3rd Wave Gets MPE Support In OS 1.5

US Plus poly unison, free running oscillators 18/08/23

The folks at Groove Synthesis today announced an update for their highly coveted 3rd Wave Wavetable polysynth (we were impressed).

The new OS brings the inevitable MPE support - which makes so much sense given t he 24 voice 4-part engine. The large amount of mod destinations will mean that attaching an MPE controller will open up some expressive joy - we can only imagine how would perform with an Osmose attached - mmm.

Here's our review:

There are numerous other tweaks and bug fixes including:

Option for free running analog oscillators in the MISC menu which is settable per patch - In the analog waveform mode, which you are using when you select the Axx waveforms like Saw and Square, now has the option to make the waveforms not reset when you start a new note. In this mode, the oscillators will continue to drift from each other as they do on some fully analog synthesizers. There are two side effects if you are using free running for the analog waveforms:
New poly unison mode - set the polyphony count in the second page of the UNISON menu. It will split the voices up automatically to use max voices per note
New shortcut buttons to easily set output routing per part
New option in GLOBAL menu to send midi program change messages
Now saving UNISON chord mode settings with program
Now pitch wheel, mod wheel, pressure are independent per part when controlling in midi multitimbral mode + pitch wheel destination is settable per part
Slight adjustments to circuit drift envelope sustain variance - gets rid of jumps when going from decay to sustain in the envelope
New options for longer LFO sync times
Improvements to LED brightness settings
Added smoothing to pan position changes to avoid audible stepping
Bug fix for triangle wave phase discontinuities - Gets rid of clicks if you are pitch bending
Bug fix for LFO frequency wraparound when used as mod destination
Bug fix for COMPARE button, fix for machine freeze up if pressed on initial program that loads at bootup before changing a program + remembers which part you are editing
Bug fix for multimbral and keyboard split playing, to reset filter settings so no audible change when voice steals between parts
Bug fix for timing and synchronization issues when receiving MIDI SysEx data while synth is playing
Bug fix so metronome does not continue to play if stop sequencer before count in
Bug fix for midi out clock drift, when 3rd Wave is master clock, caused by rounding error
Bug fix for unison/voice steal clicking from filter envelope reset on new note
Bug fix for sustain pedal with MIDI local control off
Bug fix for arp timing with midi sync, allowing more buffer time for midi note to trigger at same time as midi clock pulse