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Waldorf Blofeld Keys £699

An excellent module becomes a fine keyboard

Future Music, Mon 23 Feb 2009, 4:09 pm UTC

Waldorf Blofeld Keys

The 49-note keyboard is a good compromise between portability and playability.

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Sounds

In terms of the basic operating system, the Blofeld KB shares all of its features with its module counterpart.

In its most basic form, the Blofeld uses a digital 25-voice sound creation engine to provide a wealth of oscillator types and a staggering array of sound-shaping possibilities that can almost be overwhelming.

However, the parameter matrix system of editing works well and, with a little practice, you soon find yourself flying around. The endless rotary metal dials feel great in use and the display gives lots of detailed and easily readable visual feedback, with zoomed pop-ups for more detailed functions.

The overall sonic character could best be described as warm and analogue-like meets industrial, but as it covers so many staples and bases of sound design, it's hard to pin down.

We can reassure you that it's very high quality throughout, though, and has super deep and punchy lows, piercing highs and versatile filters. It's great for bass, leads, pads, sound FX, atmospheres and much more.

Pretty much every parameter a synth programmer could want is somewhere under the hood including osc sync, unison modes with variable polyphony, four envelopes per voice (with seven different trigger modes), three oscillators per voice, a noise generator (with variable colour) and several LFOs.

There's also a very powerful filter including LP, Notch, BP, Comb and PPG LP modes, several modifiers that affect and twist up modulation sources and 15 or so pages of modulators where you can route anything to anything.

If this isn't enough, there are two drive stages per voice for really mashing up and distorting or just to give a subtle edge to sounds. The distortion can sound nasty or creamy as desired.

Those who adore Waldorf's Microwave and Q models will love the fact that Blofeld Keyboard incorporates their wavetables into its vast palette, along with good solid sounding virtual analogue waves which include the usual sawtooth, sine, triangle and variable pulse, along with separate PWM and FM sources for each oscillator.

The upper wavetables from the legendary PPG wave are included, too. It still amazes us just how much Waldorf have managed to cram into the Blofeld engine.

One of the key features of the Blofeld Keyboard is the inclusion of 60MB of onboard sample memory (it's an option for the original Blofeld now too). There are 41 slots for sampled waves on board and Waldorf provides 41 of their own to kick things off. Some of these are very useable, some not so much but the acoustic guitar, marimbas and strings are worthy of note.

Regardless, you can load your own samples into those slots over USB anyway. Finally, it seems that manufacturers such as Waldorf (and Clavia with its Wave) are grasping the fact that users want to integrate and mix their own samples with onboard modulators, processing and FX.

This is a very welcome extension to the already versatile Blofeld sound palette and makes it very close to an ideal all-in-one performance keyboard, though maybe just a few more hands-on controls would have been a nice performance bonus.

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MusicRadar rating

4.5 of 5

Pros

Great feeling keyboard with aftertouch. New performance controls. 60MB of onboard sample memory for uploading your own sounds. Almost infinite sound shaping possibilites.

Cons

Headphone socket is round the back. A few more hands-on controls would have been nice.

Verdict

With its new keyboard and onboard memory, the Blofeld is now a thoroughly complete instrument.

Review Policy

All MusicRadar’s reviews are by independent product specialists, who are not aligned to any gear manufacturer or retailer. Our experts also write for renowned magazines such as Guitarist, Total Guitar, Computer Music, Future Music and Rhythm. All are part of Future PLC, the biggest publisher of music making magazines in the world.

Specification Show

Blofeld Keys

Price:
£699
Sampling:
true
Software Editor:
true
Weight (g) (g):
8
Filters:
11
Weighted Keys:
Semi Weighted
LCD Display:
true
Number of Keys:
49
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