Waldorf Q+

the manual is clear...the presets are quiet good...and very easy to patche with all these knobs. My version is the 3.54 - 1.22
But you need to have some partice of synths...
The multimode is not easy to edit, like all the multimode editors.
it's like a Ferrari...a beast difficult to control...but when you get it
: what a pleasure !!!

The polyphony : 100 voices in V.A !!! yes...and 16 with the analog filters (and believe me...it sounds realy analog) - the effects are very easy to use (2 patches with delay,chorus,flanger,...)
you can expand the number of program locations by using a memory card : Q-card256Mb, the card is equipped with Flash memory (so you never need to replace a battery or recharge the card)...But very rare !!! - the midi capabilities : full options...too much for me...and thanks GOD for the sequencer 32 steps :
easy to use ; it works like the korg SQ10 , and you can assign each step : cutoff / velocity...aso...last but not least : the arpegiator...you can do your own pattern...

The sound...I told you ...like a Ferrari...no words could explain...only the sound of the machine...the limit is (not) the sky ! but the universe !!! of course if you're looking for a piano sound ...forget about it...and it's not his purpose ...the Q+ has been done to play sounds that not exist yet...so what a pleasure to be the first one ...

the synth is a Tank machine...you can used on a gig...very well builded (German dot it better )

No problemwith the customer support , but i'm located in Europe near Germany...even if the company goes bankrupt...you can easily found update on the website...and the manager is still in contact with a mail address...

I have an Andromeda A6, acces Virus C , nord lead 3, jomox sunsyn...but the number one is the Q+...i shall sell my Ferrari but not my Q+...the only think that you can hated about the Q+ : the price that will increase every year and the rarity ...nobody wants to sell his Q+...GOD BLESS WALDORF AND THE Q+

- I use the OS v5.54
- 10 if you are familiar with complex modular analog synthesis. There are really many possibilities to create sounds on this synthesizer. In each section/module the most important parameters are on the front panel. Everything is clear with its 58 endless rotary knobs & 39 buttons. You wonder: "endless? And how do i check the value of a parameter?" When you turn a knob the value appears on the main screen and if you wanna have a look without changing the values, there is a button called "Peek", push it and any knob you'll turn will show it's value without any modification. IMO this is very convinient for lives btw. patches.
- There are some presets done especially for the Q+ but most of them are taken out of the usual Q. They sound really nice and are quiet diversified for all styles of music.
- The manual exists only in English and German. It's nicely written, clear and gives some nice tricks.

- If you wanna see all the specifications of this synth, go here:
http://waldorf.synth.net/q_plus.html
They will really speak by themselves and you'll see that you can loose yourself very deeply in the waves of sound with this Trip Machine.
- 100 dynamic voices. 16 multi-timbral parts. 3 sound banks and 1 drum bank.
- Analog osc. + wavetables (+subs) + FM + ring modulation + hard sync + variable noise color, extreme range of pitches...
- One of the most complex filter section, with Pan for each osc. btw. the 2 independent filters, continuous routing (btw. serial and parallel) and a final pan in the stereo for each filter. Plus, FM, loads of filters (PPG with its shinny res.), self-oscillation for nearly all filters, distortion, modulations by loads of effective sources.
- Loads of modulations. Where you see that the Virus C/TI only has 2 Envelopes, The Q series doubles its amount (4 fast or long EGs with diff. levels of complexity) and by the same occasion also the Matrix with 16 fully free assignable slots (with many destinations) compared to only 6 for the Virus C/TI! This beast even has Matrix Modifier functions with 4 slots. They perform mathematical functions on modulation signals. Calculation is done between two source signals or between a source signal and a constant parameter. And i still didn't even talk yet about the LFO's which are very fast (over 1000Hz) and have many options.
- The Q+ sends all kind of MIDI signals and also receives them. It even sends the notes from the arpeggiator and the sequencer just in case you'd like to use those for other gears that deserve them. Between, its arpeggiator is one of the bests i've ever seen in any machine.
- Its 16 steps-sequencer is simple but very useful. You can use it to send out modulation signals for each step like Cutoff or Velocity modulations.
- One last thing, that the digital Q series don't have is the fact that on the Q+ you can fade between different kind of noise signals. A very nice bonus IMO.
- There is a dual FX section. The best are the delay (can be surround), tape-delay and 5FX. Then come the distortion, chorus, flanger and phaser which are nice. Just the reverb isn?t that great.
- I?m certainly forgetting great things!

