Waldorf discontinued the Streichfett years ago, and the little string machine never really left the gear forums. Ambient and organic house producers kept hunting secondhand units for that specific ensemble wash, the one that made pads feel like they were breathing. Waldorf just answered that demand directly: the Crema, released October 29, 2026, puts the Streichfett's sound architecture back into production inside a box that does considerably more than the original ever did.
What's actually inside the Crema?
The Crema runs two engines side by side. Texture carries the Streichfett lineage forward: string-machine ensemble tones, 17 wavetables and 6 FM configurations, for 24 sound types in total. Lines sits next to it as an 8-voice virtual-analog synth engine, so the instrument isn't a one-trick string box, it's a string machine with a full synth bolted on. A dual effects section with a dedicated shimmer reverb pushes the pad sounds into the kind of decay that organic and deep-house producers build whole tracks around, and a Flavour knob adds subtle pitch and waveform variation across voices, the kind of analog imperfection that made the original Streichfett feel alive rather than static.
Mixdown Mag frames it plainly: the Crema is built on the Streichfett, not just inspired by it.
Why resurrect a discontinued synth instead of making something new?
Because the Streichfett built a genuine cult following that Waldorf never fully served. Discontinuing a well-loved instrument and then rebuilding its core sound into a more capable, still-affordable successor is a rare move: most manufacturers either keep flogging the old unit or abandon the sound entirely. Waldorf did neither. The Crema ships with 130+ factory presets from Christian Kleine and LimbicBits, connects over USB-C, USB MIDI and mini TRS MIDI in/out, and runs stereo audio out plus headphones, all in a desktop footprint of 252 x 170 x 48mm at 0.9kg.
Why it matters
The Streichfett's ensemble strings are a specific texture that organic and ambient house producers have been chasing on the secondhand market for years, often paying inflated prices for a discontinued unit. A new, in-production instrument that carries that same sound architecture, plus wavetable and FM synthesis and a second full synth engine, removes that scarcity bottleneck entirely.
What we think
Most "we brought back a classic" gear launches lean on nostalgia alone and ship a worse, pricier version of the original. The Crema doesn't: it keeps the Streichfett's actual sound engine honest while adding real capability around it, at a price that undercuts what secondhand Streichfett units go for. That's the rare synth revival that's worth taking seriously rather than rolling your eyes at.
