The stuff I’m seeing and hearing from the Quantum / Iridium is very inspirational.
But, because music preference is personal there’s not really a “right” or “wrong”.
I’m with @vvilms - the most interesting question is 3.0 features for Iridium.
Rolf has said “people will love it”.
Although I’m hoping for streaming samples from USB / SD Card, I have a hunch it’s going to be something to do with the 4x4 grid.
Maybe this is a weird idea, but it would be cool if they could be a grid of wavetables (like a patch work quilt). When you touch one, it would travel to it.
Would also give a way to group sets of wavetables.
2 Likes
The way he said “people will love it” totally makes me think it’s OSC as mod sources for certain targets.
But I also feel like samples from USB/ SD is certainly on the slate for 3.0.
As a personal note, I’ve never really valued sample-related features. I’d much rather be able to run an OSC through the resonator or particle engine, than having to invest time in curating samples to then apply.
I’m gonna go ahead and quote Urs Heckmann, here:
I’ve built a reputation for being the “I-don’t-do-sampling” guy.
It’s been discussed a lot, but my stance is that a focus on synthesis yields more interesting/dynamic/expressive sounds if it does not have a sample playback option, i.e. if sound designers have to make the effort to “create” rather than “apply”.
1 Like
Man, I love U-He stuff! My first VST was Zebra, and I even did the “dinosuar upgrade” with a picture of my E-mu synth with a sign saying “Replaced by Zebra” and it legitimately did. Then I got into Ace, and Bazille. My finest moment was finding things wrong in the Zebra and Ace manuals. Howard Scarr wrote me a PM to ask me if I would be willing to further review the manuals, which I did, and found about 20 things to correct. He wrote me a long thank you note, which was enough for me 
I used to think samples were “imprecise”, but the Digitakt and Omnisphere changed my view on that. To me they are now another way to drive synthesis.
4 Likes
Well, don’t forget about the effort of field recording and foley artist work. Something I totally love to do so!
2 Likes
and @NoiseLab
I agree completely. I don’t recall saying anything disparaging about the aesthetic qualities represented up to now—quite the contrary. I’m saying that the aesthetic range of demos up to this point is limited, and in turn so are the sonic qualities compared to what these devices’ specs clearly promise. @vvilms, Shoebridge calculated 192 whatevers in literally the last 10 seconds of a long demo, which I wanted to see demoed beyond the 24 out of the 192 that he actually demoed.
These devices suffer from too little representation in the wild, due only to the price of admission I imagine. You know, people always make fun of those super-trite demo tracks and presets that get included with Roland sound modules et al., but I’ve always found them quite useful: regardless of the quality of the music (and they’re designed to hit certain cliches and be vanilla), you can hear various aspects of the sonic range that the device is capable of producing. I’ve found these useful for reviewing even after purchase.
1 Like
Haha, Zebra HZ’s been my go-to soft-synth for the better part of 6 years. I also did the dinosaur cross-grade using my accordion. 
– Bazille and ACE are the other two I use most often. 
I’ve always managed to avoid being drawn into buying digital hardware because I always felt like I’d be losing something coming from u-he’s semi-modulars. While I’ll say there are still things that Iridium falls short in comparison to Zebra (most notably the endless filtering options, but also certainly the comb filtering options + XMF), the wavetable and kernels engines alone are like… just something else entirely. (Though, I do so miss Zebra’s OSC FX.)
RE: Howard Scarr’s thank you note – Dude, That’s fantastic. 
I recently had a similar “screen-cap + frame-able” moment after suggesting to add a “glide modifier for any arbitrary mod value”. (Ie. Using the mod-mappers in increment mode = polyphonic param sequencing. Imagine having an option to glide/ interpolate from one value to the next – especially when used in conjunction with chords, etc.) – Urs responded saying that that sounded like a super simple but potentially fantastic feature add.
@NoiseLab: haha, I know; I know. I’ve done some of that as well, and like it in some instances, but generally (for me) when working with synths, I prefer working with live signal over snapshots, if that makes sense.
Like. There’s a certain volatility that you lose when going from analog to digital, and even moreso when going to samples. (at least IME)
1 Like
In the case of the Quantum / Iridium, it is out of context because the “art of creative sampling” is an important part of these synths.
Heckmann’s quote refers more to the principle of the Sequencial Prophet X. But also to the bad reputation or cutting corners of how sampling is generally used.
With Quantum aux output sampling or sound processing also got more interesting. For example I use the Analog Heat and Eventide H9 to give it another flavour between layers. There are so many options to name
This is not made with the Quantum / Iridium but just a brilliant example how sampling can be. The score for the tv serie Chernobyl https://liveforlivemusic.com/news/chernobyl-nuclear-power-plant/
On the synthesis side it still makes me wonder how Talk Talk created that elephant sound in the beginning of Such a Shame with an Jupiter 8
2 Likes
i hope this synth is worth that money i spent… this is the first time i bought one beyond 2000€
1 Like
I agree with you on this, especially in context of generating a wavetable from a sample. Though, I’d still rather be able to deal with live signal feeding into the Resonator engine.
IME, anytime you commit to audio, the potential timbral-transformations become incredibly limited by comparison.
Anyone know if there’s a way to set all of the chords to be the chords in a given scale? I thought you’d be able to, like in scale mode, but I’m guessing the only way to is to save them as a preset?
For me as well. Expected delivery date ist 9th of October, fingers crossed, been waiting since end of July.
Regarding Touchscreens: The Touchscreen of my V-Synth XT (bought in 2004) is still working flawless.
1 Like
This is a selling point for me. I might really be able to get to the kind of new territory I’m after using my Super 6 in live granular mode. If it’s not too tedious to set up, and any setup will lend itself to tweaking and modulating during performance and not just during configuration time, then that would be a thing.
I would certainly want to treat my Super 6’s unprocessed output separately. So now this angle throws me back to the CV’less Quantum. hmmmm…
1 Like
Now imagine if Rolf and co. were focused on getting live signal to run into the Resonator engine as well. And then from one layer to another. Or perhaps even an oscillator engine into another oscillator engine on the same layer.
Furthermore, the live granular engine could be bolstered more with buffer freezing + more nuanced control over particle/ gate lengths, etc.
^ these sort of things interest me far more than streaming samples off an SD or USB.
2 Likes
I have to search for it, but there was something about the ‘Wavetable Representation’.
More of other possibilities of the ‘Wave’ and ‘Spec’ view modes. Right now no edits can be made in these modes. So who knows what the future holds?
1 Like
Yes, please! Would be great to see capabilitIes along these lines. Even if it was restricted to osc1 > osc2 > osc3 and layer1 > layer2 it would be fun to explore.
1 Like
I have a couple of questions if someone could please help me.
I notice there’s no CV out, unless I’m mistaken? How nice would it be to use the Komplex Modulator…
Is the new batch expected to fix the small gap under the screen / any hardware issues, or have they simply run out of stock in most places? I’ve spotted one available but am wondering whether to hold for the new batch.
I paste my answer to your question on my youtube video: Hi! The Iridium has only CV ins. The only output is a Clock out. But it is possible to change parameters of the Complex modulator with the CV ins through the mod matrix.
Waldorf said that the gaps as well as the funky buttons won´t be changed in the production. But they also said that about the Quantum and the later units looks a little different than the early ones.
2 Likes
Now I really have even more mixed feelings what to expect when I receive mine in a few days. Irritating to get such an answer from Waldorf I think. Glad I live in Germany if things get bad…, are bad.