Microwave XT
Tallent Edition

Introduction

The Tallent Edition is an unofficial extension to the operating system of the Microwave II, XT and XTk.

If you already use a Microwave, read on for what’s new.

Everything in Waldorf’s manual still applies. The Tallent Edition adds to operating system 2.33. It doesn’t take anything away, and the new features change nothing until used. The few things that do change are listed under Changes to Existing Features.

Note This is an independent project. It is not made, tested or supported by Waldorf. Report problems and ask questions at github.com/brandon-tallent/microwave-xt-extended-firmware/issues. As with any unofficial firmware, you install it at your own risk.

“XT” also means the Microwave II and the XTk, unless a section says otherwise.

What You’ll Need

• A Microwave II, XT or XTk. Whichever operating system it’s running now is fine.
• Waldorf’s operating system 2.33 update, mw2_xt_xtk_sys_v233.mid, from Waldorf’s Microwave II/XT/XTk page.
• A computer with a web browser, and a MIDI interface connected to the XT’s MIDI In.
• Something that plays a Standard MIDI File to that interface: any sequencer or DAW will do, as will a MIDI file player.
• For the Tallent Edition Sounds: a SysEx application, such as SysEx Librarian for macOS or MIDI-OX for Windows.

Installation

The Tallent Edition isn’t distributed as a file you can load directly. Instead, a small tool adds it to your own copy of Waldorf’s update, right in your web browser. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.

1. Download Waldorf’s operating system 2.33 update, mw2_xt_xtk_sys_v233.mid, from Waldorf’s Microwave II/XT/XTk page.
2. Open brandon-tallent.github.io/microwave-xt-extended-firmware and select the file you just downloaded. A new file, mw2_xt_xtk_sys_v233_tallent.mid, will download automatically.
3. Load the new file into your sequencer or MIDI file player, and send its track to the MIDI interface that’s connected to the XT. Switch off MIDI Clock and MIDI Time Code while you do this.
4. Play the file. The XT’s display reads Receiving System Update... for about two and a half minutes while the file plays.
5. When the file ends, the display reads Updating System.... Don’t switch the XT off while it does.
6. The XT restarts. As it starts up, the second line of the display names the Tallent Edition. You’re done.

Note Steps 3 to 6 are Waldorf’s own update procedure, with our file standing in for theirs. “Updating the System Software” in Waldorf’s manual describes it in more detail, including what to do if the XT reports an error: play the file again, more slowly if need be.

Going Back

To return to Waldorf’s operating system at any time, play Waldorf’s own mw2_xt_xtk_sys_v233.mid in the same way. Your XT will be just as Waldorf made it.

An update replaces the operating system and nothing else. Your Sounds, Multis, wavetables and Global settings are left where they are, in either direction. Sounds that use the new features still load in Waldorf’s operating system, which ignores those settings.

Where to Start

When the XT restarts, nothing has changed. Your Sounds play as they did, and every knob does what Waldorf’s manual says it does.

To hear the new features, send the XT the Tallent Edition Sounds: 80 Sounds and nine wavetables built from the waves of two other wavetable oscillators, the Industrial Music Electronics Piston Honda Mk II and the Synthesis Technology E352 Cloud Terrarium, with four starting points and 16 bass Sounds that play their effect from the notes. Then play B065.

Or, on an XT or XTk, start with a Sound you know. Hold Shift and turn the W1 Env Amount knob, and the new Warp page opens.

New Features Overview

Below you will find a summary overview of the new features and functional changes in the Tallent Edition. Refer to the next chapter for detailed descriptions.

New Features

Oscillator 2’s Wavetable

Oscillator 2 can play a wavetable of its own instead of sharing Wave 1’s.

X-Mod

Phase and amplitude modulation alongside Waldorf’s FM, and either oscillator can modulate the other. Not on the Microwave II.

Warp

Nine ways to reshape each oscillator’s wave as it plays: bending it, squeezing it into a pulse, tilting it, folding it back on itself or stepping it. Not on the Microwave II.

Warp Modulation

Two new modulation destinations, W1 Warp and W2 Warp, so an envelope, LFO or controller can sweep a warp. Not on the Microwave II.

