The imminent  os 4 upgrade will offer a mod matrix feature on all Virus TIs. The feature allows you to use an arpeggiator pattern as a source in the modulation matrix. To those of you not familiar with a mod matrix, I would describe it as a non random, tempo synced, sample and hold LFO. In other words, its a sample and hold LFO that allows you to set the wave level at each individual step(up to 32 steps in the viruses case). A few enhancements have been made to the arp editor in Virus control to facilitate this feature. Firstly, The arp has gained an “Arp matrix mode”. In this new mode, the arpeggiator does not trigger new notes after the first step of the pattern while keys are held down. This allows you to play a sustained sound and have for instance, filter cutoff modulated cyclically by the matrix.

This new addition to the Virus Os has made it a bit easier to put of getting a Korg Radias. Now I can wait till I find a truly crack head deal. The virus’ implementation has a long way to go to match the Radias’ 3 independent sequencers and 16 physical knobs but it is a decent start.

In a future point upgrade, it would be cool to be able to set the modulation destination as an attribute on the arp itself, in addition to setting them in the mod matrix. The TI’s LFOs currently work like this so I don’t believe this will be difficult to implement. The reason this would be cool is that, it would make it possible to switch the range of modulation levels to one that makes sense for the destination being modulated. Take a scenario where you want to modulate the index of a wavetable oscillator with the matrix. If the selected wavetable only has 24 waves, does it really make sense to be able to set the modulation level to 127? All together class “NO”. The EXB-Radias expansion available for the Korg m3 workstations, work this way. The modulation step level settings are also presented in a bipolar fashion so it is clear to the user that they are modulating an attribute either up or down relative to the the attributes current value.

Other goodies slated for the release include comb and vowel filters which are available in the effects block rather than the filter block. 6 spice(curry, saffron, chilli, onion, pepper & mint) themed stomp box overdrive effects are also on the menu. I suspect that the colors of the spices they have chosen to name the overdrives after, is a clue to the identities of the stomp boxes the access engineers based their models on.

I’m still happy I chose the Virus Polar even though I still have an outstanding mortgage on it . The new comb filter will fill a void left by by recently departed waldorf blofeld and the vowel filters will bring back to life, the one feature I missed dearly on my E-mu 6400 Ultra sampler.

Not a bad upgrade at all. Bravo chaps!!! The released demos sound good to these ears but have a listen for yourself at Virus OS4.

After a couple of weeks and a few soft synth crashes, my kore honeymoon comes to a screeching halt. So of I go looking on eBay and what do I find? A minty fresh reboxed blofeld for $575. nb: mail in $50 rebate forms.

First Impressions.

The blofeld has a certain austere elegance about it. It has 8 endless rotary knobs, 5 buttons, a very legible silk screened facia and a generous 6 line display. It is great to get visual feedback when you modify envelope or filter parameters. The rear sports a power input, stereo outs, headphone jack and a USB port. That is it. The unit ships with a power supply, a quick start manual and a coaster with the customary pdf manual and system backups. My second unit also had the Waldorf Edition LE bundle; a rather pleasant surprise if you ask me. Missing though, is a software editor. I’ve been informed by a Waldorfian that they have one planned for early next year. I’m also working OCTOPUSSY, my own OSX based editor. I don’t think it will be a wasted effort considering it presents an opportunity for me to sharpen my OSX development chops.

Presets

The blo comes with 8 banks of 128 presets. Not too shabby by any standard. You navigate the presets just by turning the knob to the immediate left of the screen. The left knob under the screen is for switching banks and the second is used to filter the presets by category. I’m yet to find out if the list of categories is editable.

My first run through all the presets left me rather disappointed. I enjoyed a few solo leads but overall, the sounds were reminiscent of a mediocre general MIDI rompler from a bygone era albeit with a glossy sheen. I owned a blue MicroQ eons ago and I recall a decent set of presets well you know what they say about expectations.

I get the sense that the sound designers were rushed because imho, a lot of the presets don’t take advantage of what the synth engine has to offer. It could also be that the part of my brain that determines how good a preset is, has been infected by the access Virus presets and has sustained irreversible damage.

I’ll tell you one good thing about bad presets, I didn’t hesitate when it came to saving my own patches. I felt free to experiment and overwrite all that crap. The blofeld is a wonderful synth indeed if you do not judge it by its presets.

Programming

This thing is a breeze to program. It feels like stepping into a soft pair of slightly worn Clarks. The matrix style interface is so effective and stays out of ones way. I find it much quicker to navigate the blofeld with 8 knobs than the Virus Polar with 32 knobs. My only gripe with the encoders is that they lag a bit. So what do you get to twiddle with these glorious knobs?

Oscillators

You get 3 oscillators, a noise generator with variable color and a ring mod. All 3 oscillators offer the standard regimen of saw, pulse, triangle and sine. The first 2 also add a staggering 68 wavetables with 64 waves per table. That is a lot of sonic variation and that is what makes the blofeld a Waldorf. The specs state that you get the Alt1 & Alt2 tables from the Waldorf Q and all the tables from the Microwave Series. I haven’t had any experience with those synths but I’m still planning to compare them based on their specs in a later post.

These tables aren’t like the DWGS tables you would find on a Korg synth like the ms2000, microKorg or Radias. Sweeping DWGS tables sound like changing radio stations to me but the waldorf tables tend to have crossfaded waves so sweeping them with a modulator like an envelope or an lfo can yield some really cool sounding transitions. The tables range from electric piano waves to formant vocal sweeps. Imagine what lies in between.

All 3 oscillators can be frequency modulated by each other, LFOS, envelopes and noise. Oscillator 2 can also be synchronized to the third oscillator.

