Members sprinklerhead Posted March 10, 2011 Members Share Posted March 10, 2011 Is it really cheaper to buy a blofeld from the UK and have it shipped to the states than it is to buy one here? I really want the black blofeld keyboard, but right now the only places I can find it are ebay, amazon and Europe. The usual suspects of online music stores are all sold out right now. US $1199.95UK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gribs Posted March 10, 2011 Members Share Posted March 10, 2011 I sent you a PM (not a spam). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sprinklerhead Posted March 10, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 10, 2011 Thanks again. It's ordered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Thorhead Posted March 10, 2011 Members Share Posted March 10, 2011 I can get it new for 970 USD here. Though the shipping would defeat the purpose so... not much point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sprinklerhead Posted March 10, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 10, 2011 I ended up getting it for about a grand with free shipping here in the states. Pretty happy with the deal, now I'm just waiting for it to show up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sprinklerhead Posted March 10, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 10, 2011 I can get it new for 970 USD here.Though the shipping would defeat the purpose so... not much point. Out of curiosity, where is "here"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Thorhead Posted March 11, 2011 Members Share Posted March 11, 2011 Out of curiosity, where is "here"? Finland. They go for same price or less all over europe though, some place even less as we have quite high VAT. Without vat it is 23% less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sad Darwin Posted March 11, 2011 Members Share Posted March 11, 2011 I've been reeeeeally tempted by these. I really need a synth capable of sample playback, but I'm still unsure of how far 60MB will get me...... damn they're sexy though..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sprinklerhead Posted March 11, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 11, 2011 Yeah they are. I was on the fence about getting one too and then I saw that the black ones were coming and decided that if I was going to get one, it had to be the black one. I'll post up how I like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sad Darwin Posted March 11, 2011 Members Share Posted March 11, 2011 Yeah they are. I was on the fence about getting one too and then I saw that the black ones were coming and decided that if I was going to get one, it had to be the black one. I'll post up how I like it. Could you post an example of one sample frequency modulating another? I really want to know how sonically useful that sort of thing might be, as the Blofeld seems to be one of the only hardware synths that allows for that to happen. I'm hoping to try it on both melodically mapped sounds coupled with percussive sounds (think a Tibetan throat singer and a drum), as well as two similar melodically mapped sounds (maybe a pitched plane engine in the distance and a Tibetan throat singer) just to see if I can blur the lines between sounds in a way that doesn't just involve simple layering of "found sounds". Still don't know how far 60MB will get me though...... 5 or 6 sampled instruments mapped across the board maybe? I have no context..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Meatball Fulton Posted March 11, 2011 Members Share Posted March 11, 2011 Still don't know how far 60MB will get me though...... 5 or 6 sampled instruments mapped across the board maybe? I have no context..... That's a joke, right? Back in the 80s samplers like the Mirage made do with only 64KB of sample RAM. It all depends on how tightly you want to loop the samples. 60MB is about 12 minutes of mono sample time at 44/16. More important to think about is the max size of a single sample. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sad Darwin Posted March 11, 2011 Members Share Posted March 11, 2011 That's a joke, right? Back in the 80s samplers like the Mirage made do with only 64 KB of sample RAM. It all depends on how tightly you want to loop the samples. 60MB is about 12 minutes of mono sample time at 44/16. More important to think about is the max size of a single sample. It's not a joke. As I stated above: "I have no context". I meant that. I have never had a synth that can play samples, so I really have no idea how far that would get me. It sounds like the answer to that is "pretty damn far", or "more than 5-6 sampled instruments mapped across the keybed" I don't know the max single sample size on the Blofeld either, but I'll research that now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sprinklerhead Posted March 11, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 11, 2011 Just checked and my DSS-1 only has 256k of sample memory. 60 megs should be a pretty good amount. I'll have to play around with it to see how far it'll go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members uiua_audiovisi Posted March 12, 2011 Members Share Posted March 12, 2011 Could you post an example of one sample frequency modulating another? ...