Kiviak Instruments WoFi: Hoping to kickstart the sample-based synth
4,7 / 5,0 | 
Kiviak Instruments WoFi · Source: Kiviak Instruments/Les Sondiers
Kiviak Instruments WoFi · Source: Kiviak Instruments/Les Sondiers
Kiviak Instruments WoFi · Source: Kiviak Instruments
Kiviak Instruments WoFi · Source: Kiviak Instruments
Kiviak Instruments WoFi · Source: Kiviak Instruments
Kiviak Instruments WoFi · Source: Kiviak Instruments/Les Sondiers
Kiviak Instruments WoFi · Source: Kiviak Instruments/Les Sondiers
Kiviak WoFi · Source: Kiviak Instruments
Update: WoFi has arrived on Kickstarter and is looking for nearly £90,000 of investment and preorders to put this sample-based synthesizer into production.
The WoFi from Kiviak Instruments popped up at SynthFest last weekend and is now officially launching via a Kickstarter campaign. Kiviak are looking to raise £86,857 from a preorder price of around £521. At the time of writing, it’s well over halfway there, with 93 backers pledging their money in the first 24 hours. Delivery is expected in March 2024.
The confirmed features of WoFi are that it will effortlessly record samples and play them with 10-note polyphony. It has a subtractive architecture for shaping and filtering the sounds. It has a sequencer, lots of effects, including a Texturer granular/shimmer effect and a bunch of hands-on controls built into a very modern-looking device. The Texturer will also be available as a VST plugin.
Kiviak are also very into the cloud and online storage, so the WoFi is designed to store your samples and patches online.
WoFi is an interesting-looking machine with a unique vibe that promises to take the pain out of sampling. If you’re interested then now is the perfect time to get one at well below what the retail price will be.
- Wofi Kickstarter page.
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Original article from the 10th of February 2023:
Instagram posts from Kivika Instruments have grabbed our attention, showing a new sampler keyboard. We believe it’s called WoFi, and here’s what we know.
Kiviak Instruments
Kiviak Instruments is a French company founded by Romain Giannetti. It seems to have two directions, one that specialises in Cloud Platform management and another that specialises in software and hardware musical instrument design. According to the website, the first hardware instrument was scheduled for the beginning of last year, but I imagine all the usual reasons have delayed it until now. In fact, there have been a number of posts about it on Instagram over the past year, but this is the first time we’ve noticed!
WoFi
WoFi has been described as a sampler that’s connected to a simplified workflow that integrates with granular synthesis. It’s compact, portable and looks quite delicious. The interface is clear, with a good range of knobs and controls and a nice big display to show you what’s going on. I also really appreciate the wooden cheeks.
Kiviak Instruments WoFi
From the Instagram posts, we can gather that you can sample straight in via line input or microphone. It will have classic sampler emulations for that all-important sound. It will have a filter, envelope and LFO. Something called the Texturer will “Elevate your sound”. Playing will be via the keyboard, pads or sequencer and will have CV/Gate as well as MIDI and USB. I’m pretty sure that’s a built-in speaker on the right.
Kiviak Instruments WoFi
There are some interesting buttons in the middle section which allude to that other wing of Kiviak Technologies. There’s a Wi-Fi button, a button labelled “Cart” and another called “Cloud”. I’d hazard a guess that this is going to be a very connected keyboard. Perhaps you will be able to browse sample libraries from the Cloud and purchase them directly from the keyboard. Nice idea, and a significant one if you don’t have to go via a computer. There is a mention of sharing your patches via the mywo.fi cloud platform or onto a very intriguing cartridge.
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According to one commentator on Sequencer.de the WoFi will be presented at the Insane Festival in August. That’s undoubtedly one to look forward to. But regardless, if we get any further information, I’ll update this article.
- Kiviak Instruments WoFi: Kiviak Instruments/Les Sondiers
- Kiviak Instruments WoFi: Kiviak Instruments
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9 responses to “Kiviak Instruments WoFi: Hoping to kickstart the sample-based synth”
My ears pricked up when I heard Sampler + Keyboard. I think the world is ripe for a new Casio SK type thing. But I hope you are wrong about the cart function; It’s bad enough that my phone and my laptop constantly try to sell me stuff, not my music gear as well!!!
“Cart” stands for cartridge, not shopping cart!
It would have been nice to credit us for the pictures… https://www.instagram.com/p/CocToEhtRTo/
Apologies. I took the photos from the Kiviak Facebook page and Instagram and wasn’t aware of any further connection. I’ve dug a bit deeper and seen that some of the photos originated from your Facebook post – I’ve updated them to reflect that.
Thanks.
You could credit the person you took the photos from for your article…
Hi Ron, do you know who that would be? These photos were taken from Kiviak social media accounts; no information on the photographer was attached to them. Digging a little deeper I can see a couple of the photos originated on Les Sondiers Facebook page but again no credit has been stated for the photographer. If you have further information we would happily update the article. Thanks.
“connected”, “simplified workflow” sound like red flags to me : having no access to advanced synthesis parameters, only available to content creators who will sell their presets through the official shop. Just like on some VSTs today, which come cheap or even free but are designed for you to spend cash in the preset shop. This is acceptable for a plugin but not for a full price hardware gear.
I hope I’m reading the signs wrong.
Pretty excited about this but am going to wait for a v2 or wait to see how they deal with customer feedback and firmware upgrades. Too young of a company to take the risk imho
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