The Blofeld is good, but the XT is on a different astral plan, imo
I also have an iPad, and while I think the synths on there are great, I really miss my blofeld. It is way more immediate imo than nave.
It wouldnāt do anything sonically for me that I canāt do on the iPad, and thatās why I sold it, but I am definitely getting another one.
I really is that good. Presets are fine, I had zero issues with mine when I had it. I didnāt really use multi mode tho, that was a pain in the **s.
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Iām torn between one of these and a NF1-M to compliment my Digitakt and Modular. Itād be great to have some poly action for pads, stabs, dronesā¦ Has anyone some experience with both of them ? They are both white, small and digital, I guess thatās the main idea. Woldorf seems maybe more versatile ? Iām a bit afraid of the UI thoughā¦ Yet the NF1-M has a shit screenā¦ I would sequence it from the Digi as well. I donāt have a midi keyboard and Iām not keys savvy anyway.
There are definitely some great examples here of the Blofeld, + itās incredibly cheap second handā¦ Very few good examples of the NF-1m and itās double the price. Yet it appeals to me a tad moreā¦
Itād be used in a drone-y/ambient-y 5am wharehouse techno music context.
This would point straight to the Blofeld ā¦ very versatile synth engine. The wavetables and the option to load user wavetables make it a go-to synth for many pad or atmospheric sounds, including drones. There is also no problem to make house stabs etc.
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For the Evolver or the Blofeld?
Blofelds are really cheap in the UK as well, Evolvers are hard to find and expensive.
Blofelds are 250/300ā¬ depending on SL license or not. Evolvers are 350/400ā¬ (FR)
Thanks for the quick answer ! The Blofeld sure looks like a no brainer given the price. Coming from modular I also appreciate the extensive patch matrix. I will probably cop a used one to have a try. Any experience with the Digitakt sequencing it ?
Iāve never had a dedicated poly synth really.
the Blofeld is pretty fast with program changes so you can even have a per-step sound using the digitakt.
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and to addition - you can use the samples for FM!! Just load your own waveforms or strange noises to the Blo
Guys can we stop it now? I started looking for 2nd hand Blofelds, this is not good as I have a 1 in/1 out policy which would endanger the A4.
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I only have the Modor NF-1m, and have only had it for a few weeks. Biggest wish is that it had the Blofeldās screen and UI. It has more controls than the Blofeld and the quality seems really good. Iāve been on the fence about Blofeld for years, never quite connecting with the sounds Iāve heard in various demos, but it really has the kind of depth I want and chances are I may have one in my lineup eventually. I need to do a pruning of my digital synths - Iāve overloaded on them in the last two months.
Anyways, I like the Modor. Really clear sound - maybe a little too bright and intense (or that may be some of the noise oscillators Iāve been including in my early sound designs). Fairly straightforward sound design. The FM and Additive stuff you can have on an individual oscillator is pretty good. Itās got a comb filter as the foundation for its chorus/flanger effects (I love a comb filter and know the Blofeld has one too). The formant filter can be a pretty cool sound design addition. It can be really good for drones as any of its envelopes, including the main amp envelope, can be set to loop and never close, effectively turning them into additional LFOs.
All that said, the last couple days (even with ātoo many new digital synths in my arsenal!ā) I have been watching Blofeld videos again. Seems like thereās a pretty good new batch of them over the past few months.
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I already posted this in another thread, but it might be useful for someone.
I can get lost easily for hours with this beautiful synth and iām absolute in love with my Blofeld.
I donāt have any lag when turning the encoders(which work perfect, even after āheavyā use. Not one single error or freezes. Iām using the newest version.
Here a few tips for the Blofeld:
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If you use a DAW you can map all CCās to your midi-controller. This makes editing super fast and flexible. Automation is possible this way, and depending on your controller, you can change (for example) Cutoff frequencyās of different channels without the need of stepping through the channels.
I use a AKAI MPK 249, which works very well for this. (Every fader can send on a specific midi channel). -
Animations on the Blofeld?
If you sequenc your Blofeld via OT or a DAW you can for example, change the Filter frequency and if the Blofeld shows the filter section, you can see how the filter behaves in real time, like a animation.
If you use a complex filter modulation this can be helpful. And itās kind of cool to see the Blofeld doing something that wasnāt built in. If I remember correctly this works also with the EGās.
Create your own editor: I usually use Fruity loops as a DAW. You can add a āMIDI outā, and map all CCās to the virtual knobs and sliders. Name them correctly(!) and save the mapping as a template for the āMIDI outā. You can create your own Blofeld āeditorā this way. (Of course this works with every Hardware, if CCās are implemented correctly).
Thatās probably doable on most modern DAWs.
If you Blofeld is too quite, go to the section with the velocity settings and turn it down to 0. This almost doubles the output volumen (but itās still very quietā¦).