Ok now the most interesting part...
- Great dynamics!!! Nothing more to say.
- I admit that this machine doesn't sound like the typical vintage Analog synthesizer even if it has Analog filters. HOWEVER... the Analog filters do add Massive Phattness to its sound (when the resonance is fully down) and their resonance is really a killer. Imagine a massive 4pole analog+4pole analog in series = 8pole analog!!! You can?t you gotta hear it!!! When i got it, i expected a bit more of that analog grain feeling but then later i told myself why would i need more as i have already other synths that gives me this! The Q+ can be milky, sweet, soft, light as well as hard, harsh, heavy, gritty, deep and last but not least very complex. It definitly has a nice ?analog? sound but it has something more special and it's totaly understandable as it's an hybrid machine.
- Strangely some sounds fit better with the analog filters and some other with the digital filters. Mix the 2 worlds and you'll simply get the best of both!!! It's really too bad that the Analog filters don't have FM... Though don't forget that the LFOs can be very fast and you still can mix a digital filter with an analog filter and even play in the pan width (LFOs).
- Very expressive! You can set the mod-wheel, aftertouch, velocity to any of the destinations. Great sequencer, arpeggiator, very complex matrix, many options for each section?!!!
- As this machine has so many features i can only recommend it to all kind of styles. Especially for the styles Electro, Industrial, Techno and Ambient! It?s very expressive, very original and offers many different kind of sounds. A real trip into sound!

Well, here lies its weakness.
- Until now i ?only? found 1 bug and it?s not permanent (understand that it appears time to time (it can be once all 2 months or once a week while using it in a daily bases).
The bug concerns the FX section. The instr.1 sends sometimes its signal so the FXs of instr.2 and this happens also all second voice triggered and only with the Analog filters used. The way to solve this is simply to reboot the machine or if you don?t have any FXs in the other instr., simply bypass. IMO it's not really inconvenient as, when you switch it on, you can simply test if it behaves normaly or with the bug.
- I?m not picky about keyboard feelings. Sure it?s a pitty that this synth. doesn?t have a quality key feeling but it?s not a piano here and it?s respectable for a synth. I?ve read on the previous post that the keys ?click?, not with mine. Ok they are not silent also, but this is the case for all synths, normal.

There isn?t anymore a real costumer support as the company doesn?t exist anymore. Well, so what? It?s the same with legendary Seq. Circuits, ARP, OSC and other companies! Though Stadler-electro.de will help you if you need repairs or any info about Waldorf products and the Waldorfians community is very helpful also. Nevertheless there are still some developments for current Waldorf products. Like the next new OS v3.0 for the Microwave II, XT, XTk. So who knows, maybe there will be one for the Q+. So a good 7 for this section.

Yeh I give a 10! I don?t care of the little defaults. I?m so happy and proud with this synth. And very often my friends or other musicians ask me which machine has been used in my sounds and those are Q/Q+ sounds. This synth. even helped me a lot improve my designing skills. When I have the opportunity to use another synth. very often I tell myself that it?s an easy synthesizer to use. There are so many tricks to discover and if I have time I?ll make a resource booklet like users did for the A6 Andromeda. If mine is stolen or gets destructed, and if i find a good deal, i'll rebuy it! This synthesizer is now part of Synthesis History!!!

Excellent user interface.

Keyboard action is good. Responsive aftertouch. Poly is only 8 when the analog filters are used (2 per voice). MIDI is extensive and all knobs transmit data (a dream). Mod matrix as complex as you can imagine.

