Waldorf PPG Wave 2.V

Waldorf PPG Wave 2.V was developed by Steinberg and is compatible with MAC or Windows. It will work differently on a Windows computer than it doesn't on a Mac though. In my experiences on a Windows computer it works more “fluid” like and on a Mac there are some small bugs. I am not sure if they have every updated those bugs yet either. So MAC users beware. The original Wave 2 was realest almost 30 years ago, Steinberg has brought it back to live with this plug in.


SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

It was easy to install, and it ran perfect on my XP and Vista Machines, but not too well on MAC. There are many bugs that I have seen and dealt with while running it on a MAC. So I don’t even use it on there any more, working around those bugs and dealing with them are a headache.


OVERALL OPINION

The sounds are the best thing about this plug in, they have managed to take some of the older sounds from the original Wave 2 and bring it to the computer music world but with a twist. Also its very affordable, I have been using this for almost 8 year now. The Waldorf PPG Wave 2. Has some very unique filters and effects that are very CPU light, you can go crazy with the effects and it wont effect your systems performance at all (on Windows). Now on a MAC that’s a different story. They have constructed this VST to highly resemble the look of the original Wave 2 don’t to every color and button. Difference is, the Wave 2 was not affordable at all for the average person when it first came out, you weren’t able to get it unless you had a huge budget. The Waldorf PPG Wave 2, is better than the original and its cheaper. You will love the quality of sound, I am extremely happy to say that I purchased this 8 years ago and I am still using it to this day. I would make the same choice all over again if I needed to.

I have no compatibility issues with this synth except for some strange reason both of my waldorf plugins do not play well with my macbook keyboard in ableton 8. Sometimes notes play and sometimes they don't. When I plug in a real midi keyboard, there is no sign of this. I have not needed to reference the manual as this is a very simple, stripped down synth. Yes, the general configuration is very easy and all the functions are right on the front of the board with a few buttons that open up sub menus.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Besides the the laptop keyboard not working well with it, there are no other problems and the synth seems to work great in all other aspects. So far no crashes and none of my presets have been lost. It also remains exactly how you leave it after closing in a session. With an actual midi controlling device, it seems to work great. I give it a 10 out of 10 for performance as the laptop keyboard thing is really just a gimmick and I never use that for performance. I have been using this synth for about two months.

OVERALL OPINION

What I like most about this synth is that there are some really great soundscapes/effects to be pulled out of this synth. None of the presets have a real name (they are all named Factory '84 #) which is pretty lame but it is fun to run through them all to get an idea of what this guy can do. What I don't like about this is there is really nothing new or special about this synth. Some of the sounds are cool and tweaking is easy but there is nothing else to note really. I guess if I had gotten this plugin earlier before I used so many great soft synths, I would be more impressed, but really, it just sits most of the time. I only use it when I get bored and decide to randomly pick a preset and tweak it in hopes of a cool noise or something. I paid $100 for this and two other plugins. Not a bad price but I don't really use this enough to warrant the money. Precision and quality of sound is good, but it pales in comparison to some of the monster synths like Rob Papen's stuff, absynth, etc....
I would probably pass on this synth knowing what I do now only because it is nothing really new and doesn't really bring much to the table.

The installation is done it without problems? YO
Have you encountered any incompatibilities? NO
The general configuration is easy? YO
The manual is clear and sufficient? ... NO (this is never the case anyway)

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I have a 1.5ghz P4 with 256 MB RAMBUS Hoontech ADDA2000 DSP24 soundcard
The software runs smoothly

OVERALL OPINION

How long have you use it? 1 year

THE +
Frankly sounds workable at the P53 ...

LE -
Aliasing vraimment sometimes annoying. But we must try. Some should kiffer.