-Dan

Recently I had the µQ voice expansion installed, which brings it to a (potential) total of 75 voices. Because there is not an awful lot of information to be found on it, I'll share my experiences ...

The expansion itself consists of a little board with 2 extra DSP's on it (triples the amount of processing power of the original version), RAM and some glue logic. So it is NOT some software trick, as some "sources" are pretending.

If you have a yellow µQ, you'll need to send it in (via Tsi Germany if you're in Europe, but the actual upgrade is taken care of by Waldorf technical centre). The reason for this is simple: if you open the yellow µQ, you'll find the place where to put the board, but there is no feature connector soldered on to interface the board with. Additionally, to be able to screw the 3 support legs onto the backplane, you'll even have to remove all the front knobs and connectors to even be able to get the backplane out. If you don't wanna mess up your µQ, don't try this at home. Even Waldorf actually swaps the internals of the yellow µQ for a new board with the expansion already on it (like with the new full Omega), instead of "upgrading" it.

The newer µQ's (the blue ones) are supposed to have a connector present, which could allow you to carry out the installation yourself (still have to take it all apart, though).

Additionally, OS V2.18 needs to be installed to support the 2 extra DSP's.

After some initial ordering woes (not Waldorf's fault, but of my ignorant dealer), I got my µQ upgraded and tested. Only had to pay one-way transport charges (a couple of Euro's). Waldorf paid for sending it back to me. The total operation took 1 week, including shipping.

An afternoon of experimenting showed me I got somewhere between 45-65 "real" voices in multimode, with fairly high degrees of complexity. The 75 voice marker can also be reached for simpler voices (so it is not a marketing cry).

Summary: two additional µQ's for exactly 313 Euros, I'm satisfied. It opens up a range of new possibilities for me without having to invest in extra modules. Only make sure your dealer knows how to handle Waldorf stuff ... I had to find out myself by contacting Waldorf themselves. They were fast and friendly in their responses and told me how to proceed to get the deal done.

There are almost too many possibilities with this synth. You can easily make a patch which could function in place of any analog synth and sound good(albeit slightly different), and then you can easily go into overkill mode until that once analogesque patch sounds like a poorly programmed dx7 being run into a virtually analog filterbank.

In fact its too easy to go overboard programming this thing with all the modulations, the FM, wavetable's, combfilters, 4 envelope's, 3 lfo's etc. I did find many of the presets infinitely superior to one's on larger manufacturers synths, but they were almost too clever. Sometime's you don't need big brawny and complex sounds, you just need to use one oscillator, and one LP filter. And, I think this synth sounds great with simple straight ahead sounds just as much as it does when you add to that. However, often I don't know when to stop and I find I have all these strange noises taking up the banks of my mQ, fuzzy fm'd evolving twisting, turning, shattered, and/or silky strange sounds. Its hard to not get "clever" when programming the µQ, but it's modelled waveforms sound great and its filter is pretty fly so either way(or in between) you are set.

Considering the price, and that its polyphany is more than enough for most modern style's, with 16 parts, drum maps, and all that this is a steal for under $500. The music I make with this micro Q is kind of Idm'ish, but I have always though this would be great for straight ahead stuff like HipHop/R and B, electro,d 'nb or Trance as well. And it make's the strangest noises if your into that scene..and thick smokey pads..and and and and...

Two: I have not had much luck in making this thing sound "raw". Screaming and/or noisy, yes, but it still sounds classy, a bit controlled, and a little digital no matter what I do. Like ALL virtual analogues, it lacks a certain presence and serindipitious randomness. Whatever- almost no one notices or cares anyway. It's definately good enough, and definately one of the best digital synths I've ever heard (the fs1r beats it for pure sonic splendor, the k5000 for uniqueness, and ms2000 for "analogue-ness", but whatever, no one's going to not buy the CD because of it) because of the flexability and ability to go well beyond traditional analogue sounds while still being comprehensible. But if you're looking for a truely raw sound, you still need real analogue.

Conclusion: It's a keeper.