How to play synths live using a Moog Mother-32 and DFAM
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 มิ.ย. 2019
- Here's a cheeky recording of a workshop I delivered at Moogfest - starting with some general electronic music live philosophy (eg: why improvise?) some hard learned general advice on how to improvise and not mess up (too much), then a walkthrough and demo of the Moog Mother-32 and DFAM, exploring how we can use these simple tools to jam in front of an audience, with nothing pre-prepared. And at the end we have a Q&A! Hooray for a Q&A.
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This was absolutely fantastic. I don’t think anyone has ever explained the live improvisation on a synthesiser better than you have. The element of risk, practice makes perfect, the little of bag of tricks, moving slowly... all of it. Just spot on! Thank you so much for sharing
Yes!
15 mins into the vid wow so far everything resonates on point with me.. ❤👍🔥
I've been searching for and storing DFAM videos on ytube since November, and only yesterday this one appeared on my list if suggestions. It's almost as if the "algorithm" prefers to drip feed the viewers rather than disclose all info via searching.
It's double weird as this video is a few years old and possibly one of the best tutorials on the DFAM.
I'm very glad I've watched it now, if course. 😀
“Ride the boxes” - put that on a moog shirt now.
Ace!!!
Im gonna start using that!!
The idea to use the VCO 1 as a tonic, turn the pitch steps down and then send an also tuned VCO 2 to the pitch seq to be adjusted is just absolutely genius! That's a game changer for me to actually make usable melodic sequences that aren't a complete pain to tune, thank you!
The DFAM is a wild and woolly beast. It’s less playing and more press the button and hang on.I love it
I think you're my favourite person within synthesis. So inspirational. I always shit my pants playing live.
Yes, pure gold. Thanks Alex, you got the goods!
I love how you placed these wee representation of the synths in the corners. Very helpful, gives that instant visual feedback, you can just look at it while you talking and you understunding everything you talking about, amazing.
Oh BUD. Loved this whole thing. Thanks for holding my hand through this process, much appreciated 😘
Finally- I was able to add a DFAM and a Subharmonicon to my Mother 32, I'm very computer music oriented - but I can turn on the Moogs - and LEAVE THE COMPUTER OFF, never saw myself being able to be DAW-less, with 3 Moogs - I can - very nice - very very nice- my tip: SUPER slow tempo on the Subharmonicon
The best video about Mother an DFAM, thank you for sharing your expérience. Very helpful.
Nothing was lost in the camera failure. It's all good. My camera failed when I filmed the Anne Annie show, but people told me the b-roll went perfectly with the music. Blessings in disguise! Thank you for the post.
Thanks so much for this; this is top notch content and very inspiring! Although I don't improvise much in my life show, there are still some great principles here as well as some great tips if things start to go wrong.
Thanks for this man! This is exactly what i aspire to do. Im trying to supplement my practice by doing youtube jams, still improvisational and all and this has been very helpful! Ill also agree with one of the other people replying in that two DFAMs are better than one!
Thanks for sharing your music journey and gained knowledge. Respect
Fantastic insight, thank you for sharing this.
Thanks for this fun and substantive explanation.
Thanks so much for this. I'm just starting in the modular world with the m32, extremely valuable info!
The second question asked about patching at a gig vs taking your rig to the gig fully patched as you practiced with it was mine. Very nice instructional presentation, my first youtuber meet in life, thank you.
Thanks for the Q - Scanner is the artist I can think of who mainly performs (initially) unpatched!
This is beautiful. Thank you 🙏
This gives so many good ideas for enjoying my Mother and DFAM!
Brilliant tutorial
This is pure gold! thanks so much
This is a “go to” iconic video. Bravo!
🙌
I did this the other night. Hooked up a soundstix drum machine to a korg volca beats and recorded through an amp. I thought afterwards, il do it properly now. It didn't happen! The 15 min zone had gone. But I still recorded it on a soundrecorder s mics.
A good tip is recording through an old amp with spring reverb and some eq on it. I think it adds an extra grit,space and depth. And an extra layer of sound manipulation.
Very inspiring. Thanks !!!
great stuff!
