Waldorf Wavetable sound is just beautiful. When other companies over the years made grooveboxes and romplers they just stuck to their basic synthetic aesthetic. Great video!
I’m fascinated by the PPG synths. As a young lad in the 80’s, they were the stuff of dreams. I have a Blofeld, but never use it for some unknown reason. I was thinking about an M and then this brilliant video. The two instruments are rather close and both sound amazing. I need to use my Blofeld before making any decisions about the M. Thank you for posting. Really informative as always
I’ve a more comprehensive breakdown coming soon where I talk through a few things and look in more detail. I made these little demos while making that.
I discovered the Blofeld about 4-5 months ago and I have it connected to my Digitakt. Wonderful, powerful and simple combo. Great, well sounding little affordable synth! 🥳
I'd rather spend the extra 8 voices on different type of synth and layer that. But I'm very happy with the M. I don't play a lot of fast notes so I can deal with 8 voices. It's my only synth, and I don't use VST.
Big shout out from L8!!! Have owned a BLofeld Keyboard for several years now, still finding so much to love about it. Thanks for highlighting this little gem. I first got into synths in the 80s so the PPG Wave 2.3 was always the benchmark for me…Blofeld gets me quite close…still surprising how good the PPG Filter emulation is…
Thank you for the comparison. I've been wondering about the M for some time and it sounds really great, but considering the flexibility my Blofeld already provides, the smoothness of the analog filter doesn't make a compelling argument to spend more money, although it does sound beautiful. The Blofeld really is outstanding value for money!
I have the M and it might be one of my fav synths ever. But I'm shocked how good the Blofeld sounds. (Blofeld is actually also the name of the neighbor village of where I grew up ;))
Mapping some knobs to the Blowy brings the damn thing alive. I don’t mind using the front panel but some useful mappings just opens up experimentation and shows how damn serious it really still is. Here, you show how mighty it is up against its younger bigger brother. M sounds lovely, probably overall slightly nicer. And as an instrument a much nicer thing to use, but the Blofeld just punches so high.
I would say that the Sledge is a significantly crippled Blofeld albeit with more hands-on controls. Once you have truly familiarized yourself with the Blofeld, you will appreciate the things that are just lacking on the Sledge: the second filter, the more advanced filter types, the LFO destination matrix, the complex envelopes and the ring mod, to name a few. I had one for a while but soon ended up selling it and returning back to the Blofeld.
There is a magic in the sound of the M. The interface is brilliant and let's me create new sounds in seconds. I had the MW1 and the Wave 2.0 in the 90's and for me the M is more inspiring. Best HW synth at the moment! The blofeld may sound similar, but it's missing the softness of the M filters and it's not as intuitive.
They definitely sound different, though you can tell they're in the same ball park due to similar architecture. I think I'll stay with my Blofeld, kinda hard to justify th difference in sound. I think I would only compliment a Blofeld with something very different like a Prophet 6 or the OBX8
You know the Blofeld is named after that villain in the bond movies Ernst Blofeld? He had some serious synths too, he was in the band, "No I expect you to die Mr Bond". He had some Junos, some Punos and a xylophone. OK so I made most of that up, the Blofeld is a beautiful pad monster imo. It was my 1st real synth and I still have it to this day, build quality on keys is exceptional, shame it has so much menu diving. It can do with a MIDI controller to get to all those extra bits, but there's no discounting that it cannot sound great, I have made so many tunes with it and cannot part with it evoar. Now back to world domination!!!
@@marzzz1I thought that was a really great comment by Danke. Not to mention M, was Bond’s up line in the mI5. We have a double feature Bond theme here.
Great googlily-woogily- this is a helpful video! Obviously M sounds more 'simply' thicker vintage, and Blo has more smooth little tonal idiosyncrasies floating around.
