Waldorf Pulse

Version 2.01, you can link up to 4 Pulses to get it polyphonic. Easy to use since you get familiar with the interface. I have only one but thought to get second one. Presets are good examples for your own sounds but I have used couple of the presets sounds too in my songs. Editing is ok but again there is great and free editor for PC. I still edit Pulse straight from the box. I bought mine(30 min used) in 1997-1998. Manuals are german but you can find english version(.PDF format) from the net. I had to check LFO sync and filter tune from the manual, everything else has been very clear to me. For this price, I give 8.

Features are right for the price. 12dB LP would be awesome. As I said earlier you can link up to four Pulses with version 2. Very good modulation routins.

Sounds so sweet. At first I thought that I'm not going to use it for bass but now I have used it for it more and more. I like the lead sounds it can produce as the effects and low synthlines. I make electro-ambient and it's perfect for that. Some nasty stuff with distortion too but not acid-squelchy-staff with 24db filter.

Very reliable and well built.

German support is the best I have tried. Waldorf, Behringer and Jomox have the best customer support ever. You can get answer in 30mins!

Not the best synth for the techno makers since it has 24db filter. Can make booming bass if needed though. I would buy another if lost. It has been reliable partner for many years and for me it's irreplaceable. My other synths are: 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

The Pulse is not too difficult too use and program, but then again it isn't the most ergonomic setup either. I don't really like the matrix editing setup, I find it hard to use quickly. Obviously, it is much easier than using buttons like on an FM synth, but it is much lessfuun to edit and patch than a synth with 1 knob/slider per function.

No poly here, this is a monosynth. 3 Oscillators, which I understand are hybrids of dco's and vco's, whatever that means. No effects, but a nice mod matrix allows for complex sounds. It can be expanded by buying multiple Pulses and linking them to form a Poly-Pulse. It has an arpegiator that I don't use.

No realism here, this is an analog mono. It doesn't sound like any accoustic instruments, although I guess someone could program synth version of real sounds if they wanted. Monosynths have only a few basic jobs: Bass, Leads, Blips, and FX. The Pulse is a bass monster! It can generate huge amounts of bass with its giant sounding osc's. I don't really like the way it sounds for higher pitched sounds, such as Leads and Blips, though. FX sound great. I think the real strength of the Pulse is its bass sound, so I use it exclusively as a bass synth. I'm not sure about the filter, however. The resonance drains low end, like on a Moog. I don't like the sound of this filter that much. I'm not really sure how to explain it, but I just find the resonance to be piercing and irritating. The filter is not the star of the show on this synth.

Sounds for Bass: 10
Sounds for other: 6

Feels solid enough, I would use it if I gigged, but I'd have a backup.

N/A

If this synth went away, I think I would buy another. I like having a dedicated bass synth, and I don't know of any other analog monosynths that can pump out bass like the Pulse for under $500. Maybe a Pro-One, but then you have to buy a midi kit that bumps up the price. Bass Stations are close, but lacking a little. I am a lil dissapointed in the higher pitched sounds that the Pulse makes. Maybe its because of the dco/vco osc's, but they lack the warm phasey-ness that I like in a lead synth. Just my personal taste, though. As a bass synth, the Pulse is a force. For leads, its not my favorite.

I'm using the latest OS. Editing sounds is easy by the modulation matrix. The only thing that bothers me is that the values jump suddenly from the original right to where the knob is moved, because the knobs are just basic pots, so there's only 270 degrees rotation. MicroQ for example doesn't suffer from this, because it has optically read knobs which rotate endlessly. Manual was only in germany so it has no help. Well, I never needed the manual, because the machine is so easy to edit and use.

Everybody knows this allready. This is an analogue 3 osc monosynth and does bass and leads very well.

And to Alex Mirones and others, who claim that this synth is digital:
Pulse's oscillators are analog and so is the filter! The oscillators are partly controlled by digital circuitry, but there is no way any d/a-conversion in the signal path by Waldorf, so who can say this thing is digital? Come on! Listen to the sound! No VA-machine can do this weird sound! There really are analog oscs and filter inside Pulse!

By analog oscillators and analog filter, this machine really makes some unbelievable sounds, which VA-machines just dream about making.
Only a monosynth, but can make some extremely weird sounds and powerfull basses and leads that I'll never sell mine.

Listen to the demo's:

http://koti.mbnet.fi/djtuppu/mp3/pulse_real_analogue_power.mp3
http://koti.mbnet.fi/djtuppu/mp3/pulsebassarp.mp3
http://koti.mbnet.fi/djtuppu/mp3/pulsebassarp2.mp3

Never let's me down.

