Waldorf Iridium Deep Dive Part 1 [Oscillators]

[@DaveS-Ace]

Love ur iridium videos brother, re watching them again now as mine has just arrived😉

[@tjontheroad]

Thank you. Enjoy. TJ

[@ScottAdair]

Thanks for taking the time to do these videos, I feel I'll be primed and ready when the Iridium Keyboard finally ships.

[@tjontheroad]

Thanks for watching and enjoy. TJ

[@keepitreal811]

TJ, I absolutely love your videos! Thank you very much for helping me. I just purchased this instrument and am looking for a mentor. You have helped me tremendously!

[@tjontheroad]

Thanks for watching and enjoy. Cheers TJ

[@jezpower]

Thanks!

[@jezpower]

Dear TJ After a couple of years now, do you still use your Iridium, or is it gathering dust? I am thinking of purchasing the Waldorf Iridium keyboard, I own a Prophet XL which I love, attracted by the sample manipulation abilities on the Iridium, should I purchase the Waldorf Iridium?? or will it end up gathering dust?

[@tjontheroad]

Hi, Yes I still use my Iridium often. I probably use it more than my Prophet XL. I tend to cycle through my gear and come back to the Iridium more than most. The Iridium keyboard looks great. I think it's priced too high here in the US though. You can buy an Iridium desktop and a 49 key Hydrasynth for about the same amount money. As long as you like the Iridium sound, and there is plenty to like, you'll never get bored with all it can do. It's a monster synth and a sound designer's dream. Cheers, TJ

[@colekeircom]

Thanks TJ. This is a very helpful video . Looking forward to the next one. Regards Kieron

[@tjontheroad]

Thanks for watching. Cheers, TJ

[@MichaelBlueMusic]

Going through these and about every other video on this I can find. You mention detuning oscillators against each other, but with up to 8 virtual oscillators within each one, with the detune function, doesn’t that negate the necessity for that? (Unless you want a 384-wave supersaw, I guess? 3 osc x 8 virtual osc ea x 16 voices)

[@tjontheroad]

Hi, Thanks for watching. There are many levels of detune on Iridium. Such as global detune parameters for each layer. Each of the three oscillators have their own detune. The 5 sound engines have their own varied detune functions as well. There are a mind numbing number of ways to go with Iridium. Each aspect of the sound is additive. The different types of detune and different stages of the signal chain allow for very complex textures in your patches. Hope that helps you understand. Cheers TJ

[@MrNot4saken]

thanks for the videos going to pick one up

[@tjontheroad]

Thanks for watching. Enjoy yours. Please share and subscribe. TJ

[@CharlesFerraro]

In granular synthesis, if grain size is smaller than cycle length of a repeating waveform then the pitch is determined by the grain (obviously). Does the Iridium have the ability to chromatically tune grain size? Imo this is an integral part of any granular synthesizer.

[@tjontheroad]

No it doesn't. Cheers, TJ

[@CharlesFerraro]

@@tjontheroad are you sure? Assuming that middle C is the bipolar pivot point for keytracking you could try this: Set grain length to middle C (261.6Hz) which is 3.8 milliseconds. Then patch keytracking into grain length. Tune the intensity by ear so playing an octave higher shortens grain length to 1.9 milliseconds (523.2Hz). Viola, chromatically tuned grains. The only think that would stand in the way of that math is if the resolution of modulation intensity wasn’t finite enough.

[@tjontheroad]

@@CharlesFerraro There's no user parameter for that. It likely does it automatically.

[@CharlesFerraro]

@@tjontheroad what 🤔 they call grain length Gate I think. That’s the user parameter for it. Let me look at your video again so I can use their terminology. The patch can be done, maybe I didn’t describe it well enough? There are two parameters Gate and Length. Let me check the manual real fast to tell you which one you should patch keytracking into. Gate should be 100%. It would be easiest to test this with one grain. You should check the pitch against an oscillator from a different engine. Length is what you would patch keytracking into. It’s important that you do it as I described in the previous post though. Otherwise you couldn’t reasonably expect it to work. I believe in you.

[@just_pierre9730]

Thanks for the video! I was waiting for the WSOD...... ;)

[@tjontheroad]

lol. That would really suck if it happened in the middle of a segment. I'd have to start over. WSOD (White Screen Of Death for anyone reading this) only happened once so far. I think it happened because I pushed the OSC 1 button while it was still saving a preset.

[@nomoonbanquet6460]

Hi, I would like to ask you, I don't know which synth to buy between Hydrasynth and Iridium, what would you recommend? Thank you.

[@tjontheroad]

Both is always the best answer :) Short of that, it depends on how you want to use either one. Are you into sound design, samples, or FM synths? Do you need a sequencer? If so, Iridium is probably better for you. Are you a keys player and want polyphonic aftertouch? If so Hydrasynth keyboard is your ticket. If you don't want keys, Hydrasynth desktop is 1/3 the cost of Iridium. Thanks for watching. TJ

[@nomoonbanquet6460]

@@tjontheroad Thanks TJ for the complete reply. I agree. ; )

[@tjontheroad]

@@nomoonbanquet6460 You're welcome

[@CharlesFerraro]

What did you end up choosing?

[@nomoonbanquet6460]

@@CharlesFerraro Waldorf Iridium

[@dirkkeersmaekers4343]

Thanks,give me a better view of buying or not.Don't forget to come out of your dark studio sometimes and have a social live:-).Gives me composing inspirations.

[@tjontheroad]

Thanks for watching. The world outside today is pretty dark. My studio is my oasis. Cheers, TJ

[@SubOxyde]

Can't find any videos of someone actually showing importing wavetables, only samples into wavetables. I had the iridium for a bit and it did not recognize the serum, phaseplant, and vital wavetables at all on my flash drive when I chose "load wavetable". It sees the folders, but the folders were blank That said, my unit was defective because it was crashing every 5 minutes so I RMAd it same day. I'm hoping the replacement doesn't have this issue, but wanted to see if anyone could speak to the success of importing custom wavetables because the literature on this feature is practically non-existent.

[@tjontheroad]

Place wavetable file onto SD card or USB thumb drive. Load a wavetable engine into one of the 3 oscillators. Select "Timber" > "Tools" > "Load Wavetable". Top left of screen you'll see "Internal" button. Select until it shows either SD card or USB depending on what you're loading from. Import your wavetable. Works for me. Thanks for watching, TJ

[@SubOxyde]

@@tjontheroad Awesome! See that's exactly what I did but when I went to the folder with a bunch of wavetables, nothing was there. I'm hoping it was just the unit being defective. Genuinely appreciate the speedy response, love the video! 💯

[@CharlesFerraro]

Omg lower your octave 😂 Why does the unit create multiple wavetables from a sample? Are they different versions of the same sample? Or is it breaking up the length of the sample into multiple tables? Maybe I could tell if you played the wavetable at the same pitch as the sample…

[@tjontheroad]

It creates multiple wavetables based on the length of the sample. I like my playing high and mighty lol. Cheers, TJ

[@CharlesFerraro]

@@tjontheroad thanks for answering! How long can the wavetables be? And let’s say that the uploaded sample is a few milliseconds beyond that maximum length… would it really create a whole new wavetable just for a few milliseconds of fluff?

[@tjontheroad]

@@CharlesFerraro Wavetable length is 1024 samples

[@CharlesFerraro]

@@tjontheroad that should be the length of one repeating cycle in the wavetable, not the length of the entire wavetable. Do you know the maximum length the sample upload can be for one full wavetable before it creates a second wavetable from the sample?

[@tjontheroad]

@@CharlesFerraro don't know off hand