I stopped development of my own editor after the SL Licence came out … getting full vision of what was what before that point was easy … beyond that it seemed like only a half-baked solution was possible, not investigated whether further examination of the device is possible for many years and I suspect not much has changed … if any editor is able to interrogate the SL/custom stuff then colour me interested in revisiting this
Gofter does, to an extent at least.
1 Like
The editor looks really pretty! And import of Q patches is a great feature!
Here a few tips for the Blofeld:
-
If you use a DAW you can map all CC‘s to your midi-controller. This makes editing super fast and flexible. Automation is possible this way, and depending on your controller, you can change (for example) Cutoff frequency’s of different channels without the need of stepping through the channels.
I use a AKAI MPK 249, which works very well for this. (Every fader can send on a specific midi channel). -
Animations on the Blofeld?
If you sequenc your Blofeld via OT or a DAW you can for example, change the Filter frequency and if the Blofeld shows the filter section, you can see how the filter behaves in real time, like a animation.
If you use a complex filter modulation this can be helpful. And it’s kind of cool to see the Blofeld doing something that wasn’t built in. If I remember correctly this works also with the EG‘s. -
Create your own editor: I usually use Fruity loops as a DAW. You can add a „MIDI out“, and map all CC‘s to the virtual knobs and sliders. Name them correctly(!) and save the mapping as a template for the „MIDI out“. You can create your own Blofeld „editor“ this way. (Of course this works with every Hardware, if CC‘s are implemented correctly).
That’s probably doable on most modern DAWs. -
If you Blofeld is too quite, go to the section with the velocity settings and turn it down to 0. This almost doubles the output volumen (but it’s still very quiet…).
-
You can load your own custom Wavetables, you don’t need the „SL“ sample upgrade! I know that many people aren’t aware of that.
-
Exponentially envelopes: This trick works not just for the Virus! If you want a concave or a convex attack try this trick: Modulate the Envelope attack with its own attack. Positive modulation will result in a convex attack curve, negativ modulation a concave. This should work for the decay and release too!
-
last but not least: Check this very useful clip on YT! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sbWhrzPj2Wc
I often read online things like:“it’s hard to program.“,“to much menue diving“, „horrible interface“ etc.
IMHO Blofeld is very fast and easy to program. I have a editor called „Patch base“ for the iPad (it costs 10-20 bucks, can edit a lot of other synths too, inclusive the Volca FM, JD-Xi, microwave, q and much more), but i almost never use it. The menus are logical, matrix is a great way to create patches, especially on a synth with just a few knobs and no faders. The synth engine is just awesome, if you know any hardware synth that is as powerful as the Blofeld, tell me. But as far i know, there isn’t anything that can do that much for such a „cheap“ price.
Is the Blofeld perfect? Of course not. I don’t like the fx (the Reverb is horrible IMO). The patch management isn’t perfect (sysex etc)… Something I really hate is the quiet output.
Of course if you use it in multmode and you want to change the cutoff frequency (or something else), you have to click through the channels until you reach the page of the part you like to change. This can be tedious. But I still love the Blofeld!
By the way: Blofeld is already 10 years old! Hopefully Waldorf or any other company creates something alike, but with a little bit more power! Like a Waldorf Quantum Desktop 
Any other Blofed tip’s and tricks?
4 Likes
Not buying this … no way the Blofeld does ‘Karplus Strong synthesis’ as this video seems to suggest
Great post mate.
1 Like
You have noise you can shape and a comb filter aka filtered delay line, it’s pretty easy to setup. Super short envelope for noise level, comb filter with cutoff ~40, resonance right up and 100% key track gets you most of the way.
2 Likes
yeah - I know about that, but the user is suggesting that the 3 wavetables for Karplus STrong are actually a front end to dedicated synthesis - I am contesting that 
1 Like
It was a good exercise to fiddle with while I had my morning coffee!
1 Like
For info, I talked to the MI people about waves and samples. They’re apparently implementing it later in the cycle - if you’re prepared to trust them on that one.
Mac only so that takes it out of the equation for me…
No i don’t. I just posted a compilation of tips from my personal experience, because maybe someone who is new to synthesis or to the Blofeld may find them useful. The link i posted is from a YouTube channel from someone that isn‘t me. The guy in this YT channel talks about the Karplus Strong Synthesis.
The actual algorithm for Karplus Strong Synthesis is actually not complex. Unfortunately i can’t check the source code of the Blofeld and Waldorf doesn’t mention it in the manual who to use it exactly.
Not you, the forum user, the Blofeld user - we’re talking about the video !
The bottom line is that it doesn’t offer dedicated Karplus Strong synthesis and that those wavetables (48>50) are just wavetables
yeah… that’s because of the way the sysex is handled… live doesn’t deal w/sysex at all but max4live does so it’s the work around until live10 is released.
i got an emial from him yesterday w/link to the live10 version that doesn’t require that old java stuff since live handles sysex natively in V10…
once live 10 is available i’ll report back w/my experience w/the editor
1 Like
hmm, no email for me… thanks for the heads up. I’ll chase it up once I have Live 10…
Nice one , i’m going to try extensively. Not so much editor support multimode and librarian apart the reckon audio one.
might be in your spam folder? subject header is “Blofeld Editor Update” but do chase it down… i’m waiting for live10 to use it as well.
tuesday it comes out.
Just received the blofeld last week and looked for a free patch library, found this imho very good donationware that has the following features:
- library manager, which lets you organize all your Blofeld sound library
- editor that supports every aspect of a sound
- wavetable editor
- cross-platform: runs on Linux, OSX and Windows
- free (as in free beer) and open source
3 Likes
wow, i’ve already invested into gofter but this looks like it’s just as feature rich, if not more so.
i’ll have to download this soon and take a gander.
Has anyone had recent success with this?
I cannot for the life of me get this program to communicate with my Blofeld
I have been using a different vst editor for years now with my blofeld (monstumfeld). I can not recommend this enough. It makes programming the blofeld so much easier.
If this works as good as the one I’m using, go for it.
1 Like