Microwave I: Interstellar Sounds of Stardust (Presets)

Hi there!

Thanks for your interest in the Interstellar Sounds of Stardust soundset for the Waldorf Microwave Series. This one focusses on the evolving pads, brass, strings and textures. The Microwave is a true classic, if you owe a version 1 rev A or rev B, congratulations with a great synth. Never sell it, you will regret it. Please sell your car if you are in financial problems.. On the existing soundbanks I rarely discovered sounds that really showed the more vivid side of the Microwave. I started programming.. In the right hands it’s an ultimate pad monster and sounds just so lush and dreamy compared to many other wavetable synths. The Interstellar Sounds of Stardust sound bank was born out of a fascination and total obsession for this synths capabilities. Hours of programming went into these presets and I tried to make sounds that weren’t available on the net and would please myself in the first place. Now the good news is that I made these available for all you Microwave users out there! Go get your fix!

The Microwave is the ultimate dream machine and shines when it comes down to pads, chords and textures. There is an organic and evolving character to these combined with a certain thickness. It can sound lush but also extremely hard and machine alike. There are plenty of wavetables with different character and you can track those all with LFO’s! Where the Microwave comes to life is the modulation matrix and programming this via the module isn’t really inspiring. I hope i’ve helped you all a bit.

"To get an impression, listen to the attached showreel with sounds on youtube."

What do you get:

A variety of 64 presets, crafted with love and attention.

-Moving Pads, Bell sounds, String/brass, Evolving Textures

Important notes:

• This is not a sample kit 
• It’s is recommended that you have the V2.0 Eproms installed on the MW 1, some patches use newer waveforms but they should work with the old Eproms too. I can recommend the upgrade to V2.0, it adds new waveforms and many more functionalities and brings more life in your precious vintage Microwave. 

• This soundbank was designed for the Waldorf Microwave 1. From what I heard is that the single patches are compatible with the Microwave II & XT but be advised that there may be differences in sound and I do not owe these units. I have never tested my patches on the other versions so I can not guarantee. The single patches will probably work but the soundbank won’t be compatible for transfer.

• These patches are “Single Patches” and not the so called “Multi’s”, you can of course stack these patches in your Multi section and get even fatter sounds.

• These patches are stored in one native Sysex file that the Microwave can understand. The file is small, but all patches are in there.

• Single patches can be found in a separate folder so you can use them one by one.

• It’s recommended that you use Sysex or a similar alike program to transfer the soundbank/patches to your Microwave. Just set the correct speeds for transferring.

• By pressing play or transfer, the internal patches are overwritten. No further functionality should be turned on in order to write the sounds to to the Microwave.

• Device number should be 0 and the Midi channel should correspond to the Sysex program or DAW channel.

• To transfer the patches/soundbank just press “send” and the Microwave’s green light will start too bling, once done it stops.

Converting MicroWave Sounds​

The MicroWave II/XT/XTk can also use Sound and Multi programs made for the first
MicroWave. It has a built-in converting feature to import these programs via MIDI dump. Currently only the conversion of single sound programs is supported.
The MicroWave II/XT/XTk identifies such data by its model ID defined in the Sysex header. Although conversion takes place automatically, there are some points you should keep in mind:
• A converted program may not sound exactly the same as played in an original
MicroWave. Since the first MicroWave uses analog circuits, which may differ from
device to device, its impossible to make programs sound exactly the same.
• The MicroWave II/XT/XTk uses a Modulation Matrix with 16 slots. Theoretically, it
is possible that an "old" program uses more modulation assignments so that some
entries would get lost. Actually, there is only a little chance to get into trouble.
• The Filter Envelope of the MicroWave II/XT/XTk has no delay parameter. When an
imported program uses a delay setting other than 0 for this envelope, the
MicroWave II/XT/XTk will setup the Modifier Delay unit to handle this situation.
• The converted sound will reside in the current edit buffer, so it needs to be stored
manually