This makes me wanna go practice!
Too many options is great, for me it is inspiring, move to the next preset and get inspired for an idea as well as what works with each other. My only issue is how to play it live. I bought a few hardware synths and it is a different creative process, but making an epic 5-7 minute song that has automation, different keys, cuts and cool effect plugins, it takes a bit more time, but daws are great powerful tools for me that have helped me grow and understand sound design and song the intricacies of electronic music.
Good talk, I learned something!
great masterclass.
33:57 gain staging to compensate for resonance bass-loss 👍🏼 it is an excellent time to be into synthesis. my second DFAM is on the way.
can not wait!
Thanks m8! Agree, so many brilliant synths from different companies, what a time!
I enjoyed your video. Cheers
OH and that trick to alter the velocity... THANK YOU SO MUCH! it's life changing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank the maker - to quote threepio
Totally agree with few we can make a lot and each 32 steps are unique each time you play them like in Jazz music 🎶
My DFAM arrives tomorrow, my Mother and I are now ready :) Thanks Mate!
How are you finding it?
@@mylarmelodies After my first round of exploration I'd have to say my mind is kinda blown all up... Like whoa I cant even begin to process the possibilities, or how to tame the thing.
BEST DEMO EVER
Alex, thanks for posting this workshop. Like many others who attended Moogfest this year, I couldn't manage to get into the workshops. They filled up immediately after the seats when on line. Since I was really looking forward to attending, this was a fantastic solution. I now feel like I got to experience your workshop and I really enjoyed it, just like I expected. You always impress me how you command any gadget regardless of what it's design philosophy may be. The Mother sequencer is a tricky little bitch, I can't seem to remember the alternate key combos, but you seem to be fine with it!
Ah thanks Carlos - practice always makes (near enough) perfect!
0
Got to attend your workshop at Moogfest. Great stuff. Love that you are posting these on TH-cam to open them up to more people. Thanks, man!
The guy’s awesome !
Oh you
Great video, especially for beginners. Great introduction ;) @21:46 The "MS20"-thing is a reference to the Korg MS-20. And, talking about Korg: the SQ-1 is a nice, cheap sequencer as sequencing is a 'thing' on the Mother 32 (which also offers random sequencing, luckily, as the internal seq is quite limited). Of course, you can connect the M32 to whatever hardware or even software sequencer. Ratcheting is possible too, which is also very nice!
On day I like to be in a talk like this or book you for a talk like this. As always, great.
Thanks mate! x
And you are my hero 🤩
😘
wow, that was doperly.
Good thing I have a DFAM. Now I have to buy a M32. Thanks!
Great sound when you connected the VCF out to the input of the cutoff :)
Does this mean the VCF now controls the cut off or vice versa?
@@petercane6376 well the output of the filter is frequency modulating (FM) the filter cut off in audio rates. And that affects the sound of the output and therefore also the frequency which is modulating that same sound. So sure this two elements affecting each other, which leads to this quite dramatic sounds.
@@distorson
Thank you.
I am 74 and new to synths and am trying to understand what happens when A is patched to be and why so it gives me a better picture.
It is very involved and a lifetime study I think.
I will start patching with easy things first.
I get very inspired by fully patched up synths that self generate a complete " song".
This is the magic of synths to my mind.
Thank you for explaining.
Have you any advice on how to start patching?
@@petercane6376 it's great to start at any time of life :)
Yes, start patching simple things. It will get
complicated fast enough.
Maybe try to recreate a classic subtractive synthesizer architecture first (saw or square wave -> filter -> vca -> output to your speakers).
Then bring movement to the single elements with envelopes and lfos: modulating the cutoff, amplitude, resonance and so on.
Try how it sounds if you loop the envelopes and bring the LFOs into audio rates.
To get more into the generative patching, I think one easy thing is to see if your envelope modules have outputs like "end of cycle" or something similar. That gives you easy access to tell one element to do something after the other one. So different elements are linked to each other. If you then modulate the time of those elements, you will have some evolving stuff going on quickly.