Honda Aliasing

Two new Aliasing settings that read every wave with all of its harmonics at every pitch, as the Piston Honda Mk II does, one of them with the Honda’s raw, stepped output.

Interpolation

The wave position glides between waves instead of stepping from one to the next, as it does on the E352 and the Piston Honda.

Fine

Startwave in hundredths of a wave, for the new interpolation modes.

FX Para 1–3

Three new modulation destinations, so an envelope, LFO or controller can move the effect’s settings.

MPE

MIDI Polyphonic Expression input, with per-note pitch bend, pressure and Y.

New CCs

Every new setting can be sent and received as a MIDI controller.

The Tallent Edition Sounds

80 Sounds and nine wavetables that use the new features, as a file to send to the XT.

Changes to Existing Features

Until you use a new feature, the XT behaves as Waldorf’s manual describes, with these exceptions:

Voices

The Tallent Edition keeps all ten voices of a 10-voice XT. An XT with the 30-voice expansion plays 25 voices instead of 30. The new features need more processing for each voice, and the expansion DSPs run at a lower clock speed than the main DSP. A Microwave II plays 8 voices instead of 10.

Shift with a knob

Shift with the Wavetable, FM Amount and Env Amount knobs, and with the Startwave knobs on some Sounds, now reaches the new settings. See Finding the New Pages.

Sound pages

Four new pages join the Oscillator and Wave pages: [X-Mod], [Wave2 3], [Warp] and [Interpolation]. The Microwave II has no [X-Mod] or [Warp] page.

Aliasing

Two more values after 5: Honda and Honda Raw.

Modulation destinations

Five more destinations: W1 Warp and W2 Warp after FM Amount, and FX Para 1, FX Para 2 and FX Para 3 after Volume. The Microwave II has the three FX Para destinations only.

Global pages

A new [MPE] page follows the three MIDI pages.

Start-up screen

The second line names the Tallent Edition and its version.

Demo song

The demo song is gone, and so is the front-panel test that a key combination used to start at power-up. Their memory now holds the Tallent Edition.

New Features in Detail

This chapter covers general changes first, then each feature.

General Changes

Finding the New Pages

The new Sound pages sit among the pages you know, in the order the Page dial steps through them:

1. [Osc1 1]
2. [Osc1 2]
3. [Osc2 1]
4. [Osc2 2]
5. [X-Mod]
6. [Wave1 1]
7. [Wave1 2]
8. [Wave2 1]
9. [Wave2 2]
10. [Wave2 3]
11. [Warp]
12. [Quality]
13. [Interpolation]
14. [Mix]
15. [Mix 2]
16. [Play Access]

You can turn the Page dial to them, but the quicker way is a knob. As everywhere on the XT, Shift means holding the Play key. Hold it and turn one of these knobs, and the knob edits the new setting and opens its page:

Shift + Wavetable

W2 Table, on [Wave2 3]. See Oscillator 2’s Wavetable.

Shift + FM Amount

The X-Mod mode, on [X-Mod]. See X-Mod.

Shift + Env Amount (Wave 1)

The W1 warp amount, on [Warp]. See Warp.

Shift + Env Amount (Wave 2)

The W2 warp amount, on [Warp].

Shift + Startwave

On a Sound with Interpolation set to E352 or Honda, that oscillator’s position in hundredths of a wave. See Fine.

Once a page is open, the Page dial and the four value dials under the display work on it as they do on any other page.

Note The Microwave II has no knobs for these. Turn the Page dial to the new pages instead.

Sounds and Dumps

The new settings belong to the Sound, with one exception (Fine). Store the Sound and they’re stored with it; recall it and they’re back. They’re in Sound dumps, so a librarian or editor keeps them too, and Parameter Send sends them as the new CCs.

Oscillator 2’s Wavetable

On Waldorf’s operating system, both oscillators read the same wavetable. In the Tallent Edition, Oscillator 2 can have one of its own.

Hold Shift and turn the Wavetable knob. The [Wave2 3] page opens, and the knob selects Oscillator 2’s wavetable. Its first setting, --- = Wave1, is the way the XT has always worked: Oscillator 2 follows Wave 1’s table. Every other setting is a table of its own, named and numbered as Wave 1’s Wavetable field shows them.

Everything else about Wave 2 is unchanged. Its Startwave, Phase, Env Amount, Keytrack and Limit, and Link, all apply to whichever table it’s playing.

In Multi Mode

In Sound mode, Oscillator 2’s own table always plays. In a Multi, it depends on another Instrument.

Each Instrument is paired with another:

• If the paired Instrument’s Status is off, Oscillator 2 plays its own table.
• If the paired Instrument’s Status is on, Oscillator 2 plays Wave 1’s table instead.

For example, Instrument 1 can use W2 Table while Instrument 5 is off.

A tip Give the two oscillators tables that move differently, and detune them slightly. Set Link on Wave 2, and one Startwave knob scans both tables at once.

X-Mod

Note X-Mod is on the XT and XTk only. The Microwave II plays FM as in Waldorf’s operating system.

The XT has always let Oscillator 2 frequency-modulate Oscillator 1, with the FM Amount knob setting how much. X-Mod adds four more ways for one oscillator to modulate the other.

Hold Shift and turn the FM Amount knob. The [X-Mod] page opens, and the knob selects the mode. FM Amount sets the depth in every mode, and its modulation destination works in every mode too.

FM 2>1

Waldorf’s FM, exactly as before: Oscillator 2 modulates Oscillator 1’s frequency. This is where every Sound starts out.

PM 2>1

Phase modulation. Oscillator 2 pushes Oscillator 1’s position in its wave back and forth instead of changing its frequency. The pitch stays put, even at high depths and with the modulator tuned low.

AM 2>1

Amplitude modulation. Oscillator 1’s level follows Oscillator 2: at zero depth you hear Oscillator 1 at its Mix level as usual, and as you raise FM Amount, Oscillator 2 swings that level further up and down. The result adds sidebands either side of Oscillator 1’s pitch and keeps Oscillator 1 itself in the sound, unlike ring modulation. The Ringmod level has no effect in this mode.

FM 1>2

Oscillator 1 modulates Oscillator 2’s frequency, the other way around.

PM 1>2

Oscillator 1 modulates Oscillator 2’s phase.

Only Oscillator 2 has Sync. With a 1>2 mode and Sync on, Oscillator 2 is both modulated by Oscillator 1 and synced to it.

A tip For a two-operator electric piano, put both oscillators on a sine (for example, Startwave 0 of table 111, E352 Harmonics, from the Tallent Edition Sounds), select PM 2>1, tune Oscillator 2 an octave or two up and let the filter envelope modulate FM Amount.

Warp

Note Warp is on the XT and XTk only. The Microwave II plays a Sound’s warps as off.

A wavetable oscillator plays its wave by reading through it from beginning to end, once every cycle, at a steady speed. A warp changes the way it reads: faster through some parts of the cycle and slower through others, backwards for a while, or in steps. The wave itself doesn’t change, but the shape you hear does, and with it the harmonics.

Each oscillator has a warp of its own. Hold Shift and turn Wave 1’s Env Amount knob, and the [Warp] page opens with the knob setting Oscillator 1’s warp amount. Wave 2’s Env Amount knob does the same for Oscillator 2. On the page, the value dials select each oscillator’s mode and set its amount:

W1 Warp, W2 Warp

The mode. Off leaves the wave alone; the nine modes are described below.

Amount

How much. For most modes it runs from 000 (no warp) to 127. For Bend +/- and Asym +/- it runs from −64 to +63, with no warp at +00 in the middle; the display shows it as it shows Detune.

Each mode at four amounts, drawn from the XT’s own warp tables. The gray line is the wave (a sine, or for Quantize a sawtooth) and the coloured line is what the oscillator plays:

Bend +

Reads quickly through the start and end of the cycle and slowly through the middle. A sine becomes sharper and brighter as the amount rises.

Bend −

The opposite: slowly at the start and end of the cycle and quickly through the middle.

