Multiplicities (feat. Ben Winkler)

For this video I (again) enlisted the help of friend and colleauge Ben Winkler on Cello. I also played some Double Bass, on loan from my wonderful partner Josefine and and even a bit of my fathers Viola! All that with the usual Piano and Modular combo. The driving force behind this arrangement is a polyrythmical pattern between the left and right hands of the Piano and the two voices of the Modular. It's all built on top of a bed of bowed Double Bass interspersed with some Viola harmonics.

Over all this I asked Ben to improvisive which we filmed and recorded in my studio.

Patch Notes:

On the modular it's my usual two voice setup: "Yarns" supplies the MIDI from the DAW (in this case "Cubase") going into two "Even VCOs" and through the "BF22 "MS20 Style filter into the "Hexmix" VCA. Then into the 4ms "DLD" and into the output. The DLD has two clocks from the 4ms "Quad Clock Distributor" patched into the loop reverse input to reverse the loops. The two VCOs are frequency modulated with each other for some added texture.

The Piano was recorded with two Oktava "Mk12s" through a SPL "Goldmike! preamp. The output was patched into a Thermionic Culture "Culture Vulture" for some added warmth and then recorded into Cubase.

The Cello was recorded with a single Austrian Audio "OC 818". After recording it was tracked through a ReVox "A700" tape machine which was also used as a tape delay on the cello.

If you like what I do please consider buying my music or support me on patreon!

Change (Piano And Modular Improvisation)

This one is melodic. And I'm even modulating into a different key crazy huh... This makes it a bit harder to fit a synth part over it while improvising. So in order to free myself from the constraints of one specific scale I used the modular a bit more subtly here. I also got a Keith McMillen "Soft Step" which allows me to play with the level going to the modular a bit more musically and with less creaking and noises.

Patch Notes:l This one uses only Beads with slow modulation of the grain position and the level controlled with the mentioned "Soft Step".

Aloft (Piano And Modular Improvisation)

This weeks video features a little piece for piano which sits atop the cloudy grains generated by Beads.

Patch Notes:
Piano → Beads → Bliss

Flow (Piano And Modular Improvisation)

Trying out different types of synth patterns this week. This one has a bit of a flowing feel to it. Can you tell where I got my inspiration from?

Patch Notes:
The synth voices consist of my usual chain of EvenVCOs into the Serge Wavefolder into the BF-22 into the Hexmix and finally the Dual Looping Delay. This time no cross modulation. Waveforms are triangle. The piano is fed through Beads for that grainy goodness.

Contrast (Piano And Modular Improvisation)

This weeks piece features a bit of tension. I'm incorperating the Serge "Wavemultipliers" into my usual two Oscillator cross modulation setup. I think it adds a nice bit of colour into the mix.

Patch Notes: The patch starts out with two EvenVCOs going into the aforementioned Serge Wavemultipliers which sat in my other rack for a long while until Beads freed up some HPs in this one. From there the signals are patched into the BF-22 filter by Befaco, into the Hexmix VCA and then into the 4ms DLD. Two additional outputs from the EvenVCOs are patched directly into the Hexmix VCA, modulated by two sequences on Pressure Points (with Brains) and the RYO VC Sequencer and patched back into the FM inputs of the EvenVCOs for that sweet FM goodness...

Dawn (Piano And Modular Improvisation)

Playing with the Piano and the French Connection again. This one actually started on the modular system controlled by the french connection. I recorded that first and then improvised on the piano to that. Another fun thing about this improvisation is that I used both Beads and Clouds.

Patch Notes:

The main synth patch is controlled by the Analouge Systems "French Connection". The synth voice is my trusty MFB "Kraftzwerg II" the first synth I ever bought. the output of that is patched into 2 parallel Doepfer Spring reverb modules and the into Mutable Instruments "Clouds". The piano FX is Mutable Instruments "Beads" in high quality mode and a pitch of +1 octave.

If you like what I do please consider buying my music or support me on patreon!

Ratchet (Piano And Modular Improvsation)

This weeks video features some more rhythmic stuff. This isn't my strongest suit but I still like how it turned out. Somehow in this recording the sounds of the tape I put over the felt moderator are really pronounced, my piano surprises me almost every time I record it so that's something.

