Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello. Ujiie here again.
This is the Waldorf Rocket Synthesizer.
This thing....
...is REALLY interesting!
I feel like, after such a long time,
I've finally found an exciting synth again.
As you can see, it's a square box.
But this square box,
is full of possibilities. You heard the phrases
I just played? Really all I did was push this button here.
Just press this button and all hell breaks loose.
Let me explain a bit.
First of all...
let's get it going, ok?
Push.
An arpeggio plays.
Why, you ask?
Look here.
This is the LFO/ARP section.
With these two knobs,
and these two, uh, switches,
you can control the LFO/ARP.
Right now the target is set to ARP,
so the controls affect the arpeggiator.
The bottom *** here controls speed.
The top one controls the range.
With 1, 2, 3, 4 and Pattern settings.
Let's play with that.
2.
3.
4.
As you see, these simply control the range.
Let's keep going.
Seems pretty random eh?
This is pretty cool.
Ok, if you switch it to OSC...
The oscillator gets LFO'd.
Vibrato.
Switch it to VCF.
Wah-wah.
The arpeggiator is the most fun.
Over here is the filter section.
It can be set to low pass, band pass or high pass.
And there is a keytrack switch, which controls how open the filter gets relative to higher notes on the keyboard.
Let's go with low pass.
Play with the cutoff. How about resonance next?
It can get extreme!
Here's the envelope modulation ***.
The envelope controls are down here.
Decay and release, uh, this *** controls decay.
It can go from a really, really short decay
to longer decay of course.
The release switch,
which turns release on or off.
The sustain switch,
which turns sustain on or off.
And that's what those do.
Next, the oscillator section, which is very well done indeed.
There's lots of stuff here!
Basically, this switch lets you choose
between sawtooth or square waveforms.
Now, when you select sawtooth,
set the switch to sawtooth,
hold on let me set it to OSC here,
ok first of all look at this *** here.
From here to here,
uh, from the 12 o'clock position,
all the way to the left.
This range syncs the oscillator.
You can adjust the sync width via this *** here.
Got it?
Ok, now, from the middle to the right side,
this is really cool,
you can choose different chords.
One octave.
A fifth.
That's like an octave with unison detune.
Now it's a minor chord.
Now it's a kind of fat chord.
And unison again.
When the main *** is set anywhere on its right side,
you can change the chord's tuning via the *** on the right.
Let's set the right *** at 12 o'clock...
Moving the left *** results in detuning.
Detune, right? Now, let's move the right *** a tad...
Some fluctuation...
F minor?
F major.
Let's move this a bit more.
A variety of chords can be made.
So just by fiddling with the knobs, you can get a bunch of different chords.
This is really awesome.
If you leave the main *** as it is, and just move the *** on the right...
The left side gives you detuning,
and the right side gives you...
interval, fourth, etc. etc.
That's what it does.
Now, you can use this however you want, and get the arpeggiator going,
...and do something like that!
Let's switch this to square wave.
More changes!
So, via these two knobs in the oscillator section,
you can sorta put chords together,
and by firing up the arpeggiator,
or hitting the trigger (launch) button,
you can play music.
Lots of editing possibilities.
Ok, so as you can see, I have an
effects unit hooked up here, so let's add some delay.
That spices things up.
One more cool thing, boost.
Turn boost on and...
baaam instant distortion.
How cool is that?
Ah, MIDI clock signal is always on,
so you can hook up drum machines or whatever,
and they'll sync up with this just fine.
The Rocket serving as the Master for the clock.
Really cool!
Of course it also has a MIDI in,
so, of course, need I say it? You can
hook up a MIDI keyboard + control the Rocket from there.
One of the merits of using a keyboard to control the Rocket,
is, uh, well on the Rocket you've got just the Launch button
I just played a C note,
once you hit any key, the Rocket adjusts to play that key
when you hit the Launch button. It remembers.
It can only do one key anyway.
Well, above anything else, the real merit of having a keyboard controller
is using the keys to play the thing!
Translation + Captions by:
SWCreativeJapan