I decided to sell my Modal Skulpt. Looking for polyphonic and if possible multitimbtal wavetable synth. I choose between Blofeld, Viruses, Hydrasynth… But maybe I should also consider Modwave and Argon8? I’d like to have less menu diving, more controls for live improvisation (Techno, IDM, Ambient), quality stereo FX, maybe more than 2 outputs…
1 Like
Assuming by the options you mention you’re after a desktop synth maybe? Or is that not important?
Virus would be my recommendation from that lot for my personal tastes - for multitrimbral, if your budget supports it I don’t see a reason to pick the Blofeld over it.
Hydrasynth is awesome - different character, less VA, more embracing of its sound - but its not multitimbral.
I have a Digitone that I use as my multitimbral polysynth - I actually prefer analog sounds personally but I like the form factor and always like what I get out of it.
My Prophet 08 is my favourite poly synth though and is bitrimbral - but it goes without saying that it’s unapologetically analog.
3 Likes
Desktop or with keyboard. No matter. Thank you
From the three I recommend Virus TI. If on a slightly smaller budget, get the Hydrasynth.
2 Likes
Oh, don’t forget the Micromonsta 2! Amazing synth not to be underestimated due to its tiny form factor - it sounds great. A budget Virus in many ways.
One other thing I’ll mention as I’ve explored multitimbraility before is that managing the multiple states of the synth can be a pain with a lot of these boxes. It’s actually one of the big draws for the Digitone for me, as it uses encoders and visualisations that are easy to engage with - I can switch around the 4 tracks easily and everything is immediately apparent.
The issue I had with the Virus when I tried to use it for two tracks is that when you switch between them you have no idea what any of the knobs are doing because they’re all in the wrong place.
Doesn’t bother me on the Prophet because I use it as a single polysynth but I wouldn’t personally want to use the A/B split on it I’d find it a faff.
4 Likes
For me in this order :
- Virus
- Hydrasynth
1 Like
Blofeld is all the way multitimbral and sounds great if you like a very digital vibe. The effects are more or less useless though. It’s cheap too.
The Hydrasynth has a really impressive light show when you don’t touch it for a while if that helps
8 Likes
dunno about the new ones, but just going to throw in my thoughts just after having bought a Blofeld
(because, as mentioned, it’s cheap, and, depending on what you’re doing, really mutltimbral.)
re: the effects the reverb is noticeably a bit rubbish. There are LOTS of overdrives. Not all that exciting. It does a shedload of things. Sort of FM-ness even. Even more so if you have the SL licence. I just copied a load of waveforms.samples from Gameboy/SID/NES/CS-01 into mine and now it does crunchy 8 bit pretty good. Put a load of samples of choirs from old synths in and now it does that too.
It doesn’t sound “wow” though I think it just does a load of things perfectly well. Which is kinda why I wanted it - just so I could take a Digitakt and one synth and do a live set with a lot of different sounds.
It’s actually not as menu divey as it looks, cos there are shortcuts to everywhere in the signal path and it all kinda makes sense.
If I had the money i’d probably have got a Virus TI snow though… but you are talking at least double the price.
Buying it felt like buying a hammer rather than buying an exciting new synth somehow. Like… it does jobs I needed done.
It might grow on me though, feels like there’s loads of options.
In my opinion, you cannot compare the Hydrasynth with the other two sound wise. Totally different beasts.
Like already written, FX on the Blofeld is below average. In all those decades of this being on the market, Waldorf was not able to fix glitch issues on Reverb and Delay, if you want to beat-sync them. Blofeld is, even with those 4 buttons, very dependent of you knowing that deep “menu-structure”.
As the Blofeld just has one single stereo OUT, it is hard or no possible to apply different FX afterwards.
The only thing (in my opinion) that speaks for the Blofeld is its price and its size.
I wanted to have a Virus, but it was expensive. So I bought a Blofeld, and was unhappy with it. I then bought the Hydrasynth, awesome synth, but not a virus. I then bought the TI2 and sold most of my other synths I owed (Including Hydra and Blofeld).
4 Likes
It can be not wavetable. I just want synth that among other possibilities could make string pads.
Here are some examples. Not all to my liking but i kept my Blofeld mainly because of its pad sounds. I use the presets, tweak them a bit and run them through delay or reverb pedals. The UI sucks imo but i only spend 5 minutes on it and then i have a good sound.
2 Likes
Virus is the only real choice, anything thing else is a compromise
5 Likes
Blofeld is definitely going to be menu diving and it’s often said that he needs more mixing than just screwing up a solid sound to make it blend with the other sounds.
i think virus is the winner, but if you have money, then i would buy the quantum for pads and sounds like that, because it sounds much warmer than the iridium because of its analog filters;)
- Virus TI (still an AMAZING synth)
- Blofeld
- Hydra
(Personally I don’t like the hydra sound , the interface is great though)
1 Like
blofeld is divisive, personally i think it’s an absolute gem, there are some sonic gremlins in there but really it is fantastic and i found it a lot of fun to programme. but i’ve had a Hydrasynth for a few days and it’s in a different league, i’m in love…
2 Likes
I own the Virus Ti2 next synth purchase will be a Hydrasynth @mplhd you can’t go wrong with either one of course try to demo if you can
I want to +1 that Interface statement:
The Interface of the Hydrasynth is one of the best I have yet seen on a digital synth!
3 Likes
Hydrasynth is one of the best sounding synths I have ever had and super cool interface.
Virus is a classic and Hydrasynth is the next evolution IMHO - they just sound frkn great in the mix
1 Like
I have a TI & Hydrasynth & have owned several Blofelds in the past. The TI would be my choice, it’s very versatile, has really amazing effects which are per channel & 1 Channel can also be used as purely an FX unit via the inputs. The controls are a good compromise and the architecture is designed to make the most of them. It’s multi-Timbral and has plenty of DSP power.
The Hydra is also a great synth with a well designed interface, but for me the FX are a bit of a letdown, they’re Ok but not great. The synth engine sounds great however and definitely the best sounding wavetable sound that doesn’t suffer from being too harsh imo. I own both so haven’t had to choose currently, but out of all the gear I own/ have owned I think the virus is so versatile it’s hard to beat.
The blofeld sounds great, my main issue with it was that it’s a pain to use multi-timbrally.
1 Like