Patch Notes:

I used a variation of my cross feedback patch for this (video on that coming soon(ish). My two EvenVCOs (triangle output) are patched into the BF-22 MS-20 style fiter which in turn is patched into the Hexmix VCA. Also the sine outputs from the EvenVCOs are patched into two different channels of the Hexmix VCA, modulated by two sequencers the RYO 8-Step and Pressure Points and patched back into the FM input of the other EvenVCO respectively. The envelopes are generated by Maths and the outputs from the HexMix are patched into Beads for Delay and then into the output.

Mimesis (Piano and Modular (and Viola?) Improvisation)

This weeks video features me playing two instruments. Although only one is on video... I recorded a couple of different phrases and gestures on my Viola and through the magic of multitrack recording and line level inputs played them into Beads on my modular to improvise on the piano to. I really like the colour of the viola and how my (admittedly sort of crappy) playing lends a quite intimate feeling to everything I add it to. And if my crappy viola playing has some place in the world I think we all can feel a bit more relaxed about ourselves.

Patch Notes:

Again real simple this time: Viola goes into Beads. The buffer of Beads in "frozen" and via a LFO from Maths the grain position slowly scans through different regions of the buffer featuring different notes and phrases in slow motion. Oh and lot's of reverb!

Minute (Piano And Modular Improvisation)

My second improvisation with the new Mutable Instruments "Beads" this time playing with a lydian scale and a grain delay patch that pitches the sound one octave down. I've used this effect before for more melancholic pieces but I also really like how it works here with brighter material.

Patch Notes:

Again fairly simple: piano goes into Beads. Beads is in the white led high quality mode this time. Delay is about 25% density fairly low on the random side. Pitch is set to -1 octave. I'm playing around with the reverb amout through the piece.

If you like what I do please consider buying my music or support me on patreon!

Bandcamp: https://raffaelseyfried.bandcamp.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/raffaelseyfried

Awash (Piano And Modular Improvisation)

A few days ago "Beads" the new module by Mutable Instruments arrived in the mail, and of course I had to check it out! I'm loving it so far. It adresses so many of the little incosistencies with the earlier version "Clouds" that already was a great module. "Beads" already feels much more "hands on" and is really intuitive to play with.

Patch Notes:

Here I'm using with the "scorched tape" mode, playing with different grain envelopes and lengths and playing with the reverb level.

If you like what I do please consider buying my music or support me on patreon!

Transnodal (Piano and SuperCollider LiveCoding)

Something old and something new...

This is a recording of a live-stream I did for Toplaps "Transnodal" event in february 2021. I'm performing and writing the high level code for an algorithmic looper system and a granular delay that I wrote.

I've been writing programs in SuperCollider for quite a while now and this project dates all the way back to 2017 before I had my eurorack system (or my studio for that matter). It was really fun unearthing this old project which was in many ways the starting point for the whole idea of pairing the piano with some sort of digital or analogue processing and a more „live” or improvised approach that what I had been doing before, which was mainly producing with a very detailed and not live or improvised approach in front of a screen mostly. Although I’ve always been improvising on the piano a lot, maybe so much that I didn’t even realize that it might be something worth presenting or releasing in some way.

The live-streaming thing on the other hand is something completely new for me. I’ve done a live-streamed event in the spring of 2020 (also for Toplap, also live coding) but not with the piano before. Safe to say that splitting my brain between writing the code and playing the piano is a, let’s say unique challenge. But I’m really positively surprised to what kind of musical output this lead. I had to be much more restrained with what I could do and how fast I could do it, because I had to scroll around in the code, instead of the more tactile feel of the knobs on the modular. Also, I deliberately (I wasn’t lazy I swear) prepared very little beforehand so I wouldn’t have too many expectations of what I wanted to do. Instead, I let things flow a lot more freely than I’m used to. Even more than my concerts. This is something I definitely want to explore and practice more so stay tuned for more livestreams and more long form improvisations!

If you like what I do please consider buying my music or support me on patreon!

Fabric (feat. Ben Winkler)

I teamed up with my friend and colleague Ben Winkler for this video. Trying out different fabrics for dampening the piano and pairing that with Bens beautiful cello performance, I think it came out great and I really like how the sound of the cello pairs up with the piano!

Ben has played on a number of my tracks and has his own works published on different platforms. Check out his Instagram here:

https://www.instagram.com/benwinklermusic/

Patch Notes:

The piano is patched into the Befaco Crush Delay on this track which is in turn patched into the 4ms Dual Looping delay. Fairly simple but it does the trick. Ben is using the Valhalla Delay plugin on the cello.

If you like what I do please consider buying my music or support me on patreon!

