4 Pole, Waldorf

At the heart of Waldorf's Pulse Plus synthesizer is a versatile multi function filter that is now available as a stand alone unit called the miniworks 4pole. This device allows you to filter any type of signal via a 24dB lowpass filter, which also features resonance.

In addition to the filter frequency and resonance, you can manipulate volume and position within the stereo field via complex user configurable modulation controls. The unit is very easy to use and is capable of filtering the signal from electric guitars, electronic drumpads, synthesizers and samplers, in fact anything that has an audio output can be run through the 4pole. It can even be used as a De-noiser, which is especially useful if you want to process the output of a radio or the signal from an old LP.

After finding an AM station with a strong signal we routed the output through the 4pole and went through the factory presets. We found, among other things, an excellent noise suppression program that used the signal envelope to control the cutoff frequency. Another program generated a ring modulation effect as well as a few others that allowed us to simulate compression and also some excellent stereo amplitude modulation effects.

As I mentioned earlier the 4pole is very easy to use, within no time you'll be creating sounds and signal effects and saving them to memory for later use. The controls are sensibly layed out and are multi functional thanks to a shift button directly below the Mode controller, that allows you to scroll from one set of parameter controllers to another. Re-configuring patches is easily accomplished by pressing this Mode button until a red LED moves down to the row that has the controls you need, then all you need to do is adjust rotary pots until you get what you want. The moment a pot is moved the large LED will show you what setting it was the last time it was touched.
I would have a found an auto zeroing button helpful as I found myself needing to get Pan and Vol mod values to zero regularily, especially while creating new presets from scratch. A rocking Mode button would also have been helpful, allowing me to go up and down the different parameters instead of having to scroll through to get back one place.

Overall though I found the 4pole to be a powerful and versatile tool that afforded me much more control over sound creation and production than I have had before and I certainly wouldn't hesitate to recomend it to those in the process of setting up MIDI studios or who need to able to extend the capabilities of their existing equipment.

Manufacturer:Waldorf

Description: Synthesizer

Functions: 24 dB lowpass filter with variable resonance up to self-oscillation
40 programs, divided into 20 ROM presets and 20 user programs
24dB analogue low pass filter with resonance up to self-oscillation
Filter input can be overdriven
stereophonic VCA with real-time panning modulation
VCF ADSR envelope
VCA ADSR envelope
LFO (5 different waveforms; tri, sin, saw, pulse, sample&hold)
15 modulation sources
Envelope follower

Specifications: 4 edit knobs
1 gain knob
1 trigger level knob
5 buttons
Large 3 x 7 segment LED display
monophonic audio input
seperate trigger input
stereophonic audio output pair
MIDI In/Out/Thru
Waldorf Blue Suede Coat, alloy console chassis

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