WaveG monophonic analog synthesizer and digital step sequencer
Just launched on Kickstarter is a new synthesizer and sequencer combo called WaveG. It’s quite unusual in that the synthesizer and sequencer are separate boxes. The look and design give it a strangely retro vibe, although I’m not sure from where.
WaveG
The WaveG project is the brain child of Doncaster based Andrew Jones from WaveGlyde. There’s a blog on the website following the development of the WaveG from April 2016 until now. It’s certainly come a long way since then. Andrew is looking for a very modest £5000 to bring the WaveG to market. Doesn’t seem like very much and at £380 a pop he’s only got to sell 14 to hit the goal.
So what is it?
The WaveG features a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) feeding an analog signal path. A 2 pole 12db/oct low pass filter deals with the tonal side of things, whereas a 4 stage ADSR sorts out the shaping. Modulation is provided by an LFO and sample-and-hold generator. 5 sources can be mixed simultaneously; ramp, PWM, Noise (activated by LFO), sub and external input. Overdrive can be found in the VCF, before and after and at the final output for added grit.
On the connections side, they’ve not left anything out. It has MIDI in/out, CV in/out, gate in/out, sync in and separate CV input for the filter and VCA. Glide and accent controls can be accessed via MIDI. For audio, there’s line output with headphones and an external input.
Retro?
The sequencer is a funny looking box with that membrane style keypad and knobs. Andrew says it’s a “16 step digital sequencer with potentiometer input for fast changes of note and parameter values.” The 16-way key-matrix is for additional functions such as note length, accent, glide, tempo etc. It has MIDI in/out and CV/Gate out on the back. This can be purchased and presumably can be used completely separately from the WaveG synth. They are only after a £50 pledge for one of those so that could be very interesting.
There’s not a great deal of information on the Kickstarter page or website. The campaign video is certainly intriguing and it all sounds pretty great. He could do with fleshing it out a bit more and doing some tutorial videos on how the sequencer works. It is a bit weird looking, and I can’t quite decide if that’s in a good way or not. There’s definitely a retro vibe, it’s just that the layout seems oddly restrictive. Got to love that sequencer though. Let me know what you think in the comments below?
£380 will get you in on the action which seems pretty good value. More information on the Kickstarter page.
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