Gli Uccelli (for four French Connections)

Tried my hands at writing something polyphonic and playing it by overdubbing four takes controlling the modular with the French Connection controller. I feel actually playing something versus just programming the notes in the computer gives the piece a more human feel. Even if some of the notes are not quite intonated perfectly...

Patch Notes:

The patch on the modular side is a fairly simple setup. Running an EvenVCO (two for the lowest part) into the BF22 Filter and after the Hexmix VCA into two Doepfer A-199 spring reverbs (for that stereo spring reverb goodness) and into the output.

If you like what I do please consider buying my music or support me on patreon!

Haptic (Piano And Modular Improvisation)

Starting the new year with another duophonic thing. I keep coming back to those...

Patch Notes:

Two Befaco EvenVCOs using the triangle output going into the BF-22 filter and then into the Hexmix VCA. The sine output from the EvenVCOs is used to crossmodulate the frequency of the oscillators the amount of the modulation is controlles by the RYO VC sequencer and the Make Noise Pressure Points. Output from the VCA is patched into the 4ms DLD for stereo delay and then into Clouds which adds some granular shimmer.

If you like what I do please consider buying my music or support me on patreon!

Reflections (Piano And Modular Improvisation)

One last piece before this strange year ends...

I'm forever grateful for the support you have shown me this year and look forward to having an even better 2021! And I hope you too!

Patch Notes:

This one is centered around the 4ms dual looping delay and its hold function. The signal from the piano goes into the DLD via the intellijel I/O 1U module. With the delaytimes on the DLD set to 5 and 7 the hold function is automated by different clock divisions from the 4ms Quad Clock distributer. The output from the synth was then recorded onto tape on a Revox A700 maschine and then played back into Pro Tools.

I'm trying to play extra sparse so the delay comes through more.

If you like what I do please consider buying my music or support me on patreon!

Duett (Ondes Martenot and Piano)

Something special today!

For today's video I have enlisted the help of the wonderful Josh Semans (https://www.joshsemans.com/) for a little duet with Ondes Martenot and Piano. I'm really excited because Josh is one of my favorite artists right now and his use of the Martenot is both beautiful and forward looking.

Josh has an album out and has also started a little series on his Instagram about the ondes martenot so be sure to check him out!

Flight (Piano And Modular Improvisation)

Patch notes:

The main idea in this patch is controlling the levels of two Befaco EvenVCOs with two different sequences and mixing them together into one filter. The sequencers are the RYO 8 Step Sequencer and the Make Noise Pressure Points with Brains. The mixing is done in the Befaco Hexmix and the filter is the Befaco BF-22 Sallen Key filter. The output from the filter is patched into the 4ms Dual Looping Delay.

If you like what I do please consider buying my music or support me on patreon!

Moment (Piano and Modular Improvisation)

Trying one with little preperation this time. It's good to mix up the process once in a while. Trying not to get too attached to one way of doing things...

Patch Notes:This one is fairly simple. The Ginkesynthese Sampleslice going into Mutable Instruments Clouds. I'm playing around with the settings on Clouds a bit during the piece freezing the sound and changing the parameters.

If you like what I do please consider buying my music or support me on patreon!

Fall (Piano and Modular Improvisation)

Fall is out in full force in germany. A good time to get cozy and play some piano.

Patch Notes:
For this one I used two EvenVCOs with their triangle output going into the BF-22 filter. This in turn is patched into the 4ms dual looping delay. The oscillators are also crossmodulated the amount of which is sequenced by pressure points (together with Brains) and the RYO VC Sequencer. The notes are coming from Pro Tools and I use Yarns as a MIDI interface. The microphones used are two Oktava Mk-12s through a SPL goldmike and the camera is a Lumix GH4.

If you like what I do please consider buying my music or support me on patreon!

Motion (Piano and Modular Improvisation)

Trying something new for this one! I wrote a little song on the piano and improvised to it with the modular played with the French Connection. I like how it turned out and might do some more "elaborate" videos like this in the future.

Patch Notes:
The piano is recorded with two Octava Mk-12s. The delay on the piano was achived with a Revox A-700 tape machine the output of the tape was fed through the Thermionix Culture Vulture for even more dirt.
The synth part is a fairly simple two oscillator setup. Two EvenVCOs using the triangle wave are patched into the BF-22 filter which goes into the Hexmix VCA. The output of the VCA is patched into two Doepfer A-199 spring reverbs to achieve a stereo reverb effect. The outputs of the reverbs are patched into the 4ms Dual Looping Delay which has medium delay and feedback settings.

If you like what I do please consider buying my music or support me on patreon!