Thanks for that very pleasant trip Starsky. You've got a great talent in patching. For my ears, I really love the soft character of the Blo... I have a black Blokeys with nearly all the panel paint gone ha ha... When I bought mine, they were like a year or so old and they had this issue with the pots. Why can't I get into the sound of the M over the Blo? I don't know,... but it's saving me some money for now ha ha. Loved the M patch at 14:40 however. When you played the comparision patches I always felt the Blo a little more. I'm even listening in good headgear so ... maybe 47 is catching up with me.. ha. Thanks again. And on that note, I wish Waldorf would update Largo, basically Blo without PPG filter! :)
Can't say I prefer one over the other soundwise. I'm not someone who says "everything is just subjective, man", but with all these plugin and hardware-comparisons it often actually is - in my opinion. I like the size and the look of the blofeld, but I'd get anxiety from scrolling through menus and would probably prefer more knobs. With the M I (think I) wouldn't have to search through folders upon folders (that's how I imagine it with the blofeld). Sidenote: I know 550 for a synth is supposed to be cheap.. but 550 is more than I ever paid for a plugin and it's a lot of money (to me). Lot can be bought with 550 Bucks. With all the Synth-Plugins I own (that sound just as good imo) and all the other things I should invest in, I just can't justify spending that kind of money on a synth for the little upside to have touchable knobs. Still, for some reason I watch these videos. Nice sounds, it was a pleasure to watch you touch knobs.
Haha… thanks. Tbh the M has a fair amount of menu diving as well - all the modulation is in the menus. But it’s nicer to edit. Blofeld with the editor is so easy (no editor for the M), but then you could just buy Largo if you’re not interested in the hardware - it’s essentially the same as the Blofeld but in a plug-in.
I would suggest looking at the Nave virtual wavetable synth, if you don’t already have it. It’s been my favorite soft synth since it was released. It sounds as good as these, is easy to program, and is fun to play.
They both sound great. The M is a bit grittier and more retro/LoFi, but not really any better. Considering that the M is three times the price, I'm not sure if it really justifies the difference. In fact, an M is very close to the price of an Iridium, which is far more versatile than either one, so that might be a better choice, if you have the money.
Wait for the next demo.. 😀 I play with the filters which demos the major differences. M is typical analog smooth and squishy. Blofeld is digital madness at high reso levels (of course that o it makes a difference when you’re programming at the extremes).
A great comparison. I really like the Blofeld but I sold mine as it was very often frustrating that the encoders made arbitrary "jumps" when turning the knobs. So programming was pretty impossible. The Blofeld with more reliable encoders (or without the encoder issues) is an outstanding and affordable gem.
@@JKC40 I sold it after the firmware update but the update didn't get any improvements. Therefore there should a maintenance be done. But the buyer felt himself experienced enough to do the repair.
I bought Nave when I couldn’t get to my Blofeld (lockdown) and I’d be using the familiar wavetables and thinking it sounded better than how I remember the Blofeld sounding. When I got them both together I spent hours doing the sort of comparison thing you do, going over really distinctive wavetables - like the Wavetrip ones. Nave better... still love the Blofeld interface
I know this is an old video, but could you possibly do a comparison video between the Blofeld and the Korg Modwave? I’m surprised no one has done this being that they’re both lower cost wavetable synths. I’m Intertec to see the differences between how they sound head up.
Can’t hide that you recreated “Blofeld” in Arial rather than Helvetica ;) The M font is further away, with the middle touching the baseline rather than floating as on the actual unit, but a lot like with Netflix cards I think going further away into a font with its own similar character works a lot better than aiming for an exact match. …I know this is a video comparing the tone, but hey, I’m a typeface nerd just as much as I’m a synth nerd ;) all I really have to say about the Blofeld is it reminds me of the microKORG unless you get really crazy on the settings.
Probably sounds pretty good. 😅. I have the Eventide Micro Pitch pedal. I run it into a Nightsky. But the Micro Pitch pedal is truly amazing with the M. Crazy doubling chorus sludge. Detuning the delays can dramatically change the sound.
Well it’s an evolution. It’s got much more going on but yes digital filters (11 types). But has all the original wavetables from PPG and microwave yes.
@@StarskyCarr "Filter: Analog low-pass 24 dB/Oct VCF (SSI 2144 Improved Ladder Type) with saturation and resonance" - that's from M's official spec page. Eh?
