Waldorf Blofeld Reviews

Never ending story

I bought this as my first synthesizer and of course I wouldn't recommend it as a beginners choice due to it's complexity I suppose but this is a marvelous piece of gear, I mean you can do so much with this little one, every patch is it's own Frankenstein monster or at least it becomes one when you start messing around with the it's matrix. Love it, can't rly be objective about it as it was my first piece of gear haha.

Decent poly power for the price

Decent multitimbral polyphonic VA synth. Bit menu-divey but that's to be expected given how much it's packing into it's synth engine.

Some unusual modulation options and the ability to load your own wavetables. Sounds good, given some time to to craft the patches. Internal fx are not the best, but I'd normally process any synth with external fx anyway so not a biggie to me.

Huge nice collection of sounds

Really a good sound library in a solid build. I was eager to try this module for its waldorf tone that hopefully will still last long. Liked the white but didn't want to buy the keyboard version because I got many others I wanted to use with the blofeld; nevertheless I haven't so much room available to place another 49-keys.

In terms of connections, well ...usb, stereo out and midi are enough to let a good setup work fine although in a few years connections flexibility would require a minor update. Anyway many usable full sounds that makes me forget it's a 2008-born device...

Still Very Good after 13 Years... However...

So why, you'd wanna buy a 13 year old synth module? First because you're after the Waldorf digital sound at an affordable price. Second, the device has matured and probable issues with the firmware have been fixed. And third the community has matured, meaning there are thousands of sounds and utilities for it, and you won't get stuck with just the support files from the vendor.

Blofeld, sounds AMAZING! Some people compare it with Largo VST, and although the later sounds excellent too, they DO NOT sound the same. This is a device which carries out the legacy of Waldorf's rich sound, and you'll reckon that as soon as you start to test the presets.

It's built like a tank, inside a metal housing. However there are sacrifices to the quality. The DSP is not too powerful, so polyphony may drop significantly depending on what features you use. Also many people have reported that the rotary encoders, do not work properly after years of use.

Speaking of encoders, this is NOT a hands on device! It would be great if you could assign the 4 knobs to the W, X, Y, Z controllers, but I haven't found such option. Also a big absence in my opinion is a confirmation dialog when you try to switch sounds. You can easily lose the sound you created if you're not careful.

Would I recommend it? Yes, more or less, but it may be time for Waldorf to upgrade their design to 2020 standards.

Old one but still a goodie

Love the form factor, can get amazing sounds even some analog like ones, features for the price are second to none. The pots can get tricky after some years of use and it is a shame you have to pay extra for the License SL. Run it through some warm preamp of guitar pedal to smooth the hi end and it sounds pretty analog, run it straight to get the classic waldorf sound.

best synth for this money

totally happy with my Blofeld desktop combine with arturia keystep its just perfect combo, unlimited options to modulate and patching sounds, heavy duty corpus, nice knobs, quick processing. Its one of those that u have great feeling when u holding in your hands

the best synth at that price range

Blofeld's desktop version is the best thing you can add to your studio at that price. The blend of wavetable synthesis and analogue modelling is something that can provide absolutely endless possibilities.

Downside is the lack of direct interface. Sometimes you would spend hours drowning in its parameters menu but its totally worth it. Another cons is that the original presets are very mediocre thus you should spend months on learning its synthesis.

Once you learn how to control that beast you enter a whole new world of weird sounds.

My main use of it is for pad sounds but its also perfect for making some classic chord/rhodes/piano type of sounds. Filters, oscillators, envelopes, all done very well, not really impressed with the effects though, except the overdrive.

Overall, its a solid, versatile, powerful and feature-rich synth.

Great synth, but hard to work with.

The title says it all ? amazing synth engine with great sound and countless features. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to edit patches easily with the few available knobs. Inexperienced users will lose unsaved data far too frequently due to the complicated structure of the operating system.

A software editor for Mac & PC is an absolute must, but there are only paid ones offered by other companies and none from Waldorf (unlike Korg or Novation, whose editors are awesome and free.).

If you are buying this synth, bring a lot of time for learning and don't expect to start making music with it in the first months, unless you just want to use the built-in presets.

I love it

My favourite synth by far. Great organic sounds, very flexible, great variety, very responsive and cleverly programmed.

Unfortunately this model has suffered some bugs over the years, mostly on multimode. I believe they have all been solved by firmware updates. Visiting a user forum is very helpful on the matter.

Also the rotary encoders lose their accuracy over the years, but they still work ok, just not perfectly. I use a midi keyboard with rotary controllers so I have assigned most useful parameters to that anyway, so it doesn't bother me.

So there are some technical weaknesses, but they can be solved and the sound is realy worth it. I am really glad I bought it, and it would be my last synth to sell if I needed money.

great little beast.

