MOTM

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