mo0kid wave is a free, open-source emulation of the 1993 Waldorf Wave that runs the original firmware on an emulated 68000 CPU, with 48 voices, for macOS.
Plugin comparison
mo0kid wave vs Vital
Specs, price and the Dubspot Score, side by side — with our verdict on which synth to buy.
Independent score / workflow fit / buying signal
Contenders
The side-by-side
9.0Essential
Vital is a spectral warping wavetable synthesizer by Matt Tytel for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Technical matrix
Specs compared
| Signal | mo0kid wave | Vital |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (open source, GPL-3.0) | $25 |
| Dubspot Score | — | 9.0 |
| Formats | VST3, AU, AAX, Standalone | VST, VST3, AU (Audio Units), LV2, Standalone |
| Type | Firmware-level emulation of the Waldorf Wave (hybrid wavetable) | — |
| Method | Emulated 68000 CPU running the original OS plus the WDV voice-board runtime | — |
| Modeled hardware | ES2 oscillator ASIC, CEM3387 filters, 480 by 64 display | — |
| Voices | 48 (three 16-voice cards), multi-threaded rendering | — |
| License | GPL-3.0-or-later | — |
| Formats | Standalone, AU, VST3, AAX | — |
| System | macOS Ventura 13.0 or later (Apple Silicon and Intel) | — |
| Synthesis type | — | Spectral warping wavetable synthesis |
| Operating systems | — | Windows 10+, macOS 10.15+ (Intel or Apple Silicon), Ubuntu Linux 18.04+; 64-bit only, OpenGL 3+ |
| Wavetable tools | — | Pitch-splice and vocode wavetable converters, plus text-to-wavetable generation |
| Modulation | — | LFOs, envelopes and randomized sources with stereo modulation, remappable curves, audio-rate modulation, and keytracked LFOs |
| Tuning and MPE | — | Microtonal support (.tun, .scl, .kbd files) and full MPE support |
| Included content | — | Basic: 75 presets / 25 wavetables; Plus: 250 / 70; Pro: 400+ / 150 |
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