Waldorf Crema: Get on Top With This String and Pad Synthesizer
Strings And Pads, Oh My!
3,8 / 5,0 | 
Waldorf Crema wants to be your new pad machine with a string ensemble from Streichfett, wavetables, FM and virtual analog engines plus a shimmer reverb and arpeggiator. I Crema therefore I ambient.
All About Waldorf Crema
Waldorf Crema
The other day, I took a wild guess about the new Waldorf instrument and guessed it was going to be called Neptun and be a virtual analog percussion synth based on the Attack VST. Boy, was I waaaay off. Turns out, that synth is actually Crema, a multi-engine pad machine that wants you to relax, chill out and get ambient. It takes inspiration from certain engines from the fan-favorite Streichfett string synthesizer, although it’s much more than just a Streichfett MKII.
Drink Deep of the Crema
So, Crema. It comes in the same form factor as Protein, and also has a foodie-themed name, although this time they’re going for coffee with cream. The metal frame of the chassis is even coffee-colored.
The theme for Crema is pads, and to achieve that it’s got a variety of sound modes spread across two engines. Think lush strings, glistening FM, evolving wavetables and floaty virtual analog. Let’s look at the engines one by one, as they each have different functionality.
Engine one is Texture. Here you get three synthesis modes: Strings, Wavetable and FM. Strings is the fully polyphonic synth engine from the Streichfett string machine module, with an attack and release envelope and three possible modulations: position, vibrato and phaser.
Next up is Wavetables, a 12-voice mode which slots in 17 wavetables (some classic, some new) plus a modeled filter, three ADSR envelopes for wavetable, filter and amplitude and position, vibrato and cutoff modulation destinations.
Lastly, there’s FM, also 12 voices. Here you can play with six 4-operator algorithms and feedback, two ADSR envelopes for FM amount and amplitude plus modulations for FM amount and vibrato.
Drink Deeper
The other main synthesis engine is called Lines. Here you have a polyphonic virtual analog synth inspired by the solo engine (but expanded to eight voices of polyphony) in the original Streichfett, with two detunable oscillators based on square or saw shapes, two phase envelopes with AD or ASR shapes, and tremolo, vibrato and pulse width modulation.
There are effects too. Of course there are. What would a pad machine be without effects? Effects slot one provides chorus, phaser, flanger, drive, tremolo and delay, while number two contains the ever-important reverb and shimmer, which reportedly “transforms simple pads into expanding soundscapes.” You can route these in series or parallel.
Lastly, Crema has borrowed the Flavour knob from Protein to give subtle variations in pitch, waveform position and other areas to create a more organic instrument sound.
Performance, Chutney and Connectivity
Although Crema is small, it comes loaded with performance features. Many of the modulations can be mapped to mod wheel and aftertouch, and there’s an advanced arpeggiator as well, which you can assign to the two engines individually.
Although you may not expect it on a pad machine, Crema also includes a step sequencer with a scale mode that’s capable of 32 steps.
Additionally, the synth is bitimbral, with splits by note and/or channel.
As for presets, it comes with 130, with an additional 230 open slots for your own patches. Crema works with the Chutney Librarian as well.
In terms of connectivity, you’ve got stereo audio out with optional mono and TRS stereo connections, mini headphone out, TRS MIDI in and out and USB-C for power and MIDI.
Price and Availability
Waldorf Crema is available now at Thomann* for €339.
More Information
- Waldorf Crema product page
- More about Waldorf
- More about synthesizers
- Buy synthesizers at Thomann*
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