Never needed.

Very easy though i prefer using soundiver...very good this way.

I guess youknow them all.....

Blows the fish right out of the water.Wow......i owned many analogues years ago , sold up and the a few years later bought some virtual synths...like jp8000 which were cool.I bought this as i found it really!cheap and needed some bass in my setup....i was very quickly reminded of the difference between analogue and digital ......amazing
if you do dance or need lead sounds or rich thick and lush monophonic
sounds etc then buy this asap....puts all my others synths to shame in some respects.

seemscool......

waldorf i have had problemswith regrads an xt and parts taking
3months to arrive in the uk aswell as 4 attempts before i got an e-mail reply .....and this happened 4 times on different occasions.....
but they try.....

For 100# what can you say...incredible sounds....and i have owned.....

ms20
sh101
tb303
sequential pro1
dx7
fsir
Z1
Jp8000
K5000R
Nord2
Wavetstaion ad
Osc oscar
Waldorf xt (nowhere near as nice)

so i have had plenty to compare the pulse to...soundwise.....buy one ......

very easy, the manual is necessary to get all the features out of it, but still easier than you can reasonably hope for in a high quality synth.

it is a analog monosynth, no polyphony, and no effects. It is a rack module so no keys, you hold down multiple keys on your midi controller and it will only play the last one, monosynth that it is. Waldorf has upgraded the OS a few times, but the last upgrade was final. No expansion. No sequencer, you can't really program the arpeggiator either, is pretty basic. You can control EVERYTHING over midi, waldorf kicks ass at this. Basically this is meant to do one thing: raw and beautiful analog bass and lead sounds, no more, no less.

the sonuds are beautiful, even a bunch of the presets are awesome. The sounds are why you buy this beast, if any synth sounds like it has balls this would be it. raw beautiful analog. I play industrial and it fits that perfectly. This is NOT a machine for realistic sounds, analog doom all the way.You could use this well for dance and techno, and maybe for a few other things, bass and leads all the way. No unwanted noise.

all metal and waldorf, hell yeah I can depend on it and I do gig without a backup.

I have never needed them, but a friends has and I have talked to Waldorf a bit, great people.

awesome raw synth, I have had it for a bit over 4 months and it has been surprising me with its expressiveness continually. not a meat and potatoes synth, but extremely forceful, I use it as my flaming beast, I love it. I intend to buy another eventually and if someone stole it there would be pain, oh so much pain.

My Pulse has software version 2.01. The synth is easy to use once you become very familiar with the mod matrix. At first it is a bit frustrating but after awhile becomes really quick. The presets for the most part are terrible. There are a couple of useful sounds but it is a real shame that more than half the memory is taken up with unuseable sounds. The manual is excellent and thorough. Legending is pretty small so using the mod matrix is a bit painful until you memorize modulation source/destinations. My primary complaint in "ease of use" is that some functions require combination button presses, and the matrix scroll button only scrolls from top to bottom.

The features are well known and stated in other reviews. I will just say that the modulation capabilities are quite good for a synth of this price range. All of the controls seem to have a very wide range allowing for very sensitive tweaking to very powerful modulations. Sends and receives midi on all knobs.

This synth is a bit of a one trick pony, but it does it's trick extremely well. It is superb for bass of all kinds and very good (in a limited way) for lead. I would describe the sound as warm, liquid, rich, buttery, punchy, and strong. The synth frustrated me for quite sometime until I realized to accept it's limitations and try to bring out the best in what it does. After that I fell in love with this synth.

It has been foolproof and I can't imagine it having a problem unless utterly abused.

Haven't had to deal with them.

I've been playing music of all kinds since the early 70's. I own a Nord Modular, Sherman Filterbank2, etc. etc. I would definitely buy this synth again and would recommend it as a top choice for a bassline synth. Through the Sherman Filterbank and it's one of the most powerful sounding combinations I've heard.

Monophonic. Stereo. No Effects. Great Arppeggiator.

