It wasn’t a sales flop or it wasn’t expensive?
FYI, I wasn’t the one making the claim that it hurt Waldorf, simply positing that it seems like that could have a been a product to do that. You can’t even find a published review on the AFB16 which builds the case it wasn’t so much as a minor success.
my goodness… This thing sounds like what I hoped the quantum would sound like. This sounds like the proper successor to that era of PPG/ESQ-1 type synths.
No keyboard, no effects, no sequencer. High price. I know Waldorf has a pedigree and a lot of whale customers, but this seems a little …forced.
I’ve noticed they seem almost self-consciously quick to point out that there are no effects. They try to make it sound like a virtue or like something unnecessary. I think it’s maybe unfinished. One of the spokesmen even said in a video that maybe there would be chorus or delay down the line.
I know plenty of people with bulging studios will be into this but I can’t get too excited about a product that needs both an external keyboard AND external effects to make an instrument of it.
I think it’s a baller move personally.
People that have been asking them forever for a new MW and this is exactly that. Those people will almost certainly have multiple midi controllers, and many effects options in hardware and software. Why make it $600-1000 more expensive with redundant features?
I do think it mould be cool if they came out with a Mk, for those who want a new flagship MW/XT keyboard… but I think the vast majority would opt for the M as it is now.
Internal effects is ok for jamming, but i find it problematic when recording stuff, and needs to mix it later. So i try to never use internal effects on synths anyway.
Funny about not being a keyboard. I dont think the manufacturers can win. If its 4 octaves, the 5+ octave crowd will complain. And the desktop crowd would demand a desktop unit. The more options people seem to have, the more they complain when all their needs dont get forfilled in a product. (This is a general observation, and not aimed at you @Ob ) 
Yeah, I do think it depends a bit… there are definitely synths where the fx feel like part of it, but yeah in the price range it is in I think most getting it will prefer the multiple outs into whatever fx they have.
I think releasing a desktop and a five octave keyboard is the way to go. Most people that want keys, want enough of them to play on. (at least with a poly synth) Most people who are space constrained or use a central controller, want a desktop.
If people want 37 or 49 keys, they should get a desktop and a small controller. (unless maybe it’s a mono synth where that makes sense)
All of these 37 key poly synths that have come out in recent years kind of baffle me. 
After the Waldorf Microwave comes the Waldorf George Foreman Grill. Then the Waldorf Bread Oven. All classics…
You forgot that before the Foreman, Stromberg must be released first!
Their sample manager btw. is called “Spectre”…
Not really forced. In comparison…:
Moog Sound Studio: DFAM & Subharmon goes for 1579€…and that´s only two separate analog mono voices…limited sound palette…no FX too, no full preset saving…and other shortcomings.
I agree about Moog but I don’t see Waldorf as being far off that. Even sticking to the same form as the Irridium and Kyra. I know there are good developmental / economic reasons for doing that, but to me it just seems a bit like, well, we have this box to fill with something before Superbooth. What’s going to move more squares?
I believe that you are overly negative here. It’s not easy to develop a very good sounding synthesizer in general and it is a hell of a lot of more work to reengineer a thirtytwo year old digital synth. And even restrict yourself even more by limiting hardware resources so that you are forced to think like the former developers is either genius or crazy. Or both. But no one does this because he wants to make quick money 4 weeks right before Superbooth.
The price bugged me at first. But I get it now. This is the price you pay for something that says Made in Germany (or USA or Japan, etc). I’m always complaining about how manufacturing is done today. Well, I should shut up now. And there is nothing wrong with a module. I just hope they do make a keyboard version for users like me. I’m probably going to end up buying this at some point. But this time, I will be wise: I will wait until we see how they deal with bugs. This won’t be another Pro 3 repeat!
The Waldorf Goldfinger. 
I don’t think the price is too far off from what I would suspect something like this to be. Everyone in this thread has probably owned, or wanted to own a Microwave, and Waldorf delivered a beautifully designed reboot with a fun and improved interface. Also, the screen looks very nice. There is going to a bit of a “classic” tax added to this the same way the Sequential did the Prophet 5 or Moog did the Model D. And some of that is also in the materials used.
And hey, the choice is yours. You can get an original Microwave for around the same price as the M. And if you love them both, then own both. They do have different enough filters. I believe the M comes with the 2144 filter, which is the updated filter that was used in the PPG 2.3, while the original Microwave used Curtis chips, CEM 3389 and later CEM 3387. I think the M filters sound nice, and they are the filters used in the UDO Super 6, Prophet X, and MFB Synth Pro. They have a nice liquidity to them.
I take your point here. And considering the experiences I’ve had recently, I should put more stock in build quality, and be willing to pay more for it.
(I wonder if the decision to make this in Germany is a result of the negative response to the first irridium units — or were they built in Germany too?)
Your comment also interested me because I was considering, and still am - off and on, getting a Pro 3. What were the issues you had with it? You’re talking about the inside, not the outside, right?
Will the Waldorf Casino Royale come with its own croupier? 
Get the Waldorf air fryer if you want to be cutting edge!!!
Waldorf partnered with Korg a while back, so I’m guessing they have mfg channels in Germany, Japan, and probably China as well, depending on component etc. In any case, they do things right. EVERY boutique maker of anything can have some early hiccups. The good ones fix them. Waldorf usually has minus a few items on their earlier synths like not-quite-baked XT OS for example. Even then it’s one of the best synths of all time. Nearly objectively