When I started programming my Blofled back in 2013 I sent a sysex string to INIT all the factory patches. That way I was forced to learn to program from scratch. It took 5 years, but I ended up with 100% custom patches! Well worth the time and space!
Mark, that's really getting in at the (very) deep end, I can now understand your expertise with the Blofeld and why your series of videos are so usefully deep. As for me, I am just a few weeks into ownership and at the preset tweaking and familiarising stage so anything I can glean helps.......
Really nice video, and super informative. It seems the key concept is a little goes a long ways with this unit. I have a Blofeld Desktop on the way, so look forward to applying some of these ideas!
Great vid. I find a lot of blofeld tutorials move super fast and with the not super intuitive interface it can be a little hard to keep up. Really appreciated the pace of this!
subbed - excellent channel upstart ! Ive been back and forth if i should get that crazy blofeld for christmess - and throw down another 200 bugs- instead of getting the Streifett (which is really all i need- to complement my Deepmind, dreadboxes , Moogs and elektron units) the blofeld always intrigued me with its design and all the powerfeatures , even homerecorded samplings - somehow it remids me of a virus (a different animal , but also the same surgical precision and strangely alive in its own cold digital way .....or something along those lines ....... ;-)
Some people have issues with the encoders after years of use.. As with ALL gear... This synth is such a beast... And the sounds are amazing. Gonna take TIME to learn this thing but it will Pay off I'm sure ..
I've enjoyed my Blofeld, and the interface is a big improvement from the Microkorg XL I was using before, but it's still frustrating to build patches on since so much of it relies on just three knobs and a long sequence of menu screens. I also run into a couple of bugs pretty often... like the leftmost grid encoder sometimes doesn't work. Or sometimes the screen will update values but the sound engine acts like the values are still the same. Usually it'll work again after a few minutes, but it really interrupts flow. So it's definitely useful, and it goes into almost every song I make, but I'm hoping to upgrade someday to something with a faster and more reliable interface.
Ha! Playing to my kinder side there. I’ll check any other vids on YT about it to see if I can add any extra value to it. Anything you’d like to specifically see covered in it?
@@ikarugamoo Thanks for replying, I'm after how to use it efficiently so with the least amount of voice stealing. Not sure I have it setup right, to really get the most out of it. I'm a newbie so it could be something very basic I'm doing wrong. 🙏🏾
What connections do you use for your blofeld other than the included power cord and USB one?! Trying to find which cords to buy to let me use it on ableton!
16 min YESSSSSS - currently thinking about buying a blofeld its going to be my first every synth, just want to create my love for electronic music and the more videos I check the more I hear sounds I crave to hear, and some way this whole way of modulating and shaping the sound in diff oscilators sounds very intuitive to me how I hear the sound. Any good reason to chose a seperate Blofeld w Arturia Keys instead of Blofeld w keys (as its my first synth).
Yeah that's a particularly nice sound at 16 mins!! Glad it's inspiring you. Hard to say, I've never used a Blofeld Keys. I've read the keybed is nice, so it'll be tons better than the Keystep I would say in that respect. Not sure about Arturia keys as never used one. Space is a consideration for me, hence the desktop.
Stroking the synth is the most important tip. Nice vid tho you gained a new sub. I'm looking to get my first synth, do you think I should get a Blofeld or something else?
Thanks for the sub! It’s not a bad place to start depending on what you’re after. There’s some great monosynths around this price now thanks to Behringer. But as a versatile sound source the Blofeld can do almost anything you need. It’s not the most fun to program is my only critique really.
@@ikarugamoo I agree. I love its sounds and I bought it to pair it with an octatrack and microbrute to complete my hardware setup. I usually start from preset and then I adjust a little the sound with filters and lfo, then i sample it and integrate with the octatrack sounds. I feel good to find quick poly sounds to start with, but i feel really bad with programming and work with it. I think it is a big limit, because with octatrack for example, not easy to programming but lovely in second place (more than ableton for me), is much more clear and confortable to edit sound with lfos, rate and effects. Probably, in addition to the annoying screen, the limited number of knobs, the tiny bottons and the grat number of pages of the menu, make me feel bad with going deep into this machine. I'd like too, but I really don't know if I'll change it before exploring it properly. Now, because I better know elektron workflow than the woldorf's one, I think I could go deeper with a digitone in sound designing, even if I don't need another sequencer. Anyway I think I will try more on this machine before giving up. Thank u for this lessons bro
I like the sound of the blofeld demos more than the hydra synth or any of the sequential hybrids.. it just sounds better to me, & I can only imagine what some analog compression would do to its sound
I’ve got a Hydra and I will say the Blofeld stands TALL alongside. It still sounds great to this day. The Hydra is way more fun to program and mess with but for half the price the Blofeld still punches really damn hard 👍🏼 I plan to run both through some compression / overdrive in the new year.
