Modulate This! - Electronic & Experimental Music Tech, Technique, & People

Using Elektron Analog Four to Add Tap Tempo and Tempo Nudge to My Blofeld

I just picked up an Electron Analog Four to add 4 analog synths + seq + effects to create an additional compterless workflow. I’ll also use it as source audio for Live and Absynth patches.  One of my other goals was to pair it with my Blofeld for live jams and performances.

While I love the character and user interface of the Blofeld, one thing that drives me batty is there is no tap temp or tempo nudge for the arp. Analog Four to the Rescue!

Setup is pretty straight forward.

1. Go into global settings on Analog Four and configure to transmit clock. See p. 44 of Analog Four manual.
2. Hook up MIDI out from Analog Four to Blofeld in.
3. In Blofeld global settings make sure you set clock to “Auto”. See p. o3 f the Blofeld Manual for info on global settings.

Now once you start a pattern on the Analog Four it' starts transmitting clock and any changes to tempo via direct tempo setting, nudge, or Tap Tempo are transmitted to Blofeld. See p. 28 of the for details of Analog Four manual on tempo manipulation.

I’m getting best sync results on the Blofeld so far by setting the arp to “on” not “hold” so I can time the down key to start on the beat with the Electron 4 – and then retrigger with next note on.

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Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician | Composer | Performer
Boulder, CO

Alien Vanguard Soundset for Waldorf Blofeld by HG Fortune and Dimitri Schkoda

Waldorf has released a new sounds set - Alien Vanguard Soundset for Waldorf Blofeld by HG Fortune and Dimitri Schkoda.

What sets this Alien Vanguard soundset apart are the waves by HG Fortune, extending the sonic range of the Waldorf Blofeld into far outer space. This soundset features mostly patches for Ambient, Soundscapes and Atmospherics, but also some other classic stuff, for example, some bass and sequencer sounds for e.g. early TD type and related music.

Alien Vanguard (incl. waveset) by HG Fortune & Dimitri Schkoda (aka Inner Dreamer) includes two patchbanks with 128 patches each:

• - AlienVanguard HGF-Bank-*.mid by HG Fortune 
• - AlienVanguard ID-Bank-*.mid by Dimitri Schkoda

The soundset comes with 86 well chosen wave programs in 5 genres:

• Cpl - complex i.e. mostly layered sounds 
• Scp - soundscapes partly generated from images and as such showing some vivid sonic motion by itself 
• Syn - synthesizer sounds 
• Cho - synthetic choir sounds 
• FX - effect sounds (spacey as well as natural like birds and water)

On request the waveset has been set to 86 wave programs in order to maintain space for the factory

set which does fit well along.

HG Fortune has been into synthesizers since 1975 and is well known for his very special VSTi plugin creations since 2003. Dimitri Schkoda aka Inner Dreamer is the most prolific patch designer and composer of demotracks for HGFortune VSTi plugins since late 2004.

Demos:

Long 15 Tracks Demo

Longer demo with 24 Patches

Demo Medley - very long

This soundset requires Blofeld Keyboard or Blofeld with installed License SL

The Waldorf Time Warp Weekend Sale Including License SL for Blofeld Desktop for Activating Sample Memory

Watch embedded video.

Waldorf has a sale going on this weekend. The time warp theme is related to European daylight savings time change which happens this Sunday. The sale is for this weekend only.

Use the discount codes in the video for your order and save up to 30% on

• Largo
• Waldorf Edition
• Waldorf Edition Upgrade
• PPG V3
• Waldorf PPG Wave 3.V Upgrade
• Lector
• Atmospheric Transients
• Jörg Schaafs Blofeld Xperience Vol 1
• Blofeld License SL

Note, Waldorf’s virtual synths require eLicenser software (and can also be transferred to USB-eLicenser). This is normally a show stopper for me but I like Largo so much I made an exception to my rule.  If your curious how Largo compares to the Blofeld, checkout this post. You can download demos of the instruments first if to see if they are right for you.

