Monster synth in a tiny package

At first I, like just about everyone else, was fooled by the challenging interface and wonky factory presets. I wondered why I even bought it, for the first few weeks after it showed up in the mail. But when I really dug into this thing, all the sounds came out. Huge Trance SuperSaws. Meaty Deep House basses. Gnarly DnB Reeses. Filthy Dubstep growls. Haunting Ambient pads and atmospheres. This this is a pint-sized Virus at 1/4 the price. I've written whole songs using the Blofeld. This synth could be a desert island synth for someone with a decent mixer to amplify it, and some good FX plugins to run recordings through.

Those are kind of its weak points. It's a bit on the quiet side, even with the Filter Drive modified to boost the signal a little. And most of the FX are pretty wack. The Phaser and Reverb in particular are... not great. This is a synth that really benefits from external FX (plus, turning off internal chorus/reverb/delay frees up a bit of DSP, giving you more voices to work with). And if you like the S&H Effect buried in the Triple FX section, because the Rate Reduction effect IS cool, unfortunately for you, you cannot modulate its intensity, or indeed, any of the FX values at all. So talking basses using modulated rate reduction FX don't really work on this synth. Which is a minor bummer. Otherwise, the Blofeld is a beast and definitely is worth having in the studio.

From Gear Setup

Great sounds - but problematic, it seems

There are many great videos out there about the Blofeld. After watching a few of them I knew I liked the sound, but also some problems were mentioned: the software was supposed to be buggy and the encoders seem to fail often. So instead of buying second hand, like I usually do, I bought one new, so I could return it if there were any problems with it.

I hate to say that I will be returning the Blofeld:

After about half an hour of exploring the sounds and the possibilities of the synth one of the encoders started to behave erratically: most of the time it worked fine, but than suddenly it would stop working, only to become responsive again after I turned other encoders or switched to different pages in the menu.

It is driving me crazy, because I absolutely love the sound of the blofeld. It is very digital, but in a good way, like a Roland D-50, or a Korg Wavestation, but in it's own, completely unique, way. Of course I knew the wavetables sound amazing, but did you know you can run the filters in paralel and than pan them left and right? This creates beautiful movement in stereo when modulating the filters independently.

Also, the user-interface is very good, I think, for something that has so few buttons and so many features. Once you understand the voice architecture of the blofeld it is very easy to navigate.

I'd have given it 5 stars out of 5 if it would have worked correctly, but in my case it didn't. Damn!

god-tier synth

this is lowkey one of the most underrated hardware synths ever made. here's why:

if you don't care about analog and simply want the power and flexibility of a digital synth, the blofeld is the best synth at its price point bar none. not only is it the best synth at its price point, it has as much or more functionality and features than synths 3x its price.

for $400 or less you get: 3 oscs, 2 wavetable, which support samples and custom wavetables oscillators also each have FM, sync, and ringmod 2 multi mode filters with like 15 filter types including comb and PPG modeled filters. each filter can be overdriven with like 10 different kinds of gain 4 envelopes which are loopable 3 lfos and a 16x16 mod matrix than can route almost anything to anything, making it practically a modular synth you can route lfos to other lfos, envelopes to themselves, to fm, etc.

oh also its 16 part multitimbral.

the virus it often touted as the best digital hardware synth ever made, and with good reason. but I have both the virus TI and the blofeld, and I can tell you the blofeld can do pretty much everything the virus can, and some things the virus can't, for a third of the price.

the blofeld also sounds amazing. however, it is NOT a preset synth. the blofeld has the worst presets of any synth I've ever used. the blofeld is for sound designers and people who want to dive deep into synthesis. if you're willing to take some time programming your own patches, you will discover incredible pads, evolving sounds, and nearly every kind of timbre you can imagine. i will say the blofeld is a bit lacking in the bass department and I would not rely on it for bass, but it is excellent at just about everything else.

I also find its 5 knobs and matrix extremely easy to get around, i find it actually less of a pain than the virus, with its 40+ buttons and sub menus.

literally best digital synth for the price.

Recommended

As a successor of the microwave range it is a a step into the right direction. VA and wavetable synthesis, you can even get an option to load samples (but it hurts loading samples over midi) and even create own wavetables. It is a decent piece of gear with a nice interface to program it. The built in effects are okayish and it could have a digital output, but otherwise it is a good sounding, complex, solid built polyphonic synth.

ore great synth even though its digital love the potential this synth has with its multimbral capbilites and more

ore great synth even though its digital love the potential this synth has with its multimbral capbilites and more

My fav Synth! hands down.

I love the filters and the wave tables and the free vst editor compliments it perfectly for studio use. All I have to do is turn it on and record when im ready with live tweaking and everything. Very Powerful and crisp for making sounds and simple enough to understand and use efficiently.

Excellent Wavetable sounds in a tiny footprint.

This synth is capable of a wide variety of sounds and is an incredible studio synth. While the device has been laid out so to avoid too much menu diving (most features can be reached within 1 or 2 button/knob combinations) creating sounds from scratch can still be daunting and difficult. With that said, the presets are incredible and offer a good starting point.

Great sound, but not user friendly

Great sound, great possibilties, very flexible modulation matrix, but not enough knobs and access at same time. Don´t really like zapping thru menus at all without an editor. I love to import my own wavetables and samples. The filter, especially the ppg like can reproduce moog like sounds. And it does not really sound digital.

So deep

This thing has the most intricate/deep sounding textures I have ever been able to create. From natural "real-world" sounds to crazy wave-tables

Cool cat synth

Absolutely love it, the appegiator especially. Great deep sounds and i dig the metal knobs! Also cool how you can customize and create sounds, and it has a nice display..