Blofeld love

The Lounge Other Gear
#123

Yeah I’ve always thought of the Blofeld as the poor mans virus unfortunately.

I’ve had every virus since the A and it is the only synth that has stayed in my studio since day one. I have updated each time and have had a TI2 now for quite some time. Waiting for TI3 is like waiting for OT2 :rage:

A little off topic I know, you may already have one, or you may not even like the virus sound as many don’t it seems, but it is the only digital synth I would with no doubt personally recommend 100% (oh as well as the Nord modular :grinning:).

The virus snow is identical only 4 part multi with slightly less voices but still an absolute beast. They can be had pretty cheap now second hand and imo sounds much better with a much better interface than the Blofeld (I use the TI plugin also and is works really well).

Anyway may not be interested but thought I would throw this out there as well.

#124

hey there - if you like the sound of the Blofeld and you have an ipad… make sure to get this app:

its made by one of the Waldorf developers, who worked on the Blofeld amongst other things… and you can really tell

same family of sound… and this thing is super wacky… its a full-on groovebox app, deep as hell

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#125

I have and use the Blofeld with my OT, and they work really well together. Using it mostly in multi mode, no problems there. You can save the sounds to the part, so it will load the patches when you load the part. Really handy, since the Blo multi managment is somewhat annoying. I would totally reccomend it, there is no alternative at the price range. And it can sound really diverse. Hey, its 16 part multitimbral! And programming it is not so tedious or tiresome.
I love mine.

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#126

For me it’s the other way around, I had a TI1 and a Blofeld at the same time and though from a functionality point of view the Virus was more advanced, I could not stand its sound, somehow it sounded dull compared to the Blofeld.

#127

Yes I hear this all the time and vice versa.
Funny how we can click with a particular instrument and not another.
I have actually bought and sold Blofeld twice over the years but as mentioned struggled with the interface.
It’s really frustrating actually because for the price it’s an absolute steal and I want it to work as there isn’t another hardware synth out there anywhere near as powerful for the price. Seems a travesty not to have it in your rig.
Well what do they say, third time lucky :grinning:

#128

Yes, you’re right there. Once the Blofeld multi and the OT midi channels are configured, your workflow would be much like the MnM.

And to your question about what is bad about multi mode, I think that many early adopters of the synth avoided it for a long time due to the fact that it was pretty buggy early on. So many people haven’t used it much (including myself) and it requires extra configuration to set up.

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#129

I got one fairly recently and use multi mode a lot. Feel lucky to have dodged the earlier snags.

Very straightforward assigning patches to channels and key ranges.

The effects are restricted in multi mode, and you have to be a bit careful when it comes to saving any changes you made to individual patch parameters while in multi.

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#130

Thank y’all very much. I’ll check out the manual and check everything out! Thank you!

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#131

Anyone managed to change patches in multi mode or single mode from the OT?
I’’ doing something wrong…

#132

My blofeld is gathering dust at the mo. It’s a fantastic synth on paper, but for anyone thinking about buying one, demo it first or buy with a test-period contract. The sound and the UI of it is very subjective IMO, you either get along with it or you don’t.

Have two editors for it, Monstrumfeld for the mac and Patch Morpher Blofeld IAP for the iPad. Personally I cannot stand the UI and oddly enough prefer even the Evolver Desktop UI to it even though they are basically very similar approaches.

But if you love the sounds of 00’s VSTs, this box is among the only ones in town which can go almost deep as a Zebra2 instance! Maybe I need to get the SPDIF output mod done for my blofeld, might get a bit more use from me then (not fan of the output stage of the blo)

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#133

If you have the steady hand of a brain surgeon and a mega :mag_right:

:wink:

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#134

I have gotten program change in single mode to work. I haven’t tried multi mode yet.

#136

^ I’m encouraged that it’s more doable than I thought

I’ve had a look at the Chip Pin Out and it does seem to be Pin 69 ADO_PD1

Digital Audio Data Output—This signal is an audio and
non-audio output in the form of AES/SPDIF, CP340 and IEC958
data in a biphase mark format.

ChipPin69.png976×604 774 KB

Note - to match the Photo, the following image needs to be turned 90deg CCW … the Pin 1 marking is obscured by the cable bottom left on the chip - by my reckoning it’s the 9th down from the top in the photograph above

blofeld-chip.png1094×997 100 KB

as per the comments in the PDF linked above - do this only after you do your research and only if you’re confident, do not assume the unit hasn’t changed in the meantime, check it’s the same chip. yhbw. I will likely give this a go in the future too

#137

Guys, for my own culture, would you mind taking the time to explain me what is this SPDIF addition that you’re currently talking about ?
I mean, what would this bring exactly, appart the change of connectors ?
Aren’t the regular Blofeld jacks good enough ?

Please excuse my ignorance ^^

#139

OK, I see the light now :smile:
Thx pal !

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#140

Use the drive-parameter to crank up the volume. You will get some nice ‘digital’ saturation, for the tainted minds. :loopy:

#141

For multimode:

For Play Sound (single) mode:
Just send a Program Change.

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#142

I know there’s something wonky with how the OT deals with program changes, like the OT only sends program changes aftera pattern has played or something like that.

#143

Not if you’re sending Program Changes from the OT’s MIDI sequencer tracks.

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#144

Just spent the evening with my Blofeld tonight…
Discovered quite a lot of stuff.
There are so many little menus, when you want to dig. Just figured so far I’ve just scratched the surface !!

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