Bend +/−

Both in one: negative amounts bend one way and positive amounts the other. Modulation can sweep it across the middle and out the other side.

PWM

Squeezes the whole wave into part of the cycle and holds still for the rest, so any wave becomes a pulse of itself. The higher the amount, the narrower the pulse. Sweeping the amount gives pulse-width modulation on any wave.

Asym +

Plays the first half of the wave slower and the second half faster, tilting the wave to one side. At 127 the first half takes almost the whole cycle.

Asym −

The opposite: the first half faster and the second half slower.

Asym +/−

Both in one, as Bend +/−.

Mirror

Plays the wave forward and then backward in each cycle, which folds it back on itself and brings out the octave above. The amount moves the fold, which makes the two halves uneven.

Quantize

Reads the wave in steps instead of continuously, like a sample-and-hold. At 000 it takes 32 steps a cycle, so even here the wave is a little coarser than without a warp. Higher amounts take fewer steps, down to two from 112 upward.

The modes follow the warp curves of Xfer Records’ Serum, measured from its output. Every mode works with any wavetable and any Startwave, with Sync and with X-Mod.

Warp Modulation

The modulation matrix has two new destinations, W1 Warp and W2 Warp, right after FM Amount in the list. They add to the warp amounts, exactly as the FM Amount destination adds to FM Amount, so an envelope, an LFO, velocity or the modulation wheel can move a warp. A modulated amount stops at the ends of its range.

A tip Put an LFO on W1 Warp in PWM mode, on a table with a bright wave. The result is pulse-width modulation of that wave.

Honda Aliasing

An XT wave has 128 samples, which is room for 64 harmonics. Played high enough, the top harmonics would go past what the XT can reproduce, and come back down as tones that don’t belong to the note. That’s aliasing. Waldorf’s operating system prevents it with interpolation. Aliasing 1 to 5 lets some of it back in, in the manner of the PPG Wave and the original Microwave.

The Tallent Edition adds two more Aliasing settings, after 5, which take the opposite approach. They play the wave the way the Piston Honda Mk II does: all 128 samples at every pitch, with nothing taken away.

Honda

Draws a straight line from each sample to the next, as the Honda’s direct output does. Low notes sound much as before. High notes stay bright where Waldorf’s operating system would smooth them, and pick up folded-back partials.

Honda Raw

Holds each sample until the next, as the Honda’s morph output does. The wave becomes a staircase, which adds harsh, stepped harmonics at every pitch.

The XT playing a sawtooth at a high E (about 1.3 kHz) with Aliasing off, Honda and Honda Raw. The marks above each strip are the sawtooth’s own harmonics; anything between them is aliasing:

At low notes, Honda looks and sounds much like Aliasing off. Honda Raw is different at every pitch. A short stretch of a low C, sample by sample, as the XT renders it:

Both settings apply to both oscillators.

A tip Honda Raw with Interpolation set to Honda is how every Piston Honda Sound in the Tallent Edition Sounds is set up. Start from B127, PH Init.

Interpolation

A wavetable holds waves at 61 positions, from 0 to 60. (Positions 61 to 63 are always the triangle, square and sawtooth.) Startwave picks a position, and Env Amount, Keytrack and the modulation matrix move it. On Waldorf’s operating system, the XT always plays a whole position. Moving between positions, it jumps from one wave to the next. In a slow sweep each step is audible.

Interpolation, on the new [Interpolation] page after [Quality], changes this. Turn the Page dial one step on from [Quality] to reach it. It has three settings:

XT

Whole positions, as Waldorf’s operating system plays them. This is where every Sound starts out.

E352

The position keeps its fraction, and the XT plays a blend of the two waves either side of it. Along each wave it reads in straight lines between the samples, as the E352 does.

Honda

The same blend, with each wave read one whole sample at a time, as the Piston Honda Mk II’s morph output does.

