Microwave 1

The deal

$99 at Plugin Alliance (down from $159) - 38% off. This is a Pop-Up Shop price with no set expiry.

What it is

Microwave 1 is a meticulous software recreation of Waldorf's legendary 1989 wavetable synthesizer - the instrument that shaped the sound of early European electronic music. The plugin faithfully models the original Waldorf ASIC chip (co-designed by Wolfgang Palm, inventor of wavetable synthesis) plus the classic Curtis filter chips, running its internal synthesis engine at 250 kHz regardless of your DAW's sample rate, and comparing digital waveforms bit-by-bit against the original hardware.

Who it's for

Producers drawn to the raw, metallic wavetable character of 90s techno, industrial, ambient, and cinematic music. If you want the sound that drove early Aphex Twin, Orbital, and the Frankfurt techno scene, this is the source.

Key features

• Bit-perfect recreation of the Waldorf ASIC wavetable engine, with digital waveforms verified against the original hardware
• Internal synthesis runs at 250 kHz sampling rate regardless of DAW settings
• Fully scalable modern interface with animated graphical displays for wavetables, envelopes, and filter response curves
• Models the original hardware down to every idiosyncrasy and sonic characteristic of the real instrument