No – switching patches is nearly instantaneous. presumably because all the wave tables were loaded into memory during startup!
During the boot sequence, in the “slow” portion it specifically says its loading the wavetables and iterates through the table numbers, so it seems pretty clear that this is the limiting step. On my default firmware, with no custom wavetables yet it’s loading 82 of them (at 96Hz/16 bit).
I don’t think you will be disappointed if you make the jump. The low end response is crazy good – an absolute bass monster if you want it to be. I don’t see any of my favorite bass presets that I’ve found so far in Groove’s soundcloud examples The beginning of “Massive Unison” gives you a little bit of a sense of the low end rumble but that example patch was clearly designed not to be particularly tight in the low end.
In the coming days I’ll see if I can carve out a little time to make a few sound examples of my own to upload.
Haha I was listening to that sound just now 
Really massive and a very cool sound. That’s good news regarding bass and low end. Some of these presets are outstanding, also in terms of composition. Not my own style of music but a favourite is mine is Wave SEM - So classic 80s.
Was there plans for adding a better reverb on this synth via FW?
Expensive but if you look at it as first class synth and a sequencer/mini groovebox then it starts to justify the price somewhat or wholly.
Can you clarify what you mean?
There are a bunch of reverb algorithms on the 3rd Wave already. They’re not as numerous or flexible as those on a dedicated reverb pedal, but they’re pretty good to my ear. Plus you have delays, chorus, phaser, flanger, distortion, ring mod, and other FX.
As to value, from where I sit the 24 voices (each w/an analog filter), 4 parts multi-timbrality, immense modulation capabilities, and outstanding sound pretty much make the case for themselves, even if there weren’t FX built-in (which there are plenty of). There are some other really great synths at a similar price point – the 3rd Wave more than holds its own among its illustrious company.
As to groovebox, I think you’re off the mark here. It does have a built-in sequencer but it’s not a groovebox style sequencer and I think you’d be disappointed if you tried to treat it as such. However, it is a great companion to a groovebox. I’m using it with a Push 3 – the MPE response and 4 independent tracks make it super powerful target to sequence with the Push 3.
or who knows what, keep an eye on Groove Synthesis with future products. GS as a company, has goals for making more advanced products.
Definitely take a view at that point in the video above.
I’ll be very interested to see the directions Groove Synthesis goes in future products (assuming they’re selling enough of their current product to make that a possibility).
However, I think it’s important to point out to potential buyers that the 3rd Wave is definitely not a groove box in its current form, despite having a useful sequencer.
While I can foresee additional features being added to the sequencer I find it hard to imagine the 3rd Wave could ever reach anything like useful groovebox status given the architecture of the interface. Since I’m an owner of a 3rd Wave I’d of course love to be proven wrong on this point but it seems unlikely…
Just judging by how many people I know (off internet) that bought a 3rd Wave, I have to think they’re doing pretty well!
The reverbs are uninspiring, they don’t match up and detract, and what is a groovebox style sequencer? Like Elektron?
I’m not sure what the term “they don’t match up” means in terms of reverbs. Can you explain in a little more detail and point to some audio examples illustrating this?
In terms of groovebox sequencing, I’d think at a minimum step-wise pattern creation and the ability to edit a pattern (change notes, delete notes, edit velocities, etc). Currently you can copy patterns within patches but that’s about it in terms of editing. There’s no entering patterns a step at a time – all patterns have to be played in live.
The raw sound of the oscillators and filters is great so you would ideally want the reverb quality to match. I think it doesn’t. Audio samples is any demo with the reverb on. I’m not sure why reverbs on hardware synths suck so hard 95% of the time. Novation Peak and Micromonsta 2 are great.
Maybe the sequencer could be improved but I’ve not followed the development too closely.
Individual out per part is great but mean more money and more cables and hardware.
I’ve heard that there isn’t really enough DSP to bathe 4 parts in the on-board effects so it is probably out of their hands unless the code could be optimized.
An excellent synth, but falls down a little here.
You might check out the manual if you’re curious about actual details of how this instrument works and what it’s capabilities are.
• If you use the Tape Delay on both Part 1 and Part 3, (or both Part 2 and Part 4), only one of these parts can have a second effect.
• If you use the Room or Hall reverbs on both Part 1 and Part 3, (or both Part 2 and Part 4), you can’t also use the Leslie Speaker or the Distortion effect in both of the other locations. (On other words, if Part 1 has the Leslie effect and the Hall effect, and Part 3 has the Hall effect, that is acceptable. But you can’t use both Leslie and the Hall on both Part 1 and Part 3).
Let’s be real, if you’re spending 4k+ on a synth you probably use a separate reverb. I have no issues with the onboard fx but yeah I use other gear/plugins with my 3rd wave.
You don’t have a problem with the FX because you don’t use them 
I would be the contrary, if I’m spending 4k on a synth then the FX better be great.
After all you can feed a mediocre source into excellent FX and get bliss but feed an excellent source into mediocre FX and you end up with crap.
If you use the synth in conjunction with DAW then VST reverb is a no-brainer.
I’m officially coining the phrase “youtube synthesist syndrome”…
That’s great but there’s literally no-one out there saying this reverb is impressive and there’s a reason for that.
So don’t buy it. What is this discussion? People will spend nearly as much on prophets and oberheims which either have no fx or absolute barebones.
Only raving fanboy discussion allowed?
Trying to talk myself out of buying it.
Some 3rd Wave MPE goodness from Starsky Carr:
