Bad Gear - Waldorf Blofeld - Vintage Sound of the Future???

welcome to bad gear the show about the world's most hated audio tools last week marwanity was flattered by aspiring youtuber jorp as he released the first episode of good gear featuring the yuno 106 don't forget to check out his channel today we are going to talk about the waldorf blofeld and after two weeks of old school samplers i was looking forward to working with sounds that actually contain some high frequencies this 2007-ish virtual analog wave table and to a certain degree fm synthesizer is named after the legendary james bond willem and stavro bloefeld and it is very hard for me not to spend the entire episode babbling about the difference between the character in the original and rebooted timeline appearances in eon and non-eon productions and most importantly who's the best bond although the affordable instrument was redesigned from the ground up it relies heavily on the innovative world of goodness found in for example the microwave 2 q or micro q nothing wrong with that i'm not the only one who always loved the proudly digital sound of the classic valdos however there is quite some controversy surrounding the blowfelt let's take a closer look at the first glance the waldorf blue felt is stick in all the boxes heavy like auric goldfinger's phantom 3 the front plate seems to be made out of odd jobs bowler head brim and ok ok ok let's take this a little more seriously the design is straightforward and minimalist with a clear and bright yet monochrome display strategically placed shiny aluminum knobs and a map of the controller matrix reminiscent of a pulse or micro q i'm not sure if i like the fact that the rear panel is even more minimalist no midi out or through stereo outputs only a wall wart interface and a usb port that's it the aforementioned controller matrix is self-explanatory but believe me this is only a fraction of the truth as soon as you go beyond superficial preset tweaks valdorf wants you to menu dive a lot this is where the real box ticking starts polyphonic minimoog on steroids va synthesis i see leads [Music] fm pianos another worthy arpeggiator an abundance of presets and of course modulations whatever it is you want to modulate chances are it can be modulated with whatever you want to modulate it with one of the main features of the blofeld is its 16 part multi-timbrality that will eat up the 25 voices of polyphony like termites the ui of the synth is well structured and adequate to the instrument's complexity given its reduced physical controls still i have to admit that it didn't work for me at all even after consulting the manual and watching many tutorials i erased every sound i programmed multiple times because i intuitively twisted the main display encoder when the machine didn't want me to adding insult to injury the unit i'm currently reviewing is plagued by the well-documented encoder issue that turns menu diving purgatory into the innermost circle of dante's inferno i already ordered a set of replacement encoders from waldorf it's 25 euro as you might have already figured out the blowfelt is super deep and the level of detail in which you can sculpt your sound is mind boggling i won't be able to cover the unit in all of its glory not only because it would go beyond the bad gear format but also because i still have to practice a bit please be patient with me i'm pretty sure it's not the last time we're going to see this little synth on the channel the blowfelt can be updated using the spectre software and you can use your own samples as oscillator waves if you have the license sl installed it's around 100 bucks sample transfer is really slow and all existing samples will be overwritten every time you install new ones desktop blofelds are still available new for a little over 400 euro prices may differ depending on your location there's a fancy keyboard version as well and at least here in austria you can find used ones for around half the original price just don't expect the encoders to work properly the blowfelt seems like an affordable and compact best of classic waldorf why do so many people hate it like the piranha and shark tanks are already waiting you have already heard the waldorf blowfelt in our little intro tune tight punchy edgy and in your face sign me up for that i wanna know if we can get it to sound a little mellower in the sticky tact driven jam this is a welcome surprise although the overall turbo is still digital i wouldn't describe any of these tones as harsh the filter sounds great and can be tweaked smoothly let's give the arpeggiator a go crank up the comp filter and scan through some of the wave tables in this blowfelt versus mini brute battle [Music] [Music] nice the comb filter allows for drastic tone shaping and blofeld connoisseurs already know that this arpeggiator pattern gave only a very little glimpse into what the synth can do what is more the sounds mix nicely with the 80s drums and its analog adversary the blowfelt wouldn't be my first choice for dawless gems i wanna know if we can make it shine in a studio situation in this progressive austral base rave table high tech diggy funk so verdict the wild of blowfelt doesn't exactly make it easy to deliver a verdict most other gear just is what it is there might be an update or a little hack but that's more or less it our little blowfelt here on the other hand is stuck in limbo it sounds great i like the form factor and it is super versatile but over a decade after its release it still seems unfinished even when using the latest firmware there are a bunch of mysterious bugs and quirks and rotten encoders aside i wouldn't want to rely on the synthesizer in a live situation all that being said i like it a lot it offers many of the classic value of tones the filters are amazing and the modulation matrix allows for extremely complex sounds it will take me some time to get used to the user interface but i assume that my neighbors have already grown accustomed to a mix of earth-shattering bass and juicy profanities coming from my apartment thanks for watching and see you next time hey guys i hope you enjoyed the episode feel free to like subscribe become a patron and leave a comment what other kind of gear you would like to see and hear on the show

Channel: AudioPilz

Views: 105,213

Keywords: Bad Gear, Audiopilz, Waldorf, Blofeld, Digital Synth, analog vs digital, german synth, techno synth, waldorf q, waldorf microwave 2, vintage sound of the future

Id: aTDSZwTKIKQ

Length: 9min 29sec (569 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 09 2021