At the 2008 NAMM Show, Waldorf was showing this diminutive synth in a tiny booth in an obscure area of the show basement.

Not an auspicious display, but at least the Blofeld synth has a good pedigree.

The Blofeld engine delivers the same sound that so many Waldorf users worldwide love when they play their Pulse, Q, Q+, Micro Q, Microwave, Microwave II/XT, or Wave.

The Blofeld is based on the PPG Wave synthesizers of the early 80s. When you listen to the Blofeld for the first time, you may recognize those timbres from the PPG era.

You can preview the Blofeld sound below.

Highlights:

• 7 endless stainless steel Dials
• Graphic Display 128 x 64 pixels, b/w, white background LED
• more than 1000 Sounds
• 3 Oscillators per voice
• Frequency Modulation between the Oscillators
• All Q Oscillator Models
• All Microwave II/XT/XTk Wavetables
• 2 independent Multi Mode Filters per voice
• Filter FM
• 2 Drive stages per voice with selectable Drive Curves
• 3 fast LFOs per voice
• 4 fast Envelopes per voice
• powerful Arpeggiator
• freely programmable Arpeggiator Pattern with up to 16 Steps per Sound

General Features

• up to 25 Voices
• 16 part multi timbral
• more than 1000 Sounds
• sturdy Metal Enclosure
• 7 endless stainless steel Dials
• 5 Buttons
• Graphic Display 128 x 64 pixels, b/w, white background LED
• MIDI LED
• Volume Control
• Power Switch
• Stereo Output
• Headphone Output
• MIDI In
• USB Connector for MIDI In / Out
  • uses standard USB MIDI Driver provided by host computer OS
  • Windows ME minimum, Windows XP or newer recommended
  • Mac OS X 10.2 minimum, Mac OS X 10.3 or newer recommended
• External Power Supply

Per Voice

• 3 Oscillators
  Virtual Analog Models:
  • Pulse with Pulse Width Modulation and adjustable Brilliance
  • Sawtooth with adjustable Brilliance
  • Triangle
  • Sine
  • Q Alt 1 and Alt 2 Wavetable with adjustable Brilliance
  • All Wavetables from Microwave II/XT/XTk Series with adjustable Brilliance
  • Separate Wavetable selectable for Oscillator 1 and 2

Wavetables:

• Frequency Modulation between the Oscillators
• Oscillator Synchronization
• Ring Modulator for Osc 1 / 2
• Noise Generator with Noise Colour
• 2 independent Multi Mode Filters
  • Filter FM
  • Resonance up to Self-Oscillation
  • Low Pass 24 dB / 12 dB
  • Band Pass 24 dB / 12 dB
  • High Pass 24 dB / 12 dB
  • Notch 24 dB / 12 dB
  • Comb Filter with positive / negative Feedback
  • PPG Low Pass Filter
• 2 Drive stages per voice with adjustable Drive Gain and selectable Curves
  • Clip
  • Hard
  • Medium
  • Soft
  • Sine Shaper
  • etc.
• Modulation Matrix with 16 Slots, freely programmable
  • Modulation Speed far into Audio Range
  • Modulation Sources include all internal Modulation Sources plus various MIDI messages
  • Modulation Destinations for almost all continuous sound parameters
• various pre-routed Modulation Destinations with selectable Sources
  • Pitch Modulation
  • Oscillator 1 / 2 / 3 Frequency Modulation
  • Oscillator 1 / 2 / 3 Pulse Width Modulation
  • Filter 1 / 2 Cutoff Modulation
  • Filter 1 / 2 Frequency Modulation
  • Pan 1 / 2 Modulation
  • Amp Modulation
• 4 Modifiers for transforming Modulation Sources with various Algorithms
• 3 fast LFOs
  • syncable to MIDI Clock
  • Note Retrigger with adjustable Start Phase
  • monophonic LFO
  • Keytrack
• 4 fast Envelopes with selectable types
  • Single Trigger / Retrigger per Envelope
  • ADSR
  • ADS1DS2R (2 Decay/Sustain stages plus adjustable Attack Level)
  • One Shot
  • Loop S1S2 (Loop between Sustain 1 and 2)
  • Loop All (Loop over all stages)
• Poly, Mono, Dual or Unisono Mode with selectable Voice Count

Per Part

• powerful Arpeggiator
  • Hold and One Shot modes
  • syncable to MIDI Clock
  • Direction Up, Down, Alternate
  • Range up to 10 Octaves
  • various methods to modify Note Sort Order
• freely programmable Arpeggiator Pattern with up to 16 Steps per Sound.
  programmable per Step:
  • Accent
  • Timing
  • Length
  • Glide on/off
  • Pause
  • Chord
  • Previous note
  • Random not from Note List
  • first and/or last note from Note List
• 1 Effect slot per part
• 1 Effect slot globally for all parts
  Effect types:
  • Chorus
  • Flanger
  • Phaser
  • Overdrive
  • Triple FX (S&H, Ring Modulation, Chorus)
  • Delay (only available on global Effect slot)
  • Clocked Delay (only available on global Effect slot)
  • Reverb (only available on global Effect slot)