You make this look so fun to explore! Seems saving modular patches like this is a big thing, and totally dig the Reel2Reel & Plasticman cards too! Awesome of Richie Hawtin and Erica Synths to give it a go and do something for education, nice they were able to put this out there. Thanks for another cool video Robin, appreciate it.
Oh I know someone who is going to love this! Thank you so much for this brilliant demo and explanation of this little (or not so little) beauty! The Music Tech dept. at school will be al over this! Great job, robin!
Thank you for this video. I'm in my late twenties but don't know much about synthesis and consider starting from here. Is that a good idea for someone who intends to use this as a musical instrument too that would be combined with ableton?
It's always a pleasure to see and hear Molten Music Technology learning and exploring as well as exploring and learning the product capabilities. 😃 Especially, when you can feel, Molten Music Technology really loves the concept of Bullfrog. Many thanks for this great video. 😍
Just shy of 3minutes in, and this education angle intrigues me. Salient points about lesson plans and instruction. Ok back to the vid, let's see about this thingy.
Love the SSL style colorway and the chunky knobs and LED switches. Not so sure about the card patch system - neat idea to be able to store alternate connections, but it seems like it detracts a bit from the ruggedness of the build. Might have liked a DIP switch system rather than jumpers.
I would love to be back in school, getting lost in Bullfrog Synthesizer ... It´s all in there - as a teacher, I could use it in maths, physics, art, music lesson.... Or take this product and compare it with e.g. behringer neutron or JT400 micro - in a product design class. Another master piece from Erica Synths, the size and style of this mono synth is amazing - totally different approach - I love it - size does matter as well as build quality. Being able to understand what you do, is always a plus. 😍 The teacher version in stereo in XXXL with a oscilloscope is wicked ;) What´s the price tag for the Teacher Bullfrog? Is the teacher able to pan the signal via internal LFO or with S&H? The size of the bullfrog manual seems is great for kids - may be you can use this as well in home for elderly people or dementia patients. Many thx to Girts Ozolinš and Richie Hawtins - this is mega cool collaboration.
Supremely cool little piece of gear, as a parent I would buy this for the home if I had a child interested in music or science. With no LFO or sub, maybe those could be card expansions.
I have a bullfrog synth and I love it, but I don’t know where to begin in regards to hooking it up to a controller keyboard like you have? What cords do I need and where do they plug in and what controllers would you recommend? Great video, I hope you can hit me back with an answer soon:) thank you
Hey - you can connect a keyboard to the Bullfrog in two ways: MIDI or CV/Gate. To connect via MIDI your keyboard will need a MIDI Out port. Connect that with a MIDI cable to the MIDI In on the Bullfrog. To use CV/Gate you need a keyboard with CV (pitch) and Gate (key press) outputs. Connect these with a patch cable to the CV In and Gate In on the back of the Bullfrog. If you have a keyboard and it only has a USB connection then you are out of luck unless you go via a computer that has a MIDI output. Does that help? The keyboard I'm using the Arturia Keystep 37 that has both MIDI and CV/Gate - sorted!
@@MoltenMusicTech oh great! Thanks for that info! And how do you make it poly ? I saw a video of chords being used on the bull frog Confused as how they did it
IDK about all of the World. But in our country you can easily assembly a pretty good PC for the price of this unit (or is this a kit with cards?). I doubt that a school (even in a city) will be capable of ordering at least 20 of these (for a medium size class). Most likely they will order PCs. Parents will not buy these for teaching as well. If it was possible to order as a DIY kit without this awesome tank case (schools can order cases from factories for minimal prices in some coutries) then maybe it could be fit in place economically. Older classes could assembly the units as their lessons about soldering and schematics.
@@MoltenMusicTech No, I think these are equal. But for this price it's more likely that schools will choose some kind of Raspberry Pi robo kits or similar. I'm not against RasPi but the basic level radio-electronics is very important before that IMHO.
SUPER overpriced! Just looked it up - $869 AUS!! Stroll on!! Can't see too many educational establishments being very interested at that price. Nice idea though. Or is it? It's not like you can't learn on any other available gear is it. Nice chunky bit of kit though. And it looks very cool.
Music departments buy fleets of iMacs and run garage band, or they buy brass at hundreds of pounds a pop. I don’t think it’s that expensive. And you’re wrong, none of us have ever figured out how to use this stuff and could do with some learning.
@@MoltenMusicTech Clearly you've never worked in education. And, you figured it out on you're own. Didn't you? That's why I'm here in any case. You are an inspiration, Unlike the Bullockfrog.
I'm pulling your leg about the learning :D And yes, my local high school bough 20 imacs that sit in the music lab doing nothing. Schools have budgets for gear - my wife is a teacher - i've installed dozens of PC systems into school music departments - so i have some knowledge about it. They get grants for stuff like that while at the same time not being able to afford pritsticks. It's weird but schools do buy stuff. I think the Bullfrog costs money but it's not super expensive considering the build quality, size, feature set and support package.
My aus school were using bread clips ad pics but we had a studio build after receiving a grant. As long as there are educational staff who can get the funding and are passionate about synthesis the bullfrog has a reason to exist
@@MoltenMusicTech ok thank you for reply .. I have really small hands so maybe the Mavis would be easy for me to use .. thanks for your channel , great stuff by the way
@@MoltenMusicTech No. LPGs (and everything related to the West Coast) began to become massively known after the Eurorack explosion. Detuning, however, is a classic technique that was always among the first tools of the most common synthesis method (subtractive). Any novice can easily identify 2 slightly detuned oscillators and the family of sounds that result from it. Historically, it is something much more basic and relevant for learning synthesis than using LPG. Obviously my answer applies to Shift Registers, which is already ridiculous that you put it in the same category of educational elements in synthesis.
Well you've got me there. Although I'd argue it's more a synthesizer technique than a modular technique. There are plenty of single oscillator synths of note that do all right - Mother-32, TB-303, SH-101, CS-10, Dreadbox synths, almost all Eurorack etc. I think you've got to make the right decisions on what's to be included in an educational synth - hence my rabbit hole comment - and i totally agree that two oscillators would be cool, especially if that could also become an LFO and be used in FM... but it can also get complex and overwhelming very fast. Many other things would be cool too but in many ways the intelligence of Erica Synths is in knowing when to stop as much as in what they added.
@@liantrosretrospectiva4134 quite sure one of the envelopes can be tracked when put into audio rate (when put into loop) and can be used as a second oscillator for your bit of detuning.
I'm guessing that the "patching slot" feature was inspired by Dendy (it's the NES clone in Russia and other ex-USSR countries)! It's the only thing that justifies this synth for me :) Making own "cartridges" is the thing that can take time but give you fun and joy! BTW I've tried to make an analog VCO by the same principle (using a row of contacts and a header soldered to protoboard) but it was a fail! I guess that if you have a spaghetti of thin copper wires close to your components and these wires connects them (instead of normal paths) then in many situations you get a lot of parasitic "elements" like "resistors", "capacitors", maybe even inductive "elements" too. You don't see them but they exists as there are no ground planes nearby. VCO is the most delicate analog schematic in any synthesizer. So I guess it's my fault that I was hoping to easily translate from solderless breadboards (which were working very fine!) to PCB breadboards. Next time I'll order a ready PCB from some online service probably. Yeah, I could make a PCB DIY but I really don't want to mess up with chemistry and etc. It's not my area definitely.
I think probably the Buchla music easel was more of an inspiration but then I had a cartridge slot on my Vic-20 and Grandstand video console, Intellivision and Atari way before Nintendo was invented or cloned 😁
@@MoltenMusicTech Or yeah, you're right :) I've forgot about Buchla's Music Easel :) But the popularity of Dendy was fenomenal in our country. It's the reason why I've thought so.
@@MoltenMusicTech This is not formal education so you can get documentation anywhere... do you really think that lack of documentation is a problem today? On a synthesizer with all the controls at hand they can start to take an initial naive approach based on the empirical, and then delve into something deeper using any documentation on synthesis available anywhere. In case you want to go further, that's what university is for.
You make this look so fun to explore! Seems saving modular patches like this is a big thing, and totally dig the Reel2Reel & Plasticman cards too!
Awesome of Richie Hawtin and Erica Synths to give it a go and do something for education, nice they were able to put this out there.
Thanks for another cool video Robin, appreciate it.
Richie Hawtin as the teacher in schools with this gear and showing step by step some cool patterns ... then I would like to go back to school again 😅
Really love this deep dive into the bullfrog, warts (wires) and all. Thank you for your work.
Oh I know someone who is going to love this! Thank you so much for this brilliant demo and explanation of this little (or not so little) beauty! The Music Tech dept. at school will be al over this! Great job, robin!