You can load your own custom Wavetables, you donāt need the āSLā sample upgrade! I know that many people arenāt aware of that. -
The presents arenāt the best IMO. Do yourself a favour and make a backup from it, and delete a few banks. But of course check them out first, they are good examples what can be done.
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FM every OSC and Filter has a dedicated fm routing page. Use those instead of the mod matrix to save up free mod slots. You can modulate every OSC. with another OSC, ENV, LFO, and the mod matrix. Alone this can already produce an insane amount of different timbres. If your results are to harsh use more āsmoothā waveforms and modifiers. The use of the Modulation modifier can be very powerful to. For example two LFOs both sine waves with different start phase or/and different speed, modulating each other. Use the product of those to modulate other elements.
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Exponentially envelopes: If you want a concave or a convex attack try this trick: Modulate the Envelope attack with its own envelop. Positive modulation will result in a convex attack curve, negativ modulation a concave. This should work for the decay and release too!
last but not least: Check this very useful clip on YT! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sbWhrzPj2Wc8
I often read online things like:āitās hard to program.ā,āto much menue divingā, āhorrible interfaceā etc.
IMHO Blofeld is very fast and easy to program. I have a editor called āPatch baseā for the iPad (it costs 10-20 bucks, can edit a lot of other synths too, inclusive the Volca FM, JD-Xi, microwave, q and much more), but i almost never use it. The menus are logical, matrix is a great way to create patches, especially on a synth with just a few knobs and no faders. The synth engine is just awesome, if you know any hardware synth that is as powerful as the Blofeld, tell me. But as far i know, there isnāt anything that can do that much for such a ācheapā price.
Is the Blofeld perfect? Of course not. I donāt like the fx (the Reverb is horrible IMO). The patch management isnāt perfect (sysex etc)ā¦ Something I really hate is the quiet output.
Of course if you use it in multmode and you want to change the cutoff frequency (or something else), you have to click through the channels until you reach the page of the part you like to change. This can be tedious. But I still love the Blofeld!
By the way: Blofeld is already 10 years old! Hopefully Waldorf or any other company creates something alike, but with a little bit more power! Like a Waldorf Quantum Desktop 
Any other Blofed tipās and tricks?
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Great tips there !
Iāll add this: http://lady.rdsor.ro/~kotro/index.php?m=soft
Wavetable editor, patch editor and patch manager
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#metoo
leave the usual path of sounddesign, I know words spoken easily
But use the drive-models, wavetables, FM and ringmodulation and modulate the shit out of it
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Donāt have the Digitakt, but the OT. Sequencing with the OT is fun, the same should be true for the DT.
I had a Blofeld when it was released and think about getting another one now. Since prices for Microwave I & II are going through the roof (I sold mine for 300-400ā¬ 13 years ago) it seems to be a good alternative.
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And you have 24(8x3) LFOs in addition to the LFOs of the Blofeld or another synth. And countless of parameter locks, that can change the sound even further!
@Noisebuddy exactly! Something I often do is experimenting with looped envelopes(especially the one with two decay and attack phases. Last night I had the idea of creating two patches with the same waveforms, write down the parameter of the second patch and try to use the OT to morph from one patch into the other. Maybe one long note that isnāt going to retriggered, but changes the tone by manipulating of the OSC semitones. But I may do this with my new virus to get them to know better.
But seriously if someone wants to buy a digital hardware synth for under 1000ā¬ i would always suggest the Blofeld (and the rest of the money can be infested into a good Reverb and a delay effect).
Only problem I have is that the Blofeld has a pretty low output level compared to all my other gear. Even when I turn everything on max and velocity influence is on minimumā¦ I sometimes run him through the OT and set the gain on max and the through channel volumen on a very heigh level. But the quality is much better if the output would be louder. (If Reverb on the Blofeld is used the unit can be a little bit louder, but the reverb isnāt good enough compared to the rest of this beauty)
Just saw that you can find new ones for approx 350ā¬! I already thought of buying a second one, just for the case that mine should ever had a defect. I say Blofeld is already a classic!
Iāve had a Blofeld for more than a year, and I have a love-hate relationship with it.
I am sometimes tempted to throw it at a wall. The most important encoder is dodgy.
It takes a long time to learn what all the screens do and where they are. Making a synth as flexible as the Blofeld with as few knobs as it has is always going to be a real challenge ā they did a decent job but it can still be a slightly agonising experience if you want to, for example, change unison settings. Stuff that would be quite accessible on most synths becomes a chore to access.
Gain-staging is kind of unpredictable. It runs out of CPU grunt too easily for the multi-mode to be much use to me. As everyone says, the reverb is horrible.
BUT
Last night I fell in love with it again. Made a patch that did some eerie, harp-like, almost physical modelling stuff. It can do so much.
And having it has taught me a lot about synthesis, because the mod options are so deepā¦ and because there are so many initially cryptic pages that make more sense once you understand more.
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