This module is FAT. 3 obese digital oscillators, with a very creamy VCF. But, i must say, that the presets were a bit too hard, industrial, atonal type analog sounds. Do yourself a favor and get the Rob Papen sounds for it (www.robpapen.com). It's like lacing it with Nitroglycerin. BAM!!! All the Minimoog, MS-20, DX7, Obereheim sounds you never knew were possible with this offensively inexpensive unit.

the bomb

I am using version 1.42. The presets suck, and there are only 40 user slots for patches, but I'll live. This synth is super-easy to use, it uses a matrix, but if you think about it, it would have about 70 knobs if there was a knob for every function. So for the price, I can't complain about a matrix editing system. All of the patch editors for it are buggy and they suck, but they aren't nessecary either. The manual is top-notch. It tells you straight up what everything does, and not over-technical.

It's monophonic. But even the name implies that it's to be used for basses, so one is enough. It's not a workstation, and it's not supposed to be. Ok, it doesn't sound like a moog any way you slice it. The filter isn't quite as warm/creamy (but isn't lacking in that department either. The moog's filter didn't step. The pulse uses DCO's which doesn't take away from the beefyness, but makes it a little gritty. But when my fingers go on the black n' whites to pump out a bassline, I forget about all of that and just drown in big, beautiful, mod. matrix injected bass. Straight up, no effects, no expansions, and to be honest, I prefer it that way. If you need to drench your basslines in tons of effects, you aren't doing something right. the midi on this thing is tight, reliable, and everything can be controlled via sysex and cc's. No sequencer, but a decent arpeggiator is on board.

Realistic? No way in hell. Bad? You mean bad meaning bad or bad meaning good? ;) Yeah, the pulse is way bad. Easy to use? Seriously, if you can't figure this thing out, you need to go back to your casios and let real musicians take care of making real music. This synth is suited towards anything that ever needed a good bassline. I suppose it does good leads, I don't know, I don't use it for that. It reacts to velocity and aftertouch just fine, in fact, they are parts of the mod. matrix, so you can control all kinds of crazy stuff with them.

Yeah, this thing is reliable, has never crashed (I'm trying to think how it could), sometimes if you are using an arpeggio and you hit a new note, the arpeggio stops, I think this has been fixed in new versions, but it doesn't happen often enough to worry about. I could definitely gig it without a backup and trust it.

I have emailed waldorf before, they answered me quickly and were kind and curteous. I was inquiring about an OS upgrade, they said it would cost me and this is understandable since it takes eprom upgrades and it isn't under warranty, but most importantly they were kind and helpful as can be.

If it were lost or stolen, I would definitely buy another one. I take that back, I would buy a pulse+ since I love the filter so much! I have been playing for about a year. I don't have a lot of other gear. I love almost everything about it. I wish it were a bit smoother sounding, but I AM nitpicking here, it's pretty smooth, esp. for the price, and if you don't want pure, polished smooth right out of the box, than this synth won't disappoint. It can be a bit sterile sometimes, which sometimes is bad, but sometimes it's good because it's neutral. Everything sounds just as one would expect, no more, no less. That's german precision for you.

Powerfull, but sometime turning the knobs the mixer clip,
I need a compressor/limiter

Monophonic analog synth. 3 osc's (1 tri,saw,pulse;1 tri,saw,pulse,crossmod whith 3;1 tri,saw)+ noise 2 envelopes 2 lfo's up to audio range (1 sin,tri,saw,square,s-h;1 sin whith delay..in later revisions of the firmware these can be sync'd to midiclocks) 24db/oct filter,self oscillating quite powerful arpeggiator (sync'able to midiclock) extensive modulation matrix (nearly anything controls anything) Complete midi control (every parameter has it's midi CC assigned to it)

Very fat analog sound. Great bass and arp. The 24dB VCF is cool.
No DSP, but with an external 300ms delay it's a killer.

Made in Deutschland

It's a kaleidoscope

OS 1.42
The prests sound cool and inspiring.Editing patches is a breeze though only 6 knobs available. A patch editor could be used but I don't think it's a must. The manual is short but effective.

Monophonic synth. Only a low-pass filter(though the better one around since the minimoog in my humble opinion. Few user memory. Cool and efficient MIDI implementation with everything clok-syncable , nice arpeggiator. Few features but I love it cause in this way it lets you focus exaclty on what you're doing with everything in touch for the result you're aiming at.

Simply the best sounding syntetic basses I've ever heard. It does a splenid job also on leads and FX. A polyphonic synth sounding like this one would be one of the best sounding machines ever built. Its sound is pure deep warmth.

Nice Waldorf customer care.

I'm deeply in love with this machines. Only one sound per time, but what a wonderful one ! If you're looking for the definite bass machine, then absolutely go for it. I own a Q and a Juno-106 plus other synths and bixes, but none of them is capable of doing that thick sound of the Pulse.