Great video! Upon further inspection, it looks like the "silent" second oscillator was being used as a ring mod in a more subtle, but similar manner to the "silent FM" you talk about here.
Thanks Nate. I have to confess, I don’t know much about ring mod in terms of its sound shaping. Often forgotten but I know it’s something like the sum & the difference of the source & a modulator. Paraphrasing there from the Hydrasynth manual! FM is easier for me to understand. Glad you enjoyed 👍
In regards to unisono, which I did not see shown for what it was set to. If unisono is set to zero, there will be no effect to panning whatsoever. In regards to polyphony, if set to 2 it will at the minimum half the polyphony. There is no magic polyphony expander on the Blofeld.
Tough question really. The Blofeld holds its own against the A8 however the A8 has the WavMods which are great for sound design and a lovely filter but only one filter against the BFs 2 filters. If I had a gun to my head I’d choose the Blofeld without hesitation so that’s all you need to know 😂
Yes absolutely. Can do it right from that parameter and don’t even need to go to the mod matrix. Just change the source to LFO. But you could always use an osc as the source in that section and an LFO in the mod matrix.
This reminds me of the Ion/Micron/Miniak, I personally think if you have 3 osc's, the synth is simply flat worthy, a lot of the micron/miniak patches go hard with the FM, which in my ignorance at the time was a waste of one of the 3 live encoders. I'd wager with the interesting filters the micron/miniak has, fun to be had and even more on the cheap than the blofeld.
I’ve often looked at that synth, the lack of hands on with the Micron (even more so than the Blofeld) putting me off. I don’t have the space for the Ion but I’ve always been intrigued. Plus multi timbral again 👍 you’ve got me on eBay looking again!
@@ikarugamoo Words of advice: 1. Ion jfet's are prone to blowing, thus ebay might be riddled with them. Ask seller if both main outputs work. 2. I agree with you on the form factor of the Micron, the Miniak is the same beasty but has a much less annoying form factor(actual mod wheel/pitchbend) vs sliders which is ridiculous 3. I have both Micron and Miniak currently, it might sound weird, but I think the Miniak sounds fuller/better. I can't prove with any evidence if this is just me or an actual change in the hardware. 4. if you have a master keyboard, it's fully midi capable and not weird like some DSI synths about midi cc's ;)
USB isn't plugged in. However, the ground loop can also be fixed with a cheap USB isolator. I put one on my audio interface, and it almost completely eliminated the 1000Hz hum it had. Well worth the $8 on aliexpress (or $15 on amazon).
![[tutorial] Pushing Blofeld toward microWAVE](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hLp9CNcH_AU/mqdefault.jpg)
![[tutorial] Pushing Blofeld toward microWAVE](/img/tr.png)
![[UA] NAVI vs MOUZ | BO5 | IEM Rio 2024](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/CMBYk0cbGoA/mqdefault.jpg)
When I started programming my Blofled back in 2013 I sent a sysex string to INIT all the factory patches. That way I was forced to learn to program from scratch. It took 5 years, but I ended up with 100% custom patches! Well worth the time and space!
I like to do a bit of reverse engineering and also time isn’t on side but I can see this being a great way to learn and build your own sound set.
Mark, that's really getting in at the (very) deep end, I can now understand your expertise with the Blofeld and why your series of videos are so usefully deep. As for me, I am just a few weeks into ownership and at the preset tweaking and familiarising stage so anything I can glean helps.......
Mark Pigott I learned it from you teach. 💯
Where can I download the init sysex file.. could you post a link? I feel like doing this forces you to get creative with your patches.
@@PreciseSense85 The INIT is done from the front panel. SHIFT+UTILITY, scroll to INIT patch, SHIFT+UTILITY again. No need for a sysex.
I always wanted a blofeld when they came out. They are a steal now adays!
