Dear all,
I recently went back to blighty and got myself a waldorf blofeld from the lovely people at Absolute Music. Due to the current crappiness of the pound against the yen, and as foreign-made synths are subject to a whopping mark-up here in Japan, I saved some cash.
I know there are loads of great reviews of this synth out there - so I'm not going to try and out do any of them here. I don't have tons of hardware, not because I dislike it, but it's just too pricey for me. I looked at lots of different options and different synths before I thought about buying the blofeld - and I think I've made a very good choice.
It is a fantastic synth. I've had it for just over a week and it's amazingly cool. I learnt all my synth basics on rolands and yamahas - and then later on through using VSTs. Like many people on this site, I've used lots of different types and flavours of synthesis over the years. And that's why I like the blofeld so much. It is very versatile - capable of producing warmth and mystery as well as stroppy, grainy, crunchy madness. The interface, to my mind, is the perfect trade-off between its size and depth.
I know it's not a real analogue like the evolver, but the oscillators do sound really really good. So do the filters - the PPG LP is awesome, and combined with the drive curves, the filters can really sing out.
The clincher for me is the modulation routing. 16 modulation slots (!), versatile LFOs, modifiers and full MIDI control make this thing a must buy. You can go very deep into patch architecture and implement some very interesting things. Variable FM, LFOs as oscillators, cross-modding LFOs with XOR, NOR, AND etc.
All in all, wicked. Put it on your Christmas wishlist.
 
tokyo, Japan
About me
english male. living in tokyo. married.
freeta corrective - block parties and electronic music in tokyo LastFM Skab/t on Facebook +Most Recent Blogs
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Electronic Music review: blofeld review
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Written December 20 2008 , Tags: review, waldorf, blofeld, love
Comments
yeah agreed. for the size of the thing.its got a big sound.
How's editing on it with the new LCD? On a micro Q I can't stand the matrix editing, and just use a software editor (mQedit).
The editing is pretty straightforward. The matrix has the most commonly used parameters. When selected, they take you to the appropriate page on the screen. From there you can get to any parameter using the selector knob (top left). The two knobs below the screen are used to edit the current page's parameters (usually two per screen). The matrix knobs can still be used to control their currently selected set of parameters, and a handy pop-up window appears when you turn them to show their levels. So basically you can tweak six settings at once.
Actually that all sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. the tag police say: put 'review' in the tags so itll show up in a review search
bla said: "the tag police say: put 'review' in the tags so itll show up in a review search" nothing to see here... A friend lends me a Blo' right now. I am generally overwhelmed by the the sound of it. Good basses, atmos, leads. But the percussion sounds are just wonderfull, thanks to the short evnelopes.
A question, though: Are Multies implemented in the latest OS. I think the one I have is 1.02 (I wont upgrade since its not my machine). credo I have 1.04 and the multi is still basic - you can't save the setup sadly.
I'm interested in hearing what you've done with it
crabster said: "I'm interested in hearing what you've done with it" i'll pop up some samples soon It's like they took an Evolver and made something I'd actually want!
djugel said: "It's like they took an Evolver and made something I'd actually want!" How do you feel about the MEK ?? Signup to comment
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