(think a Tibetan throat singer and a drum), Hey i just recorded a bit of a rough example using the blofeld: tuvan throat singer sample in Osc 1, fm source as Osc 2 with amount at 127. Osc 2 sample is a {censored}ty drum loop, with no key tracking, so i played a little melody (patch set to mono) and drums kept pitch while throat singer sang. The demo starts with throat singer being fm modded and slowly turn up osc 2 so you can hear the drums which are modulating it. Another example: sweeping 24db lowpass filter , which is fm modulated by Osc 2 drums (which can also be heard), from low to hi. Osc 1 with strings is turned up and 2nd time through riff the fm mod amount by osc 2 is turn to 127 (affects the pitching kinda). (this example had the clocked delay on it to make the drum sample sound less pants!). Then i just play with the fm mods and levels a bit. Hope that gives you an indication of some possibilities.... crappy sounds probably but its just a quick demo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sad Darwin Posted March 12, 2011 Members Share Posted March 12, 2011 Hey i just recorded a bit of a rough example using the blofeld: tuvan throat singer sample in Osc 1, fm source as Osc 2 with amount at 127. Osc 2 sample is a {censored}ty drum loop, with no key tracking, so i played a little melody (patch set to mono) and drums kept pitch while throat singer sang. The demo starts with throat singer being fm modded and slowly turn up osc 2 so you can hear the drums which are modulating it. Another example: sweeping 24db lowpass filter , which is fm modulated by Osc 2 drums (which can also be heard), from low to hi. Osc 1 with strings is turned up and 2nd time through riff the fm mod amount by osc 2 is turn to 127 (affects the pitching kinda). (this example had the clocked delay on it to make the drum sample sound less pants!). Then i just play with the fm mods and levels a bit. Hope that gives you an indication of some possibilities.... crappy sounds probably but its just a quick demo Wow, thank you SO MUCH for actually going ahead and recording those. That did more to explain the sample manipulation possibilities of this synth than any amount of typing. And btw, the second example could easily become a solid track You don't know how long I've been asking someone to create an example of this type of functionality from the Blofeld. The Blofeld, oddly, has deeper functionality that any other synth capable of sample playback (this includes the Nord Wave and the Korg Kronos). I was always wondering how useful that extra functionality would actually be in practice and not just on paper. The answer appears to be "very"! Can I ask you one more small favor? Is there any way that you could combine two sound sources that would be great for pads? I'm thinking that Throat Singer sample and perhaps an Airplane Engine sample (this is a perfect example: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=41143). Would FM between the two samples be useful? I'd imagine that at the bare minimum it would be useful to have an LFO increase the FM amount between the two. Anyway, thank you very much for posting what you have, and if you do find the time for that last request I'll be in your debt man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members uiua_audiovisi Posted March 12, 2011 Members Share Posted March 12, 2011 hey i can't quite get around to reloading the samples in the blofe at the mo to get that specific sample, but there are some already in there that have a similar effect (i already happened to have a throat singer loaded in so thought it was easy to give a demo before ). Here's a demo of the throat singer sample (left channel) being fm modulated by various samples at various pitches (right channel) so you can get a feel of how samples are effected . Some of the electrical hum or gong samples at low pitches sounded a bit like the airplane cruising at altitude kinda, so might give you some idea. The effect can be pretty subtle... I think it would take a bit of experimentation to get results that you -really- wanted, as in they sound good. With the drum samples, it sounded kind of musically effective as the modulator is so percussive - but with sustained waveforms it tends to sound more warbly, which can be interesting but maybe irritating after a point. Later on in that sample i'm modulating the pitch of the Osc 2 sample with a sine wav, which sounds pretty crazy. Modulating the fm amount with the sine wav doesn't have a dramatic effect necessarily, but again results seem to vary widly depending on sample used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sad Darwin Posted March 12, 2011 Members Share Posted March 12, 2011 Here's a demo of the throat singer sample (left channel) being fm modulated by various samples at various pitches (right channel) so you can get a feel of how samples are effected . Some of the electrical hum or gong samples at low pitches sounded a bit like the airplane cruising at altitude kinda, so might give you some idea. The effect can be pretty subtle... I think it would take a bit of experimentation to get results that you -really- wanted, as in they sound good. With the drum samples, it sounded kind of musically effective as the modulator is so percussive - but with sustained waveforms it tends to sound more warbly, which can be interesting but maybe irritating after a point. Later on in that sample i'm modulating the pitch of the Osc 2 sample with a sine wav, which sounds pretty crazy. Modulating the fm amount with the sine wav doesn't have a dramatic effect necessarily, but again results seem to vary widly depending on sample used. The electrical hum and gong sounds were actually things I was going to try and had previously downloaded from Freesound.org with the intention of pitching and using as sample sources, so those were excellent selections. We think alike Btw, the drum kit approach was actually inspiring as hell. I love syncing pads and bass patches to rhythmic sound sources. I've grown addicted to doing that with the Moogerfooger Freqbox. I'll record a single note