Does not sound like a vintage analog. Sounds like what it is..a hybrid. Analog filters definatly warm up the sound and are much smoother than the digital. The digital filters sound to "perfect" to me. Most unique sounds are with the filter overdrive. A very versitile wavetable/VA synth. Harsh.

No problems at all.

Waldorf is regrouping? Have had no problems w/ this synth thus far so...

Unique wavetable/analog sound. Great lead machine. Find one if you like harshness! These are rare now.

OS: 3.53

First of all let me say that I am a previous microQ owner, so my knowledge of most of these parameters is pretty broad. As such, my score here may be slightly biased.

The presets on this thing are pretty much bread and butter synth sounds. Lots of pads, leads, and basses. A lot of these make use of the analog filters, so that is a plus for those wanting to sample this synth's sonic pallete.

Editing(creating) patches on this thing is a breeze. 58 endless rotaries (meaning they are automatically at the proper position when one dials up a patch), as well as 39 buttons take menu diving to a minimum. Although I think that this synth may be overwhelming to those who are unfamiliar with synthesis. There's a knob for almost evey parameter, but sometimes you need to press a button if you want to switch between filters 1 and 2 for instance.

Some of the knobs have indicator LED's, which is a huge plus. The minus is that there isnt enough of them. The oscillators have LED's indication which waveform is selected, the LFO's have LED's which indicate their speed. It would be great if the LFO's had LED's to indicated their waveforms, as well as having LED's to track the relative position of a rotarie (like on the Nord Lead 3). It would also be of great help if the envelope related rotaries had LED's to indicate which phase of the envelope is active when a note is pressed.

The LCD screen is also a bit small. Companies like Alesis, Roland, and Korg, are putting HUGE and very informative LCD's on their synths. I would imagine that an instrument in this price range should have a larger screen, but it's not the case.

I found the modulation matrix on the microQ to be a bit more intuitive than on the Q+. There you had four knobs to assign modulation slots. Here you have two.

Another feature which would have been nice is to be able to edit Arppegiator patterns using the step sequencer knobs. Once again, you are stuck using just two knobs.

Despite these few minor negatives, I think this is one of the easiest synths to master in terms of interface. It doesnt hold a candle to the Nord Lead 3 interface in many aspects, but this is by far better than most other synths I've tried.

Due to the sheer compexity of this thing, as well as a few minor letdowns,I'm giving this section an 8.

Up to 100 voices, 16 REAL analog filters (Xpole filters), 16 parts multi, and the biggest modulation possibilities of ANY synth besides a modular beast (such as a G2 or Doepfer system) make this thing a synthesist's dream come true. Just for one voice, it would take no less than 50 modules on a true modular system to recreate some of these patches. With that in mind, imagine how big of a modular system one would need in order to achieve the polyphony of the Q+. The monthly utility bills alone to run such a machine would cost more than the price I paid for the Q+.

The Q+ has up to FIVE oscillators per voice, thirteen UNIQUE sounding filter types (including a perfect emulation of the venerable PPG filter), Comb filters for physical modelling, extensive FM options, massive modulation matrix, built in programmable step sequencer, built in programmable arpeggiator, etc etc etc. The list is huge.
One place where the Q+ falls short is in the effects section. You can only have four effects while in multi mode, as well as a few global effects. The effects themselves dont sound that great, but if you are in a studio using a DAW, software effects can easily compensate for this shortcoming. Playing live, on the other hand, would require an external effects unit.

Another pitfal is the fact that there are only 300 user rewritable patches. If one wants more, one has to buy a Qcard.

I give this section an 8.

This is the reason I bought the Q+. I am sick and tired of VA's trying to emulate vintage synths. How many MiniMoog clones do artists out there really need? If I wanted fat Moog sounds, I would get a Voyager, Andromeda, or SE-1X. I bought the Q+ due to the fact that it has UNIQUE sounding filters that one can not get anywhere else. To be fair, there are other digital synths out there that have unique sounds (Virus C comes to mind), but the Q+, in my mind, stands above the rest.

