Hey guys - wondering who has used both and what you’d recommend? I have plenty of analog warmth from Analog Keys and Moog Sub Phatty, so I’m looking for something that will complement!
I’ve really gelled with the Digitakt workflow, so I’m keen on Digitone for it’s similarity and portability. But the Blofeld can be had used for half the price…
Can’t find many real comparisons on youtube so I’d love to hear thoughts! I like to work OTB as much as possible and then multitrack in (don’t even get me started on the wait for Digitakt / Overbridge multitracking)
They are really very different machines so hard to compare. DN is a simplified though “pure” FM synth as i imagine (no, i dont have one, just chiming in) and Blofeld is something else digital entirely - capable of FM, wavetable and lots more. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, blofeld (which i have) is not as immediate as i imagine DN is but in it´s way it sounds fantastic.
A slight overlap since both do FM but DN more so and Blofeld is capable of lots that DN can´t. A powerful combo i might guess. Get both!
I just received the black edition Blofeld and three of the encoders are wonky. The seller told me that Korg RMA is going to mail me a shipping label to take it in for repair at no cost. The encoder problem is very real and still exists.
Yeah, I think I’m going to try a Blofeld… Ryan, the depth of it looks like it’ll be fun, I’ll just have to bite the bullet and get used to another new interface.
Now I need to wait and find the right bargain 2nd hand one! Hoping to pick one up at about £250. Makes sense over the £690 Digitone, plus I’ve already got two crazy sequencers in my Analog Keys and Digitakt!
The Blofeld matches really well with the Digitakt…since the Blofeld is multi-timbral, you can set up 8 different sounds (1 for each midi track on the Digitakt), and control them all…can do some pretty crazy stuff! I haven’t had any issues with the encoders on the Blofeld, but I know some others have…
Of course I also have the Digitone which is great as well, but I haven’t had enough time to really get the feel for it yet. Seems great overall though. If you love FM that might be the one for you.
After some muscle memory has developed … I would say yes.
To hit the required menu-selection-button for the next task and go to the next parameter page is not hard to learn and use. I even use a kind of short cut by selecting a button and stepping one or two pages back to get the last pages of the previous button, if I don’t want to step through all the menu-items
I would say, most important is to memorize all the options and parameters of the Blofeld. It doesn’t invite the newbie to turn this or that knob and explore. One has to have an idea of where to go and what is possible.
I love it still the short time I’ve played it (presets). Got some crazy sounds running alongside the A4mkii, there is still a great deal of functionality and tweaking capability, even with the wonky encoders but will be great when the encoders are accurately responsive. Sometimes they work, other times not. I’ll get it sorted. had the Digitone pre-ordered… Waited for a couple months. Went ahead and cancelled that and got the Blofeld instead. Likely come back for it later, maybe. If you buy used, might ask seller to provide a video of the encoders working properly, not skipping etc. Hope you enjoy it. Built like a tank.
@BruteCoan that´s very unfortunate, must be the “bad apple” in that batch. No problem of that kind in mine… Some people report a wide variety of bugs, and some (like me) get a machine free of any bugs whatsoever.
@esq, when you are in the process of purchasing one, give it an extended test session to make sure it´s “clean” or if it´s overridden with creep crawlies or sumthin´.
It´s a great synthesizer and it´s capable oh so much but prepare to dig in!
Unbelievable that they still haven’t sorted this out. Hope the encoder swap change works, they weren’t even decent enough to get back to me to tell me if it was an encoder issue and which ones to order when i had mine. To continue to sell them with this issue not adressed is really shitty. That being said it did sound good. The keys on it (i had the keyboard version) were also fantastic.
I had a blofeld once. Theoretically, on paper, I always thought it was a dream come true, sort of like a hardware version of a crazy semimodular VST like zebra2 or something. Features galore. etcetc…
In the end I hated it. I never felt like the UI made sense, and it always sounded naff somehow… Output levels always seemed off, had to crank the channel on my mixer to max to get to a level which was only 50% of fader of my other instruments. So it sat on the shelf gathering dust, until I eventually sold it off to fund some other gear.
Now the digitone on the other hand… I love the UI, love the sequencer. Sound is not sublime but heaps better IMO than blofeld. And the digitone pumps out a healthy level, on par with the rest of my gear. Quite happy with the digitone. It is perhaps much more ”boring” than the blofeld, in theory, but it is usable in the real world for me and I get results out of it which I’m happy with.
TL;DR - digitone all the way for me. Subjective opinion, YMMV
That is sad to hear … but honestly I would say that the Blofeld doesn’t have even a small chance to replace a Zebra2.
I bought the Blofeld, because I wanted this particular Waldorf wavetable engine combined with the osc-FM and the modulation flexibility, which comes with this little box. And I wanted a hardware synth to support upload of user waveshapes and wavetables.
After only a few hours to get into it, I had crafted two paricular “digital” patches, which I had tried for ages on other synths (eg. Virus), but never succeeded with a satisfactory outcome. The idea of the patch and the desired output for the Blofeld have been the same as on the Virus, I even did the equivalent patching on the Blofeld, but the Blofeld did it at once, as having it in its genes already
Huge Waldorf fan. But…
The Blofeld was a huge disappointment.
Terrible user interface. You need an editor with it imo
Not a real fan of the sound either. Rather harsh and abrasive, in not a good way.
Doesn’t sound as good as the Q or the XT that came before it.
If you can, save up for one of those Waldorfs instead, otherwise a Virus or Nord sounds better with a much better interface
I think to compare a Blofeld to the Q, a Virus, or a Nord doesn’t work good … it’s strength is not to be a virtual analogue machine … he’s more close to the wave or microwave, which have this particular Waldorf wavetable sound.
Many people say that the Blofeld is more defined, more hifi then it’s elder siblings. But AFAIK and from my experience this is depending on particular parameter settings. The Blofeld can come quite close to it’s elder brethren, if desired. For all interested nauts … I would suggest to check this out:
