Journal

My Studio is complete

Posted on by The 5th Volt

It was a fun journey, fuelled by GAS and not knowing what to do and how to do it. But now I feel that with my latest acquisitions I have narrowed it down to the essentials: The AE Modular from tangible waves for for modular experimentation, the Deluge from Synthstrom Audible for all sequencing, sampling, looping and beats and now for all the digital and bombastically orchestral sounds – the brand new Korg Wavestate. For FM sounds I also have the Korg Volca FM, but currently I’m not sure when I will have time for it.

With these instruments I have now finally no more excuses. I can (theoretically) make any sound that I would ever want. The Deluge can play any sample and even single cycle waveforms. The Wavestate has a store of over 1000 different sounds that can be morphed, cycled and shaped.

NO MORE EXCUSES.

Live at Oscillations 2019

Posted on by The 5th Volt

This is the final video of my first live performance together with Adam on guitar at Oscillations 2019 the first ever synth festival in the Bega Valley in NSW, Australia.

Big thanks to Sats Kramer and Ray Toms for the camera work and especially Scott Baker for mixing and cutting it all up into this video!

The Road to Murrah Hall

Posted on by The 5th Volt

On 19th October 2019 we held the very first synthesizer festival in the Begavalley on the Far South Coast of NSW in Australia. This was a project that was long being discussed in our Synth Club and only with the help of the Bermagui Make & Create Crew, the Begavalley Shire Council and Navigate Arts did we manage to pull this off. It was held at the iconic Murrah Hall near Bermagui in a beautiful bush setting.

As one of the organisers I was invited to talk about this on the ABC Radio morning show the Friday before the festival and to perform live with my modular synthesizer. Nothing like this was ever aired before on this station in its long history. I prepared a 15 minute set but then got only 5 minutes to actually perform it … so I recorded it at home and used it as background to a few photos and clips that I took of the Synth Festival.

Enjoy the few impressions of the day (I have left out the evening performances as those will be covered somewhere else) and I hope that we will do this again next year and invite anyone who lives close or far to come and celebrate synthesizers and electronic music in a rustic bush setting, close to the most wonderful beaches of Australia.

More information about the festival: http://synthsurfers.eventbrite.com.au

All music on this track was made exclusively with the AE Modular synthesizer from tangible waves and recorded directly to a Zoom H1n handheld recorder. No post processing has been applied.

Begavalley Synth Surfers 2019

Posted on by The 5th Volt

This is the very first ever festival to celebrate electronic music in the Begavalley on the Far South Coast of New South Wales in Australia! Ths is an initiative of the Bega Synthesizer Club in partnership with the Bermagui Make & Create Group, the Begavalley Shire Library and Navigate Arts.

We will have a full day of workshops on building and using synthesizers, talks and presentations, jam sessions and an evening of live performances and dance well into the night.

The event will be held at the Murrah Hall, about 10 minutes south of Bermagui. A historic location which has hosted many great and small musical events and is situated in the beautiful bush near the coast.

The 5th Volt is set to perform that night and it will be my first ever live performance!!

On the Radio in Philadelphia!

Posted on by The 5th Volt

I’m just amazed how things are going this year, it’s a crazy roller coaster ride! It’s a year of firsts for me: First time making music, first time uploading videos to a YouTube channel, first time contributing a track to an album and now this track has been played on the radio on the Star’s End show from Philadelphia.

http://www.starsend.org/playlists/09.22.19.html

This is what the about page has to say about this show: ” STAR’S END is (with the exception of “Music from the Hearts of Space”) the longest running radio program of ambient music in the world. Since 1976, STAR’S END has been providing the Philadelphia broadcast area with music to sleep and dream to. “

My favourite band of all times, Tangerine Dream, is being played there alongside Steve Roach and many other classics and new comers to spacey electronic music.

And now The 5th Volt has been included alongside these heroes of mine!

AEther Waves Vol. 1

Posted on by The 5th Volt

Today we released the first collaborative album that features the AE Modular synthesizer. I’m happy that so many people helped with the production of this album and that we found so many artists that contributed their work.

I’m also very proud to have one track on this album myself … this is my very first release of my music on Bandcamp!

Superbooth 2019

Posted on by The 5th Volt

This post is a bit late, but better late than never! I spent most of May in Berlin with my family and had the great fortune to also attend Superbooth. As some of you may know, I am helping Robert from tangible waves with some of his marketing and I also manage the AE Modular community forum. So he invited me to Superbooth as part of his team and I spent the 3 days mostly at the tangible waves booth, demonstrating the AE Modular system to so many people who were just amazed how small it is and how good it sounds. I also met many people from the forum, which was really cool, especially with me being so far away here down under.

Felix (from TheTuesdayNightMachines), Mark (TheTechnobear), Robert (tangiblewaves) and I then had a little sit down to talk about this phenomenon which is the AE Modular.

We also had many youtubers come and interview Robert which really helped carry the message around the world. Most notably was Ben (DivKid) who was genuinely impressed and his video has now been viewed a few thousand times.

All in all I had a great time there and left with so many ideas for new content on my YouTube channel and website that there won’t be enough weekends to do it all. The most exciting thing for me however was the discovery of Modular Minimalism in the form of the tiny demo system that Robert had made specially for the booth and which he gave to me afterwards so that I could play while I was in Berlin and away from my big system. This resulted in my mini youtube series about the AE Minisynth which I will now explore in addition to getting to know my big system.