KVR Audio

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 5:32 pm

Ingonator wrote:The black and green design of the Pulse 2 looks great IMO.

It's probably good for stage performers. Personally, I much prefer the look of the original Pulse and, of course, the Wave.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 5:39 pm

Kriminal wrote:the Sub Phatty on the other hand

It's an awesome instrument. Still, the Pulse 2 offers multiple voices and 3 full oscillators, it's definitely got its place.

faun2500 · Post by **faun2500** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 5:40 pm

Kriminal wrote:
EvilDragon wrote:Apples and oranges there.
To be honest, if Walford put some effort into a kybd version i would give it a go, but looking as it does, it will end up looking like the blofeld kbyd version, awful...

...and to be honest again, im not a fan of these 'desktop' units, any brand. They dont scream PLAY ME!!!

the Sub Phatty on the other hand

But then there is a whole market of people like me that don't need a synth to say 'play me'. We just want solid unique instruments which make sounds we like to make music with the best we can.

I personally love desktop instruments. Would I like a keyboard and 1000's knobs on each one? Yeah! Do I have the money or space? NO!!

Ingonator · Post by **Ingonator** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 5:47 pm

Crackbaby · Post by **Crackbaby** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 5:49 pm

The knobs looks a bit tightly placed, how are they when you actually use them? Is the traction good and not slippery?
I don't know what you prefer, but if i had made a synth with a similar layout i would have put the cutoff, resonance, env, env decay, env attack on the same row. Maybe filter velocity and drive as well to fill up the seven knobs.
Similarly i would have picked controls for fast playing around with sync, fm and whatever else harmonically fun functions it has. Some things you set up from start and let be (detune?). Other things you play around with while you play (sync).
I wonder how many more (direct) controls they would have been able to add if they added 100€ to the pricetag.

(and yes, the sub phatty looks fantastic

)

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 5:52 pm

faun2500 wrote:But then there is a whole market of people like me that don't need a synth to say 'play me'. We just want solid unique instruments which make sounds we like to make music with the best we can.

As much as I agree with you, black Blofeld's sell 3:1 over white ones. Also, sales go through the roof every time Access releases White Out and Darkstar versions of their instruments. For most intents and purposes, the StudioLogic Sledge seems to be a Blofeld with a full-size keyboard and a vastly improved interface, I wonder if the yellow color is the reason people don't take it seriously?

faun2500 · Post by **faun2500** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 5:58 pm

Uncle E wrote:
faun2500 wrote:But then there is a whole market of people like me that don't need a synth to say 'play me'. We just want solid unique instruments which make sounds we like to make music with the best we can.
As much as I agree with you, black Blofeld's sell 3:1 over white ones. Also, sales go through the roof every time Access releases White Out and Darkstar versions of their instruments. For most intents and purposes, the StudioLogic Sledge seems to be a Blofeld with a full-size keyboard and a vastly improved interface, I wonder if the yellow color is the reason people don't take it seriously?

Oh yeah, I would choose a black one over white.

Ingonator · Post by **Ingonator** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 6:04 pm

Uncle E wrote:For most intents and purposes, the StudioLogic Sledge seems to be a Blofeld with a full-size keyboard and a vastly improved interface, I wonder if the yellow color is the reason people don't take it seriously?

IMO the Sledge is not a Blofeld substitution at all and the controls of the Sledge felt very "cheap" when i rested it.
Examples of difference to the Blofeld:
- Wavetables only for Osc1, no user wavetables possible
- no sample import
- no dual filter
- limited filter modes (no Comb filter and no PPG filter)
- no different drive curves
- Blofeld got 4 envelopes with different modes and also 4 LFOs

Sound wise i prefer the Blofeld too.

Not to forget that the Blofeld keyboard seems to be cheaper than the Sledge.

Waldorf was not involved with the development of the Sledge at all, Studiologic just licensed some of the DSP technology.

Ingo

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 6:13 pm

Yeah 16 patches only on Sub Phatty kills it, IMO.

Kriminal · Post by **Kriminal** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 6:25 pm

EvilDragon wrote:Yeah 16 patches only on Sub Phatty kills it, IMO.

Thats plenty for a live performance, especially as i use other synths. You can store as many as you want on the PC.

faun2500 · Post by **faun2500** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 6:40 pm

I don't consider them to be rivals at all. If sub phatty is the synth for live stuff then that's fine but I don't think you need to be hating on the pulse 2 just because of that. I have a slim phatty and love the moog sound.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 6:41 pm

Not enough in any case. I find it extremely limiting. I much prefer 500 available in Pulse 2.

Btw Ingo - is it 500 flat, or is it 512? Blofeld is usually marketed as having 1000 presets, but it has 8 banks of 128, which is 1024.

Ingonator · Post by **Ingonator** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 6:44 pm

Kriminal wrote:
EvilDragon wrote:Yeah 16 patches only on Sub Phatty kills it, IMO.
Thats plenty for a live performance, especially as i use other synths. You can store as many as you want on the PC.

One point in the Pulse 2 is that it works very nicely without any PC and there are no hidden features that could be only accessed with an editor.

The Utility menu in the synth also offers features like "Init Sound", "Recall Sound" (= load the saved sound without latest changes) and "Compare Sound".

For Live performances you could easily store patches at subsequent locations where you don't have to search them. The Pulse 2 does continue playing the current note when changing a patch, this is also true for arpeggiator sounds.

EvilDragon wrote: Btw Ingo - is it 500 flat, or is it 512? Blofeld is usually marketed as having 1000 presets, but it has 8 banks of 128, which is 1024.

Exactly 500 and no banks.

Ingo

faun2500 · Post by **faun2500** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 6:47 pm

Cool, INT patch.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 7:01 pm

Ingonator wrote:With the Sub Phatty besides using an editor software it is hardly possible or impossible to get the values of a certain parameter for a saved patch.

I haven't found this to be terribly limiting. Like the Moog Prodigy (which has an almost identical interface), the Sub Phatty is easy and fast to program. They're also not super versatile, thus it's hard to get lost on them.

tbh, I'm surprised Kriminal is so into the Sub Phatty, given that it can't do the crazy sounds he likes. To me, the Sub Phatty is more about legit Minimoog sounds than it is about versatility.

Waldorf Pulse 2