I wonder if thats true for SW or it is just thoman continuing to say things are coming to keep your business
Maybe it has to do with the quality issues like wobbling knobs and LCD screen not fitting well. Also they have some software bugs to repair. In that case Waldorf needs more time to fix this?
Maybe. I havent seen any software bugs that would cause me personally to stop making them and shipping them. Hardware issues thoughā¦
Just received a reply from Thomann that the shipping of the Iridium has been delayed till october
Iāve had the Waldorf Iridium for 4 weeks now, these are some of my thoughts on it:
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its good for drones and soundscapes, as in the example below
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its good for experimental, and weird sounds
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it can do ambient, but its more a cold menacing edgy ambient style rather than peaceful and uplifting. If you want new age peaceful soundscapes get the Wavestate instead
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its very sharply digital sounding. I have a few other digital synths, such as the Virus TI or the Blofled, and I donāt find them sharp like this.
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though it can produce more analog sounds, there are some presets from Don Solaris of Blofeld Analog Voltage fame. Though not as many as Analog Voltage and to my tastes, not as interesting. Though it takes time and effort to remove the sharp digitalness of the synth as its pervasive. If you want analog sounds why not just get an analog synth instead.
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lots and lots of software bugs. Crashes, bursts of noise, knobs that stop doing anything until you restart it
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the screen is both useful at times, and unuseful and irritating and frustrating at times. Its nowhere near as responsive or accurate as a iPad for example
-sample management is ridiculous. Iāve found no way of bulk importing samples, or of even deciding where they will go on import - I have to import each sample individually and the Iridium makes a new folder for each separate sample! It canāt be this ridiculous, but if there is I havenāt found it in the manual or lots of trying
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not much space for your own samples, but you can load them from a usb stick. But inserting a usb stick frequently makes it crash.
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its very expensive.
One of many sound examples: https://youtu.be/yFl3TQvUomE
Not keeping it then?
The load button -> right above tap āactionā -> āimportā -> select the folder with the samples and there you go. Auto mapping works also but it depends if the samples where already organized.
Thank you for the feedback
I was not convinced of the Irdium since I read the first complains from people and the price.
It is too expensive and I think that a software or an IOS app is still more powerful.
If you buy an iPad pro 11 with 256 gb and use a good DAC the cost is still lower than an Iridium and you have one of the best touch screen on the planet, more portable and more flexible than Iridium
Waldorf has always released products with a lots of bugs in software and hardware which have been resolved after many years.
I remember my first Blofeld was so buggy I had to sent it back and changed it for a different product. I bought a second one after many years and it was still buggy, resold on ebay for cheap.
Only nowadays in 2020 the Blofeld is almost a reliable product to use but it is almost obsolete as there are much better solutions and tools that beat the Blofeld in all areas.
What iOS software does what iridium does?
Can you play the Iridium without plugging in an external midi keyboard? Is there a virtual keyboard?
Waldorf should work with Apple to produce IPad special edition that is pre-installed with Iridium, Largo and Nave.
Iāll buy one in a heartbeat.
The pads are great for sound design. Could play those too
During the time Iāve had it, Iāve been focused on trying to uncover textures I find idiosyncratic to this instrument.
As far as Iām concerned, the Wavetable engineās noisy/ spectrum/ brilliance/ drive params in tandem with the different playback modes are among the most immediate sources for this:
Awesome! Sounds fantastic
A question on the audio inputs, it says in the manual that they can be routed straight to output or to one of the layers for processing. So if I plug a drum machine into this and go straight to output will it mix with the two internal layers ? And if I route it to one of the layers and use the effects etc is the other layer still available to use separately as normal. Therefore itās two part multitimbral in normal operation but if you use one of the layers for audio input it becomes mono timbral ?
The problem is you cannot specify where an imported sample goes.
For example suppose you have lots of samples on a usb drive and you want to install them into the Iridium so you donāt have to rely on the usb drive, thereās no say to say I want sample X imported into existing folder Y. Instead the Iridium for every sample you import creates a new folder. So each sample goes into a new separate folder.
And thereās no bulk import - if you have 10,20,50 samples on an external drive and want to import, you have to do it one by one, and as mentioned, youāll end up with 50 folders, not 50 samples in one folder.
Sound interesting. The most idiosyncratic thing I find in my use of the synth is that each oscillator can can sound very different and as they can be routed differently, it results in one layer within a patch almost having 3 sub-layers, thus a single Iridium patch could have up to 6 of these āsub layersā. So I like to create patches that have different oscillator types and then changing the volume level of those to create change. I donāt have any other synth I feel is like this (though the Blofeld was somewhat).
This is a single patch with one layer with an FM, particle, and standard orcs, played and tweaked live. It doesnāt start to evolve until after about a minute and the FM kernel oscillator donāt come into play until midway through.
Iāll give this a try sometime and get back to you.
Cheers