Romain Giannetti of Kiviak Instruments has launched a Kickstarter project to fund production of the WoFi, a cloud-connected sampling synthesizer that they say is both WiFi and lo-fi.
The WoFi is a 10-voice polyphonic sampling synth, with built-in sampling, the ability to emulate classic samplers, plus the ability to load samples directly from the Internet. They call it ” the first lofi connected sampler”.
It also can run on battery power and has built-in speakers, so you can use it anywhere.
Features:
- Record samples effortlessly with the internal microphone or the stereo input
- Play any recorded sample chromatically with 10-voice polyphony
- Transform the sample with the different emulated sample players and the rich synthesizer interface with: an envelope, a low-pass filter, an LFO, etc…
- Bring “sparkles” to your sound with Texturer
- Sequence notes and parameters and play along with it
- Use it on the go with its internal battery, microphone, and speaker
- I/O for midi, cv/gate, audio, and analog sync. All the signal flows go two ways : inward and outward; you can configure it however you want.
- Get samples and patches from mywo.fi or share yours directly using the internal WiFi chipset
- “Sleek interface”, without menu diving
WoFi Audio Demos:
Pricing and Availability:
The WoFi is available to project backers, starting at €599 (about $632 USD).
Note: Crowdfunding projects involve risk. See the project site for details.
My only question is: Sure, it has a stereo input, but does it maintain the stereo sample or is it summed to a mono sample?
I found the answer from the builder in the comments section of the kickstarter page:
“…in the actual firmware, you can record from stereo source to mono sample (probably in a future firmware stereo samples will be supported) and yes the cartridge can expand your storage and you can play directly from it without any loading process.”
The other problematic thing I can’t find the answer to, is: is it using a custom file format for the samples? No mention on if you can drop in WAV or AIF files (of the correct bit rate, etc). That adds a step or two if you already have samples of your own that you want to load.
As of now it accepts WAV (16 bit, 24 kHz, mono). The mywo.fi browser app automatically converts samples to the correct format before transferring them.
Makes me want to buy a Liven 6 bit for less than half the price
The granular one looks awesome
On my radar
I have one. It is indeed awesome.
Plus there’s no overlay card needed for secondary functions like the other Liven machines.
I had the XFM, and while it sounded fantastic, it wasn’t very intuitive to use. I had it about 2 weeks before I sold it on. The Bass & Beats one has 2 different overlay cards! Madness.
The Texture Lab on the other hand is simple to use. I find it very well suited to making nice ambient sounds, especially out of samples like kalimba, guitar, koto etc.
I would definitely recommend it.
The memory cartridge gimmick is kind of silly when SD cards are so inexpensive. As a collector of vintage synths, I recognize that these tiny things are easy to misplace or lose.
The point of the dedicated cartridges is to have a direct memory access, with no loading times, which you cannot technically achieve with other media. They also use a special custom files system for it.
none of that makes economical sense to a buyer
giving it SD makes it future proof to a certain degree
tethering it to a website is also an awful idea – it was one of the worst features of the Yamaha Reface Synths – a total pain in the arse
There is not much hope that the website or those proprietary cards will be still available in less than 10 years
It does make sense: each card can be a different live set and you can swap them anytime. The priority here is the immediacy of the workflow.
In terms of reliability / “future proofness”, these cards are just a standard flash chip on a QSPI bus. Easy to replace / remake if needed.
and they will eventually go EOL
everything goes eol, sd will too. buy 20 if you are so afraid, it’s only 5$ each.
Beautiful looking device, sounds great, no need in the community sharing nonsense for me the idea of sampling is that they are my sounds they are what make my sound unique but whatever like he said you can ignore that.
The one feature that really destroys this device is storage, proprietary storage is the stupidest thing you can put on any consumer device just give us an sd card slot and a usb slot that can double for storage and usb host functionality for midi keyboards/sequencers done, how much time and money have they wasted on RnD for stupid proprietary parts?
The idea behind this technology is you can access and recall any preset / sample at ANYTIME, without loading or transfer delays. Same goes with sample recording, no need to manage your storage space AND memory content. Everything is immediately stored and accessible.
SSD is fast enough and cheap enough so no excuse
Sorry but this is not how the underlying tech works.
surely would have made sense to use something more universally acceptable
functionally – it doesn’t sound like it’s any different any other sampler
It definitely would’ve been.
Proprietary memory is an instant no for me.
Seems they do fine without you.
eoin, manipulating the samples directly from the storage is unique, it’s a welcome feature increasing speed and flexibility. maybe try to read more before you comment about things you know nothing about.
Sounds great but its a shame only two audio outputs.
We need at least 16 entitlement outputs
You might send it to Nick Batt for an extensive review 🙂
It looks very nice and beautifully designed. I especially like the honey comb hexagonal cut outs for the speakers and mic
However, I’m with others on the proprietary memory card.
That’s an awful design decision and a deal breaker for me.
Also, only 100MB of internal memory! Come on, it’s 2023, not 1983.
And for the sort of money it’s going for you could get a MPC One and a mini MIDI keyboard / controller which would be a much more powerful tool.
In 1983 you couldn’t find a sampler with more than 512kb, this one have 200x more, but it’s not about having the “biggest numbers” it’s not like VA synths today have 2048 voices. 100MB will give you almost 20min of sampling. This is a lot for such a device and very practical.
Sorry, but no. 100MB is nowhere near enough.
20 minutes isn’t enough.
That’s fine if all your doing is one shot drum type stuff. However, if you want to do other things that’s nowhere near enough. Not even close.
Memory is cheap now days. Give it more.
Clearly you confuse types of memory and have no idea about the tech involved, and I don’t have the patience to explain to someone who thinks he knows more than he wants to learn.
Hello,
I agree with the other comments:
– I am not convinced by the proprietary memory card (permanence?, cost?),
– nor by sharing on the Cloud (The Yamaha cloud which does the same is not really usable: there are too many presets, the quality of the presets is not great, it is not well sorted, …)
– and the internal battery which is not replaceable by the user shows that it is a product which is not made to last long.
But I love the sounds in the demos.
Hello,
the battery is fully replaceable by user on WoFi 😉
The memory card cost is 5€.
And we love the sounds of WoFi too @kiviak-instruments.
Hello Romain
Good new about **user replaceable** battery. It is not mentioned in the Kickstarter description nor in the videos I watched on Woofi ? Is there a hatch that allows an easy access to the battery (or does Woofi need to be disassembled) ?
Can you post bottom panel pictures on your Facebook page ?
Thank you,
Regards
Denony.
On the actually preserves machine it needs to be disassembled, but the series machine will have a hatch 😉