Waldorf Shrunk Its Classic String Machine Into a Pocket Hybrid. Americans Pay More For It.

Waldorf built its name on the Streichfett, the budget string machine that became a default pad box for anyone who wanted that lush, slightly plasticky 70s ensemble sound without hunting down a vintage Solina. Crema is the first time that exact sound has been pulled into something bigger: a hybrid synth that layers it against wavetables, FM and a full virtual-analog voice engine, in a box small enough to live on a touring rig rather than a studio shelf.

What's actually inside it?

Crema runs two engines at once. The Texture engine holds 24 sound types: the 6 classic Streichfett strings, 17 wavetables and 6 FM algorithms, and all of them can be layered against the Lines engine, an 8-voice virtual-analog synth running in parallel. That's the pitch: one box covering the ground that used to need a string machine, a wavetable synth and an analog poly stacked together. Waldorf ships it with more than 130 factory presets and leaves room for 230 more, and keeps the footprint tiny at 252 x 170 x 48mm and under a kilo, with USB-C, MIDI I/O and stereo outs covering the practical side.

Why does the US price look worse?

Thomann has it listed at €339 in Europe (Waldorf's own site quotes €345.45 including German VAT), and Sweetwater has the same synth at $499 in the US. Run the straight currency math and that gap is bigger than it should be, which is exactly the kind of thing gear buyers notice and complain about on forums the day a product lands. Import duties, distributor margins and US retail markup all feed into it, but the end result is the same machine costing noticeably more once it crosses the Atlantic.

Lush strings, glistening FM, evolving wavetables and floaty virtual analog.

That's Gearnews's read on the tone, and it lines up with what Waldorf is selling here: not a retro reissue, but a 70s string-machine idea wearing 90s digital synthesis on top.

Who is this actually for?

The size and the price point both point away from the studio-only crowd and toward bedroom producers and touring keyboardists who want one small box that does pads, FM textures and analog-style leads without hauling three synths. Waldorf has leaned into hybrid, compact gear before, but Crema is the first time the Streichfett sound specifically has been folded into that approach rather than kept as its own standalone unit.