Thank you for this video. I'm in my late twenties but don't know much about synthesis and consider starting from here. Is that a good idea for someone who intends to use this as a musical instrument too that would be combined with ableton?
It's always a pleasure to see and hear Molten Music Technology learning and exploring as well as exploring and learning the product capabilities. 😃
Especially, when you can feel, Molten Music Technology really loves the concept of Bullfrog.
Many thanks for this great video. 😍
Just shy of 3minutes in, and this education angle intrigues me. Salient points about lesson plans and instruction.
Ok back to the vid, let's see about this thingy.
Love the SSL style colorway and the chunky knobs and LED switches. Not so sure about the card patch system - neat idea to be able to store alternate connections, but it seems like it detracts a bit from the ruggedness of the build. Might have liked a DIP switch system rather than jumpers.
Great demo, thanks Robin
Gr8 product...love the DIY card idea
I would love to be back in school, getting lost in Bullfrog Synthesizer ... It´s all in there - as a teacher, I could use it in maths, physics, art, music lesson.... Or take this product and compare it with e.g. behringer neutron or JT400 micro - in a product design class.
Another master piece from Erica Synths, the size and style of this mono synth is amazing - totally different approach - I love it - size does matter as well as build quality.
Being able to understand what you do, is always a plus. 😍
The teacher version in stereo in XXXL with a oscilloscope is wicked ;) What´s the price tag for the Teacher Bullfrog? Is the teacher able to pan the signal via internal LFO or with S&H?
The size of the bullfrog manual seems is great for kids - may be you can use this as well in home for elderly people or dementia patients.
Many thx to Girts Ozolinš and Richie Hawtins - this is mega cool collaboration.
Supremely cool little piece of gear, as a parent I would buy this for the home if I had a child interested in music or science. With no LFO or sub, maybe those could be card expansions.
I have a bullfrog synth and I love it, but I don’t know where to begin in regards to hooking it up to a controller keyboard like you have? What cords do I need and where do they plug in and what controllers would you recommend? Great video, I hope you can hit me back with an answer soon:) thank you
Hey - you can connect a keyboard to the Bullfrog in two ways: MIDI or CV/Gate. To connect via MIDI your keyboard will need a MIDI Out port. Connect that with a MIDI cable to the MIDI In on the Bullfrog. To use CV/Gate you need a keyboard with CV (pitch) and Gate (key press) outputs. Connect these with a patch cable to the CV In and Gate In on the back of the Bullfrog. If you have a keyboard and it only has a USB connection then you are out of luck unless you go via a computer that has a MIDI output. Does that help?
The keyboard I'm using the Arturia Keystep 37 that has both MIDI and CV/Gate - sorted!
@@MoltenMusicTech oh great! Thanks for that info! And how do you make it poly ? I saw a video of chords being used on the bull frog
Confused as how they did it
I love this.
Whoa that's so far afield of their usual livery! It looks a lot like lab scopes and such
lovely synth and video :) Thanks Robin
was wondering when this would get a plug
IDK about all of the World. But in our country you can easily assembly a pretty good PC for the price of this unit (or is this a kit with cards?). I doubt that a school (even in a city) will be capable of ordering at least 20 of these (for a medium size class). Most likely they will order PCs. Parents will not buy these for teaching as well.
If it was possible to order as a DIY kit without this awesome tank case (schools can order cases from factories for minimal prices in some coutries) then maybe it could be fit in place economically. Older classes could assembly the units as their lessons about soldering and schematics.
So you don’t think hardware is going to fly?
@@MoltenMusicTech Sorry, I don't understand the question.
I’m asking if you feel software is a better investment than hardware in an educational environment
@@MoltenMusicTech No, I think these are equal. But for this price it's more likely that schools will choose some kind of Raspberry Pi robo kits or similar. I'm not against RasPi but the basic level radio-electronics is very important before that IMHO.
Is the speaker better or worse than a volca?
Better
SUPER overpriced! Just looked it up - $869 AUS!! Stroll on!! Can't see too many educational establishments being very interested at that price. Nice idea though. Or is it? It's not like you can't learn on any other available gear is it. Nice chunky bit of kit though. And it looks very cool.
Music departments buy fleets of iMacs and run garage band, or they buy brass at hundreds of pounds a pop. I don’t think it’s that expensive. And you’re wrong, none of us have ever figured out how to use this stuff and could do with some learning.
@@MoltenMusicTech Clearly you've never worked in education. And, you figured it out on you're own. Didn't you? That's why I'm here in any case. You are an inspiration, Unlike the Bullockfrog.
I'm pulling your leg about the learning :D
And yes, my local high school bough 20 imacs that sit in the music lab doing nothing. Schools have budgets for gear - my wife is a teacher - i've installed dozens of PC systems into school music departments - so i have some knowledge about it. They get grants for stuff like that while at the same time not being able to afford pritsticks. It's weird but schools do buy stuff. I think the Bullfrog costs money but it's not super expensive considering the build quality, size, feature set and support package.
My aus school were using bread clips ad pics but we had a studio build after receiving a grant.
As long as there are educational staff who can get the funding and are passionate about synthesis the bullfrog has a reason to exist
Hey dog boy, you must be a broke ass!😅
Modern Sounds Pluto Synth
now this; good times
This or the Mavis
A bit different in form - the Mavis is very fiddly in comparison so it depends on what you want. Sound will be similar.
@@MoltenMusicTech ok thank you for reply .. I have really small hands so maybe the Mavis would be easy for me to use .. thanks for your channel , great stuff by the way
an educational synth without a second oscillator misses much of its purpose
That’s a bit of a rabbit hole though isn’t it? 😁 wot no low pass gate? Can’t learn synthesis without a shift register etc etc
@@MoltenMusicTech No. LPGs (and everything related to the West Coast) began to become massively known after the Eurorack explosion. Detuning, however, is a classic technique that was always among the first tools of the most common synthesis method (subtractive). Any novice can easily identify 2 slightly detuned oscillators and the family of sounds that result from it. Historically, it is something much more basic and relevant for learning synthesis than using LPG. Obviously my answer applies to Shift Registers, which is already ridiculous that you put it in the same category of educational elements in synthesis.
Well you've got me there. Although I'd argue it's more a synthesizer technique than a modular technique. There are plenty of single oscillator synths of note that do all right - Mother-32, TB-303, SH-101, CS-10, Dreadbox synths, almost all Eurorack etc. I think you've got to make the right decisions on what's to be included in an educational synth - hence my rabbit hole comment - and i totally agree that two oscillators would be cool, especially if that could also become an LFO and be used in FM... but it can also get complex and overwhelming very fast. Many other things would be cool too but in many ways the intelligence of Erica Synths is in knowing when to stop as much as in what they added.
@@liantrosretrospectiva4134 quite sure one of the envelopes can be tracked when put into audio rate (when put into loop) and can be used as a second oscillator for your bit of detuning.
Fischer Price presents Baby' first synth..
I'm guessing that the "patching slot" feature was inspired by Dendy (it's the NES clone in Russia and other ex-USSR countries)! It's the only thing that justifies this synth for me :)
Making own "cartridges" is the thing that can take time but give you fun and joy!
BTW I've tried to make an analog VCO by the same principle (using a row of contacts and a header soldered to protoboard) but it was a fail! I guess that if you have a spaghetti of thin copper wires close to your components and these wires connects them (instead of normal paths) then in many situations you get a lot of parasitic "elements" like "resistors", "capacitors", maybe even inductive "elements" too. You don't see them but they exists as there are no ground planes nearby. VCO is the most delicate analog schematic in any synthesizer. So I guess it's my fault that I was hoping to easily translate from solderless breadboards (which were working very fine!) to PCB breadboards. Next time I'll order a ready PCB from some online service probably.
Yeah, I could make a PCB DIY but I really don't want to mess up with chemistry and etc. It's not my area definitely.
I think probably the Buchla music easel was more of an inspiration but then I had a cartridge slot on my Vic-20 and Grandstand video console, Intellivision and Atari way before Nintendo was invented or cloned 😁
@@MoltenMusicTech Or yeah, you're right :) I've forgot about Buchla's Music Easel :) But the popularity of Dendy was fenomenal in our country. It's the reason why I've thought so.
Erica did the patch card thing a couple of years ago for their Pico system
buy the Behringer Kobol... much more synthesis resources, much cheaper, better sound, no stupid colors
Great documentation.....?
@@MoltenMusicTech This is not formal education so you can get documentation anywhere... do you really think that lack of documentation is a problem today?
On a synthesizer with all the controls at hand they can start to take an initial naive approach based on the empirical, and then delve into something deeper using any documentation on synthesis available anywhere.
In case you want to go further, that's what university is for.
Yeah, you need to watch the video and my comments on doing things in education, thanks
Looks ridiculous
No you look ridiculous