About Us
We started with a sound that builds on the best sounds from the past and brought it into the future.
Groove Synthesis and the 3rd Wave synth were conceived by our co-founder Bob Coover, who spent years writing DSP plugins and building synthesizers and effects for other people, first at Digidesign/AVID, later at Sequential alongside Dave Smith. Throughout his career, he kept coming back to the same records. Music made on the classic wavetable synths of the 1980s, elusive machines like the PPG Wave, the Fairlight CMI, or the Prophet VS, which used wavetables or samples with a primitive but iconic processing chain to create their sound. (Wavetable synthesis builds a sound from a series of single-cycle waveforms you can sweep through, and it is a part of why those records still sound like nothing else.)
Bob loved that sound enough to track down a real PPG, drive to San Diego to buy it, and bring it home. The sound was everything he remembered and loved. Programming it was another story. Cryptic two-letter codes and menus you had to memorize, a machine that hid its own genius behind a wall of buttons.
That gap, an unforgettable sound trapped inside an instrument that few people could comfortably program, is one of the reasons Groove Synthesis exists. There were already wavetable synthesizers on the market, but no one was creating a modern instrument built around the character of the original PPG signal chain.
Around 2018, Bob set out to build one, bringing together a group of like-minded synthesizer obsessives who would become the first iteration of Groove Synthesis. The result is an instrument that keeps the magic of that sound, and then takes it into the current era, both by giving it knob-per-function access and by adding new synthesis techniques and features that the original PPG and current wavetable synthesizers don’t have.
Going beyond the sound that started it
The 3rd Wave, released in 2022, is our answer to what those classic machines might have become if their makers had never stopped. We rebuilt that iconic PPG wavetable signal chain with obsessive accuracy, down to the unusually high sample rates and the deliberately absent anti-imaging filter that give it its unmistakable character. Then we kept going.
That effort became the 3rd Wave family we make today. The 24K keyboard, the 24M desktop, and the compact 8M all share the same sound engine. The 8M trades a higher voice count and part count for a smaller footprint and a friendlier price, but gives up nothing in sound. Same filters, same signal chain, same character.
The 3rd Wave is far more than a faithful recreation. It brings multiple forms of synthesis together in one instrument: modern wavetables generated through audio analysis, classic analog-style synthesis, FM, and sampling. All of them can coexist within the same program and flow through a signal path with genuine analog filters and an analog back end. In other words, Synthesis without limits. That line is a promise we design toward every time.
Putting the groove in Groove Synthesis
Bob grew up listening to new wave, but also to soul and R&B during his high school time in Memphis. He spent years writing songs and could not imagine building an instrument that did not make you want to move. That is why the logo has a finger snap, a nod to the Stax Records sound, and why the 3rd Wave family of synths carries a pattern-based sequencer built with swing and great feel baked right in.
Co-founder Andrew Silverman, who leads the embedded software development, played a major role in shaping that sequencer. The goal was not simply to provide a way to arrange notes, but to create something that feels alive and sparks creativity. Sound design to inspire your ears, and a groove that you can dig. Andrew was also a driving force behind the expansion of the product line. He kept pushing for a way to bring the complete 3rd Wave sound to more musicians and producers
Together, Bob and Andrew lead a close-knit group of engineers, sound designers, and longtime collaborators. Every instrument bears their fingerprints.
Our approach is technical, but it is always grounded in music. When a difficult problem needs time to breathe, Bob may head out to race BMX, Andrew may go birdwatching on a hike in the forest, or Ross, our mechanical engineer, may tinker with an airplane part. Then everyone comes back ready to solve it.
How we build
Groove Synthesis is based in Northern California, not far from where our friends at Sequential, E-mu, and Buchla helped shape synthesizer history.
We build it the way we wish more instruments were built: without compromises to sound, materials, or build quality. Inspiration you can hear, feel, and see when you play it.
Every instrument must pass the same first test: Does it sound like a million bucks—wide, deep, and alive?
With help from the people who play it
Some of the best features in the 3rd Wave exist because owners told us what they needed and we listened. The instrument available today goes far beyond what we originally shipped in 2022, and we keep adding new features and capabilities across the whole family of 3rd Wave products.
Whether you are a Grammy-winning producer, a sound designer, or someone learning your very first patch, you matter to us the same, and our support reflects that.
What’s next?
We are a long way from done. There is more coming, and we are taking the time to get it right, the same way we did the first time.
If any of this gets you excited, the best thing you can do is hear a 3rd Wave for yourself. Find a dealer near you, or reach out any time. We answer our own email, and we would love to hear what you make.