Besides blofeld being va and A4 being pure analog, what other advantages does it have the A4 compare to the tandem Digitakt+blofeld?
I am interested in sound palette, live, studio, sound design, etc…
Thanks in advance
I don’t have a Blofeld, but I just got a DT which I traded an A4 to get. The DT+BF will be more robust overall as you can do the multitimbral thing with the BF. 8 sample tracks and 8 synth tracks in a small package sounds bloody fantastic, doesn’t it?
It does actually!
I am a proud user of Digitakt since it was released, and recently got a blofeld too.
I am interested in opinions and see what people thinks and experiences…
The A4 is cool if you like the sound, the 4 tracks, and are ok with having a hard time finding real sweet spots. I used it a lot on our last album but then got rid of it as I felt it had run its course for me.
I picked up the Blofeld in an opportune trade last weekend. Wasn’t looking for one but I’m blown away. It will never sound like analog but it sounds really good and there’s so much versatility in it, especially when paired with a DT.
Its hard to compare them given that they are wildly different. I will say the Blofeld is a little limited from a performance standpoint. There are a couple of features that are quickly available for tweaking (filter and env controls), but nothing like the A4 which seems made for sequenced performance and tweaking.
I had this combo for awhile, and it was great to have 8 voices running through the midi on the DT. That said, if you used more than a couple voice heavy patches, by the time you added 6, 7 or 8 you could start telling that the blofeld was running low on voices. But this rarely happened. Blofeld has tons of patches that sound great, it worked well with the DT.
I eventually traded my Blofeld because I didn’t care for the UI, it was very menu driven, and I was looking for more hands on tweaking. But I do miss it sometimes, great little synth.
I sold my Blofeld for a Micromonsta, sounding better to my taste, especially filters.
Much more user friendly, direct…
(Monotimbral, 8 voices).
A4 sounds really different from MM and BF, it has it’s own sequencer (more direct for plocks), perf macros, soundlocks…
A fascinating versus.
The dual filters of Blofeld make it sound superb in stereo, but DT only samples in mono, and workflow wise you’d want to sample as the multi mode is a major headache pit.
So I think best option is not of the two, but rather OT MK1 and Blofeld.
Or A4 and Blofeld, using CV track to sequence Blofeld via MIDI. Blofeld is much more enjoyable as a mono timbral poly than a deep multimode do-it-all. So they’d be a good pair. And it has 3 LFOs to overcome lack of CC# plocks.
Yea. A4+Blofeld. That’s my final answer, Regis.
The a4 will give you processing abilities the blofeld won’t.
Run your Digitakt through one or two of the analog voices of the a4. You can use the effects, the analog filters, the overdrive and the lfos on the dt’s output. Set up performance macros and you could basically use your A4 as an analog heat, with two mono synth tracks left.
Then there’s the sequencer, and arp.
I understand that these are different devices, but it seems to me that PREENFM2 is much better. because it is much more stable in working with midi.
Complicated “A vs B” question …
For me the Blofeld is a typical Waldorf wavetable synth rather than a VA. It’s very versatile with two filters and many options for modulation and even oscillator cross modulation. I use it for the not-bread-and-butter-sounds. It delivers those classic Waldorf-esque sounds in a very small and affordable package.
The A4 is not only very different to the Blofeld, it’s also different compared to other analogue synths in the market. It has some unique circuits, which also deliver particular sounds, if we consider the sound engines only. But combined with the Elektron sequencer it becomes a total different beast.
It could be an interesting idea to make the “vs” a “+”…
- DT for the rhythmic part including samples
- A4 for strong analogue sounds (up to four)
- Blofeld (which is multitimbral, BTW) for pads, harsh leads, pixie-dust, FM, and some experimental stuff