Waldorf Blofeld Keyboard Black

I have had my waldorf blofeld for a couple of days now and am getting to grips with its capabilities. It comes with many excellent presets and these can be tweaked reasonably easily. The build quality is good in general and it hooked up to my daw (reaper) with no problems. The output level is not as high as my other synths - not a problem for me as I just boosted it a bit in the mixer. I am finding the physical keyboard itself descent to play (feels responsive and comfortable).

At the price it is definitely worth considering if in the market for a smaller synth.

The sound is very good and the engine is DEEP, you can create almost any sound with it if you have the skills. Though you need to somewhat know what you're doing, it's not really a happy accidents -type of an interface.

The keyboard is probably the best I've ever played, including some much more expensive instruments. Mod and pitch wheels could be better, they are thin and look and feel cheap.

The master volume encoder started to jump on it's own now and then after couple of months of use. It doesn't do it often enough to send it back for warranty repairs, but it's a bit annoying. It seems that Waldorf still uses bad quality encoders with the Blofeld despite it's been a well known problem for years. I'm thankful for Thomann's 3 year warranty.

The firmware is bug free since 2014 as far as I can tell, so no complaints about that.

Overall it's a really good synth for the price.

Waldorf nous annonce avec humour que la version noire du célèbre Blofeld sonne encore mieux que le blanc, et bien aussi curieux que ça puisse paraître, c'est vrai (je possédais le blanc) ! Eh oui, le signal est plus propre avec moins de bruit numérique que sur le clavier blanc, la dynamique me semble sensiblement améliorée, disons plus équilibrée. Evidemment la couleur n'apporte rien mais j'imagine que Waldorf en a profité pour améliorer quelques circuits internes.

Les sonorités du Black Blofeld restent les mêmes : un mélange de synthèse à modélisation analogique et de tables d'ondes. Les possibilités créatives sont énormes. Pour un synthé numérique, le Blofeld sonne plutôt assez chaud; tant mieux !

L'édition des sons se fait via une matrice très simple à utiliser et intuitive. De plus, le Blofeld possède un bel écran qui permet de tout visualiser dans les moindres détails.

La qualité de fabrication est exemplaire pour le prix : excellent toucher avec aftertouch et solidité de la coque (tout en métal).

Un synthé très musical et un rapport qualité/prix sans équivalent.