Matthew Davidson has released a set of 5 ROMs for the Blacet/Wiard
MiniWave and Wiard Waveform City modules. See details at:
http://apocalypse.org/~matthew/resources/waveproms/I received a set of 4 yesterday, and am posting this review of my
initial impressions. I barely had time to run through each one
briefly last night, so keep in mind I need to spend a lot more time
with them.
I don't yet have my Blacet MiniWave completed, so I tested in my
original Wiard MiniWave. It is functionally equivalent to the Blacet
version but holds only one ROM instead of two. It was thoughtfully
fitted with a ZIF (zero insertion force) socket for the ROM by Grant.
The Blacet kit comes with one regular ROM socket, and one LIF (low
insertion force) socket. The intention seems to be that you will use
the A bank with the standard ROM installed, and swap out the B bank.
Based on my experiences last night, I'll be removing those sockets
and replacing them both with ZIF versions, provided they can clear
components near the pads. It's too much fun to swap these things in
and out, and I predict a mini-boom in ROM availability soon.
Davidson offers the following ROMs:
Vector 1: hook up a MiniWave's bank and wave select inputs to a
joystick, and you can pan from sine, tri, saw, and square waves in
the 4 corners to interpolated versions anywhere in between. I didn't
test this ROM because it became available after I ordered my set of
four.
I purchased and tested:
Bosch Gardens: a general set of alternate waves, some with
interpolation.
Vowels: an entire ROM devoted to a more comprehensive set of phonemes
than the single bank included in the standard ROM.
Morphine: smooth morphs from one wave to another across a bank.
Scale Quantizer: an entire ROM devoted to quantized scales in all
modes and keys.
As a general comment, I was pleased that the promise of wave
interpolation was more fully realized in these ROMs than in the
standard ROM. Most of the wave sets in the standard ROM do not morph
smoothly, but jump noticeably in timbre. This is often because only 5
or 6 slots are being designated for them. The Davidson ROMs routinely
use all 16 waves in a bank for a morph set. As a result, the
transitions are seamless and much more musical.
My two favorite ROMs were Morphine and Scale Quantizer. The Bosch
Gardens ROM had some nice sounds, but on initial listen I didn't find
them sufficiently different from the sounds available in the standard
ROM that I'd be using it heavily. I need to go back and spend a
little more time with it - I'm sure there are some gems in there that
I overlooked in the rush. The Vowels ROM was nice, with smooth
interpolation between two vowel sounds in each bank, but don't expect
it to sound like a vocoder. The MiniWave uses waves that are only 256
samples long, so I'd classify the sounds you can get as evocative
rather than accurate. I want to experiment and punch up the sounds
with the MOTM-410 to make it sound more dramatic. The Morphine ROM
was sweet! It had very interesting timbres that do a full smooth
morph across each bank. There is lots of sonic raw material here.
Finally, the Scale Quantizer was the absolute bomb! I'm a sucker for
the quantize bank in the standard ROM, but this surpasses it in every
way. Increment the waves to change scales, and increment banks to
change the key centers. There are also some left over slots that are
used for melody generation, instead of strict scales. This one is
deep - it will have a semipermanent slot in one of my MiniWaves.
I don't know how long these ROMs will be offered. The announcement on
AH mentioned that Matthew is not doing this as a business but as a
service, and for only a limited time. You may want to order these
soon if you are interested. One other ROM, the Socket Rocket, is
available at this time - you can get it from either Blacet or Wiard.
I intend to order this one soon and review it as well.
Mighty Morphin' Moe
http://www.hotrodmotm.com