Also take a look at Mylars video here th-cam.com/video/NvrxQbh6vAg/w-d-xo.html
And at the end for me, it also is about exploring stuff by sometimes just trying things without thinking too much about what is going on. Which sometimes leads to noise but often enough to unexpected results.
I always record the audio into my DAW to be able to use the audio later if something well came out.
As a newbie to the eurorack world and new owner of the M32, this is wonderfully inspirational and instructional. This should be required viewing for new folks as myself. Many thanks.
The VCO 2 out to velocity is such a great technique man. Thanks for sharing this workshop!
once you have gone DFAM you never go back. I love using my machinedrum to advance it. Impulse machine with random steps lit up. all kinds of crazy ensues.
It helps me understand LFO.
Ace!
Im listening to all of this while doing some art and this is absolutely wonderful and some fantastic insight
I think you said structure sex at 10.30 lol. Nice talk and in depth knowledge of both modules, inspiring stuff,cheers.
Hah, that too
Informative and well presented video! It would have been nice if there was a camera filming the synths showing what you are you doing, both here on TH-cam and live to the audience.
Thanks. Yeah unfortunately filming was an afterthought as the main aim was delivering the session in the room!
Ok, I understand. Just found another one of your presentations where you have the extra camera: th-cam.com/video/afccwt4C6zI/w-d-xo.html Thanks for the great content!
I agree very much with your approach to perform live. Of Course you have to know your audiance because if they like Berlin School and you play industrial Techno they will be shocked by your music an perhave leave the place. If they like it you are the hero.
28:32: Yes, I have a question. "Can I play with your mother ?"
As soon as my friends start asking me this, I know I have to check my music rack to see if I already bought one or if they have been to the wrong type of dance fest 🤭
I first clicked on this to play in the background while setting up my system but in the end I re-watched the full hour at the tip of my chair.
Some great ideas. If using the dfam for melodic stuff using a quantiser makes life so much easier. I also replaced the tiny step knobs with bigger ones which makes adjusting things easier and gives more subtle control. Love the dfam. For those on a budget, the Behringer Crave is very close to the Mother 32.
Happy to see you talk again. Your tempo, cool and the length of this is the perfect antidote to yet another stressful day at work and the rest of the stressful stuff that is pushed at us from all directions.
TH-cam, what's wrong with you? This is the real thing, do you know what real means? Please promote content like this, be part of the solution and stop trashing the internet, it's not a dumpster!
Thanks mate. Algorithms gonna rithm! x
Rad!
Shorts Really Cooking around the 42:00 minute mark!💫💀😵👌
Gotta keep hydrated when you’re synthesizing.
Thank you! So helpful. Just getting into DFAM. Is there any way to automate and modulate the filter knob? Thank you
Thanks! Only using external CV control, for example from another semi modular synth or sequencer. Arturia Beatstep Pro would do so very well indeed
@@mylarmelodies Thank you. That makes sense. But what input would I feed the 5 volts into, if I wanted to automate the Cutoff filter. Would the input be VCF?
Yep!
this is excellent!! but now I want a dfam and a mother32....
Could be worse!
It would've been nice to see what you were doing on the machines panels while you were speaking
I kno rite - sadly not enough cameraz on this occasion, was a bit of a guerrilla effort
Even by your usual lofty standards, this is fantastic. Camera fail and all. Have you got stuck into the Subharmonicon yet?
Yep! th-cam.com/video/Zl0IV3ZyRlI/w-d-xo.html (Also did a jam that features it on mine and Moog’s YT channel too)
I think the DFAM must really go to the next level when you pair it with an external sequencer.
I actually haven't tried that but yeah absolutely - especially something like a Turing Machine - as its loopable.
@@mylarmelodies I just so happen to have found a Perfect Circuit video in which the performer does exactly this, should check it out!
I intend to get an ES-8 at some point and I'll maybe try some extended sequencing using Live and Max.
strange and Industrial for life!🎹🎧💫💀😵👌👍BrAp oN!!¡!✌
Just got a dfam and a 60hp case any recommended modules to use alongside with the live improv in mind? Cheers
Two Tiptop Ones, a Turing Machine + Pulses + Voltages Expander, a Basimilus Iteritas Alter, a Delay Module and a mixer.
