Someone got this baby?
Soundwise as hard like the old Pulse or is this synth capable producing smooth sounds as well?
Is it a good partner for the A4?
The Pulse 2 has CV and Gate outputs but not inputs, so you could not use one instrument to sequence the other.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb14/articles/waldorf-pulse-2.htm
I have the OT… so sequencing would be fine.
But soundwise? All the demos i’ve heard so far showing the hard, sometimes cold and clean side.
I haven’t used one but watched closely for a long time… I do know that they’re backwards compatible – they’ll play original Pulse patches, so probably sound quite similar with a few new tricks.
And as for harshness, in almost every case where I’ve come across this it can be avoided by turning the oscillators down before they hit the filter. Notably the Analog Four, Monomachine, Microbrute, and Evolver all have vastly different sound when the oscillator(s) are overdriving the filter.
I’ve got one and I am really of two minds about it. On one hand, when I do play around with it, I can usually tease out a really meaty and noisy sound. I know I can do some cleaner and more precise-sounding bass lines with it, but I have enjoyed it when I go for the grit, and I have had no problems getting it to sound nasty when I want it to. The arp on it is also really fabulous and really impacts how I design sounds on the thing. If I could transplant what that thing could do into my A4 I’m not sure I’d use anything else. One real nitpick I have with it is that the filter resonance is kinda meh. It really takes the meat out of the sound if I abuse it, which contrasts with my experience with some other gear I own.
On the other hand I have really only ever played around with it. It has never ended up in any productions I have made as I can never quite get it to fit into my mixes. That might not be the instrument and might just be me, but I find that the A4 has suited my sensibilities for overall production rather than the P2, which has been satisfying to play with, but nothing more. Now, if I could use the A4 to seq it via CV, I might be singing a different tune–sending it into the A4 for further processing, which I could still do now anyway, but it would need sequencing from somewhere else.
That being said, I still haven’t sold it, so maybe I am still hopeful that I can figure out how to make it work for me.
Hope that helps.
thx man, that is a good input
i considering this synth since it´s arrival
i allready have a Blofeld and i have some sort of split relationship to this Waldorf and about Waldorf itself in general.
The A4 on the other hand ‘talks’ to me instantly - i mean it says ‘use me’
this is not the case with the newer Waldorfs
anyway, once again thank you
Have had it for about 6 months. I don’t think I could ever sell it. The oscillators, when all 3 are used, are just way too beefy (in comparison to the A4). I got it for fairly cheap, but even then, the modulation possibilities you get with it, along with the ability to do paraphony and 8 or 4 voice on 1 osc is great (albeit, the pulse waveform is not my favorite–I’m a sawtooth kind of guy).
They still haven’t added in the effects portion and I’m not too big on their drive/saturation or noise generation. The bandpass filter is very weak and just really bad; virtually unusable on mine. You also get some amp decrease as the res gets higher. EG stepping is very noticeable if you add a nice reverb on it, however the filter cutoff itself is super smooth.
It has a grit that can be well-tamed, and for dub-techno chords (amongst other uses), it f*ckin growls for the price (got it for $500 brand new).
I felt like many of the bass patches from Don Solaris’ Analog Voltage Blofeld soundpack were good enough to show that owning both Blofeld and Pulse 2 can be a bit redundant.
Though, others may disagree.
It’s all about careful programming of the drive curves.
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got one of those:
- its capable of warm sounds, no problem
- i really like the paraphony thats the reason i got it, you can play chords with it
- i really like the noise and the built in distortion/amp simulation
- i hate the knobs, they are a cold smooth metal, i want to change that
- i also dont like the heavyness of it, i wish it was built in a light plastic box instead
- i hate the interface, i wish it had a dial for every parameter
i usually sequence it with the Octatrack and that works awesome