The Waldorf Pulse is a rack-mounted monosynth used by Nine Inch Nails, 808 State, and Moby, just to name a few. The Pulse was made by the troubled German synth manufacturer Waldorf Music, which declared insolvency in 2004. Waldorf made a comeback announcement in 2006, but details at the time of publication are sketchy.

What's not so sketchy is the love affair that many vintage-synth heads have with this rack mount mono rig. Jonny Ragel of Boy Eats Drum Machine gave us his two cents on the Waldorf Pulse, including some tips on how to get friendly with it, and his favorite features.

GW:"Give us the lowdown on the Waldorf Pulse. What does it compare to?"

Jonny Ragel: "The coolest thing about the Pulse is that after having one for several years I'm still finding ways to get little colors and sound artifacts out of it. It's a 2U rack synth with 3 DCOs, 2 VCOs, a 'fat' VCF (low filter), and a flexible 4 path modulation matrix. comparable analog mono synths would likely be the Sequential Pro 1, Moog Source, or Moog's new Lil' Phatty. Benjy (fellow bandmate) and I are both drooling over the Lil' Phatty!"

GW: "How do you use the Pulse in the recording process?"

Ragel: "I prefer writing patches for specific songs. I find it's easier for me to focus on what the synth's patch is doing in the context of the piece. Also, bass needs top end to find presence in the mix and I find I shy away from using enough top end and possibly having too much low-mids if I program a bass sound by itself. It needs to both cut and 'fill out' the low end as needed. Thankfully the Pulse often has plenty of low punch and scads of 'squelch' for making it's presence known in the mix."

GW: "How can someone get familiar with the Pulse? Is there a challenging learning curve?"

Ragel: "To learn it's capabilities I'd start with one oscillator (turn down the other two to 0), open it's respective envelope until it's attack and decay fit what you are looking for and start learning how the cutoff setting interacts with the sound. This is very important for utilizing the sound in different keys.

Then I'd go straight for the VCF (low filter) and get aquainted with the cuttoff, keytrack, and resonance. Each oscillator has a few waveform options to explore."

"The ARP is very flexible and fun to work with. the mod matrix makes it possible to use the two VCO's, a keyboard's mod wheel, or other midi commands to 'modulate' different parameter's of the patch. modulating an oscillator's volume creates a vibro effect for example---modulating an oscillator's pitch allows you to create a rythmic complementary note or artifact---the possibilites are seemingly endless.

Not bad for a simple synth with no onboard FX (except panning and the sweet natural distortion from cranking it's oscillator and master volumes!). The editing layout isn't for everyone. Synthesists used to keyboards with knobs for every function may be often frustrated. as for me, I love it-- and it was cheap. It never gets old to say that!"

GW: "The Waldorf Pulse might be a bit tough to track down, but anyone who does manage to locate a Pulse will be in some very good company. Boy Eats Drum Machine, Moby, 808 State, and Nine Inch Nails... all seemingly satisfied customers. Too bad the future of Waldorf Music is so sketchy at this time."