One cool feature that I like about the oscillators is that you can set independent pitch bend range and direction for each one. Sounds cool to bend one oscillator up an fifth and another down a third at the same time. In addition to standard portamento and fingered portamento modes, the common glide setting for all oscillators also has glissando modes. Glissando is a huge deal for me and I’m surprised no one seems to talk about it. My micron had it but both the m3+radias and the Virus are missing this feature. I’m yet to figure out how to approximate glissando on the Virus. It is somewhat doable on the m3 by overlaying the pitch bend with a stepping modifier.

Next post, I’ll go into how the oscillators sound and maybe even post some sounds. I’ll also cover the filters and the modulators. The blofeld is one cunning kitty and packs a lot behind that unassuming facade.

To be continued…

I’m a musician/photographer/software developer. You shouldn’t need any additional info to diagnose my attention deficit disorder. This blog is to chronicle my quest to escape the ghast mediocrity I currently find myself in.

So lets talk about synthesizers but first, my Kanye moment.

<kanye>My mayonnaise hued trinity of the Virus TI Polar, Waldorf Blofeld, Korg m3( w/ radias exb) is the bestest ever setup. It will be remembered as the setup of a generation. Kurzweil doesn’t like black people.</kanye>.

This isn’t safe sex with your wife, this is a bloody sunday orgy if you ask me. Did I say how hard this collection makes me?

The not so holy trinity is complemented by Logic 8, N.I Komplete, Kore 2, Korg Legacy Bundle, Arturia Analog Factory & Prophet V. As you would imagine, the plugins don’t get much use lately.

In the next couple of days, I’ll be posting pretty extensive reviews of all 3 synths. My good friend refers to the blofeld as a poor man’s Virus but I think the little German kitten has some tricks up her sleeve that would melt the T.I snow. I guess a Virus, Blofeld, Radias shootout is in order so prepare for some white on white crime.

Read my reviews knowing that my perspective has been shaped by past dalliances with …

ALESIS:

• Micron – Gr8 sounding but the Blofeld covered a lot of the same ground.
• QS6 – This had a Wurly that I really loved. I traded this in towards a Nord Lead

CLAVIA

• Nord Lead – This synth was the San Grail to me for quite a long time. I remember walking into Turnkey’s in London during the Chronic/Doggystyle era and being blown away because I could play those Dr Dre synth leads. Plus the nord looks sexy as hell. When I finally got one years later, I didn’t do much with it. I was disappointed by the lack of effects and strangely enough, I didn’t really program it much. Must have been the first synth I sold on eBay. I remember dropping it of to the guy that won the auction at an Ikea parking lot. Hmm what did I do with the money? Dime bars, dime bars, lindenberry sauce over meat balls biatch.

KORG

• Triton Classic/Extreme w/MOSS – Classic -> Extreme -> M3
• Z1 – Replaced with MOSS, I miss some features but I generally don’t care for physical modelling
• MS-2000 – Loved it but I wasn’t much of a programmer when I had it so let it go.

E-MU

• E6400 Ultra – This is the first sampler/synth that got me programming. Loved the Z filter and the simple modulation matrix. Who uses hardware samplers any more? Replaced by Kontakt 3. Kontakt doesn’t have a replacement for all the Z filters but makes up for it with a lot more.
• Proteus 2000 - I went gaga for this when it first came out. EP Roller, Wormy Lead, Guitar sound D’angelo and Sean Paul used. It was also the first synth I used that had an audition feature. I didn’t really program it.
• ESI-4000 -Another cool sampler. For me, the E-mu samplers always played Mac to Akais PC.
• MP7 Command Station – Cool sequencer with a gang of knobs. Great combo with the 6400 but there is something about emu presets that make them grow old so fast.

YAMAHA

• Motif ES-Not the most intuitive interface but the best sounding rompler I’ve owned. Synth architecture was nothing to sniff at though but I never really programmed it. At one point, it was cheaper to buy the AN200 & DX200 loopfactory groove boxes than it was to buy the PLG expansion boards so I bought the pair ad transplanted the PLG boards to the Motif. The boards sounded great but the interface was not happening
• A4000 – Another great sampler but with a quirky program/zone/sample hierarchy. Great efx really cool interface with some intuitive shortcuts.
• Rmx-1 – This unit was the bomb. So simple with flash memory and so immediate. Brilliant combo with the E6400. I sampled a single note of the Subsonic bass patch from this bad boy and I still use it today in Kontakt.
• RS7000 – A combination of the Rmx-1 and the Motif. Not too shabby. Dope grid record mode(Head banger, head banger. EPMD).
• FB01, TX81Z – Yamaha FM crap boxes. Decent bass but definitely a crack head move on my part to pick those up. Great for those early 90′s swing beat sounds though.
• PSR *** – I don’t remember the exact model number but it had a built in sequencer, drum pads and an orange lcd. Got this from the music store on Cold Habour lane in Brixton way back in the day. The dudes in there were so old school. They referred to sound modules as “expanders”. Thats the same store that had the Alesis SR16 in the window.

ROLAND

• VP-9000 – Interesting unit but I’m not really into loops plus the way I trigger my samples when I do hip-hop doesn’t really require time stretching. That is one of the few limitations that yields creative results I think.
• MV-8000 – Wonderful beatbox. Head and shoulders above MPC 1k, 2k, 2500. Wonderful feeling pads, very quick workflow with nothing more than a couple of button presses away.

In the end, what matters is the music and this journey through programming, is really just another way to find a distinct voice. I’ve been procrastinating for a decade partly because I only wanted to be a producer rather than an an artist but now I feel like I have a great album or 2 within me .

I’ll keep you posted on that as well. The alias is Alternegro and the working title is Chupacabra’s Revenge.