All electronic music in my hands, with the widest waldorf synthesizer in polyphony with 25 voices and 16 multi parts.

I don't know where to start, but I'll try to be brief (difficult with such a deep super synth). I don't know where to start, but I'll try to be brief (difficult with such a deep super synth).

To begin with it is a real waldorf synthesizer, digital but with a very well calibrated character, warm similar to the nord lead and with 16 bit 48k hz sound quality.

The machine is endless, you can always create something new.

It has the ability to make most of the waldorf wave and PPG wave sounds, thanks to its 2 legacy wavetable oscillators from the Q series (waldorf Q, xt,xtk, microQ).

It is the best emullator of the classic PPG/Waldorf synthesizers

Waldorf blofeld is a super synth that has 3 VA oscillators(first 2 are va+sampleplayer+wavetable) the third oscillator is just a VA.

1024 sounds, 128 multi programs, Graphic display, editable arpeggiator with 16 sequence steps, Compatible with Micro Q sounds, 60MB sample memory,

It has 3 ultra-fast LFOS, and they can be used as subtractive oscillators.

4 envelopes where the first two are typical of any normal synthesizer but with different behaviors, the last 2 are more special and are inherited from the waldorf wave.

It has 2 routable filters in series and parallel as in waldorf wave waldorf Q, a distortion in each of the 2 filters and the two effects slots. This is ideal for me, to make sounds of drum and bass, trap, grime, uk garage, furute garage, hard sounds of dub-step, 2-step, hard techno, detroit electro-techno, trance, hard house. (just an idea).

It has FM in every section of the synth, and the entire synth is modulatable to all parts and sections to create the sound. FM is subtractive, but can be used with wavetable sweeps and their comb filters, which are a very powerful way of making weird, bototic sounds.

Traditional arpeggiator, but also editable as a 16-step step sequencer, this can generate sequences with samples or subtractive sounds, ideal for use as a precussion module or drum machine.

The much loved polyphonic aftertouch that not everyone has, for 25 voice polyphony, for a synth that is also 16 part multi-timbral (16 blofeld synths inside).

It also has 16 modulation slots + 4 modifiers for a total of 20 modulations.

It also offers stereo L and R output, which can be used for routing or destinations from its internal mixer for 2 parts that have different sounds and recording live in a DAW.

This german synthesizer was made by waldorf when the company was bankrupt, they still had the great accumulated debt of waldorf wave and they managed to make the blofeld with the lowest budget of their history with a bank loan, hence their DSP problems and poor development of firmware. It is a 100% made in Germany synthesizer, it has no Chinese stuff.

The keyboard version is the cheapest keyboard synthesizer of the brand, and it is the synthesizer with the most polyphony of the brand, even iridium only has 16 polyphony voices and blofeld 9 more voices, it is one of the reasons why it is still in use. the market, with a wide community of users.

It has been used in electronic music for a long time, it came out a year later than the desktop version, in 2024 it will be 15 years old and it will still be the only wadorf synthesizer with 16 multitimbral parts.

Many avant-garde music tracks and pop content like trap and dubstep contain a waldorf blofeld among their tracks, it is highly recognizable for its more trance-like sound and glitch-like bass. .

It defends itself well against an access virus, nord lead, Modal...

Where this keyboard shines the most is inside, its minimalist appearance does not do it justice, even so, inside it hides an entire ecosystem of incredible possibilities for waveform-based and samples PCM sound files design.

After almost 15 years, this synthesizer does not age and continues on the market, being of interest to many musicians.

Waldorf's most modern and most expensive digital and hybrid synthesizers in 2023 offer polyphony of 8 and 16 notes, other brands such as Modal, ASM, Arturia, Clavia at most 8 to 16 voices.

But in these times where the voices, the keys and multiplicity are so expensive, the blofeld is the one that offers the most below 800 and 500 euros in its 2 versions.

Preferred Settings + Usage:

I want to love this synthesizer...

I really want to love it.... but I can't. I sent this synth BACK to the retailer. Yup. I spent a week with it and found its sound & features to be fantastic but f you're going to get the keyboard version thinking "live performance instrument" think again. Its so deep with such a limited interface that you need to spend a long time creating patches. They're going to be killer, unique patches. This is the mother of all digital engines, covering every type of synthesis you can imagine with huge multitibrality for layered soundscapes. That said, its a preset machine or studio piece. I ight get the module version in the future, but I wanted something more immediate from the keyboard. I perform live with friends a lot and I need to be to imagine a patch, throw it up from an initialized state, and then be able to screw with it while playing. This is not the modern digital synth for that. On top of its interface issues, the engine can get over the top and do things you don't really want. it can 'freak out' on you so to speak. What else can I say? this is a hugely powerful engine. Just amazing. But its hard to take advantage of while playing and you wind up with a very expensive rompler. Get the module. I'd give that 5 stars as its purpose is clear, a studio sound design swiss army knife. Add a keyboard without adding any functionality to the interface and I'm left flat. What I DO like? the display is great, easy tor ead, informative text/graphics.... myriad of options. very cool waveforms/tables n addition to the usual stuff... COMB FILTER.... like I said, I'm thinking about a module. I think you can make the stereoping synth controller command this thing with a bunch more knob per function control of bread and butter parameters one might need, but for this price I shouldn't have to resort to a 3rd party controller like that. This is an expensive device new.

Really amazing machine.

+Really powerful modulation matrix. 16 modulation slots and 4 modifiers. (Modifier is a thing, where you can do logic and math things, for example "Source X * Source Y". You have: Constant, +, -, *, AND, OR, XOR, MAX, min)

+3 oscillators, 2 filters, 4 envelopes, 3 LFOs and 2 effects give you great possibilities.

+On oscillator 1 and 2, besides the classic shapes, you can have wavetables and samples, both of which you can import. Default samples sound really good though, I really like the Piano and the Guitar.

+Great overall sound

+A lot of preset memory.

+16-part multitimbral, though with 25 voices of polyphony (keep in mind it's DSP) I doubt you'll be able to load 16 decked out sounds at once.

+Good price.

-Very buggy. Multis bug out constantly. FM bugs out when trying to FM samples together. It once bugged out when changing MIDI to omni.

-Hard to use with a computer (at least for newbies - like me). It uses SysEx and only SysEx for updates, moving presets, samples, wavetables etc.

Best sounding Waldorf synth but... when do we get a the Blofeld XT?

One of the best sounding Waldorf synths out there. Excellent and very deep synth engine with classic wavetables, good virtual analog waves (check the Don Solaris sounds) and even imports user samples. This synth can make an enormous range of good sounds and has an excellent value/money. It has a metal casing and a good keyboard, which gives you a very good feel.

The down side: -Not enough knobs to tweak in real-time. Probably done for keeping the cost low. Fortunately menu-diving is relatively quick thanks to the matrix next to it. - The FX are not really up to the same level as the actual synth engine. But that's easy enough to fix...

If only they would marry the Blofelds synth engine with the microWave XT's user interface and stick it in a 19" rackmountable case (angled and with optional wooden cheeks)... to create the ultimate Waldorf Blofeld XT

I'd buy it immediately and give it the full 5 stars but for now...