3rd Wave Terminal: free editor for the 3rd Wave synth

Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave Terminal: a free editor for the 3rd Wave

Groove Synthesis releases 3rd Wave Terminal, a free macOS and Windows app bundling a librarian plus program, wavetable and sample editors for the 3rd Wave synth.

Simon Janvier

27 October 2026 3 min read

Groove Synthesis released 3rd Wave Terminal on October 19, 2026, a companion app for its 3rd Wave synth family. It is free for registered owners of a 3rd Wave 24K, 24M or 8M and runs on macOS and Windows, according to Groove Synthesis’ official announcement. It was developed with Ocean Control, the studio of composer Pedro Macedo Camacho.

What 3rd Wave Terminal does

Where a plain librarian only sorts and transfers presets, Terminal is a full editor as well. It brings together four tools:

Librarian: two side-by-side windows for the synth’s banks, a local copy of the factory presets and your own banks. Drag and drop sends a program to the hardware, and programs can be auditioned in real time before saving.
Program editor: it mirrors the front panel and expands each section on screen: all three oscillators, all four LFOs, every envelope and the three wave envelopes that scan through the wavetables. Modulation shows as a table, a matrix grid or virtual cables you drag around.
Wavetable editor: build wavetables from audio files, MP3 included, or draw them freehand. A wavetable is a series of waveforms the oscillator sweeps through to change the timbre over time; our wavetable synthesis explainer covers how it works.
Sample editor: build multisamples from audio files, including formats the synth cannot use on its own without conversion.

Groove Synthesis also mentions a sequence editor, with a piano-roll view for touching up recorded sequences.

The prerequisite

Terminal needs OS 2.0d or later on the synth: on older firmware, the app will not recognise the 3rd Wave. Update the instrument before connecting it over USB. The download sits on the manufacturer’s support page, under “Software Tools”, once you have created an account and registered your synth.

A reminder: the 3rd Wave

The 3rd Wave is a hybrid synth combining PPG Wave-style wavetable oscillators, analog waveforms and samples, with filters and an effects section. It comes as a keyboard (24K) and a desktop module (24M), both with 24 voices, and as the 8-voice 8M desktop. For what that voice count really means, see our article polyphonic, paraphonic, monophonic: what voice count means.

Who is it for?

For 3rd Wave owners who want to see a whole program at a glance, archive their banks, or make their own wavetables and multisamples from their own sounds. The 8M, with a sparser front panel than the 24-voice models, is the one that gains most from an on-screen editor.

How much?

Free for any registered 3rd Wave, available now. The synth itself: View at Thomann

What does it compete with?

Other manufacturers often offer a similar tool, but rarely one this complete:

Waldorf Chutney for the Protein: a free librarian with no parameter editing (see our article on Chutney).
Novation Components: patch management for Novation synths, with editing for some models.

With program, wavetable and sample editors on top of the librarian, Terminal goes further than most of these free tools. More software of this kind lives in our free and open source section.