ah yes, i absolutely love this guy. i do have the sl licence, really need to rewatch these before i try and jump back in.
same here. what a struggle
Have to wonder if the extra torque i’d get would lead to turning the encoders too fast and then getting the dreaded skippy encoders…
interestingly the encoders are getting better when my Blofeld is powered up for a while
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I noticed no extra torque - I just found the slightly sleek metallic feel of the non-rubber-banded knobs a bit non-inviting. It is trivial but the day I added the rubber bands began a multi-month near obsession with the Blofeld. 400 some patches later and I still love it.
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FYI
Is it worth getting? If I’m honest I’ve not used my Blofeld for ages, but I know I’ll get into it again one day… just not sure I’d actually use the SL. But it’s tempting while on sale just in case 
that’s a tough one - it does add a lot - but it already does a lot, it sorta takes it off-script, but that can be a good thing - it’s powerful, but slow/fiddly to upload
it’s only wise at sale time imho
i can’t recall if user wavetables is part of teh core feature set or linked to the SL option - if teh latter then it would be more of a no-brainer, but there are plenty good wavetables on it
if you can afford it, it’s probably worth it, but maybe not if you’re not drawn to teh blofeld so much - samples do sound nice through teh filters and they can add a lot of different textures
flip a coin !
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Do you use plugins? If so I would rather buy pigments by arturia
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The License SL option is not required for uploading user wavetables.
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Just picked up a desktop version in a trade and its an amazing little box. Such a good compliment to a takt or tone setup.
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There not the same company anymore.
Mine bricked twice. So i tossed it.
Ive had my Q since 2000 and still works perfectly.
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Is there any significant benefit other than a simple 60MB mono sample player? (yes, many multi-sampled notes across the keyboard is something digitakt will not do this way), but could this be a pointless addition to digitakt or this “sample as oscillator” and layering feature is a worthy addition? Sample ROM size is very low anyway, for a serious sampled instrument a perfectionist would probably use all the available space.
A free piano patch sampled for blofeld found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/comments/7fmmgt/heres_a_free_sampled_piano_soundset_for_the/
You have to decide for yourself whether it is worthwhile for you. Bear in mind that Blofeld with License SL does not only simply play samples, but also allows use of the samples to do anything the other oscillator types can do, including acting as FM modulators and carriers.
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I enjoy being able to use samples as operators for simple FM patches. Depending on how you have set up the sample you can acheive some pretty interesting things. E.g. a sample ‘program’ (one OSC ‘shape’ in your Blofeld patch) can consist of numerous wav samples assigned to seperate notes, which can be modulated. But just for sample playback, no not worth it IMHO.
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Ok I see, so it seems that even if the sampling engine is a bit restricted on all levels comparing to digitakt, someone could use the same samples on a blofeld (multi) and e.g. digitakt, to get some combined layering synthesis maybe?
I had the opportunity to try the sample option, serious drawbacks, one being the transfer speed.
Painfully slow and no way to transfer partially, only all at once.
I agree samples can have some good use as FM modulators and maybe some “intense” interesting layering or tricks for randomness, but other than that… simply nothing. This SL upgrade is overpriced even at the discount price in my point of view.
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loading samples is not as elegant as it could be - however i still find it very nice to be able to load up a bunch of one shots and have some standard drums ready at all times.
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I didn’t have licence SL for the first 2 years, but eventually got it in, rolled my eyes and thought “meh my daw could do that”…it took me a year of experimenting to start to find the unique potential…i don’t think messing about with it for a week would give you enough “ah ah” moments.
new version allows single sample addition transfers and you no longer need to transfer all at once i thought. And the SL option is worth it in my opinion but not just as a standard sample player…
Its a completely different beast to any other “sampler”, closest thing ive owned in architecture is the Ensonic Mirage but that’s not a comparison either, they are worlds apart, i wouldn’t consider it a straight sampler…Its a Wavetable synth that can use samples as sound sources or to sculpt sounds as mod sources…and that’s where it gets interesting…saying that, some really nice single cycle snippets of samples from modular sound massive as chords…i dunno its a complex pain in the arse at times but when its good its very very good.
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