@@wrmusic8736 oh sorry I read that as the blofeld was an update… sorry I was responding to a few comments all about the Blofeld!! Yes the M is essentially the Microwave 1 … duh 🙄 😂😂
I don' t understand why waldorf is just copying their synths since almost 40 years. They all sound very 'similar'. MW1, MW2, XT/K and M. Kyra (which I also own, is a whole other league and sounds very dark and different from all other Waldorf synths. Differences in those WT-synths are simply negligible. I'll stick with my XTK which is a 30-voice on top...
Neat comparison, guess I'm sticking with the blofeld for a while - as nice as the M is, I don't think more than triple the price justifies that difference. (at least where I am $850 vs $3200) Side note: I do wish they did M in a keyboard version, blofeld keys is solid
Waldorf Wavetable sound is just beautiful. When other companies over the years made grooveboxes and romplers they just stuck to their basic synthetic aesthetic. Great video!
Waldorf, Nord, and Virus have that sound. Virus is darker but can do similar glassy sounds to Waldorf. Nord is brighter sounding.
I’m fascinated by the PPG synths. As a young lad in the 80’s, they were the stuff of dreams. I have a Blofeld, but never use it for some unknown reason. I was thinking about an M and then this brilliant video. The two instruments are rather close and both sound amazing. I need to use my Blofeld before making any decisions about the M. Thank you for posting. Really informative as always
DO start using your poor Blofeld. it's beautiful. There's a lot of help out there these days if you need some! G'luck
I’ve a more comprehensive breakdown coming soon where I talk through a few things and look in more detail. I made these little demos while making that.
@@StarskyCarr Can't wait for this!
I discovered the Blofeld about 4-5 months ago and I have it connected to my Digitakt. Wonderful, powerful and simple combo. Great, well sounding little affordable synth! 🥳
The voice expansion for the M was an amazing investment. Really opens up M's capabilities.
I’ve been thinking about it. … just the ££ putting me off.
@@StarskyCarr ...and the $$$
I know you are right but it hurts to hear it anyways. €€€😬
I'd rather spend the extra 8 voices on different type of synth and layer that. But I'm very happy with the M. I don't play a lot of fast notes so I can deal with 8 voices. It's my only synth, and I don't use VST.
@@RustyTonesJr Once you start sequencing four parts, eight voices run out quickly.
Big shout out from L8!!! Have owned a BLofeld Keyboard for several years now, still finding so much to love about it. Thanks for highlighting this little gem. I first got into synths in the 80s so the PPG Wave 2.3 was always the benchmark for me…Blofeld gets me quite close…still surprising how good the PPG Filter emulation is…
Thank you for the comparison. I've been wondering about the M for some time and it sounds really great, but considering the flexibility my Blofeld already provides, the smoothness of the analog filter doesn't make a compelling argument to spend more money, although it does sound beautiful.
The Blofeld really is outstanding value for money!
yes but isn't Largo even a better deal ?
I have the M and it might be one of my fav synths ever. But I'm shocked how good the Blofeld sounds. (Blofeld is actually also the name of the neighbor village of where I grew up ;))
I’m my next video I show where it falls down! But for stuff like this it’s excellent.
Mapping some knobs to the Blowy brings the damn thing alive. I don’t mind using the front panel but some useful mappings just opens up experimentation and shows how damn serious it really still is.
Here, you show how mighty it is up against its younger bigger brother. M sounds lovely, probably overall slightly nicer. And as an instrument a much nicer thing to use, but the Blofeld just punches so high.
studiologic sledge is a underrated waldorf variant of the blofeld engine .
Absolutely, they are damn close.
I would say that the Sledge is a significantly crippled Blofeld albeit with more hands-on controls. Once you have truly familiarized yourself with the Blofeld, you will appreciate the things that are just lacking on the Sledge: the second filter, the more advanced filter types, the LFO destination matrix, the complex envelopes and the ring mod, to name a few. I had one for a while but soon ended up selling it and returning back to the Blofeld.
not quite - it is about 85% of a blofeld @ best
the blofeld editor works with it get the extras
There is a magic in the sound of the M. The interface is brilliant and let's me create new sounds in seconds. I had the MW1 and the Wave 2.0 in the 90's and for me the M is more inspiring. Best HW synth at the moment! The blofeld may sound similar, but it's missing the softness of the M filters and it's not as intuitive.
