It wouldn’t be a synth exhibition without the unexpected return of some old gear. This year’s comeback comes from Waldorf, which is returning to the wavetable origins of its instruments from the 1980s and 1990s with M.
M is a dual-oscillator wavetable synth with two modes that are based on Waldorf’s Microwave and Microwave II instruments. Rather than being a straight reproduction, M is a hybrid instrument in its own right, sharing some essential characteristics with Waldorf’s more contemporary Iridium.
These wavetable oscillators are combined with an analog low-pass 24dB/Oct VCF, replete with resonance and analog saturation, in this application. It also has a genuine stereo analog VCA with panning.