WALDORF BLOFELD DESKTOP GENERATOR

Those who adore Waldorf's Microwave and Q models will love the fact that Blofeld Keyboard incorporates their wavetables into its vast palette, along with good solid sounding virtual analogue waves which include the usual sawtooth, sine, triangle and variable pulse, along with separate PWM and FM sources for each oscillator. The distortion can sound nasty or creamy as desired. If this isn't enough, there are two drive stages per voice for really mashing up and distorting or just to give a subtle edge to sounds. There's also a very powerful filter including LP, Notch, BP, Comb and PPG LP modes, several modifiers that affect and twist up modulation sources and 15 or so pages of modulators where you can route anything to anything.

WALDORF BLOFELD DESKTOP GENERATOR

Pretty much every parameter a synth programmer could want is somewhere under the hood including osc sync, unison modes with variable polyphony, four envelopes per voice (with seven different trigger modes), three oscillators per voice, a noise generator (with variable colour) and several LFOs. It's great for bass, leads, pads, sound FX, atmospheres and much more. We can reassure you that it's very high quality throughout, though, and has super deep and punchy lows, piercing highs and versatile filters. The overall sonic character could best be described as warm and analogue-like meets industrial, but as it covers so many staples and bases of sound design, it's hard to pin down. The endless rotary metal dials feel great in use and the display gives lots of detailed and easily readable visual feedback, with zoomed pop-ups for more detailed functions. However, the parameter matrix system of editing works well and, with a little practice, you soon find yourself п¬‚ying around. In its most basic form, the Blofeld uses a digital 25-voice sound creation engine to provide a wealth of oscillator types and a staggering array of sound-shaping possibilities that can almost be overwhelming. In terms of the basic operating system, the Blofeld KB shares all of its features with its module counterpart. Also an audio input would have been nice. We wish all keyboard manufacturers would make front-panel headphone sockets standard. The only real hardware-related gripe I have is that the headphone socket is mounted slap bang in the centre of the back panel, which means you often find the wire trailing over the front-panel and keyboard It's light enough to throw in the back of your car for gigs but well-built enough to reassure it's going to last a while, though maybe the paint might start chipping off with heavy gigging. This is mainly due to the solid metal enclosure and onboard power supply (no wall-wart - other manufacturers please take note). The Blofeld Keyboard is reassuringly heavy and weighs in at 8kg (17lbs approx). It's definitely not one of those horribly plasticky and cheap feeling keyboards that all too often feel like you're hitting bare metal on the down-stroke of the keys and give your repetitive strain injury. It's semi-weighted and we'd describe it as precise, quiet, fast to play and cushioned, yet positive feeling on the down-stroke, with a not-too-springy bounce back on the up-stroke. We're pleased to be able to report that the keybed/board feels great. Talking of hands-free, there's a sustain pedal socket, too. It's a godsend for controlling pretty much any parameter you can think of, without even having to take your hands off the keyboard. Too many synths we review don't have aftertouch, so its great to see it included at this price point.

Waldorf blofeld desktop