Blanche (Piano and Modular)

This one is a lot more free-form than the last few. But it felt right, and it’s good to switch up the process once in a while. I really did a lot more on the modular for this piece. That’s also why it’s not by my side and I recorded it in two takes. The patch sort of reminds me of the sounds my girlfriends cat makes hence the name of the piece “Blanche”.

The patch on the modular consists of two generative sequences which are mainly driven by the Music Thing “Turing Machine” which is generating the pitches and the basis for the rythms as well. Two pulse outputs from the “Turing Machine” are patched into Befacos “Rampage” function generator which is responsible for the main envelopes. The Make Noise “Maths” is adding the ratcheting on top. The whole patch has a bunch of interconnected modulation going on which would take too long write down here but if there’s interest I might do another explanation video for this patch. Let me know in the comments!

Ride (Piano And Modular Improvisation)

I planned for this one to turn out much shorter, but I got kinda lost in it and liked where it went. So I hope you enjoy this slightly longer video!

I've been riding my bike a lot in these crazy times rather than take public transportation which also has the positive effect of putting me in a much calmer mood when I arrive where I need to go...

Patch Notes: The piano is patched into the Sampleslicer which in turn goes into Clouds which is in looping delay mode. The two synth voices are EvenVCOs patched into the BF-22 Filter. Each gets its envelope from maths one of which is set with a short attack and a longer release. The other one is set up in reverse with a long attack and a short release for that "reverse" sort of sound. The synth voices then go through the 4ms DLD. The microphones used are two Oktava MK-22s and the camera is a Lumix GH4.

Thanks for watching...

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Locking (Piano And Modular)

This weeks video required a bit more pre planning thant usual. I wanted to explore polyrythmical patterns a bit. So I thought I'd give the thing a bit more structure to keep myself limited somewhat and not risk going too much overboard with experimentation. I ended up needing quite a bit of practice for this but I hope to experiment more with this idea in the future.

The synth is made up out of my usual combo of two Even-VCOs with the BF-22 MS20 style filter and some FM cross modulation on the VCOs. The piano is recorded using two Octava Mk-12s. The beat was built with samples in Ableton.

Camera is a Lumix GH4.

Rain Passing (Live At Galerie Lausberg)

In November 2019 I played my first concert with the songs I wrote for the piano and modular. It was a really nice experience to play the music live and develop the pieces further. When seeing the space I thought immediately that it would be a great location to shoot a video and also to film the whole concert.

The concert took place at "Galerie Lausberg" in Düsseldorf and was part of "Die Digitale" festival. Thanks for Mr. Lausberg, Werner and Peter for inviting me.

Also thanks to Johannes for doing the lighting design and for shooting and editing the video!

Rain Passing is a piece that I wrote for this channel in May of 2019, during rehearsals for the concert I added drums and a base line that weren't in the original performance.

Video by Johannes von Barsewisch

Music by Raffael Seyfried

Filmed at Galerie Lausberg Düsseldorf

Versatz (Piano And Modular Improvisation)

Playing around with two interlocking arpeggios. Shifting in and out to create different patterns. This is an idea that I want to explore more in the future, splitting the same part over multiple sequences to change different sets of notes live.

Patch notes: CV comes in from Ableton via Yarns. I used two cross modulated Even VCOs going into the BF22 filter by Befaco. The cross modulation amount is sequenced by pressure points and the RYO 8-Step sequencer. The output from the BF22 is going into the 4ms DLD and then into my computer.

Mics are two Octava Mk-12s.

Continuation (Piano and Modular Improvisation)

Getting back into it! After a break that went on longer than expected due to a tour in asia and scoring work I'm back at it. I also got a new camera.

Still figuring out where to put the stand so sorry for the wobble.

This one is a improvisation on a simple motive paired with a simple patch. Just the piano going into Clouds and Maths modulating the position parameter. Afterwards I ran the piano through my Culture Vulture and the Modular part I recorded to Tape on my A700 that you can see at the beginning and the end of the video.

Fleeting (Piano and Modular Improvisation)

Trying one without synth voices. This piece is based on the idea of static and fleeting sounds. Changing and staying the same.

The heart of the patch is the 4ms Dual Looping Delay which loops the incoming piano and slowly fades it out at the same time. New notes are louder whilst older notes fade into the background. The output of the DLD is patched into the Make Noise Morphagene which I engage after approximately the first half of the piece. Morphagene takes the already layered and looped sound from the DLD and granulates it. All sounds begin to become very fluid and fleeting… The output of this is then patched into Mutable Instruments Clouds for Reverb and slight additional granulation and pitch shifting.

Building (Piano and Modular Improvisation)

Coming back to the modular on a really hot day. This time connecting a quite minimal piano pad from Morphagene with two sequences on my usual Even VCO and BF22 combo. On this one I just sat down and played without really preparing something. I think it’s a good way to change up your flow a bit, switching between more prepared pieces and just total train of thought improvisation.

Patch notes:

For the synth voice Yarns is generating two sequences for my two Even VCOs. Those are going through the BF-22 into the Hexmix VCA and finally for some delay into the DLD. The piano pad sound is Morphagene going into Clouds. I was thinking about doing something more sophisticated but ended up just putting a bit of reverb on the sound.

The piano is recorded with two Oktava Mk-012s.

Unsure (Piano Improvisation)

This one ended up without modular. I thought about adding some texture or accompaniment from the synthesizer, but I really liked the simple mood that the piano is generating here. Just me finding my way on the piano seeing where those first few chords take me.

 So not too much to say about the patch. The piano is recorded using two Octava M12s and is running through a Thermionic Culture Vulture before being recorded. I added some light reverb in post processing.