> My Blofeld has taken far more abuse than any laptop or tablet will handle and still going strong 15 years later; three laptops and two tablets later.

On the other hand, my Blofeld had wonky unresponsive knobs after just a couple of months, not that they were very good at the first place, who thought having knobs with no tactile feeling of grip was good idea?!

Personally the biggest win for actual hardware is that it's just more fun to play and use. I've tried various music apps for mobile/tablets and while it's fun for some minutes, that's pretty much it. But then I feel the same with DAWs, it's just not as fun as playing with an hardware drum machine + synth + sampler all hooked together.

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ofalkaed 3 days ago | parent [-]

The encoder issue was fixed with a firmware update, they switched encoders and did not quite account for how they would work once broken in. I had one of those Blofelds for awhile, bought a second because the deal was too good to pass up and it was pretty much new in box. I like the knobs, love the detentless encoders.

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diggan 3 days ago | parent [-]

> The encoder issue was fixed with a firmware update,

No joke? I was sure it was a hardware issue, but guess I should give that a look, still have my Blofeld around here somewhere, thanks for sharing the "news" :)

> love the detentless encoders

I have no issues with them being detentless, makes a lot of sense. What I do have issues with, is using the smoothest material they could find for the knobs instead of something you can "grip", sometimes it just slipped between my fingers when trying to turn them, unless I make my fingers slightly humid first.

	▲	ofalkaed 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		I suppose it is possible you got one with 7 bad encoders but chances are updating the firmware will fix it. The contacts in the new encoders loosened up over time more than the old encoders and the debounce code could not keep up. Two things you can always rely on Waldorf for, topnotch hardware and buggy software, but they fix the bugs for the most part and the ones they don't fix probably are not actually bugs but limitations in the technology/design compromises; like aliasing in the Blofeld, they could "fix" it but leaving it gives it a lot more versatility within its intended range and is why it sounds so good in that range. The only real issue for me with the Blofeld is the noise gen, it is fairly limited in use because of the aliasing. I get why you dislike the knobs, but they don't bother me. Many dislike them and I have seen various fixes like shrink tubing, tape and rubber bands as well as just replacing them. I just learned to pinch the knob a little tighter. Skipping their traditional coating on the knobs was probably one of the corners they cut to get the price down while keeping the same quality overall.