Wicked piece of kit
Great explanation! I'll try these suggestions asap with my beloved blofeled. Thanx a lot!!!
Great video. I didn't know about the Facebook group. I'll look that up. Thanks
Really nice video, and super informative. It seems the key concept is a little goes a long ways with this unit. I have a Blofeld Desktop on the way, so look forward to applying some of these ideas!
16:16... AWESOME!!
Simply great! I love this synth. Thank you so much for the video.
Thanks Martin. Appreciate the words. Definitely plan on another.
Great vid. I find a lot of blofeld tutorials move super fast and with the not super intuitive interface it can be a little hard to keep up. Really appreciated the pace of this!
Thanks for the comment. I agree, even tho I get a bit bored watching long videos it’s nice to dig deep. More will be coming 👍
Well done and thanks for doing this! So, after watching the two videos I take away ...yes, the Blofeld is still very relevant in 2020.
Haha, Nick Batt school of getting lost is where i got my degree!
subbed - excellent channel upstart ! Ive been back and forth if i should get that crazy blofeld for christmess - and throw down another 200 bugs- instead of getting the Streifett (which is really all i need- to complement my Deepmind, dreadboxes , Moogs and elektron units) the blofeld always intrigued me with its design and all the powerfeatures , even homerecorded samplings - somehow it remids me of a virus (a different animal , but also the same surgical precision and strangely alive in its own cold digital way .....or something along those lines ....... ;-)
Some people have issues with the encoders after years of use.. As with ALL gear... This synth is such a beast... And the sounds are amazing. Gonna take TIME to learn this thing but it will Pay
off I'm sure ..
It WILL pay off!
I've enjoyed my Blofeld, and the interface is a big improvement from the Microkorg XL I was using before, but it's still frustrating to build patches on since so much of it relies on just three knobs and a long sequence of menu screens.
I also run into a couple of bugs pretty often... like the leftmost grid encoder sometimes doesn't work. Or sometimes the screen will update values but the sound engine acts like the values are still the same. Usually it'll work again after a few minutes, but it really interrupts flow.
So it's definitely useful, and it goes into almost every song I make, but I'm hoping to upgrade someday to something with a faster and more reliable interface.
More pls!
i can't wait to pick one of these up, beautiful pads
Great stuff!
Great tips 👍🏾 and love the bass sequence. You gonna to a multi mode tutorial? Please 🙏🏾
Ha! Playing to my kinder side there. I’ll check any other vids on YT about it to see if I can add any extra value to it. Anything you’d like to specifically see covered in it?
@@ikarugamoo Thanks for replying, I'm after how to use it efficiently so with the least amount of voice stealing. Not sure I have it setup right, to really get the most out of it. I'm a newbie so it could be something very basic I'm doing wrong. 🙏🏾
What connections do you use for your blofeld other than the included power cord and USB one?! Trying to find which cords to buy to let me use it on ableton!
16 min YESSSSSS - currently thinking about buying a blofeld its going to be my first every synth, just want to create my love for electronic music and the more videos I check the more I hear sounds I crave to hear, and some way this whole way of modulating and shaping the sound in diff oscilators sounds very intuitive to me how I hear the sound. Any good reason to chose a seperate Blofeld w Arturia Keys instead of Blofeld w keys (as its my first synth).
Yeah that's a particularly nice sound at 16 mins!! Glad it's inspiring you. Hard to say, I've never used a Blofeld Keys. I've read the keybed is nice, so it'll be tons better than the Keystep I would say in that respect. Not sure about Arturia keys as never used one. Space is a consideration for me, hence the desktop.
Stroking the synth is the most important tip. Nice vid tho you gained a new sub. I'm looking to get my first synth, do you think I should get a Blofeld or something else?
Thanks for the sub! It’s not a bad place to start depending on what you’re after. There’s some great monosynths around this price now thanks to Behringer. But as a versatile sound source the Blofeld can do almost anything you need. It’s not the most fun to program is my only critique really.
