG in Multi-Mode.

Best customer support I've ever dealt with. Every question (email) is answered the same day... simply ask Wolfram :) OS updates take care of user requests and known bugs and. Real great support even if you do not own a wave.

8 is just because I can still think of better machines (at unaffordable prices of course). If I should compare with what is on the market (Roland, Access, Novation) I'd give it a ten. The only comparable synth is the NordLead by Clavia - I just decided by taste and versatility. Complements my other sound emmitting gear in a useful manner (Sampler, Rompler, Software based synthesis). I'd buy it again - but it will not get stolen since I am always sitting in front of it, turning these knobs...

The 44 knobs on this synth makes programming much easier than the already easy-to-program Microwave II. There is however, some room for improvement. When setting loops on the multi-segment envelope generators (wave and free EGs), it is still difficult to visualize how the loop is set since this must be set from the data display and not from the knobs. Likewise, there are no physical knobs or matrix switches to program mod routings. This is also done from the data display. Without redesigning the unit, the only way to improve this would be a Mac/PC editor for these functions. Wave and wave table editing,while not available on the XT itself, could also be implemented in a software editor.

The unit has 10 note polyphony, just like the Microwave II. The only difference with the XT are the 44 control knobs and the analog input for processing external sounds. The current OS (2.04) is the same OS used for the Microwave II also. Version 2.04 has a bug when used with the XT in that it powers up in standby mode even if the unit was not shut off by its power switch (ie: power was switched by a power strip instead.) The MW II would come up fully powered in this situation. This brings up another interesting feature. OS software upgrades are easily downloaded from Waldorf's web site as a MIDI file. Waldorf generally is very quick to fix any bugs or add new features. A new OS is only a download away.

This is not the instrument for you if you play in top 40 cover bands, weddings, typical club gigs, etc. Get a typical workstation in this situation. This unit is perfect for experimenting. If you are into ambient electronic experimental music, here's your machine. You can get some of the weirdest, most rich sounding timbres out of this synth, that can't be produced by any other synth.(Not even a Wavestation or modular analog!). The sound is not glass-like smooth as in the average Japanese or American synths. It has the capability to sound grungy in a very good sort of way, even on long sustained patches. Some of the "analog" types of sounds are excellent. Check out the patch "CS-80" for example.

Very reliable so far. It's built pretty solid. It even has a "burnt orange" color textured finish so you can't get finger prints all over it when playing with the controls.

As mentioned before, Waldorf has excellent support. Downloadable OS from their website and a user forum that the company takes an active part in.

I would most definitely purchase this synth again. While not perfect, it's really excellent for the type of music I'm interested in.