To be honest, it really just didn't "hit" me in the same way the Roland JV2080 does. I certainly would not recommend buying this synth. Use your money to buy a JV, or build up your collection of analogue synths.

The sure-fire test occurs when my boyfriend (who works out nearly every day) walks into my home studio in his briefs. If I spend less than 10 seconds finishing off what I'm doing then this synth could never rate more than 3 on Sonicstate. I have to declare now that I just left the Microwave immediately and hopped straight into bed. He has a much nicer interface and is much easier (and rewarding) to tweak.

I'm really happy for those of you who believe that the Microwave is the answer to all of our prayers. I guess it all shows that we are all individuals, with different opinions and ways of making music ... and that can only be a "beautiful thing", can't it.

of using/programming one in the rack of my former employer, (Trevor Horn). This synth is absolutely unqique with regards to its sound generating capabilities.

When scanning the wavetables with either the dedicated wave envelope or LFO's the resulting

sound is truly stunning. Coupled with the analogue filter that can self oscillate this item is

an absolute winner. The user interface is fine but it could be better. A company called ACCESS built a sysex hardware

controller for the microwave which gave you knobs and switches for some of the most used parameters,

(price was about �350). The ACCESS controller was available from Turnkey in London.

In the end though I programmed a suitable Midi Mixer for the Atari version of Cubase so that

everything was available from the sequencer. If anyone wants a copy of this mixer and some of my programmed sounds then please request via e-mail.

Note I'm planning to do the same for Emagic Logic Environment page in the near future. Note that absolutely EVERY parameter on the Microwave can be controlled via sysex commands.

The manual states that the microwave has the capability of loading user wavetables!

However it further states that you require specialist computer software to do this. I've never

found this software so I believe it was never really available. However the Wave, (the biggun with all

the knobs), looks to me like a microwave with all the hardware, keyboard AND the ability to load a samples

and use this as a wavetable. Second hand prices in the UK still hover around the �600 - �700, new approx. �1000 which is pricey for

an eight voice synth. However this sort of synthesis capability does'nt come cheap. Note that there

is now a Microwave 2 with digital filters! Not one for the General Midi brigade but an absolute must for those that like to explore synthesis

to the full. One day I will have one, till then I'll dream on.