Micro-Q

[acidosis]

Sooo... after much consideration, this synthesist n00b finally decided to get a Micro-Q, keyboard version. It arrived a few days ago, and so far I'm having kind of mixed feelings about it.

Starting with the positive side: the sound! The sound! There was just something about the Waldorf sound that grabbed me the moment I heard it -- you know, that special feeling you get when you hear a synth's characteristic sound and it just, somehow, feels 'right' for you. So far the only other synth that gave me that feeling was the 'slightly' more expensive Virus TI that I briefly tried in the store (although that one has a pretty different tone, of course, it's still one that I liked a lot).

On the negative side, the most obvious thing is that the Micro-Q's interface is a bit stripped down which might make editing a bit tedious. Although so far I don't feel this is really a big problem, just something that takes a bit of time to get used to (as with all new interfaces, I imagine).

But... what is a big problem is the bugs. Even after updating to OS 2.22 (thank you very much for hosting those Waldorf files, by the way) I'm having a bit of problems. My first attempt at programming a sound of my own from scratch resulted in a massive ear-ache. In this particular case I was sweeping a band-pass filter up and down, and upon reaching the higher (though still in musically useful territory) frequencies, the Q would produce a very loud and horrible noise. I don't mean a screaming resonant filter type of noise -- this was clearly something that wasn't supposed to be there. It sounded roughly like a bit-crushed noise generator being fed through two dozen distortion pedals and played back through broken speakers... or something like that. Just this loud awful ear-ripping noise that seemed to pop in and out at random whenever I touched the higher frequency spectrum. Turning the filter resonance up even just a little produced this effect at much lower frequencies.

When I was just playing around with the factory presets, it seemed to behave fairly well. No ear-ripping noise, but the occasional pops, crackles, notes getting mysteriously cut off, and similar annoying-but-not-disasterous audio glitches.

Now, I'm a little worried and frustrated, because I really like the sound of this Micro-Q thing -- when it's not acting all weird. Waldorf are apparently a bit notorious for having buggy operating systems and stuff, but I didn't think it would be quite that bad even after updating. At any rate, I'll keep playing around with this thing some more and see if I run into more problems, and see just how much these glitches get in the way. If it gets too annoying I guess I'll have no choice but to take it back (and perhaps get that Virus instead).

I've about a week and a half before I have to make the final decision anyway. In the meantime I would be very interested in hearing what others' experiences have been like. Are there any Q/Micro-Q owners here? Have you also had problems with bugs and glitches and stuff? Any and all input is most appreciated.

Even comments on the eternal Q vs. Virus debate are welcome.

[DrJustice]

I have a Q with the latest OS 3.02 and it hasn't pulled any strange ones on me yet. It is true that Waldorf OS'es needed a few iterations before getting there. Even if the Q and MQ share large parts of code, it may be very differently organised and buggy behaviour may not be related between them.

Your MQ problem sounds particularly nasty. It would be strange if that kind of bug has gone unnoticed. Have you tried doing the upgrade one more time, just to be sure... Apart from that I don't really have any constructive contribution. Would be too bad to have to dump the MQ though; it is rather cool.

It seems our members mtvic and aquanaut have Micro-Qs - I'm sure they will step in and comment eventually.

DJ
--

[Mohoyoho]

I have aq Q rack and have never had the sounds you describe. The interface isn't the greatest, but you are right about the sound. The Waldorf Q sound is tremendous.

[aquanaut]

Your right. Its pretty nasty. Put the mod to -60 instead of -64