Airwave, Blue Wave, Digital Wave! – Sounds and Presets
5,0 / 5,0 | 
Wave your hands in the air like you just don’t care! This week we’ve got Yamaha & ROLI teaming up with the Airwave, plus other digital wavey things for your synths!
Sounds and Presets
Airwave + Montage M
Just over a year ago, ROLI introduced the Airwave, a new and (according to ROLI) revolutionary way of controlling your synths by waving your hands around in the air, hence the name Airwave! Using a unique tracking system, the Airwave sits behind your keyboard and can precisely track the position of your hands in relation to it.
ROLI initially marketed Airwave as part of a new and hugely expressive ecosystem alongside their Piano AI technology, all of which is powered by their ROLI Music Intelligence Platform, a platform that ROLI hope to expand and grow beyond their own brand.
And now we have a collaboration with Yamaha that brings Airwave to Yamaha’s flagship Montage M synthesizer. The Montage M is not short of its own expressive systems, not least on the amazing Montage M8x, with its polyphonic aftertouch.
This collaboration delivers 32 all-new presets, crafted specifically for use with the Montage M and Airwave by Dom Sigalas, Marcus Levy-Chance and Atsuo “Ace” Yukawa. Watching Dom’s videos, you can see exactly how expressive this combination can be.
The presets are free and can be downloaded from the ROLI website, but if you want to try them out for yourself in person, Yamaha has installed an Airwave onto one of the Montage M’s in their flagship store in Soho, London, the first place in the world you can try this out!
The Blue Collection for Behringer Wave by Push-Pull
When you think of the massive synths of the 80s, PPG’s Wave 2.3 and Waveterm were definitely up there with the biggest, most expensive and best. If you had told a teenage me that in 2025, I’d be able to buy a replica for a little over £500, I’d have spat my Quatro fizzy drink out in your face!
And yet, here we are. Behringer collaborated with PPG enthusiasts and delivered the Wave, a very good recreation of ol’ bluey, so much so that many have said that the OS and interface are as equally perplexing as the original.
That aside, the Wave sounds very, VERY close to the original, and now we have another sound set for it, courtesy of Push-Pull! The pack consists of 40 patches and 4 new transients and there is a distinctive 80s feel to them.
Sounds inspired by Depeche Mode, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Jean Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, and more make for a very familiar and inspiring collection of patches. The best part is that this lot only costs $10 and you can buy them direct from Push-Pull’s online store!
KORG DW-8000 Reborn for KORG multi/poly by The Digital Lifestyle
KORG’s DW-8000 has a strong cult following for those who used one back in 1985. The DW-8000 was a hybrid synth that featured digital waveforms fed through analog filters. Despite KORG revisiting the DW concept with their recent modwave synth, Ian Dixon has decided to develop a sound library for the multi/poly based on the DW-8000.
Ian has recreated all of the DW-8000 presets across 70 performances and 70 programs but also used the multi/poly’s extensive synthesis capabilities to go way beyond. On top of those sounds, there are also bonus sequences, splits and atmospheric patches.
It’s a nostalgic set of patches that captures the sound of the original nicely, and Ian also provides a template for you to create your own DW-8000 style patches if you’re feeling that adventurous.
There are two versions of this soundset. The first is a cut-down free bank that will give you a flavour of the full package to try before you buy. The full premium set is available for £15.00 and can be bought from The Digital Lifestyle‘s online store.
Nord Stage 4 Presets by J3PO
We’ve featured Julian Pollack’s sounds here before, and as an accomplished musician and sound designer, they are always top-notch quality, so it will come as no surprise that the quality level has not dipped at all with this new bank.
Designed for the omnipresent Nord Stage 4, this bank covers a broad range of sounds and styles that make use of Nord’s own onboard samples and digital oscillators, as well as a wealth of samples straight from Julian’s own instruments in his studio.
Julian has sampled his own analog synths, as well as his pianos, both electric and acoustic, to give you a very personal collection of sounds. As one of LA’s most renowned keyboard players, you can be sure that these sounds work as well on stage as they do in the studio.
This bank of sounds, which really makes use of all of the Stage 4’s performance features and synthesis techniques, contains 64 custom patches and can be purchased directly from Julian’s online store for just $49.00.
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