Love the Waldorf wavetable synths, to borrow a bond line, nobody does it better.
They definitely sound different, though you can tell they're in the same ball park due to similar architecture. I think I'll stay with my Blofeld, kinda hard to justify th difference in sound. I think I would only compliment a Blofeld with something very different like a Prophet 6 or the OBX8
You know the Blofeld is named after that villain in the bond movies Ernst Blofeld? He had some serious synths too, he was in the band, "No I expect you to die Mr Bond".
He had some Junos, some Punos and a xylophone.
OK so I made most of that up, the Blofeld is a beautiful pad monster imo. It was my 1st real synth and I still have it to this day, build quality on keys is exceptional, shame it has so much menu diving. It can do with a MIDI controller to get to all those extra bits, but there's no discounting that it cannot sound great, I have made so many tunes with it and cannot part with it evoar.
Now back to world domination!!!
"No I expect you to die!" was actually said by Auric Goldfinger.
@@marzzz1I thought that was a really great comment by Danke.
Not to mention M, was Bond’s up line in the mI5.
We have a double feature Bond theme here.
@@universalvibe72 Actually, Bond and M were in MI6, which is the British equivalent to the CIA; MI5 is the British version of the NSA.
@@marzzz1 FAKE NEWS: DIDNT you hear, they were demoted to MI5…
Great googlily-woogily- this is a helpful video! Obviously M sounds more 'simply' thicker vintage, and Blo has more smooth little tonal idiosyncrasies floating around.
Thanks for that very pleasant trip Starsky. You've got a great talent in patching. For my ears, I really love the soft character of the Blo... I have a black Blokeys with nearly all the panel paint gone ha ha... When I bought mine, they were like a year or so old and they had this issue with the pots. Why can't I get into the sound of the M over the Blo? I don't know,... but it's saving me some money for now ha ha. Loved the M patch at 14:40 however. When you played the comparision patches I always felt the Blo a little more. I'm even listening in good headgear so ... maybe 47 is catching up with me.. ha. Thanks again. And on that note, I wish Waldorf would update Largo, basically Blo without PPG filter! :)
Thank you x10. I was pondering whether to go the M but I have Blofeld K. How nice it would be if the Blofeld came in the same Blue.
Can't say I prefer one over the other soundwise. I'm not someone who says "everything is just subjective, man", but with all these plugin and hardware-comparisons it often actually is - in my opinion. I like the size and the look of the blofeld, but I'd get anxiety from scrolling through menus and would probably prefer more knobs. With the M I (think I) wouldn't have to search through folders upon folders (that's how I imagine it with the blofeld).
Sidenote: I know 550 for a synth is supposed to be cheap.. but 550 is more than I ever paid for a plugin and it's a lot of money (to me). Lot can be bought with 550 Bucks. With all the Synth-Plugins I own (that sound just as good imo) and all the other things I should invest in, I just can't justify spending that kind of money on a synth for the little upside to have touchable knobs. Still, for some reason I watch these videos. Nice sounds, it was a pleasure to watch you touch knobs.
Haha… thanks. Tbh the M has a fair amount of menu diving as well - all the modulation is in the menus. But it’s nicer to edit. Blofeld with the editor is so easy (no editor for the M), but then you could just buy Largo if you’re not interested in the hardware - it’s essentially the same as the Blofeld but in a plug-in.
I would suggest looking at the Nave virtual wavetable synth, if you don’t already have it. It’s been my favorite soft synth since it was released. It sounds as good as these, is easy to program, and is fun to play.
They both sound great. The M is a bit grittier and more retro/LoFi, but not really any better. Considering that the M is three times the price, I'm not sure if it really justifies the difference. In fact, an M is very close to the price of an Iridium, which is far more versatile than either one, so that might be a better choice, if you have the money.