Built to last. Nice set up. Really versatile sounds. Straight forward matrix style programming. Easily controlled with external keyboard. Endless options of different types of synthesis great fm and wave tables. Would love the keyboard version but just not rich enough.

Digital swiss knife

This is a well known synth for many many digital-esque synth sounds, from wavetables to simple linear FM, Virtual Analog to sound FX. It has many possibilities for everything: many types of oscillators, filters, envelopes, LFOs and of course powerful modulations.

My only complain are the rotary knobs, not always precise and equal in sensibility. They tend to be slippery, sometimes.

Maybe not the perfect synth to begin your music producing journey, as it is quite synthesis theory and menu diving demanding, but nonetheless a great machine.

Best Value synth!

I have this one since 2011 and still can't find another synth of this power for the price after 5 years! It is simple and complicated at the same time. It's actually as simple or complicated as you want it to be. Quick tip: even though most important parameters are accessible on the front panel it's still useful to assign some of them (ADSR, filters,...) to your controller keyboard for a more "analog" and immediate feel. It really does help on creativity!

Affordable synthesizer with loads of features

The waldorf blofeld tabletop synthesizer is a good quality machine. It looks good, it feels good, and it's really powerful for such a low price. It's packed with features, such as wavetables, frequency modulation, many different envelope types, and a mod matrix.

While you can make some really amazing sounds with the blofeld, it can be a bit difficult to use if you're not into browsing menus. There are only a few knobs to use, so you often need to navigate using the screen. While it's not my favourite way of doing things, it's still quite comfortable with the blofeld, and I find a lot easier than my other small synthesizers with little lcd screens and menus.

Overall blofeld is an amazing synthesizer for the price. It surely is a lot of fun, even though the editing can be a bit slow compared to synths with loads of knobs. Those, however, are usually much more expensive.

Bright white Blofeld

Excellent value and great fun to use. For the price, build quality is very high, loads of sounds and very usable sounds too! There's a big clear screen which makes editing the sounds surprisingly simple. All round very pleased with this purchase.

My first synthesizer is a Waldorf Blofeld

I am a guitarist and I recently begun to develop a fond of synths. Having tried some virtual instruments I wanted something that I could really get my hands on instead of clicking with the mouse. I also wouldn't want to mess with full analog situations as I really do like the user friendly approach of "virtual analog" systems. I happen to own already some MIDI master keyboards so I was on the market for something that could introduce me to the synth world for an affordable price.

I am fully satisfied with the features & sounds of the unit but I am no synth expert. I think that the average musician will find everything he or she needs -and probably even more.

I really like the filters sections, and the possibility to create multi sounds, I would recommend checking the manual to find out what this thing is capable of.

The only thing I don't like is that there is no separate volume knob for the headphones output and that the headphones level is way too low to fully enjoy my private jams, but maybe I should use in-ear headphones than a headset.

Looks cool and feels very sturdy. The menu is easy enough and the screen is easy to read and understand everything.

Nice and little but powerfull Synth

Iam owning the Blofeld since it came out back in 2008 and i think the featureset is still holding up, specially at its pricepoint.

Its packed with 3 OSC's , 2 multimode Filters wich can be used in parallel or serial mode, a bunch of ADSR envelops + LFO's and a huge MODmatrix. If you dive deep into its synthesis options, with the Wavetables (2 of the OSC's have them), modifiers etc., the possibilities are almost endless.

But the Blofeld is not just advanced Users, because with the LCD Display it provides a very good Feedback for beginners that want to learn how to program a Synth.

The range of sounds is huge, from the standard analog style subtractive bass to complex wavetable pads, its all in there.

One downside of its engine are maybe the Effects, they are mediocre at best.

The buildquality is decent, metal case and encoder caps. The encoder are still working good here after 6 years of use. Only issue is that get noise from the PC on the Outputs if i connect it via USB.

All in all its a nice Desktopsynth, that i recommended.

Value for beyond it's price.

With recent system updates this is really coming into it's own. The build quality is astounding. It's heavy and solid. The system is easy to come to grips with and the modulation options are vast. There is a bit of menu diving but it's fairly upfront and not a barrier to creating unique sounds. On the negative side, the audio output can be a bit low and you need to utilise FX and other features to get the levels up.

Worth the money

I would've hoped for more hands on controls, but this synth is still fairly quick to tweak. Definitely one of the most intuitive piece of gear I've ever used.

You get HUGE amount of features for the money..even the legendary Waldorf Wavetable-synthesis! Yet I would've like to have higher polyphony, and at least an extra pair of outputs.

Sound quality is top notch; very low hiss/noise level on outputs. The only complaint I have for the sound quality, is the reverb, which is almost as bad as on ESX, if you know what I mean..

For this price there isn't much competition for this product. It's a future classic, buy one NOW!!!