Groove Synthesis 3rd WAVE vs PPG Wave 2.2

Short Demo of 7 factory and custom PPG sounds reprogrammed on the Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave together with my friend Till Kopper. Till is the frist owener in Germany with a 3rd Wave and he lives only 20 km from my home. So we meet regulary to play synths. We tried out how the 3rd WAVE is capable to adopt the classic sound of the PPG wave. I have a 2.2 in my studio and it was quiet interesting, hard at the same time to recreate some classic PPG sounds on the 3rd wave. Our impression is, that they can sound very close. The PPG wave has some mistakes in the sound which made it legendary, so over the whole keyboard the sounds are different with aliasing in higher octaves an brizzelng in deep registrations. It is very hard to get this effect on the 3rd wave, but we think that the guys from Groove Synthessi did a great job to get the 3rd wave as a succeedor of the old PPG. The demo is without any FX or mastering. The sounds you can download free for the 3rd wave here:
till-kopper.de/3rd_wave/3rd_W...

[@realqwave]

I made a new download file with a much improved PPG choir and Rhodes 3rd Wave version. The sounds are in the USB file version and a sysex file to load into the edit buffer. It is available under the same link as given in the video description.

[@arakaneuman]

Compared to other videos like Matt Johnsons this one doesnt do justice to the 3rd wave. It sounds just as good as the PPG, I should know since I owned a 2.2 with midi for quite a few years.

[@sonusastrum5051]

What a great idea👍🏻

[@MrDudleytheCat]

I mostly ❤ the big shelf on the OG you can stack other keyboards and drinks on 😂

[@vintagesynths]

Uh, better no drinks 🙈😳

[@MrDudleytheCat]

@Perisho 😂😂😂

[@jfracine_composition]

would never dare to put a drink on it tho !

[@realqwave]

@Perisho I think cats love the warm left side of the PPG wave top. The power supply generated some nice warmth there. I had no cat while owning my PPG waves to test. And the 3rd Waves panel is not that cat friendly.

[@torbenanschau6641]

Pretty interesting

[@sonsofmicrowave4043]

Geiler Pulli 😀

[@Bernd_Bruening]

Great video, Rüdiger! Some patches sound quite different, others are extremely close.

[@vintagesynths]

Thanks a lot, Bernd. Some patches are impossible to adopt, especially the very important Choir patch. As usual, no modern synth can adopt an old vintage synth 💯.

[@realqwave]

@@vintagesynths @Bernd_Bruening I think I found the 70a choir and 02a problem in the 3rd Wave sounds. I get them much closer now. I will upload the better matching sounds as soon as I checked one detail against the PPG.

[@roginator1]

I will stick to two of my Waves 2,3

[@ottokraut]

Thank you for this comparison video. Would love to see and hear a comparison between your PPG and the Waldorf M, specially the filters.

[@vintagesynths]

I have such a video and compared my former 2.3 with the M, just look in my video history

[@ottokraut]

From what I can see you have a Waldorf M vs Microwave I ”PPG 2.3 presets” comparison but no direct comparison between your heavenly sent PPG 2.2 and the M, which I would love to see one day. Grüsse aus Chile!

[@vintagesynths]

@@ottokraut you can listen to my 2.2 vs 2.3 video I just did

[@hemibass]

Hi Rudiger. I had a question about patch creation on PPG's (since I have never played one) in order to try and recreate some classic sounds on my 3rd Wave. Would it be ok for me to send you an email about it so I can go into a bit more detail? Thanks. Hemi

[@winesynths]

Klasse Vergleichsvideo! Der Thirdwave hört sich wie ein würdiger Nachfolger an! 👍

[@dxmat]

Awesome video! PPG more aliasing & grit, 3rd wave seems more clean.

[@vintagesynths]

Thank you very much. Bob Coover gave some tips today to get the sounds more close. Till and I will do another comparison video.

[@iSirTaki]

i miss the magic on the 3rd wave, some sounds were close, some way more alive on the 2.2

[@vintagesynths]

The PPG sound is almost impossible to get on a modern synth. For me the PPG sounds like an acoustic instrument and really much alive. The 3rd wave sounds like a great VA and it is also a VA. It’s definitely a great synth but the PPG has a fine body and those typical aliasing and noise artifacts in higher and deeper notes. The choir sound was the most difficult to a achieve.

[@iSirTaki]

@@vintagesynths i know exactly what you mean. I had a 2.2, but i sold it some years ago. Sometimes i regret it, but most of the time not 😀

[@DMT353]

I wonder if any difference could be heard when these two synths are going after the same sound, once they’re in a mix.

[@realqwave]

@@DMT353 Depends very much of the context they are played and mixed into.

[@torbenanschau6641]

It's amazing... seems it's impossible to really emulate sounds of the 80s without the originals and in this case it's even digital synthesis. The differences were not really huge but distinct. I would almost say the 2.2 sounded warmer which probably is a hated term. But yeah whilst the 3rd is crips and has a lot of presence in the high frequencies, the 2 hast that belly bottom, lower mids. And some of the cycles sound smoother. I was watching something different while listening and everytime I had to look back on the video it was the original playing.

[@vintagesynths]

Till improved some of those sounds and we think we can come more close. We need a little time and we plan to do another video. The settings in the 3rd wave are a bit different, so it’s tricky. But we think you can come damn close. Nevertheless the Charme of the ppg is unreachable and it feels like an acoustic instrument.

[@torbenanschau6641]

@@vintagesynths I don't think it's about the parameters, it's more the overall sound. Maybe some good EQ or even some tube amp might get it closer.

[@vintagesynths]

@@torbenanschau6641 actually you are right. As you know. The ppg has some special dirtiness in it’s tone that no synth will ever match. My overall impression was. The 3rd wave sounds great but the PPG sounds and feels like a real acoustic instrument.

[@FreeThink1984]

First!!!!

[@dannybrazen]

Fuckin’ so?! Are like 12 years old?

[@morphoice]

boy oh boy those two couldn't sound further apart...