Wait for the next demo.. 😀 I play with the filters which demos the major differences. M is typical analog smooth and squishy. Blofeld is digital madness at high reso levels (of course that o it makes a difference when you’re programming at the extremes).
A great comparison. I really like the Blofeld but I sold mine as it was very often frustrating that the encoders made arbitrary "jumps" when turning the knobs. So programming was pretty impossible. The Blofeld with more reliable encoders (or without the encoder issues) is an outstanding and affordable gem.
did you sell it before or after the firmware update that helped the encoder issues?
@@JKC40 I sold it after the firmware update but the update didn't get any improvements. Therefore there should a maintenance be done. But the buyer felt himself experienced enough to do the repair.
I bought Nave when I couldn’t get to my Blofeld (lockdown) and I’d be using the familiar wavetables and thinking it sounded better than how I remember the Blofeld sounding. When I got them both together I spent hours doing the sort of comparison thing you do, going over really distinctive wavetables - like the Wavetrip ones. Nave better...
still love the Blofeld interface
I’ve got Nave iOS. Would’ve mentioned it in this but the iPad wouldn’t charge!
I was lucky enough to recently get a blofeld and pole 2 with wooden stand for £400, best money I’ve spent in a long time!
Lovely sounds!
I know this is an old video, but could you possibly do a comparison video between the Blofeld and the Korg Modwave? I’m surprised no one has done this being that they’re both lower cost wavetable synths. I’m Intertec to see the differences between how they sound head up.
Agreed. Blofeld sounds better.
Can’t hide that you recreated “Blofeld” in Arial rather than Helvetica ;)
The M font is further away, with the middle touching the baseline rather than floating as on the actual unit, but a lot like with Netflix cards I think going further away into a font with its own similar character works a lot better than aiming for an exact match.
…I know this is a video comparing the tone, but hey, I’m a typeface nerd just as much as I’m a synth nerd ;) all I really have to say about the Blofeld is it reminds me of the microKORG unless you get really crazy on the settings.
@11:52 What a patch! (sorta old European church organ meets hurdy-gurdy)
Yeah I included that one as I thought it encapsulated the glassy harshness you can get from these that analogs can’t touch.
The M through an Eventide H90 - doesn't get any better.
Probably sounds pretty good. 😅. I have the Eventide Micro Pitch pedal. I run it into a Nightsky. But the Micro Pitch pedal is truly amazing with the M. Crazy doubling chorus sludge. Detuning the delays can dramatically change the sound.
Waldorf M is basically an updated Microwave I (the one with analog filters) right?
Well it’s an evolution. It’s got much more going on but yes digital filters (11 types). But has all the original wavetables from PPG and microwave yes.
@@StarskyCarr "Filter: Analog low-pass 24 dB/Oct VCF (SSI 2144 Improved Ladder Type) with saturation and resonance" - that's from M's official spec page. Eh?
@@wrmusic8736 oh sorry I read that as the blofeld was an update… sorry I was responding to a few comments all about the Blofeld!! Yes the M is essentially the Microwave 1 … duh 🙄 😂😂
@@StarskyCarr ordered Waldorf M :)
Do you sing the theme tune to postman pat reboot? ❤
The M is 4x the cost of the Blofeld. So, what does that say about this comparison?
Wait until my deeper dive before you draw any conclusions 😉😀
Blofeld is a bargain compared to the cost of the M.
I don' t understand why waldorf is just copying their synths since almost 40 years. They all sound very 'similar'. MW1, MW2, XT/K and M. Kyra (which I also own, is a whole other league and sounds very dark and different from all other Waldorf synths. Differences in those WT-synths are simply negligible. I'll stick with my XTK which is a 30-voice on top...
Blofeld sounds better
I would be interested in the M if it had an FX block.
Built in FX are only interesting if they allow modulation of the FX parameters as part of the synth engine
@@Wagoo that’s a subjective opinion.
If only your controller was a Fatar TP/8s… the best feel for two great synths.
Neat comparison, guess I'm sticking with the blofeld for a while - as nice as the M is, I don't think more than triple the price justifies that difference. (at least where I am $850 vs $3200)
Side note: I do wish they did M in a keyboard version, blofeld keys is solid