Waldorf Blofeld - Anyone own one?

[punkfest2000]

Support Zaphod on this one. I like a mix of both hardware and software myself, although I do consider the iPad a bit of a gimmicky fad for music. I find touch screens brutally inaccurate.

[punkfest2000]

This thread is hilarious? No not really.

App...application...just words for the same thing. Ipad...good for surfing the news when I take a dump. Good for my kids to learn the alphabet. Great for keeping them quiet on a long car ride. Sure it's capable processor wise to do some things, and yes it's mobile, and of course some people can make tunes on it but I'd consider it painful. Just my opinion. I'd compare it to the using the Apple Watch to try and text somebody. I'm all for technology when it is practical and actually makes sense.

Bunch of losers?? I dunno, I consider myself highly successful in life by any measure.

[Distorted Horizon]

Blofeld is great

[punkfest2000]

Don't have one myself but I've got a Studiologics Sledge 2.0 which I understand is similar but not quite as in depth? I haven't really Googled the comparisons. Jordan Rudess has one so it can't be terrible.

Don't have any mileage with it yet as it has one dead key and one key with a fixed velocity. Local repair guy is backed up for weeks. People seem to like the Blofelds though. Even just the name sounds cool.

[EvilDragon]

Jordan Rudess has one so it can't be terrible.

Hahahahahaha.

[Hermetech Mastering]

I was thinking the same, what kind of logic is that?

So tempted to get a black Blofeld keys recently...

[punkfest2000]

Jordan Rudess has one so it can't be terrible.

Hahahahahaha.

Well I'm thinking it would not be part of his home studio if it sucked, but at the same time he could probably make any keyboard sing.

A player of that calibre would have discerning taste though and probably have access to any synth he desired.

Good enough for Jordan Rudess then good enough for the Punkfest2000!

[lfm]

I was thinking the same, what kind of logic is that?

So tempted to get a black Blofeld keys recently...

If you have a chance check out in real size how panel looks to you. I found the black panel had way to thin font to make enough contrast to be readable. Not the best lighting and I had issue reading panel.

[Hermetech Mastering]

Thanks, that's good to know, the white version is way more legible then?

[zaphod betamax]

Yes, the contrast is better on the White Blokeys.

Thanks, that's good to know, the white version is way more legible then?

[lunat]

I bought mine on release.

The engine was so bugged it was literally unusable for a month: couldn't save anything, various glitch. I had glitchy encoders from the start. Was promised by staff that all would be fixed on the first firmware update.

First row of customers were basically treated as beta-testers. The worst was the cult like following of the Waldorf fans on the community forum who minimized every issues and jumped at anyone complaining about the unacceptable issues.

The first updates solved the most annoying bugs, but 10 years later, my encoders are still as jumpy as they were on day one. I also have two of the five buttons that died on me 2 years after buying it, I have to press them hard and many times for them to work. Really great when one of those button is the shift button and you want to save your preset. Which made it impossible to sell it to anyone.

And don't get me started on the SL license, a pure scam, paying high dollars to unlock something that is already there. They didn't even have the decency to offer it to their first customers who did their beta-testing and QA check for them.

My biggest regret is to not have refunded it in the 14 first days and believed all the promises. After all that, I promised myself to never buy a Waldorf product again, and looking at the stuff they released in the same fashions after the blofeld (bugs, terrible customer service, etc.), looks like I did the right choice.

So I'll go against the stream here: don't buy a Blofeld, don't buy anything from Waldorf, there are better products and way better companies out there.

[zaphod betamax]

I have three Blofelds, I only started with them in late 2013. My programmer synth is finally starting to have non responsive encoders after 3.5 years of continuous use. Only one of my Blofelds is a module it does not have SL. I do not even use the samples on the keyboards. Other than that I can not think bad of the blofeld and am looking to buy another keyboard so I can take the old one offline to repair a non responsive key and finally replace all the encoders with replacement ones I bought.

[zaphod betamax]

I have the sledge 2 as well. Different but more hands on that the blofeld. P.s the PPG filter sounds sweeter on the sledge!

Don't have one myself but I've got a Studiologics Sledge 2.0 which I understand is similar but not quite as in depth? I haven't really Googled the comparisons. Jordan Rudess has one so it can't be terrible.

Don't have any mileage with it yet as it has one dead key and one key with a fixed velocity. Local repair guy is backed up for weeks. People seem to like the Blofelds though. Even just the name sounds cool.

[transmetropolitan]

So I'll go against the stream here: don't buy a Blofeld, don't buy anything from Waldorf, there are better products and way better companies out there.

OK I'll bite... Much as I don't entirely disagree with many of your criticisms, what is out there that is similar for anything like the same price?

It's certainly not perfect, no argument there. But it's been around longer now than most production synths and basically has no competition left.

Zaphod - tell me about these replacement encoders, what exactly are you planning to do? I'd be interested in hearing a bit more...

[Wormhelmet]

I bought mine on release.

The engine was so bugged it was literally unusable for a month: couldn't save anything, various glitch. I had glitchy encoders from the start. Was promised by staff that all would be fixed on the first firmware update.

First row of customers were basically treated as beta-testers. The worst was the cult like following of the Waldorf fans on the community forum who minimized every issues and jumped at anyone complaining about the unacceptable issues.

The first updates solved the most annoying bugs, but 10 years later, my encoders are still as jumpy as they were on day one. I also have two of the five buttons that died on me 2 years after buying it, I have to press them hard and many times for them to work. Really great when one of those button is the shift button and you want to save your preset. Which made it impossible to sell it to anyone.

And don't get me started on the SL license, a pure scam, paying high dollars to unlock something that is already there. They didn't even have the decency to offer it to their first customers who did their beta-testing and QA check for them.

My biggest regret is to not have refunded it in the 14 first days and believed all the promises. After all that, I promised myself to never buy a Waldorf product again, and looking at the stuff they released in the same fashions after the blofeld (bugs, terrible customer service, etc.), looks like I did the right choice.

So I'll go against the stream here: don't buy a Blofeld, don't buy anything from Waldorf, there are better products and way better companies out there.

I don't really call that going against the stream. The message I got was that even if you hate it, you should try it out another 9 years and 351 days just to be sure.

I can't imagine it's just tied around your neck by a great chain like some albatross, so you must be using that white whale.

If it is tied around your neck with a chain, allow someone else to carry the burden Mr. Frodo. I imagine someone else could pull some wizardry out of it.