Waldorf Blofeld review, pt.1

I believe just about anyone that had heard electronic music in the 80s had at some point, whether they knew it or not, heard the sounds of the Waldorf (then PPG, as they hadn't yet been bought by Waldorf) Wave synthesizers. A digital synth far ahead of its time, it used a method of synthesis known as wavetable synthesis, in which a collection of waveforms were indexed into a table in a progressive fashion that could be scanned through on-the-fly. This allowed for some very timbrally rich and evolving sounds in a very non-computationally-intense package (all the possible waveforms had already been calculated, therefore all that was necessary was the playback of said waveforms), not to mention it had more sonic variety than the older full-analog synths could ever dream of. Ever since I picked up my first Tangerine Dream album, Exit, I was smitten by the sounds of that digital monster.

Waldorf’s very existence has been a bit on the shaky side in recent history, but in 2007, they released another synth into their prestigious lineup and reaffirmed to the public the true synth-making powerhouse they are. Appearing to be essentially the combination of all prior Waldorf and PPG technologies, including the renowned wavetable synthesis methods of the Wave and Microwave series but also the virtual analog technologies of the Q line, I was anxious to get a hold of this new piece of Waldorf technology, and recently was able to acquire a used one at a fantastic price. My initial impressions: this new Waldorf synth, called Blofeld, delivers.

Oscillators:

Just as with any synth (and if not more so than usual, being a wavetable synth), the oscillators are the true core of the Blofeld, and it has some very versatile oscillators indeed. Sporting three altogether, each oscillator on the Blofeld can generate all your typical analog-style waveforms (saw, pulse, triangle, sine), a feature that was sourced from the Waldorf Q series. Oscillators one and two can play from the onboard wavetables, of which there is no short supply either. Moreover, they can play independent wavetables of each other, so the sonic variety is quite incredible. The wavetables are sourced as far back as the Microwave instruments, and there is incredible sonic variety in these wavetables. Anyone that has heard the older PPG/Waldorf wavetable synths will instantly recognize these wavetables, albeit slightly less harsh and digital sounding to a very slight degree than their original counterparts. Last but not least, the Blofeld has some limited FM capabilities between oscillators, which lends to yet another type of synthesis to explore, even if in a comparatively diminished capacity from other dedicated FM synths.

Filters:

            The second strong point of the instrument comes in the filter section, as there is no shortage of filter types. Even beyond the normal low-pass, band-pass, and high-pass configurations, there are also comb filters and a special iteration of a low-pass filter called “PPG”, which is, so far as I can tell, meant to more closely emulate the analog low-pass filter found in the original PPG Wave keyboards or possibly the Waldorf Microwave 1. This particular filter definitely has a different character than the regular -12db or -24db low-pass filters, even if it isn’t an easy difference to explain. This filter does, however, apparently tax the instrument more than the other filters, as the overall polyphony decreases slightly with this filter; using oscillators 1 and 2 simultaneously with two different wavetables and the PPG filter, I was only able to get about 8 voices of consistent polyphony, which consequently was the polyphony of the original PPG Wave, and makes this a great affordable substitute for the real deal given how hard they are to find and how expensive they are to buy. There are two separate filters all total, and each one has its own “drive” setting, and within those there are a number of different types of simulated overdrives. This translates to an awesome amount of tonal shaping if the tonal foundation from the oscillators just wasn’t enough.

To Be Continued…

            I will continue my review of the Blofeld in my next post, where I will cover the envelope generators, LFOs, the (rather extensive) mod matrix, and some final pros-and-cons thoughts on the instrument.