Thank you will have a look into them
I think anyone who works with machines like this should have a Mutable Instruments Branches in their case for more variation, probability, etc.
On your patreon site do you have DFAM and Mother 32 patch exmples?
I don’t no, but there are some of mine in the Patch and Tweak with Moog book!
Would love you to do a video using the DFAM with other Eurorack modules. I love the DFAM but I'm a little stuck with the patching possibilities beyond the DFAM itself. I'm less comfortable / successful when adding other modules. Works great clocking the DFAM along with other modules to get interesting things happening. But I need some help & hints to take things up a level ;-)
Really enjoyed this, thank you! You mentioned about controlling the range of the M32’s LFO sweep by using the mixer - could you explain this, please? Thank you 😊.
Use the Mother mixer with only one thing plugged into it and you can use the mix control as a trimmer to scale the amount of that control you’re sending somewhere!
mylarmelodies Thank you for your reply. I wonder if you could go into a little more detail, please? There does not appear to be a socket on the M32 which is called ‘Mixer’ - would you mind explaining in detail about the necessary connection, please? Sorry if I’m being a bit thick 👍
@@peterwaringofficial Page 17 of the manual is your friend - MIX 1 and MIX 2 are the inputs, - just plug something into one of them, and the outputs is VC MIX, the 'VC MIX' knob is the trimmer
@@mylarmelodies Thank you - that makes perfect sense. Much appreciated :)
That’s how you learn every instrument
where do you get those patch decals for the moogs?!
They come with ‘em!!
@@mylarmelodies oh, I've only seen those diagrams, but they don't have like.. the holes and stuff
thanks
sky is fcking NOT the limit!
Seen that Jeff Mills video playing the 909?...Play fast kids
How do his knees handle it? 45 minutes on the floor for my moogfest ambient thing and I was dyin
What‘s the difference between prepared and pre-prepared?
How’d you mean?
mylarmelodies I often hear you use the term „pre-prepared“ and always wonder if there is a difference to something simply being „prepared“.
Or is it just to make the point even more clear when you want to convey the approach that there is really no preparation whatsoever at all? 😃
Anyway, thanks for being a master educator and inspirator.
Hah, well I guess the level/type of preparedness I’m referring to is dependent on context - I would probably have said “pre-prepared” to refer to actually prewriting loops and melodies that you play back on a night, but I might not, it’s just semantics - no secret meaning!
mylarmelodies 😃 Semantics. Lovely.
I still don’t understand why the volume drops off when you turn up resonance!
Because physics!
My experience is that the overall volume doesn’t drop off, the low end does. You get more of the resonant frequency and less bass but the same overall volume
He’s describing playing an instrument.
Annoying the cam died but awesome presentation!
😍
Sadly those images are fix instead of showing your actual settings! 👀
Yeah sorry, not an ideal camera setup! But the Kick bass snare patch is in the manual at least
I like the risk in electronic music theory, for me DJing died when records where replaced by cdj’s.
It costs a lot to tour with a vinyl collection. It's all about dfams and sd cards.
Two DFAMs are better than one!
Strongly agree
mylarmelodies - yes I have 2 and it’s a whole new game..
might be time for mylarmelodies-branded reusable water bottles :D
Merchandising! Where the real money from the movie is made...
Know why modular synth improvisers love logic gates?
...
Because of the "yes, and" function
give this person a cigar
What’s the difference between the orb and orbital? As an American that always confused me. Same thing with the verve and the verve pipe. Are they the same band?
Two very different bands! Defo worth going on a journey through their back catalogues
your hands are so nerve racking.
I’d like to hear someone using it live without practicing with the band actually improvising and then doing the song again the same
It’s called writing!
🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
How do I get the 200 people to come watch me improvise?
A very good question - start with 20 and go from there?!
@@mylarmelodies :)
Also I’ve played to 2 people (or less) more than once 🤷🏻♂️
it s called an instrument
?
A guitar is a machine. And it kills fascists
That overwhelming feeling of infinite options is not native, nor healthy for the human mind. Less is really more. This isn't unique to making music. This is a fundamental flaw of quality of life in today's society.