When I was at the store demoing my unit before I took it home, I dialed up a simple bass patch, set the oscillators to analog, cranked up the resonance, and let it rip. Awe struck, the sales person pointed to a rack which had various Clavia, Access, Novation, and Alesis synths, and said "Wow, those right there cant do that". It just sounds THAT thick. Ear shattering basses, screeching leads, and inspiring pads just ooze out of every nook and cranny of the Q+.

I have one MAJOR gripe with the sound path on this synth though. When sounds are routed from the sound generators (noise, oscillators, digital filters) and to the analog filters they are converted to an analog signal for processing. This is great. What is not so great is that once the signal is filtered, it is convered to a 44.1 khz digital signal to be sent to the effects processor, from which it is sent to the outputs. There is no way to get the pure analog signal to the outputs without converting to a (by today's standards) relatively low sampling rate first. Don't get me wrong, the analog filters still sound rediculously beefy, theyre just not as good as they can be.

For this reason, this section gets an 8.

Hmmm....this part is a bit tricky. In it's current state, the OS is buggy. Sometimes the synth freaks out when I switch between patches. At other times, the Amp envelope wont trigger properly until the previously triggered envelope is finished. The only way to fix this is to shut off the synth and start it back up again. This is not an option if one is playing live.

Waldorf is also notorious for being slow regarding OS updates. This is unlike Access which regularly surprises it's customers with HUGE OS updates, even for discontinued products. Meanwhile the Waldorf MicroWave XT users have been waiting a LONG time for an update to their beloved synth.

The case on this thing, on the other hand, could not be any sturdier. Solid steel, all around. The knobs feel smooth and sturdy as well.

My BIGGEST complaint about the WHOLE keyboard lays here though, since this is something that no OS update will ever fix: The modwheels and keyboard feel like utter crap. The modwheels can be made to whobble side to side, and the keys CLICK when they are released too quickly. Absolutely not acceptable for an instrument of this price. I have my Alesis QS 8.1 sitting next to me, and the keys as well as mod wheels are extremely sturdy. How was Waldorf outdone in this department by a company known for it's poor quality issues?

I expect that I will have to replace a key at one time or another in this board's future.

I give this section a 4 (an F in my book).

Slow OS updates...no updates for old synths. Not good.

On the other hand, the techs are extremely responsive when one contacts them Via email.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. For some reason I was sent a German manual, not an English one. No big deal since one can download the English manual from the site.

A 7 for this part.

Ok, now dont get me wrong here. I went through a LOT of trouble to get this thing, especially at the price I paid. I went through all of this trouble because I was convinced that this was the right synth for me. I am still certain that, out of all the synths on the market today, this is the one that fits me best. It has unique and BEEFY sounds, as well as an extremely flexible synthesis engine.

There are a few shortcomings, but I would rather deal with them than deal with a synthesis engine whicn does not suit my tastes.

In terms of helping me make music, this is as inspiration as it gets. Make your own patch, or dial up a random one, and be inspired. It sounds that great.

If one is after warm vintage sounds, move along, this is not the synth for you. This is more for those who like their songs to be harsh and angry. I think a tb-303 would sit well next to this.

If this was lost or stolen, I would be devastated. Again, I went through a LOT of trouble to get this synth at the price I wanted. If it was stolen, given Waldorf's current financial situation, I dont think I would be able to get a new one at this price. If this was the case, I would probably go with the Andromeda, a rack full of various mono synths, or any synth on the market which came close to the Q+'s specs.

So to re-iterate, this is the perfect synth for me, despite it's shortcomings. I dont believe there is a perfect synth out there, nor will there ever be one. There will always be tradeoffs in various aspects.

In my mind, I give it a 9. It's monstrous, complex, and everything I ever wanted in a synth. It could just be a tad better....