Blofeld love

Agree that it still holds up, apart from most of the FX section. A blofeld with better FX and the Hydra interface would be cool.
Maybe it’s the preset choices, but so far I haven’t heard a single Hydra demo I liked. Sounds like a flashy Novation Circuit to me - which is another synth with amazing (if hidden) sound design capabilities but a general sound that doesn’t speak to me.

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Go snap up that Blofeld keys. If it’s the black one I’m seeing it’s a real bargain.

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The Hydrasynth is almost a grand more than the Blokeys near me (for the keyboard version with the poly AT) and is more than I want to spend, really. I’m also not as exited by it from what I’ve seen as some seem to be. Not that there’s as much out there for it yet, of course.

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Question for you Blofeld users: how many sounds can you sequence from Blofeld at a time?
I know theoretically 16, but that would be even possible?

Or can you program up to 16 patches in a sequencer and then play a limited number at a time?
Can you do program changes through your favourite sequencer?

I’d like to get one, being on budget seems like great sound module

Thanks in advance

voices all depend on how you program the sounds. no answer for all on that

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Basically what @loopdude said. Look for “blofeld multi mode” on YouTube to get a rough idea what’s possible. If you want to play a whole 16 track arrangement in real-time on the blofeld, there will probably be limitations. Using a handful of parts for short drum/percussion sounds which don’t all play at the same time might work better than trying to play huge chords using complex sounds with long release times on all parts. So depends on the style of music you’re planning to use it for. But all that being said, I am always amazed how much is possible using nothing more than an Analog Four.

Edit:
Yes, program changes are possible. And you can use Midi CC to add more variation. Not sure if you can use program changes in multi part mode though. Best to look for the manual. Waldorf’s manuals are quite good.

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just wanted to add that I dont use multitimbrality on my blofeld. I dont like the way it is handled.

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I love the multi mode!

I keep ‘meaning’ to work out what maxes it out, but instead I just throw whatever at it and sometimes the dropouts are interesting - like patches can become altered (probably elements being bypassed) rather than disappear entirely - and then come back when the ‘offending’ extra voice finishes sounding - -like a clunky unpredictable sidechain.

I’m really selling it!

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Thanks all, sounds good, I will check out youTube and the manual.

pardon for probably the absolute worst question ever:
the manual says to press “Shift + Store” to save an edited program.
where is this “Store” button? Or, which button or knob on the panel doubles as the “Store” function?

Secondary inquiry: is there a CC message for Randomize patch ?

Haha, yeah, I lost my first few patches due to not finding the store button. Thanks for reminding me. :confused: It’s actually the “utility” button. So you press shift+utility and then scroll through the options, then press shift+utility again, I think. For anyone getting a new blofeld: practice saving before creating something you like :slight_smile: On the other hand… this is the Elektron forum… would the person who hasn’t ever lost a sound due to not saving a kit please stand up? :smiley:

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fantastic ! cheers

I have it in muscle memory so not sure what the buttons are actually labelled but overwriting current patch doesn’t require any scrolling just a kind of double click with your thumb on shift. So that’s pretty quick. New name, different slot, init patch, Randomize, revert to saved or compare with saved - they all need a bit of scrolling after the two button thing.

One annoying thing is if you edit a patch and save to a new location. It doesn’t switch to the now location. So it’s not like a Save As. Unless you navigate to new location before you do another save you’ll over write the original.

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this is a pretty comprehensive rundown of the performance for Waldorf Micro Q, which has similarities with the Blofeld (both have 16 part multi mode and variable polyphony of up to 25). I have to imagine that the costs of using different elements would be similar: https://www.sequencer.de/waldorf/waldorf_microq.html#Anchor-HIER-49575

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Seconding this. I made a few tracks that were all-blofeld in multi mode, and they had this interesting unpredictable nature. I attempted to finish off the tracks by recording each part one by one and mixing in reaper, and a lot of that random magic was lost.

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and…on this note… is there a CC message for Randomize patch ?

No. Send random CCs and build your own randomize function.

I had a Blofeld and eventually sold it.
It has some great features for sure, but
-annoying to edit
-annoying gain staging
-very low output
-multitimbrality? pah! if you actually use all those modulation slots, polyphony drops to about 3 voices.

Anyway, it’s great for pads and some interesting plucky comb-filter stuff. It’s certainly not ‘bad’. but I would be quite hesitant to recommend it if multi-timbrality is important to you.

I aim for 5…

Track 1 digital percussion mono
Track 2 sub sine bass mono
Track 3 chord stabs 3 note poly
Track 4 eatherial pads 4 note poly
Track 5 lead mono

After that (and sometimes before that) note stealing occurs…

I wouldnt want more tracks than that, its a strong character to imprint on every track and even with 4 or 5 you have to think of ways to create seperation or its just a wall of digital noise.

But i find that with many synths.

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Does anyone has a clear view on how is polyphony working on the blofeld ?

For exemple if I have a simple patch consisting of 3 standards oscillators no FX and a peak and lp filter I should theorically get 25 notes polyphony, is that correct ?

Now if I had a comb filter ( which is said to cut down polyphony ), how many voices would I loose ?
Same with fx ?
If i use one osc with wavetable ? Two ?

I just red a big amount of forum posts and, people seems to always generalize, I di not find any clear answer or documentation regarding polyphony calcultaion, if anything like that ever exists…
As a side question, is it possible to constrain voice allocation on the blofeld, I did not find any info about that anywhere.

Thanks a lot to whoever would be kind enough to point me in the right direction. :smile: