Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

..not the guy with the cat and scar, though.

I've been interested in the PPG Wave for a long time, but they never come up for sale around here.
And as I've read, the blofeld has all the "classic" wavetables..but how is it made up? The Wave has like 64 wavetables with 100 sounds in each..is the Blofeld wavetables more like just normal oscillators with X number of waveforms, like the SQ-80/D-50? Or can you choose between loads of wavetables on each oscillator and modulate them at will with modwheel and envelopes? The reason why the PPG has so many is apparently that they are similar waveforms lined up after eachother so they'd sound nice when you modulate through them. Not just a series of widely different waveforms.

So how is the Blofeld? I've read reviews on harmonycentral, listened to some samples. I'm interested in programming it deeply, not listen to presets. How is it to work with? And do you have the same power as a PPG Wave, only with less knobs?

I've never owned a real wavetable synth, so it's a new area for me to have fun with.
I have the D-50 and SQ80, but they are really just subtractive synths with 99 waveforms on each oscillator instead of the normal 3-4. Can't modulate them in any way or form. I've done the obligatory forum search but only came up with mentions of it in other threads, and a Virus vs Blofeld thread. But having never owned or heard a Virus, it doesn't help much.

And to be honest, the Blofeld price is extremely (read: ridiculously) reasonable.

wouldnt u miss the analog filters? i think thats the main thing every digital / wavetable synth should have...

Nah, I have half a dozen synths with analog filters already I can run it through if I'm that desperate. But I don't really care about the filter here. I'm sure it does the job aplenty. It's the entire engine I'm interested in. The filter is just a small part of the whole synth.

then maybe the blofeld would work fine for u... but i must say that i havent come across one, so... not really a reliable answer

I found answers to most of my questions in this keyboard magazine review

http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/wald ... y-08/35407

I'm definately gonna get this thing
And regarding the filter:

"Big, big props to Blofeld’s filters. You get two, each with every “pass” mode, 12dB and 24dB slopes, a comb mode, and an extra lowpass model of the PPG Wave’s distinctive-sounding filter. You can pan each filter’s output in stereo, and upstream of that, decide how much of each oscillator’s signal goes to each filter.
As Deadheads say, this isn’t even the cool part yet. These. Filters. Sound. Like. Analog. At sane settings, they’re warm and musical, and cutoff and resonance both sweep smoothly. Crank that resonance, and bats will fly towards Ozzy Osbourne to get away from you. Many VA synths can simulate overdriving an analog filter, but Blofeld adds 13 “drive curves” to control how this ramps up. Try the “tube” curve with moderate drive mapped to aftertouch — a little press, and even the shyest lead steps in front of the mix with just enough attitude. Of course, you can take this over the top, into the realm of the angriest sounds you’d ever hear out of Nine Inch Nails.
"

This is the kind of thing I love:
http://www.waldorfmusic.de/assets/media ... omares.mp3

So gloriously NASTY and SICK.

the keyboard review is a bit lovey dovey about the blofeld... it is definitely a great synth though

the ppg wave filter is the same one used in the Q+ and from what i've heard the emulation is spot on. you will not be disappointed.

in the reality though, the filters don't sound 'analog' per se.

they just sound good.

and with all of the other modulation on the blofeld you really wont miss analog filters

as for having all the capabilities of the ppg, it has that and way more

the wavetables are arranged like this:

2 wavetables from the Q with 128 waves each
and then all the ppg and microwave wavetables with 64 waves each

each oscillator can have a different wavetable at the same time except the third, which can only do VA waves

the blofeld really excels when you combine va waveforms with the wavetables...

the overdrive curves are insane as well

definitely a super powerful synth in a small box, with a great sound to boot.

Overdrive yeah. I have analog filters on other synths so it's not that big of a deal. Even 2 modular analog filters I can patch it through if need be. But from these demos on their website, I doubt I'll need to.

http://www.waldorfmusic.de/assets/media ... Pickup.mp3

h**l, it sounds like guitar riffs at one point! I'm in love already. My mind is made up, and I've checked with a local music store if they had one, which they did. Going to pick it up tomorrow morning

I was going to get a blofeld originally before I picked up my microwave xt, but testing the blofeld felt like too much synth for what I needed.

so i went with the XT, which I love.

but don't let that convince you otherwise, the blofeld is a great great choice.

you might find it replacing your sq80 after a while... wavetable synths really kind of kill the appeal of non wavetable digital waveform synths...

but then again the sq80 has that great filter

I had an XT, which I sold for various reasons, but I've spent enough time with the Blofeld (which I didn't need to learn since the architecture is basically the Q's) to start lusting after that waldorf sound again. I doubt you'd regret it - though you may want to wait to see if Waldorf is going to implement the user samples in the desktop as well as the keyboard version...

Bitexion wrote:And do you have the same power as a PPG Wave, only with less knobs?

Joey wrote:as for having all the capabilities of the ppg, it has that and way more

Just to clear things up. Having the same wavetables & upper wavetable and a modeled filter won't get you the actual sound of an actual PPG Wave. The wavetable scanning won't be the same - it will be much smoother, the aliasing isn't the same - no matter how Waldorf tries to dirty-up the sound, the VCA is quite important on the real thing - so that won't be the same, and nothing* will give you the same oddball LFO as a real PPG. That'd be down to the poor overworked CPU

Admittedly, the recreation of the SSM-2044 filter is quite good, but that's only a portion of the overall sound.

* Well, nothing except Waldorf's Wave emulation or Hermann Seib's WaveSim. The latter is the best reproduction of the digital side and the former is best for the filter - only it doesn't do the special aliasing correctly.

Wowwww this thing really blows me away..I haven't had all that much time to mess with it yet, but I left the presets alone and messed around with the different filters on pure analog waveforms. Then stumbled across the overdrive curves..OMFG what awesome sounds you get with the different overdrives..the other effects are nice too, specially like the Triple FX that contains 3-in-one. Delay also does what I expect. Took me some time to realize that I should browse through menu pages with the step select knob, so I couldn't find everything I wanted at first

Messed about with the wavetables too. Damn there's a lot of them. You use the PWM as a "pointer" in the wavetable, and sweep it with anything you like. I've never had a synth that could do this, sounds beautiful and the tables are so different sounding it's quite overwhelming. But did artists use long wavetable sweeps alot on the PPG Wave in the 80's? Or just short sweeps or weird waveforms to create bell-like sounds to emulate the DX7 el-pianos?

Each wavetable has 128 waves, and there are 66 wavetables. Crazy stuff..but I totally love it.
Pure analog type sounds also sound great, waldorf has done a huge job on their filter modelling to make it sound deep and warm.