Groove Synthesis has announced the 3rd Wave Desktop Module.
The company says that the 3rd Wave Desktop Module offers “all the power, all the features, all the ins & outs, and all the awesome sound of the keyboard”.
In addition, they’ve added MPE support to the 3rd Wave.
Features:
- 3 High-resolution Digital Oscillators Per Voice
- 64 total user wavetable positions with 48 wavetables that contain 64 waveforms per table (32 legacy PPG waves with room for another 16 of this type)
- 32 original 8 bit wavetables from the PPG 2 series instruments with room for 16 more user created 8 bit wavetables
- 7 high-resolution modeled analog waveforms (sine, saw, triangle, supersaw, pulse, white noise, pink noise)
- VCO sync
- Linear FM
- 6-stage wave envelope per oscillator with variable time and position that can be looped
- Optional wave flow section that allows for no wavetable as well as no waveform interpolation
- Upper wavetable mode as with the original PPG 2 series
- Unison mode and chord mode with variable voice count
- 1 Analog Low-pass Filter
- 1 State-Variable Filter
- 4 ADSR+ Delay Envelopes
- 4 Low-Frequency Oscillators
- 2 Digital Effects, including BBD, stereo delay, tape delay, chorus, phaser, flanger, distortion pedal, rotating speaker, ring mod, room reverb, hall reverb, super plate reverb – most modeled on famous hardware devices
- Syncable to master clock BPM
- Parameters modulatable via mod matrix
- Sequencer and Arpeggiator
- 16-slot Modulation Matrix Per Multi-Part
- 500 factory programs. User rewritable
- Connectivity:
- 4 Stereo outputs
- Headphone out
- MIDI In, MIDI Out, and MIDI Thru
- USB port for bidirectional MIDI communication
- Audio Input for creating user wavetables from external audio source
- Audio Input can also route audio through the filters, output chain, and effects
- Sustain/footswitch input
- Volume pedal input
- Expression pedal input
Pricing and Availability:
The 3rd Wave Desktop Module will be available in November, 2023, priced at $3495 USD.
Still a heck of a price as now the keys are gone it should have been EURO 2399,- in the same ballpark as the Waldorf iridium price range also i have ,mailed them several times not any reply on any mails about buying and where.
After that i decided to go for the Nina by Melbourne Instrument & Mayer MD900 their developers actually do care and did mail back even Horst Mayer the creator of the MD900 is excellent
3rd Wave has 8 more voices and analog filters, I feel like that is reasonable for the difference in price.
:’)
1500$ is the biggest difference i think i have ever seen between a keyboard and a module, The Waldorf iridium difference in price is about the same (30%) The 3rd desk cost 800$ more than the iridium desk but the iridium is fully digital. With the 3rd wave you get 24 analog filters, 24 vca’s, a/d converter to control it all (and a/d for the effects and all the extras involved with digital/analog hybrids)
Groove synthesis is very responsive and communicative in gearspace. This product existstance and all the updates (like the latest MPE support) is mainly because of user requests.
I wonder what you wrote to them that made them ignore you.
But then again it seems they answer anyone (even the most entitlement) It may just go to the spam.
nice choices in a module these days. Loving this trend of desktops
I agree Nina is a compelling alternative to this. Subjective pros and cons for either depending on your priorities. Being able to instantly see the parameter and mod settings right on the interface knob settings for each patch you load is more of a game changer for some than can be appreciated unless experienced IMHO. 3rd Wave has 12 more voices (not 8) and the oscillator section is more capable from one point of view and more complicated from another. Personal priorities to select one over the other; I would lean to Nina myself, but they are both fantastic designs.
I like this one a lot.
I’m sure its worth every penny. In one sense, its a variation on Everything In A Box. What doesn’t it have that you’d really need? It’ll generate wavetables based on user drop-ins. That’s a big deal, because the resolution is excellent. It speaks analog pretty well, too, based on a demo I heard. There’s huge potential there. Connectivity out the wazoo, too.
The 3rd Wave is almost like a 2nd cousin to the Oberheim Xpander. Playing those as a pair would probably generate an anti-gravity field you could ride like a pony.
ponies don’t ride particularly well unless you are a tiny, tiny human. then again, the horse is just way too strong for me these days
I played one yesterday at Perfect Circuit (the full synth). It is an amazing synth actually, and I am seriously thinking now of getting one. Was waiting for the UDO Gemini to come out first, but the layout on the 3rd Wave is so well conceived and presented, that it is an almost obvious choice as it is really a powerhouse of a synth and sounds amazing. I’ll wait to see the desktop version and how small the buttons on the unit will be… (love the buttons on the full synth) by that time I’ll have the saved $ on the side 🙂
Seeing this has made my day! I love my 3rd Wave, but I have a Quantum II coming and have room for only one 61-key synth in my current studio configuration. Now this becomes a no-brainer for me. I think the price seems reasonable (more than reasonable, actually). Also, I now have a pretty good idea of the price I’ll be asking for my keyboard version, about $3995!