RS050 Waldorf Rack Attack: Analog Virtual

video upload by rejected synths

"Being way ahead of your time more often than not isn‘t actually that great. Sure, sometimes innovation pays off big time, but for some reason, pushing boundaries and conventions often won’t instantly get you the acclaim you actually deserve.

This happened more than once in general history (and in synth history too) and it is certainly true for the VST plugin turned Rack unit featured in this video. These days, it’s fairly common for us to see manufacturers squeezing what are essentially plugins into tiny shiny boxes (Roland Boutique anyone?) and while you could get the same sound for less (or free?) in your DAW, physical buttons an knobs always have a tendency to spark creativity and fun in a way that is seldom achieved sitting in front of a big screen, squeezing virtual buttons and knobs with your mouse cursor.

While The Waldorf Rack Attack certainly isn’t as portable and/or affordable as your average Volca, for me it’s an absurdly fun machine. When I took up collecting the actual hardware synths I could not afford as a teen I was absolutely baffled when I learned that Waldorf had also released a hardware version of the Attack, one of my all time favorite VST plugins, in 2002. I instantly wanted it but it took me several years to find one at an even remotely affordable price.

On the very few occasions I managed to find a unit at a reasonable, I was always too late and someone snagged it away from me before I could make an offer. This way I learned that I don’t seem to be the only one to appreciate this freaky machine. But with some patience (actually a few years of patience) I finally manged to find and buy one myself. To my surprise it turned out that the Rack Attack was even more awesome than I had expected, because Waldorf was kind enough to add some extra magic to the rack version of the Attack, it isn’t just an incredibly wild sounding percussion and drum synth but can also be used to create all kinds of synth sounds and even comes with a built in sequencer. It turned out that, with some planning ahead, you could create full tracks on a single Rack Attack and the pattern sequencer can be a great tool in any dawless setup.

Only very few people seem to know about this absolute gem of an machine, not much at all can be fond on YouTube itself, well until now that is ;)"

Tracklist:

0:00 Intro
0:43 A pretty long Introduction
4:38 The Attack Sound Engine
6:09 Rack Attack Demo Song
7:36 Controls and Connectivity
8:58 Preset Drumkit Demo Patterns
11:03 Plugin Mode Sound Demos
12:53 Pattern Sequencer
15:38 Plugin Mode Demo Song
18:48 Conclusion
19:27 Outro

RS050.1 Waldorf Rack Attack 'No Talking' Edition

"This is a shorter 'No Talking' edit of my video about the Behringer Neutron for those who prefer 'pure' demos without comments."

0:00 Factory Demo Song 3
1:30 Preset Drumkit Demo Patterns
3:35 Poly Mode Sound Demos
5:14 Pattern Sequencer Demo
7:35 Poly Mode Demo Song

RS050.2 Waldorf Rack Attack: Factory Demo Songs


"Aa a little bonus goodie and to celebrate the fact that I replaced my ancient 2012 graphics card with a slightly less 2017 one, I did practice some more blender fu and created some visuals for the other two demo songs I haven't featured in my original Waldorf Attack video."