Waldorf Blofeld Keyboard Synthesizer

The little villain grows up

Not only on the outside did he gain weight, also his inner qualities have seen a remarkable step-up: besides the virtual-analog synthesis and the classic wavetables it now sports a whopping 60 megabytes of sample memory.

Just imagine to add a vocal-like noise spectrum to a typical Wavetable pad, spice-up a virtual-analog solo sound with a strong attack sample or just process any other sample with the countless oscillator and filter modulations.

Play your sound creations on the high-quality keyboard with velocity and aftertouch. Pitchbend and modulation wheel are at your disposal and, as a matter of course, you can connect a sustain pedal.

All this is packaged in a sleek metal enclosure with a big graphic display, endless stainless steel rotaries and an internal power supply. And although it comes for an unbeatable price tag, we add something very special. It comes: From Waldorf with Love!

Sound Generation:

Oscilators
Each of the three oscillators offers authentic circuit-models of analog waveforms: Pulse with variable pulse-width, sawtooth, triangle and, as found in relatively few analog synthesizers these days, sine wave.Furthermore, oscillators 1 and 2 feature the two wavetables that were introduced by the Waldorf Q and appeared shortly thereafter in the Micro Q series.

Not only that, the Blofeld includes all ROM Wavetables from the mighty flagship Waldorf Wave as well as Microwave II/XT. Plus, lo and behold, the desperately requested "Upper Wavetable" from the good old PPG Wave! But, for the first time in the history of Waldorf and PPG, each of these two oscillators can have its own wavetable.

What's more, you have control over the brilliance of these wavetables, which is especially important for waves with lots of harmonics in the bass end. You decide if you prefer pure and perfect harmonics or the same edgy timbre you know and love from the earlier Waldorf and PPG synthesizers.

Brilliance also affects the sawtooth and pulse oscillator models. From warm and soft (for those typical L.A. string pads) to the hard shapes you need for punchy and biting bass sounds. But note, Brilliance is not a simple filter applied after the oscillators, the model itself is modified.

Each of the three oscillators can be frequency-modulated by any of the other oscillators, the noise generator or one of the LFOs. With low FM amounts, you can add a little dirt to the oscillator sound, with higher amounts you get typical FM effects.

On top of all that, oscillator 2 can be hard-synced to oscillator 3.

Ring Modulation

Oscillators 1 and 2 can be ring-modulated to create bell-like or metallic sounds, eerie sound effects as well as pumping basses and leads.

The noise generator delivers white noise that can be filtered low or high pass, depending on the Noise Colour setting.

The three oscillators, the ring modulator and the noise generator can be freely mixed into filter 1 and filter 2. This allows fine control over the harmonic content of each of the tone generators.

Spectre
Waldorf SpectreSpectre is a tool for creating and transferring Sample Content for Waldorf Blofeld with License SL and Waldorf Blofeld Keyboard.

Both are synthesizers with the additional ability to play back Samples. If you have none of the above, you are still welcome to explore Spectre and fantasize what it would be like to own one of the above instruments.

Spectre is a free application available here for Windows PC and Mac.

Features:

• Unbeatable price tag
• sturdy Metal Enclosure
• 7 endless stainless steel Dials
• Graphic Display 128 x 64 pixels, b/w, white background LED
• more than 1000 Sounds
• 3 Oscillators per voice
• Frequency Modulation between the Oscillators
• All Q Oscillator Models
• All Microwave II/XT/XTk Wavetables
• 2 independent Multi Mode Filters per voice
• Filter FM
• 2 Drive stages per voice with selectable Drive Curves
• 3 fast LFOs per voice
• 4 fast Envelopes per voice
• powerful Arpeggiator
• freely programmable Arpeggiator Pattern with up to 16 Steps per Sound
• up to 25 Voices
• 16 part multi timbral
• more than 1000 Sounds
• sturdy Metal Enclosure
• 7 endless stainless steel Dials
• 5 Buttons
• Graphic Display 128 x 64 pixels, b/w, white background LED
• MIDI LED
• Volume Control
• Power Switch
• Stereo Output
• Headphone Output
• MIDI In
• USB Connector for MIDI In / Out
- uses standard USB MIDI Driver provided by host computer OS
- Windows ME minimum, Windows XP or newer recommended
- Mac OS X 10.2 minimum, Mac OS X 10.3 or newer recommended
• External Power Supply

Specifications:

3 Oscillators Virtual Analog Models:

• Pulse with Pulse Width Modulation and adjustable Brilliance
• Sawtooth with adjustable Brilliance
• Triangle
• Sine

Wavetables:

• Q Alt 1 and Alt 2 Wavetable with adjustable Brilliance
• All Wavetables from Microwave II/XT/XTk Series with adjustable Brilliance
• Separate Wavetable selectable for Oscillator 1 and 2

Frequency Modulation between the Oscillators
Oscillator Synchronization
Ring Modulator for Osc 1 / 2
Noise Generator with Noise Colour
2 independent Multi Mode Filters

• Filter FM
• Resonance up to Self-Oscillation
• Low Pass 24 dB / 12 dB
• Band Pass 24 dB / 12 dB
• High Pass 24 dB / 12 dB
• Notch 24 dB / 12 dB
• Comb Filter with positive / negative Feedback- PPG Low Pass Filter

2 Drive stages per voice with adjustable Drive Gain and selectable Curves

• Clip
• Hard
• Medium
• Soft
• Sine Shaper
• etc.

Modulation Matrix with 16 Slots, freely programmable

• Modulation Speed far into Audio Range
• Modulation Sources include all internal Modulation Sources plus various MIDI messages
• Modulation Destinations for almost all continuous sound parameters

various pre-routed Modulation Destinations with selectable Sources

• Pitch Modulation
• Oscillator 1 / 2 / 3 Frequency Modulation
• Oscillator 1 / 2 / 3 Pulse Width Modulation
• Filter 1 / 2 Cutoff Modulation
• Filter 1 / 2 Frequency Modulation
• Pan 1 / 2 Modulation
• Amp Modulation

4 Modifiers for transforming Modulation Sources with various Algorithms
3 fast LFOs

• syncable to MIDI Clock
• Note Retrigger with adjustable Start Phase
• monophonic LFO
• Keytrack

4 fast Envelopes with selectable types

• Single Trigger / Retrigger per Envelope
• ADSR
• ADS1DS2R (2 Decay/Sustain stages plus adjustable Attack Level)
• One Shot
• Loop S1S2 (Loop between Sustain 1 and 2)
• Loop All (Loop over all stages)

Poly, Mono, Dual or Unisono Mode with selectable Voice Count

Made in Germany