So with E352 or Honda, a sweep through the table glides instead of stepping:

Look closely at one step, from position 12 to position 13 of table 104, Honda Harmonics. XT plays wave 12 the whole way there and then changes. E352 and Honda blend a little more of wave 13 in as the position moves:

E352 reads smoothly between a wave’s samples. Honda steps from one sample to the next:

E352 is the smoother of the two. Honda adds the stepped sound of the Honda’s output, and is set up with Honda Raw Aliasing. High notes are brighter than with XT.

Smoothing

With E352 or Honda, a modulated position moves smoothly, without steps.

• A position that jumps from standing still (a knob, a CC, a new Startwave) glides there over 70 ms, which takes the click out of the step.
• A new note starts right where it should, without gliding.

Note The blend stops at position 60. A modulated position past it plays wave 60, without blending into the triangle at 61.

A tip On a table with very different neighbouring waves, try a very slow LFO on the position with Interpolation at XT, and then at E352. The steps you hear with XT are gone.

Fine

With Interpolation at E352 or Honda, a position between two waves plays a blend of both. Fine sets Startwave between them, in hundredths of a wave.

On a Sound with Interpolation set to E352 or Honda, hold Shift and turn a Startwave knob. Each step moves that oscillator’s Startwave by a hundredth of a wave, carrying on into the next wave (12.99, 13.00, 13.01). Startwave then shows the position with its hundredths. Turning the knob without Shift moves a whole wave at a time and keeps the hundredths.

Fine is a starting point, like Startwave itself. Modulation moves the position on from there. A Wave 2 that’s linked to Wave 1 follows Wave 1’s modulation but not its Fine.

Note Fine isn’t stored with the Sound. Storing, recalling or randomizing a Sound sets it back to zero. CC 8 and CC 9 send and receive it. Use it for playing and for automation, and set Startwave itself for the position a Sound starts at.

With Interpolation at XT, the XT plays whole waves and Fine has no effect.

FX Para 1–3

The modulation matrix has three new destinations, FX Para 1, FX Para 2 and FX Para 3, right after Volume in the list. Each adds to one of the three settings on the Effect page, as the FM Amount destination adds to FM Amount, so an envelope, an LFO, velocity or the modulation wheel can move it. A modulated setting stops at its lowest and highest values.

The setting each one moves depends on the effect:

Overdrive’s Amp Type doesn’t follow FX Para 3.

A Sound has one effect, but each note plays on its own voice, with its own envelopes and LFOs. The last note played sets the effect’s settings. Its envelopes and LFOs keep setting them, through the release, until the next note starts.

A modulated setting changes about 80 times a second, in whole values. The Time of Delay, Pan Delay and Mod Delay glides from one value to the next.

Note In a Multi, FX Para 1–3 work on Instruments 1 to 3, the instruments that have effects.

A tip Choose Delay and set Mix to 27:100. On a Mod page, route Ampl. Env to FX Para 3 with an Amount of -64. The echoes stay quiet while a note is held and rise as it is released.

MPE

The Tallent Edition receives MIDI Polyphonic Expression from MPE controllers such as the Roli Seaboard, the Linnstrument or the Osmose. Each note can bend, be pressed and move in Y on its own.

The new [MPE] Global page comes after the three MIDI pages. Press Utility and turn the Page dial to it.

MPE Mode

off is the XT as Waldorf made it. on receives MPE. Zone bend receives MPE, and bends every Sound by the Global Bend Range, whatever the Sound’s own Osc 1 Bend and Osc 2 Bend. MPE controllers send ±48 semitones of bend for each note. With on, a Sound set to bend by ±2 turns that into ±1 semitone.

• The XT plays MPE in Sound mode, as one Lower Zone. Channel 1 is the Zone’s Manager Channel, and the channels from 2 upward are its Member Channels.
• Most MPE controllers send an MPE Configuration Message when they start. When the XT receives one, it sets up the Zone, switches MPE Mode on (keeping Zone bend if you chose it) and receives on all channels. If yours doesn’t send one, set MPE Mode by hand and the XT’s MIDI channel to omni.
• Pitch bend on a Member Channel bends only its own note, and adds to bend on the Manager Channel. The Manager starts at ±2 semitones and the Members at ±48, and the usual RPN messages can set either from 0 to 96.
• Channel Pressure and Y (CC 74) work on the Manager and on each Member, and each note keeps its own. Route them in the modulation matrix with the Pressure and Control Y sources.
• Sustain, Reset All Controllers, All Notes Off and All Sound Off act on the channel they arrive on.

