Blofeld & Mac anyone?!?

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

Does anyone regularly use a Mac to usb stuff to the Blofeld? Samples and patches.
How are you doing it?

Up until now I always had to borrow a PC to load patches (dumping them - ie. going TO th Mac is okay for some reason). With a Mac I might see the MIDI light flash now and then as the sysex comes in, but nothing happens - never has. I hoped Spectre for Mac (which I now want to use because I unlocked SL license) would be different, but no…

On various forums I see other people in the same position but no-one seems to present a solution. Or at least no-one reports that something has worked… Lately I read a post from someone whom Waldorf had advised to acquire and go through an old MIDI interface that works on 1.1 USB or something…

pain

(excuse using Elektronauts as first resort - I see various bits of 2nd hand advice from Waldorf on forums and get the impression that this might be a faster route to the facts - just find someone who does use Blofeld and Mac!)

#2

Spectre on Mac works fine for me. You might have to provide some more info.

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#3

It’s El Capitan on a 2011 iMac. Just a USB cable to the Blo. Blofeld selected for output in Spectre.

Just trying to put the default sample set on there. Appears to be sending it okay, MIDI light flashes on Blo but there’s no ‘receiving’ message on the screen (should there be ? ) & after the transfer I find no sample slots when scrolling beyond the waveforms on Osc 1.

#4

I’m on High Sierra, but I’d be surprised if that makes the difference. You might be best asking the Waldorf forum, or possibly the Blofeld Facebook group(s).

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#5

Havent got my Blofeld hooked up at the moment but I seem to remember having trouble with this too. Spectre is a pain to use! I think the samples are listed after the wavetables, so thats something to watch for. Also, I used Spectre to create a .mid file and then used C6 to send it to the Blofeld, C6 is much more reliable :wink:

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#6

Thanks - will check C6

Also - if anyone knows the do’s and donts with the global midi settings like send CTRL etc. - I read some counter intuitive stuff on this, where it sounded like the send settings mattered for receiving sysex… but then maybe a feedback loop can happen with some settings?.. I thought I tried every possible variation, but maybe I missed something

#7

I don’t remember having any issues with this. I was using 10.6.x with Spectre though.

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#8

Another report of no issues here with Blofeld/Mac combo. You should definitely see a progress bar happening on the blofeld display when samples/patches are being uploaded.

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#9

Ok good to know

#10

Having to pay extra for the sample import option and then getting this is really disappointing from Waldorf.
They really messed up… at some point they released a v1.23 Blofeld firmware which they then removed from the website because it caused issues with the sample import…

Off-topic: If you have an Apple or Android tablet check this out:

https://liine.net/en/community/user-library/view/566/

The Lemur app is not the easiest to set up but this is a pretty cool way to program the Blofeld from a touch screen… no sample upload though :frowning:

#11

Any other suggestions anyone? would love to get this to work.

El Capitan on a 2011 iMac. USB cable to the Blo. Blofeld selected for output in Spectre.

Blofeld won’t receive the HGF waveset, so I can’t make use of the SL license… The midi light flashes during transmission, but no status bar, and afterwards nothing in the slots from 67 onwards, no new patches…

Before I got the SL license I already found that I can dump patches FROM the Blofeld to the Mac, but not the other way round…

Any help appreciated. Facebook meh… if I have too…

#12

I find the Sysex size limitation the main reason why Lemur is not useful for programming synthesizers. You can only have one way communication for patches unfortunately in many cases.

#13

I’ll test it out now, I think I was on Mountain Lion when I originally transferred the samples, I’m on Sierra now so it still might be different for you.

Just to be clear, are you trying to transfer a .wpc file? Also, you can save it as a midi file and send it via din midi.

Anyhoo, I’ll get back to you shortly…

#14

Thanks! Pretty sure I tried convert to midi, and then using some other free app to transfer but maybe I got the conversion wrong, or could only find an app to send a syx file not mid…
Hmmm anyway enough for tonight. Look forward to hearing any findings. Appreciated

#15

What version of Blofeld OS are you on? Someone suggested above that this may be your issue…

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#16

Just tried and failed but then realised that identical samples don’t get sent again (supposed to be one of the features of os 1.23/latest Spectre). Out of 3 tries, I got slightly different results each time, the transfer screen on Blofeld got stuck twice, and the transfer dialogue stated 32 minutes transfer time but finished after a couple of seconds.

Its definitely a bit hit and miss but maybe that is the reason they retracted os 1.23. I just checked the website and got the latest os 1.24, not sure if I want to upgrade though, it doesn’t even say whats changed.

edit: check this post:

https://waldorfmusic.com/en/kunena-en/blofeld-en/944-blofeld-spectre-issues

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#17

Yeah, similar issues with USB-MIDI are present in quite a lot of gear.

#18

Sorry meant to put that in my post - 1.22

#19

Hey thanks @djenzyme … That post is a lot like my situation. That user still only talks about transferring .mid though I guess they got the .wpc file to transfer too somehow. I did previously get as far as installing the SL License including the challenge code thing and have saved and reloaded patches in the past. It’s been a bit of a blur, using a Windows laptop and the Mac and midiox and midi librarian. Just throwing everything at it! The thing is that so far everything has been .mid or sysex and now I have hit a block with this .wpc file - this waveset that apparently must be installed before you can start making any further use of the SL License (like putting your own samples on there, which is my aim).

Can I convert the .wpc file to .mid or sysex? Because if so I think I can blunder onwards.

Just noticed that post is quite recent. I should prob get up on that forum. Weirdly I had been turning up a lot of forum/support posts on google which all went to broken links at Waldorf. But this was posted since I last had a proper go at it so it looks alive again.

Seems that no one really makes day to day use of the SL license capabilities because it’s so hit and miss like you said plus fears of bricking the machine during a transfer, which even Waldorf acknowledge.

If I can get some useful material of my own into those slots I should probably just leave it at that… Glad I bought the license in the sale

#20

Have you tried the FaceBook group? It’s active and there’s a lot of guys on there who have developed their own tools who might have a better technical
Insight to the issue

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