Waldorf shared this series of videos, featuring Nick Kwas giving a hands-on demo of their Blofeld synthesizer.
The Blofeld is available in desktop and keyboard formats and features a virtual analog, wavetable and FM synthesis.
The Waldorf Blofeld was released over a decade ago, but is still available and offers a powerful combination of synthesis capabilities.
Details are available at the Waldorf site.
An oldie but goodie, I have one myself, but admit I mostly use VST synths these days to get similar sounds.
It is a bit weird to do an official product overview video 12 years after it was launched. Is it because Korg just took on Waldorf’s US distribution and decided things needed sassing up?
Well my Blofeld has a fully configurable and live controllable nonlinear transform module between the first and second stage of the filter. This nonlinear section is the absolute magic that distinguishes between many of the world’s most famous filters. Yet no other instrument I know of allows me to configure and control it in real time. It’s an absolutely astonishing capability to modulate in real time. And the price is still a bargain.
Yeah, you mention… 12 years out.
And nothing’s matched it yet.
So sure, let’s keep talking about it. A classic with unmatched capabilities and it’s not gone out of production? When does that happen.
The Blofeld took many many revisions to become stable. Some early adopters became angry. Others were along for the ride. The OS is stable now.
What is that “transform module between filters” about?
Just a pitty, that the filter sounds bad and is digitally stepped you can’t even get clean filter sweeps out of it…
Would love a “knob oer function” Blofeld 2. Would be an instant purchase.
There is. It’s called the Studio Logic Sledge 2. Has the same sound engine as Blofeld.
> Has the same sound engine as Blofeld.
Well it’s 2 part multitimbral rather than 16 part multitimbral to start with. And 2 part/1 channel as dual or split, not across 2 channels. Also the modulation matrix is missing.
And Blofeld has 2 filters, not one, 3 LFOs not 2, etc, etc… Z
Yeah. I love integrated knobs and the Sledge has them, but my Blofeld plus a MIDI controller pretty much kicks ass in a way that the Sledge can’t do.
The Sledge only has some of the Blofeld. It is missing a lot.
Blofeld 2 would be great but would have a lot to live up to, given the reception and capabilities of the original.
I’m sure an update to the Blofeld would be a sensible move for Waldorf at this point in time. Just turn up the capacity/processing speed and a few minor tweaks here and there and you have a viable product. It would be an automatic, no-brainer purchase for me.
A blast from the past?
Why in the video the guy says “virtual analog synthesis”?
Is it that “digital” become a bad word?
No – it’s because there are dozens of other types of digital synthesis – wavetable, circuit modeling, additive, physical modeling, etc.
Saying that a synth is ‘digital’ doesn’t really tell you anything about it’s architecture or sound-generating capabilities.
Subtractive synthesis is essentially the only approach that’s practical in analog, thus the ‘virtual analog’ name, vs something like ‘digital subtractive synthesis’.
good point
Is it as thin-sounding as this video conveys it to be?