Also note that License SL is on the list. So if you’ve been waiting to upgrade you’re your Blofeld Desktop to activate the sample memory now might be the time.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html
www.ModulateThis.com

Crowdsourced Mindmap: Synthesizers with Comb Filters

I love comb filters! Buying a Waldorf Blofeld a few years back caused me to start using them even more because it’s interactive display allowed me to visualize the shape of the filter and correlate that with an audio result. Waldorf Largo and Tone2’s ElectraX also offer this feature.

What is a Comb Filter?

I like the definition on p. 49 of the Waldorf Blofeld Manual:

A Comb filter is basically a very short delay that can be controlled in length and feedback. The delay time is so short that you can’t hear its individual taps but a colorization of the original signal created by peaks or holes in the frequency spectrum. The frequency of the colorization is set by the delay length, which is controlled in the Blofeld through Cutoff, while the amount of colorization is set by the Comb filter feedback, which is controlled in the Blofeld by Resonance.

To further illustrate this, I’ve included a screenshot below which has the same filter type in Waldorf Largo, but with VERY different shapes simply  y changing cutoff and resonance.

What Do Comb Filter's Sound Like?

Stay tuned for a future article on this with some video.

Crowdsourced Mindmap of Synths with Comb Filters

 A week or so back I was curious how many synths in my rig had comb filters and started to document them in a mindmap. I decided to take things a step further and crowdsource this on Twitter and Facebook and make an even more comprehensive map. The map is constrained to just synthesizers with comb filters that are in production. It also doesn’t contain FX plug-ins or processors that have combs.

Click here to view an interactive version of this mindmap full screen.

The Crowd

• Matthew Fecher
• Øystein Olsen
• Anthony Distefano
• Howard Scarr
• Garren Grant

Be Combtastic

Now get out there and crank on those comb filters!

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html
www.ModulateThis.com

Waldorf Blofeld Public Beta Firmware V1.16B2

A few months back Kay Dee from Waldorf support has been participating in an unofficial Blofeld Facebook group. There has been discussion and buzz about Waldorf starting to work on a firmware update for the Blofeld including a thread where Kay requested feedback on new feature requirements. For those not familiar with Waldorf, they are a very small company and tend to focus the company on a product at time then rotate through to do updates.  It’s clear work has begun on a new update as evidenced by this interim bug fix update that’s now in beta.

Interestingly, Waldorf announced this on a Facebook post as a first move even before posting on their web site. It’s a small touch, but a nice way to give back  to the FB group who’s been giving them feedback.

So what’s new in V1.16B2?

Blofeld Public Beta Firmware V1.16B2

- Fix for some units that exhibited occasional clicks with Reverb and/or Modwheel
- Less sensible [I think they mean “sensitive” so you don’t get erroneous values] encoder scanning for improved accuracy
- Possible fix for spurious 'Init' sound program deadlock situation
- Category search improved

Since the most annoying bugs are those that only occur on some units under
very specific circumstances, we would be happy about any feedback, positive
or negative, about this public beta firmware.

Please send you findings to blofeld@waldorfmusic.de

Your Waldorf Team

Be aware, this is a beta release. I installed it and works fine. Some people on the FB group are reporting that some patches that used to have “pops” in them have been cleaned up.

Links

• Zip file with Firmware ftp://www.waldorfmusic.de/blofeld/system/BlofeldV1_16B2.zip
• Blofeld Facebook Group
• Blofeld 411
• Other Blofeld Posts

 

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

Electric Body Machinery Soundset for Waldorf Blofeld Synthesizer by Ari Ahrendt

Waldorf has just released Electric Body Machinery  - a new Blofeld soundset by Soundset Ari Ahrendt.

This punchy soundset that covers everything for electronic music of the darker kind. Highly energetic sounds for areas such as EBM, Synth Pop, Dark Electro, Future Pop, Electro Wave and Minimal Electro Pop. All sounds on highest level of musical playability, usability and inspiration. Suitable for records, studio and especially for clubs and live performance! 128 Sounds for technically wide EBM basses, melodically sawing chaos leads, boombastic drums, shiny pads and strings, as well as inspring polysynth sounds enable you to make the dance-mob shake and stomp .

Use modulation wheel at own risk!

 

Here is a demosong called “Dark Lights”. According to the soundcloud notes, all sounds are created with Waldorf Blofeld including all drums, effects, spheres and modulations.

Dark Lights - Waldorf Blofeld EBM Demo by ARIMUSIK

Sounds pretty damn awesome! The soundset is available via Waldorf’s online store for 30.00 €. Click here to learn more and buy.

I’ve also added this soundset to my Blofeld 411 Mindmap.

Links

• Electric Body Machinery Soundset for Blofeld
• Official Waldorf Site
• Ari Ahrendt http://www.arimusik.de | http://facebook.com/ari.ahrendt

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Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

SampleRobot 4 Multi-X and Single-X Released with Support for Waldorf Blofeld

I just saw this announcement over on http://www.waldorfmusic.de/.

 

SampleRobot 4 is the name of Blofeld's new accomplice. Creating multisamples for Blofeld has never been easier with the help of SampleRobot, as it automatically samples existing instruments. It saves all samples as WAV and assignment information in XML format, ready to be transferred into Blofeld using Spectre. SampleRobot 4 is available from SkyLife, a special Single-X version for Blofeld starts at only 39,00 Euro, the luxury version is available here. This is not only the perfect companion for Blofeld but also for Lector, which can load multisamples in XML format too.  Requires Blofeld Keyboard, Blofeld with License SL installed or Lector. More information here.

Here is some detail SampleRobot’s page on the Single-X version.

 

SampleRobot 4 Single-X contains the application and more than 800 MB of premium samples in Soundfont 2 file format.

SampleRobot 4 Single-X is a completely new and for all musicians and producers affordable version of the well-known sampling software. Single-X stands for single export.

This download of SampleRobot Single-X support the following export format:

Waldorf Blofeld (*.xml)

With SampleRobot 4 Single-X you can easily do automatic sampling of acoustic and electronic instruments. Remote control your MIDI gear and sample all sound nuances fully automatically.

The graphical interface is very easy to use. You can achieve excellent results with just a few mouse clicks.

SampleRobot 4 Single-X works with Windows XP / Vista / 7 and also under Bootcamp and Parallels Desktop for Mac on Intel Macintosh Computers

Mark Mosher
Electronic/Experimental Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Synthesist | Composer | Keyboardist | Performer

Synth Geek Blog: http://modulatethis.com/
Artist Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com

Waldorf Largo vs Blofeld

I own both the Waldorf Blofeld keyboard edition plus the virtual instrument Largo so I thought I’d offer some notes on what is the same and what is different.

98% The Same

First let me say that Largo is indeed a Blofeld expressed as a virtual instrument. I’d say that the patch architecture about 98% similar. If you programmed a patch on either using parameters common to both without effects the resultant output would almost identical with just slight variance in timbre you'd expect from hardware vs software implementations. The parameter differences are not simply that one has more features than another -each has exclusive features, and some cases – such as effects – the features are similar but implemented differently.

I’ve created a mindmap to illustrate only the differences. Green highlights on a branch indicate which synth is better in a particular area.

View embedded map full-size

Which is Right For You?

This depends on your priorities. If your primary goal is programming patches from scratch and you don’t care about samples being used as oscillator sources, Largo has a bigger sonic range in my opinion. If you want to use samples, you have to go with the Keyboard or Desktop Edition with License SL. The effects processor section is definitely stronger in Largo, especially the chorus. The color coding in the mindmap should help you make your choice.

Why Do I have Both?

I got the Blofeld first and fell in love with Waldorf waveforms, oscillators, filters, and architecture. I actually got the desktop, then sold it to get the keyboard edition for studio and jam use. However, my current performance rig is laptop-based and fits in two carry-ons (including my controllers) and I didn’t have room haul even the desktop Blofeld. So by adding Largo I have that Waldorf sound and architecture on my laptop and can use it in live performances out of town. Largo’s effects – especially the chorus are also quite fantastic. As a matter of fact, I have a new song on the upcoming album that was built almost exclusively around one patch where I do crazy things with the chorus using automation from dummy clips in Ableton Live.

Using Blofeld as a Dedicated Hardware Interface for Largo

The company Touch Digital Controllers is getting some buzz around their dedicated ImpOSCar2 hardware controller. What you might not know is that you can do something similar on the Waldorf side by using Blofeld as a dedicated control surface for Largo. This is possible because Waldorf designed both Largo and Blofeld such that each parameter has a corresponding MIDI CCs (which is how third party editors communication with Blofeld). That being said, I don’t think this is currently an intended use as it’s not document, a bit fiddly, and as you can see from the mindmap there are architectural differences. Also, some parameters like waveshape number are 0-based on Blofeld and 1-based on Largo (Blofled uses waveshape 0 as oscillator off where Largo has a dedicated parameter for this). So while it works it’s a bit sketchy.

Wish List

I wish that Waldorf will go a step further with both synths to bring them to parity and line up synth parameters such that we all could could:

1. Use Largo as a VST/AU editor for Blofeld
2. Use Blofeld as a control surface for Largo
3. Add sample support to Largo
4. Share patches between both.

Links

• Official Waldorf Web Site
• Blofeld 411 Post
• Other Posts on Modulate This! related to : Blofeld | Largo

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Synthesist | Composer | Keyboardist | Performer

http://modulatethis.com/
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

How to Make Your Waldorf Blofeld Synthesizer Go to 11!

As you walk through the factory patches, you might notice some patches are louder than others. Or perhaps you programmed your own patch and can’t quite get it to be loud enough to be in balance with other patches in your set. Here are a few quick tips to take a quieter patch and make it go to 11.

Make Sure the Amp Volume is set to 127

Hit the “Shift” button and navigate to the “Amplifier Page”. Verify that overall “Volume” is set to 127. Note the “Velocity” parameter is a global patch parameter that determines how much velocity effects volume. If you play with a light touch, you might want to take this parameter down some. If it is set to 0 velocity does not effect the volume.

Crank Up Your Oscillator Volumes

Make sure the oscillators that are active are high enough for your needs. Click the Oscillator button in the matrix to turn select the first menu for Oscillators, and crank the 4th knob over. Repeat for other oscillators.

This Parameter Goes to 11!

Now for the secret sauce. Let’s say you have a patch and all the levels are perfect and in balance, yet it’s still too quite relative to other patches in your set. You can get a volume boost quickly with on parameter set, Filter Drive.

The “Tube” drive curve with values down in the teens can add a volume boost without distortion. To make the patch rip the audience's face off, set the value to 127! Experiment with other drive curves.

More Blofeld Please
I hope you found these tips helpful. You can view other posts on the Blofeld category of Modulate This here.

I’m slowly working on some patches that I plan to make available as a library down the road. If you’d like to be notified opt-in to the Modulate This! mailing list and check the box for “Patches for Waldorf Blofeld”

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Synthesist | Composer | Keyboardist | Performer
www.MarkMosherMusic.com
www.Modulatethis.com

Waldorf Blofeld Desktop & Keyboard Special Edition in Black

 

Waldorf is releasing my favorite hardware synthesizer in black as a limited edition. As always, I love their tongue-in-cheek marketing on this.

Deep in the subterranean Waldorf Laboratories, our scientists have finally discovered the finish that delivers the best sound. We almost had forgot about them when the resurfaced and proudly presented the result of their almost endless struggle to find the ideal material: Neither Mauve nor Lavender nor Ochre result in optimal sound, but a special electron absorbing coating in deep black.

The explanation is simple: as more absorbed electrons reach the inner digital and analog workings of Blofeld and casue each bit to be stronger pronounced, resulting in a very defined and detailled sound. This makes our new Black Blofeld sound even better than before. The new black Blofeld is produced 100% in German Schwarzarbeit and is available only on the black market.

According to a Matrix Synth post on this, this is a limited edition run of 250 units.

More here http://www.waldorfmusic.de/.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com

patchlab.modulatethis.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com