Alien Vanguard Soundset for Waldorf Blofeld by HG Fortune and Dimitri Schkoda
Written in 2014.
- The soundset reviewed: Alien Vanguard Soundset for Waldorf Blofeld by HG Fortune and Dimitri Schkoda
- Sounds: 256 (two Blofeld banks)
- Price: 39 € including VAT
In need of good ambient sounds for Waldorf Blofeld synthesizer? Then this two-bank (128+128 sounds) soundset might be the one you are looking for. This soundset requires Waldorf Blofeld Keyboard, or Waldorf Blofeld Desktop with installed Blofeld License SL. You then need to load HG Fortune sampleset to your Blofeld.
This soundset provides you plenty of ambient sounds and compared to the standard Blofeld patches the soundset converts your Blofeld into an ultimate ambient synth. The soundset also gives you a good starting point to your unique ambient sounds. I'd say that it is very hard to achieve such good results if starting from scratch. You definitely would need some ambient-oriented samples to base you sounds on. The standard Blofeld oscillators won't be enough to reach the results of this quality.
Sounds tend to sound blofeldish: bright and metallic. Most of the sounds are big and complex. They commonly use detuning, have no clear pitch or provide an evolving pitch so they are clearly targeted towards ambient soundscapes and not for pitch-oriented traditional music. The sounds are wide in stereo space which raises a question how easy it is to fit them into a mix.
The HG Fortune sounds
The sounds are mostly complex ambient sounds. The sounds include some FM sounds but I'm not a fan of FM sounds. They sound hollow and thin in today's standards.
| Sound number | Sound category | Sound name | My comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 004 | Pad | Big Space | an ambient style space pad with an evolving pitch |
| 006 | Pad | BigComplex | a detuned pad sound that probably don't fit in with other sounds |
| 008 | Atmo | SciFi Movie1 | hit a few low notes to create a dramatic effect |
| 013 | Atmo | AlienAmbient | this is an example of a sound that is very big, complex and evolving, but does it fit in in a song or mix with other sounds |
| 017 | Pad | OldAnnaHorns | one of the simplest sounds in this soundset, a nice analog-style synth brass sound |
| 018 | Poly | BigFatSnH mw | as the name suggest this is big fat analog-style synth sound for playing powerful melodies or rythmic chord progressions |
| 021 | Atmo | HorrorMovie | very ambient, very depressing |
| 030 | Atmo | Premature | a strong sound for creating circulating ambient drones, hit random keys and listen what comes out |
| 032 | Keys | AtckFloater | nice spacy synth keys sound not just for ambient music but for general use |
| 033 | Pad | AsiaAtk Pad | this could go to category Keys, nice airy synth key sound |
| 037 | Pad | WideSawPad | a stereo synth pad that can easily fill the whole sonical space, there is not much you can add on top of this |
| 046 | Keys | Rusty Seq | a little bit rough sound for synth melodies |
| 047 | Bass | PowerSeqBass | a very strong and rich synth bass sound |
| 060 | Pad | Moon Singers | try this: lay your hand on top of the keyboard and press a set of keys close to each other, then slide you hand up and down on the keyboard keeping keys pressed |
| 061 | Pad | Moon Bells | can be used for the same effect as the previous sound but this sound is a bit brighter |
| 064 | Pad | OberProphet | classic analog synth brass |
| 088 | FX | Dark n Birds | if not overused this sound with the birds makes a dramatic background |
| 090 | Pad | Winter Ice | works great in playing slow melodies with few long notes, could be the leading synth sound in a song from the ice planet |
| 093 | Atmo | Icy Cave | ambient from a depressing ice planet |
| 102 | Lead | Sync Lead | not just a lead sound, slap your hand to the keyboard and you get a powerful synth accent, then play with filters |
| 110 | Pad | Swell String | soft synth strings in wide space |
| 111 | Pad | Slow Atck | a typical slow attack synth pad |
| 114 | FX | CreepingHorror | for depressing ambient backgrounds |
| 117 | Pad | A Lil' Gated | pleasing synth pad sound with lfo-based rythmic component, check lfo2 settings to change, you could synch it to midi clock |
| 119 | Atmo | Erich's docu | very ambient sound, play a note or two and keep them going |
| 125 | FX | Unwetter | play this as a long note and low volume and you are travelling in space on a spaceship |
The Dimitri Schkoda sounds
The sounds appear to use more noise and perhaps also more distortion than HG Fortune sounds. The target audience is the same: those that are looking for complex high-quality ambient sounds. The sounds are often build so that oscillators 1 and 2 play wavetable sounds from HG fortune sampleset without a clear pitch and oscillator 3 adds the pitch to the sound. Tweaking the levels of the oscillators is then an easy way to tailor the appearance of the sound to your needs.
| Sound number | Sound category | Sound name | My comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 003 | Pad | Cave Dragonam | minimalistic slow synth pad |
| 017 | Pad | Passionata | nice synth pad, resembles a little bit of an accordion (not much), works better with shorter release |
| 022 | Pad | Mediation | play long notes and repeat a simple pattern, so you have an effective ambient background |
| 036 | Drum | Factory Loop | could be used as a metallic accent but must figure out how to control the pulses (maybe synch them to midi clock) |
| 045 | Atmo | Star Shuffle | this sounds gives me mixed feelings, an unique and powerful sound, but how this could be used in a song and how could this fit into a mix |
| 055 | Pad | A sad Heart | a classical ambient pad, try chaning the levels of the three oscillators to alter the atmosphere |
| 058 | Atmo | Blade Runner | synth sound that could be in Pad category but has a very long release time, can be nice when you build a chord note by note |
| 061 | FX | Cold Fear | cold war horn |
| 062 | Pad | StarFall | the name says it all, all ambient soundsets must have a “star falling from the sky” sound |
| 067 | Pad | No Nope | a pad of no hope, contains subtones (bass tones) from oscillator 2 that you might like to filter out |
| 069 | Pad | Iced Cave | hit a note briefly, it's like somebody is in an iced cave and bangs the walls |
| 082 | Atmo | Tmidous | has an interesting click on release (note off) |
| 083 | FX | Parallels | Set filter 2 to bandpass and adjust resonance and cuttoff, and the world collapses |
| 085 | Pad | White Snow | Add a few high notes to add space crystals to your song |
| 091 | Pad | Soft Ocean | a relaxing soft synth pad |
| 096 | Lead | Rich Lead | ambient space synth lead |
| 104 | Keys | Celeste Dance | when the fairies dance around the moon |
| 105 | Atmo | Sleepin Storm | has hidden power, try this: hit a set of keys and let them play, then adjust filter 1 cutoff and resonance |
| 112 | Atmo | My Angel | wide space synth with attack, hit a chord, then another |
| 120 | Atmo | Atmo | bubling rythmic ambient background sound |
| 127 | Atmo | Ambient | hit a few low random notes and you have an ambient background |
| 128 | Arp | Cosmic Slides | nice arp combining computer sound and noise |