Studiologic Sledge 2.1 Hands-On Demo

This video, via Gaz Williams, takes a look at the Studiologic Sledge 2.0.

Studiologic introduced Sledge 2.0 at the 2015 NAMM Show. With Sledge 2.0, Studiologic and Waldorf Labs (working as a team) have made it more flexible as a pure synthesizer, added Dual mode for Split/Layer functions, introduced support for user samples, expanded the instrument’s polyphony from 8 notes to 24 and improved its effects engine.

15 thoughts on “Studiologic Sledge 2.1 Hands-On Demo

  1. This synth sounds so amazing, just a shame how glitchy it is.
    Played one at a tradeshow a few weeks ago (the black version) and absolutely nothing was working properly.

  2. 2.1
    ? Implementation of the MIDI standard message “All notes Off” (also known as “MIDI panic”) in case of hanging notes after releasing all keys (also coming by MIDI IN) not correctly stopped by the related “note off”. To activate the command, set MASTER VOLUME to zero (all the way to the left) and then rotate it again, to reach the desired value;
    ? Protection against rare random hanging notes (created by the Arpeggio function) that could occur when selecting many programs with Arpeggio in a very fast sequence;
    ? Protection against a very rare random INIT sound, recalled when rotating or selecting many Programs in sequence, under stressed conditions (full memory, many samples installed, complex programs);
    ? Fast and correct auto-setting of the Arpeggio TEMPO (as stored in the related Program) when recalling various Programs withe Arpeggio active, in a fast sequence

  3. I love my Sledge! Paid $650 for it barely used. The George Hall tutorials on YouTube really opened my eyes to the possibilities of this awesome synth. I could care less if people think it does not sound as good as analog. I paid 1/4 for it what a Prophet 6 or OB6 costs, and it’s on the market, unlike the Deepmind 12, which appears to be in limbo for the foreseeable future.

      1. I have the Sledge, an ancient Yamaha SY77 (had it since 1991!), and a Yamaha MOX8….plus a gazillion soft synths. I just ordered the Roland AIRA TR-8. I’m a teacher with thanksgiving week off and 2 weeks off at xmas. Looking forward very much to putting my newest acquisitions through their paces.

  4. I had a 2.0 and sold it.

    The good stuff: you get a ton of knobs, it sounds fantastic (I certainly never heard any glitches!) and having all the connectivity on the side is a stroke of genius.

    The bad: it takes up a huge amount of space, you can’t place anything on it, but most importantly, the sound engine is a crippled version of the Blofeld’s. The oscillators are really limited compared to what the Blofeld can do. They should have opted for a “Oscillator Select” button and three fully-featured Waldorf oscillators, instead of the current solution in which only Osc. 1 can do anything interesting like wave-tables or samples, Osc. 2 is limited to analogue wave shapes. Want to play a sample with a wave-table? Uh, no can do 🙁 And the software support is terrible to, unusable sample uploader (at least on my 2016 MacBook) and there’s limited material out there for you to upload (say compared to what you get with Nord synths & sample library).

    I really wanted to love this synth, but all I can say is get a Blofeld instead.

  5. I love my Blofeld it is solid and zero glitches now. Only thing is it has less knobs. But the display feedback you get is second to none!

  6. Gaz is a cool guy, but this demo didnt demonstrate a huge amount of extremely interesting things… more like showing off a few quirks here and there.

    This is a fairly unique synth, Id probably be interested in it if I was to go back in time about 10 years ago – it would have ticked a lot of boxes for me (big keybed, knob per function, high poly, weirdo oscs, audio rate LFOs, so forth). At this point Im too focused in other directions, and its not a good fit. But its very interesting to see something like this now, so much later down the road – which I would have bought almost instantly back then. Its an odd feeling.

  7. more from waldorf? well it’s expected that it’ll be full of bugs that they enjoy leaving in. anyone who likes arpeggiators that can’t keep time-buy a blofeld. attention to a lack of detail

  8. I bought my Sledge 2 two years ago at 700 € and I am still exploring it. I wanted a VA with a decent keyboard, real knobs to play with, and the sledge has a very playable aftertouch, which I love. Glitches? almost none. And I dig the very yellow case 🙂

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