Author: Achim Gratz

Waldorf Blofeld Adaptation

Installation

The Blofeld adaptation uses Universal Inquiry to detect the Blofeld, so the correct OS version should be displayed in the Parameter window after installation. Since the OS version is only determined while scanning, you'll have to re-scan if you update the OS on the Blofeld and want the parameter window to reflect that. If you have problems scanning, install the adaptation manually, then increase Timeout, Send Pause and Play Delay in the parameter box and save the adaptation. Re-Scan to see if that helped; if not, you should spend some quality time with the MIDI setup of SD and some loopback cables to thoroughly test the MIDI communication. As long as there are any errors with the communication, you will have occasional trouble and possibly corrupt data which may crash your Blofeld at inconvenient moments, so you should really see to fix that.

If you have an SD version before 3.0.5b, universal inquiry only works if there are less than 256 files in the Diver folder. You may have to move adaptations and helpfiles that you don't use into a backup folder. Updating your system to the latest SD version is highly recommended.

Installation on OS9 (SD3.0.5)

Please unpack the ZIP file into some temporary directory, then install only the adaptation from the «Blofeld_OS9.hqx» BinHex archive. This will take care of setting the filetype and creator which you would have to edit manually otherwise. I believe that the workarounds implemented for the OSX version are not necessary on OS9. If you find that only the first entry in each bank can be requested, please let me know so that I can implement the appropriate workaround for OS9, too.

Installation on OSX (SD3.1Beta2)

Please unpack the ZIP file into some temporary directory, then install only the adaptation from the «Blofeld_OSX.hqx» BinHex archive. This will take care of setting the filetype and creator which you would have to edit manually otherwise. The 3.1Beta2 version of SoundDiver on Mac OSX has several bugs needing workarounds that have already been incorporated in this particular version so it should work without any editing of the adaptation after you've installed it.

For the curious, the bugs and workarounds are: the checksum for an outgoing message is never sent, so the checksum byte has been replaced with 7Fh in all bank driver strings (this would normally be done on the outgoing message, but SD ignores the incoming checksum anyway). Also, this version of SD does not convert the entry increment in the bank driver correctly when the adaptation was produced on a Windows system, which results in all but the first sound in each bank inaccessible. If you have this error, please check that the entry increment value in the affected bank driver is set to "1". The workaround for this is that the entry increment has been set to 256 on the windows version, which will then be converted to 1 on OSX.

Installation on Windows

Please install only the «Blofeld.ada» file in the main folder of the ZIP archive. The «Blofeld_OS9.hqx» and «Blofeld_OSX.hqx» files are not needed on Windows.

The Windows USB MIDI drivers unfortunately are buggy when it comes to large sysex messages like the Blofeld uses. Also, the Blofeld USB MIDI interfaces will be shown as «USB Audio Device» unless you use the driver provided by Waldorf in their download archive. To work around the bug in the USB MIDI driver, you need to install both MIDI-Yoke and MIDItrix V1.24 and do some changes to your SD/sequencer setup. You need to be aware that MIDI-Yoke provides something like a virtual MIDI cable (please read the documentation), so no application should ever attempt to simultaneously open both the input and the output part of the same MIDI-Yoke interface, because that would create a MIDI loop. Most sequencers grab all interfaces they can get hold of, consult the fine manual on how to prevent that. For SD under Windows you control this in the [SoundDiver] section of WIN.INI (see the example below). You should set up the SD so that it opens one set of MIDI-Yoke interfaces only as MIDI Inputs and the rest of the MIDI-Yoke interfaces only as MIDI Outputs and leave all USB MIDI interfaces without their own driver disabled (INI parameter is set to 0). This will ensure that SD only sees the MIDI Yoke interfaces and never tries to open both ends of the same MIDI Yoke «cable». Then connect the MIDI Yoke Inputs and Outputs with the real (USB) MIDI interfaces via MIDItrix (MIDI Yoke 1 → Waldorf Blofeld, Waldorf Blofeld → MIDI Yoke 2). On the connections to the USB MIDI interface (Waldorf Blofeld, both input and output), enable the "defragment" option. This will collect all parts of a SysEx message and send it from a single large buffer to the USB MIDI driver. If you plan to use SoundDiver for Windows with the Blofeld that is the only way it is going to work reliably when you only use USB and not an additional "normal" MIDI interface to send to the Blofeld.

Example [SoundDiver] section from my WIN.INI

MIDI-Yoke is set to provide eight virtual MIDI cables, of which four are used as inputs (even numbered ones, enable with "1") and four as outputs (odd numbered ones, enable with "7") from SoundDiver. Direct access from SoundDiver to USB audio devices (these devices may have different names depending on the language of your Windows installation) and the Waldorf Blofeld is disabled. Since my (older) MIDISport 2x2 has it's own, correctly working drivers, I leave it enabled. To have the Waldorf Blofeld show up as «Waldorf Blofeld» instead of «USB Audio Device», please get this INF-File from Waldorf Music and follow the instructions in their Readme File.

[SoundDiver]
MidiOut_Microsoft_GS_Wavetable_SW_Synth=7
MidiIn_In_A_USB_MidiSport_2x2=1
MidiIn_In_B_USB_MidiSport_2x2=1
MidiOut_Out_A_USB_MidiSport_2x2=7
MidiOut_Out_B_USB_MidiSport_2x2=7
MidiIn_In_From_MIDI_Yoke___1=0
MidiIn_In_From_MIDI_Yoke___2=1
MidiIn_In_From_MIDI_Yoke___3=0
MidiIn_In_From_MIDI_Yoke___4=1
MidiIn_In_From_MIDI_Yoke___5=0
MidiIn_In_From_MIDI_Yoke___6=1
MidiIn_In_From_MIDI_Yoke___7=0
MidiIn_In_From_MIDI_Yoke___8=1
MidiOut_Out_To_MIDI_Yoke___1=7
MidiOut_Out_To_MIDI_Yoke___2=0
MidiOut_Out_To_MIDI_Yoke___3=7
MidiOut_Out_To_MIDI_Yoke___4=0
MidiOut_Out_To_MIDI_Yoke___5=7
MidiOut_Out_To_MIDI_Yoke___6=0
MidiOut_Out_To_MIDI_Yoke___7=7
MidiOut_Out_To_MIDI_Yoke___8=0
MidiIn_USB_AudioDevice=0
MidiOut_USB_AudioDevice=0
MidiIn_Waldorf_Blofeld=0
MidiOut_Waldorf_Blofeld=0

Operation

Some Global parameters can not be edited from within SD as the Blofeld will overwrite them periodically with its own values.

Release Notes Blofeld

Version numbering scheme: Vx.yzRr, where «x.yz» is the earliest OS release that supports all the features used by the adaptation and «r» is the release number for the adaptation itself. Unless «x» changes, the adaptation normally works with an earlier OS as well, only that certain functions that are in the adaptation may not be implemented on the synth.

V1.15b11

V1.04R2

V1.04R1

V1.03R1

V1.02R1

V1.00R1

Missing Features

Known Bugs


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