To begin with I purchased a used Waldorf Pulse for $320. I have seen them go for more money on Ebay, but at the same time I have seen several people on this board report of getting them for hundreds left, so in regards to the price vs. performance, this synth immediately receives high marks. Presets... well you're not sopposed to judge a synth by its presets, but I always scroll through them, and often use presets as starting points to coming up with the final sound that I will use. I find that the presets cover a variety of sounds, from Moog emulations to the most modern analog-ish bass tones. The overall sound quality is excellent, and while it doesn't sound exactly like a true 3 VCO (thats because its a 3 DCO) the quality is excellent. It is a monophonic true analog synthesizer, and for the majority of the bass tones in my tracks are now being done with the Pulse. I find that the pysical apperience of this synth is just ugly, just like most of the Waldorf stuff I have, but I can't take any points away for this simply because, well how can you judge a synth based upon looks alone. User interface. Well I am a huge fan of Sound Diver. I have used it forever and really love the ability to not scroll through menu's upon menus, and have an intuitive GUI to work through. The Sound Diver adaptation of the Pulse SUCKS! It is just awfull. This is not a judgement against the Pulse, more those crazy Germany Emagic people. Oh well, its still good for building a library of sounds that are so easy to come up with, especially because the internal memory allocation for user created patches is so small. So I edit it via the front panel. This is a very different interface from that of Waldorf's Micro Q. The LCD is very small, and takes a bit of time to understand completely, but the editting matrix is very fluidly laid out, and allows for quick creation of sounds. The availablity of patches online is by no where as abundant as that of my Nord Modular or even Waldorf's own Q & uQ lines, but if you look in the right places, by all means you can find what you are looking for. Overall, I believe for anyone looking for an excellent monophonic synth, especially if you are like me and tired of using VA's and romplers for your basslines, the Pulse is an excellent purchase. The used prices are excellent. I have not used it for any lead sounds as of yet, but the presets really do a decent job of showcasing whats possible. The only downside to this unit is how 'hot' the output is. Personally I set all volume (master & midi) of all my synths at the max level, and then mix the level at the mixer level. With the Pulse this proves to be very dangerous, simply because it is 2x louder than any other piece of gear I own, and at least 5x louder than an unamplified Modular patch. This should not be a negative comment in any regard, actually I'd prefer to have a synth that has tons of power behind the sound rather than one where I have to always amplify just to have it audible in a mix. If you are considering buying one of these I highly recomend them.

In case you're wondering why I do not give it a perfect 5/5, well I think a 5/5 must be the ultimate synth, and while I love all my gear, I do not believe that anything is perfect... Nothing against the Pulse, buy one, just nothings perfect :)

Anyone claiming the Pulse is discontinued is either misinformed, or a lying bastard who is trying to turn a profit by jacking up the selling price of their Pulse to retail price or more.

That being said, here's my review:

The Pulse is an excellent source of large basses and leads, and only the fact that the oscillators aren't based on the Mini keep this little baby from being a hotrodded Mini.

It's a shame about the limited memories available, but that's what bulk dumps are for and it's a lot more than you get from most of the overpriced, overhyped "vintage" (hah! what a laugh!) pieces out there.

But if you think you want a Moog Rogue, forget it. Buy a Pulse. If you want a Prodigy or Source, buy a Pulse instead unless you absolutely have to have the post-Minimoog Moog sound.