and use a loop to trigger the oscillator. Then, after doing multiple different passes, I'll create melodic chords tightly locked to rhythmic input. This soft of takes that dynamic and puts and entirely different spin on it. I could take the verse or chorus loop of a song and modulate a pad in an interesting way. Fantastic It's really looking like the Blofeld is my type of synth. Thanks for posting all these again. You're awesome man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sad Darwin Posted March 12, 2011 Members Share Posted March 12, 2011 Really close to pulling the trigger on this. My only reservation would be that this means I'd have 3 keyboards on stage; my Virus TI, whatever stage piano I end up getting, and the Blofeld. I was planning on a Kronos, as that would provide a lot of space consolidation, but I still feel that the architecture of the Blofeld is the most versatile for sample manipulation. The Kronos's ability to interface with samples goes as far as the Nord Wave's, albeit with a better effects section. The Blofeld actually seems capable of sounds that nothing else can do..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members uiua_audiovisi Posted March 13, 2011 Members Share Posted March 13, 2011 The blofeld is really nice - but it can be a drag having to load in all samples again when you just want to add one or modify one, so maybe add that to the consideration.. I have no idea how this works on the other boards, but I kind of imagine that perhaps they might be more flexible in that area, given their higher cost and with the nord its specialisation as a sample thing. (although the nord wave isn't 16 part multitimbral i think? though this might not be so important if you have several boards) Also, if you have other keyboards maybe you could consider a module instead of the keyboard version? its a nice looking keyboard, solid and with aftertouch. The 'free' button can be useful too. But it lacks some features like expression pedal input and transmitting midi start/stop. Sounds like a fun set up whatever you get - although 3 keyboards and accessories to carry could become a drag too! Would be a good looking wall of synth on stage though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sad Darwin Posted March 13, 2011 Members Share Posted March 13, 2011 Quick question uiua_audiovisi, can you use a loop to trigger a pad's volume? I'd like to be able to play a pad, have a loop as a sample oscillator, mix the sample oscillator out, and have the volume of the other two oscillators pulse into audibility in time with the loop. I'm basically trying to replicate what I do with the Moogerfooger Freqbox, but just do it more quickly. If this isn't really possible that's cool, I'll just sample some Freqbox passes into the Blofeld. It would just be great to be able to do this more quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members uiua_audiovisi Posted March 13, 2011 Members Share Posted March 13, 2011 Not sure that i totally get it, but i can think of 2 ways that might do something similar - You couldd make a note of the bpm of the loop when you made it (eg. 90), then you would also probably want to set key tracking on that sample on Osc1 to 0 (as any other pitch would make it go faster/slower i'm pretty sure, unless you'd mapped in seperate loop samples for other note pitches). Then in the arpeggio section or multimode section set the tempo to 90bpm (for example) and one or more LFOs clocked to 1 bar (or however long). Then in the matrix set lfo to up Osc2/3 levels (which would have been set to 0). This would mean the sounds would fade in and out (according to the shape of the lfo). Though it sounds like you don't want the fade out? In that case you'd probably just use envelope 3 or 4 set to adjust osc2/3's levels in the matrix (which are again set to 0 in the patch), and by ear adjust the attack so it fades in over the duration of the loop. You could also use the looping envelopes adjusted by ear to approximate the loop lenth of your sample for some interesting things too, perhaps. Or you could combine those 2 methods, using the env3 for a fade in, but setting an lfo (at whatever speed, but probably faster than the env) also to affect Osc2/3 levels - that way you'd get the 'pulse into audibility', without it pulsing out again if you didn't want it to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sprinklerhead Posted March 17, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 17, 2011 Got my Blofeld today and so far I love it, even if I've barely scratched the surface of it. One thing I am curious about and wanted to ask the other owners is when playing it and I use either the mod wheel or the pitch bend, the tiny LEDs flicker. The one that's lit will flicker a tiny bit and usually one or two of the ones that are off will flicker a little too. Not a huge deal, just curious if it's common or unique to mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members uiua_audiovisi Posted March 17, 2011 Members Share Posted March 17, 2011 that happens on mine too - i think its normal and ok... hope so! congrats on the purchase - hope you enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sprinklerhead Posted March 17, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 17, 2011 Thanks, good to know. It's amazing how easy it is to waste time with this thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sad Darwin Posted March 22, 2011 Members Share Posted March 22, 2011 Blofeld in black, ordered today Thank you very, very much uiua_audiovisi, you really helped me make the decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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