@@ikarugamoo I agree. I love its sounds and I bought it to pair it with an octatrack and microbrute to complete my hardware setup. I usually start from preset and then I adjust a little the sound with filters and lfo, then i sample it and integrate with the octatrack sounds. I feel good to find quick poly sounds to start with, but i feel really bad with programming and work with it. I think it is a big limit, because with octatrack for example, not easy to programming but lovely in second place (more than ableton for me), is much more clear and confortable to edit sound with lfos, rate and effects. Probably, in addition to the annoying screen, the limited number of knobs, the tiny bottons and the grat number of pages of the menu, make me feel bad with going deep into this machine. I'd like too, but I really don't know if I'll change it before exploring it properly. Now, because I better know elektron workflow than the woldorf's one, I think I could go deeper with a digitone in sound designing, even if I don't need another sequencer. Anyway I think I will try more on this machine before giving up. Thank u for this lessons bro
I like the sound of the blofeld demos more than the hydra synth or any of the sequential hybrids.. it just sounds better to me, & I can only imagine what some analog compression would do to its sound
I’ve got a Hydra and I will say the Blofeld stands TALL alongside. It still sounds great to this day. The Hydra is way more fun to program and mess with but for half the price the Blofeld still punches really damn hard 👍🏼 I plan to run both through some compression / overdrive in the new year.
Great video! Upon further inspection, it looks like the "silent" second oscillator was being used as a ring mod in a more subtle, but similar manner to the "silent FM" you talk about here.
Thanks Nate. I have to confess, I don’t know much about ring mod in terms of its sound shaping. Often forgotten but I know it’s something like the sum & the difference of the source & a modulator. Paraphrasing there from the Hydrasynth manual! FM is easier for me to understand. Glad you enjoyed 👍
Dude I love this video.
Thanks man, means a lot as you’re a mighty user of the synth!
Matt Uncertified I appreciate that 🖤
In regards to unisono, which I did not see shown for what it was set to.
If unisono is set to zero, there will be no effect to panning whatsoever.
In regards to polyphony, if set to 2 it will at the minimum half the polyphony.
There is no magic polyphony expander on the Blofeld.
Great videos! Which do you prefer, Blofeld or Argon8?
Tough question really. The Blofeld holds its own against the A8 however the A8 has the WavMods which are great for sound design and a lovely filter but only one filter against the BFs 2 filters. If I had a gun to my head I’d choose the Blofeld without hesitation so that’s all you need to know 😂
Are you able to modulate the fm amount with an LFO at 5:39 ? Love the way it sounds when you are manually sweeping the sound :)
Yes absolutely. Can do it right from that parameter and don’t even need to go to the mod matrix. Just change the source to LFO. But you could always use an osc as the source in that section and an LFO in the mod matrix.
@@ikarugamoo Awesome, literally got it in the mail today! Thanks for the reply :)
This reminds me of the Ion/Micron/Miniak, I personally think if you have 3 osc's, the synth is simply flat worthy, a lot of the micron/miniak patches go hard with the FM, which in my ignorance at the time was a waste of one of the 3 live encoders. I'd wager with the interesting filters the micron/miniak has, fun to be had and even more on the cheap than the blofeld.
I’ve often looked at that synth, the lack of hands on with the Micron (even more so than the Blofeld) putting me off. I don’t have the space for the Ion but I’ve always been intrigued. Plus multi timbral again 👍 you’ve got me on eBay looking again!
@@ikarugamoo Words of advice:
1. Ion jfet's are prone to blowing, thus ebay might be riddled with them. Ask seller if both main outputs work.
2. I agree with you on the form factor of the Micron, the Miniak is the same beasty but has a much less annoying form factor(actual mod wheel/pitchbend) vs sliders which is ridiculous
3. I have both Micron and Miniak currently, it might sound weird, but I think the Miniak sounds fuller/better. I can't prove with any evidence if this is just me or an actual change in the hardware.
4. if you have a master keyboard, it's fully midi capable and not weird like some DSI synths about midi cc's ;)
Subbed 😁
Thanks! More to come...
How are you not getting a ground loop hum from the usb connection?
USB isn't plugged in.
However, the ground loop can also be fixed with a cheap USB isolator. I put one on my audio interface, and it almost completely eliminated the 1000Hz hum it had. Well worth the $8 on aliexpress (or $15 on amazon).
Is there software to program more easily?
Yes - Google Blofeld software editor and quite a few come up. I don’t like them as I like to use the hardware so I can’t give a recommendation. 👍🏼
@@ikarugamoo editor free?
@@PC0067 as I said, I don’t use them so I don’t know. I use the hardware. Google will help you out and the many results, Reddit results etc.
wonderful synth with rotten encoders an poor shitty sliding buttons !
On point!