Note With MPE Mode off, nothing changes.

MIDI

Control Changes

The Tallent Edition receives and sends every Sound parameter Waldorf’s operating system does, on the same controllers, and these new ones: 3, 8, 9, 49, 59, 63, 84 and 119. The full chart, with the new controllers marked:

The XT sends and receives them as it does Waldorf’s controllers, under the Parameter Control settings on the [MIDI 2] Global page.

System Exclusive

The new settings are Sound parameters, so the Sound Parameter Change message in Waldorf’s MIDI implementation sets them like any other. Here are their positions in the Sound:

The Tallent Edition Sounds

The Tallent Edition comes with a set of Sounds that use the new features: 32 built around the Piston Honda, 28 around the E352, four starting points, and 16 bass Sounds that play their effect from the notes. They’re made from the two synthesizers’ own waves, in nine new wavetables, and every one of them is set up to use Interpolation the way its synthesizer would.

Download tallent-edition-sounds.syx. It holds the waves, the tables and the Sounds, in 209 messages, and sending it to the XT puts the Sounds in B049 to B128.

Before you send it The file replaces whatever is in B049 to B128, user wavetables 099, 104, 106, 110, 111, 113, 114, 120 and 127, and user waves 1130 to 1249. If you have anything there you want to keep, dump it to your SysEx application first. Waldorf’s manual describes the dump functions.

1. In your SysEx application, open tallent-edition-sounds.syx and set the pause between messages to 300 ms. (In SysEx Librarian, that’s “Delay between messages” in the preferences.)
2. Send the file to the XT. The display shows each Sound as it arrives. With the 300 ms pause, it takes about 1 minute.
3. When the last Sound has arrived, the XT may show Reorganising Memory, please wait for a while. Let it finish.

Note Don’t leave the pause out. The XT writes each new wavetable to its memory as it arrives, and a Sound sent while it’s busy is lost.

The Piston Honda Sounds

The Piston Honda Mk II is a Eurorack wavetable oscillator. These Sounds use its waves with Interpolation set to Honda and Aliasing set to Honda Raw, so they read and blend the waves the way the Honda does.

The E352 Sounds

The E352 is a Eurorack wavetable oscillator that morphs continuously between its waves. These Sounds use its waves with Interpolation set to E352.

Starting Points

Four plain Sounds to build your own from: Oscillator 1 alone, the filter wide open, no effect.

The FX Sounds

Bass-music Sounds that lean on Warp and X-Mod and play the Sound’s effect through the modulation matrix with FX Para 1 to FX Para 3. Velocity, the key you play, clock-synced LFOs, the envelopes, pressure and the wheel move the effect’s settings, so each note sets its own echo time, wah or flanger. The Mod 1 and Mod 2 knobs are macros on each. The last four play arpeggios, and every step sets the effect again. The note played last sets the effect for all the notes that are sounding.

Note On a Microwave II, these Sounds play without their warps and X-Mod, and Delay types play dry, as in Waldorf’s operating system.

Some of the Sounds use LFOs synced to the clock, and need MIDI clock at the XT to move.

The Wavetables

Each table is built from one synthesizer’s own waves, placed evenly across the table’s 61 positions, with the XT blending its way from each to the next. Here they are, first wave at the back and last at the front, with the number and name the XT’s Wavetable field shows. (The XT doesn’t keep names for user tables, so the names here are ours.)

The Piston Honda tables use rows of the factory wave ROMs Industrial Music Electronics (then The Harvestman) published for the Piston Honda Mk II. The E352 tables use rows of the E352’s three ROM banks, which are also included with Synthesis Technology’s WaveEdit.

Piston Honda

E352

Support

All other features work as described in Waldorf’s manual.

Problems and questions: github.com/brandon-tallent/microwave-xt-extended-firmware/issues

Source code: github.com/brandon-tallent/microwave-xt-extended-firmware