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Hello, Ujiie here.
Well, what do you think of THIS?
The Little Bits Synth Kit!
This is SO much fun! Awesome!
I got the box right here.
It's put out by Korg!
The Little Bits Synth Kit.
In all, there are 12 of these things here,
is it ok to call them modules?
They're hooked up to each other at the moment.
Let's take them apart.
See?
The whole package,
consists of all these induvidual units.
This is the kit.
This is really really interesting.
I'll show you how they're packed in the box.
You've got the manual, Japanese instructions included!
See how they're all nicely laid out?
This manual is just awesome. Printed in color,
good explanations of how synthesis works, with applications too.
Very well written.
Just great!
The Little Bits Synth Kit.
Right? From Korg!
On with the show. Let's find out
what this little thing is all about.
First, let's look at each module individually.
What are all these things?
Well, each module is independent,
and each one has a specific job. First, this one.
You can see I have a 9V battery here.
Connected to this cable, right?
This is the power supply module.
(explains power supply in Japanese)
ok? Flip the switch, and there you go.
You see the red LED is lit now. It's on.
This unit supplies power for ALL of the other modules.
You following me?
When it comes to synths, uh, can you zoom on this?
As you can see, I've readied a Korg MS20 Mini for use today.
The MS20 Mini is a typical analog synthesizer.
You guys understand how an analog synth works??
You start with an oscillator section,
then the mixer, to mix the oscillator output, two oscillators in this case,
VCO 1 and 2,
then on to the filter section,
there's a high pass and a low pass filter here,
and then there's this thing called an envelope generator.
Which changes the output over time.
And last but not least is the output itself.
Well, you can do lots of complex things with this one too.
But basically, that is the usual setup of an analog synth.
Oscillator ->
Filter ->
Amplifier.
These are the three main things that synths are composed of.
If you've got your head around this concept, you'll have NO problem with the Little Bits.
So, next in line after the power supply.
Here, look at this. Can you zoom in here?
"Oscillator"
See, written across the top there?
(explains the Japanese word for oscillator)
Let's connect it to the power supply.
Next in line after the oscillator?
This is very important! The "exit" for the sound!
A speaker.
You can see there's a jack next to the speaker, I'm recording the line output from that.
But it's a speaker. And quite a loud one at that!
Now if I connect this one too...
Whoa, where's the volume? The oscillator is on.
You can hear the output, no problem.
This konb here is for pitch.
It goes from ULTRA low frequency,
all the way
to SUPER high frequency.
Now this flat *** to the left is for fine-tuning.
And this switch is for waveform selection.
You can choose square or sawtooth. Square or saw.
One or the other.
This range is crazy.
So that's the oscillator.
Very good. The oscillator module.
Ok? Simple.
Let's look at the filter module next.
Filter. Now where'd it go?
Here it is! Zoom in on this.
Filter!
"Cutoff" and "Peak"
Peak is the same as resonance.
The basics are properly covered. Cutoff and peak.
I'm going to connect it here after the oscillator.
Ah, a word about the connections first. It works
by magnets. The round bits here.
And there are 3 other smaller round things in the center.
Ok? Just bring them close together,
and they snap together like so.
Ok, I've put the filter in line after the oscillator.
And I'll put the speaker last in the chain.
And there it goes.
Let's fiddle with the filter.
Yep. That's a filter alright!
Raise the peak...
It self-oscillates!
This is super fun!
And that's it for the filter module.
Very good!
Naturally, there's one more oscillator module here.
One more kind I should say.
Can you see it? "Random" module.
Simply put, you've got noise and random voltage.
Let's set it to noise.
And of course, you get noise.
Yeah, that's noise.
Noise is an important type of oscillator!
Goes without saying!
Ok.
I've got an oscillator and a filter connected here.
This is neat, this next module.
Look. "Keyboard" module!
Do, Re, Mi... It goes from C to C.
Semitones as well.
One octave, with semitones.
Connect it.
And in line behind the keyboard, connect
the oscillator and filter modules.
Connect the speaker...
We've got sound.
And with the keyboard...
A bit too high, let's lower it.
Perfect!
We're good to go!
This switch activates 'hold'
Right? It holds the note.
Switch it back the way it was.
And it only sounds when a key is held.
The flat *** changes the octave.
It changes the range.
This is really well designed!
Ok so that's the keyboard module, right?
There's another one I wanna show you.
Here, look at this.
"Micro Sequencer"
So that means...
it's a 4-step sequencer.
See? Look! Look! Plug it in and it runs straight away!
Right? Connect the oscillator and filter...
Oh, there it goes!
It's working. These knobs set the pitch.
Good! Good!
The flat *** controls speed.
Wow!
It's a proper step sequencer.
Good job, Korg! Right?
And of course, there's an envelope module too.
Let's hook it up.
Ok, the envelope...
Why not, let's do it like this.
With the step sequencer running...
Connect the envelope here. You've got attack and decay controls.
Turn the decay down.
You get that kind of effect.
Turn it up.
Raise the attack.
That's an envelope.
Very well done indeed.
On to the next module.
Delay!
It's easier to see down here. Delay.
It's an effector! Time and feedback controls.
Let's hook it up!
Turn the knobs a bit.
There it is!
This is great!
This delay is something else!
The way the echoes degrade? Analog delay!
This sound makes me happy!
Awesome!
Now, some useful accessories.
A splitter cable.
This can be used to split or separate the signal.
Or,
this one here, which is REALLY useful.
This one is for mixing.
You can mix this signal with this signal.
Mixer module.
And that's all the modules in the set.
That's it. That's the Little Bits Synth Kit.
Fantastic! So much fun!
Well, what can you DO with it? Let's find out!
Next on the agenda, well, there's a LOT you can do with this,
but the GREAT part about this manual, as I said before,
well it's great that it includes a manual,
"Awaken the Rock Star sleeping in you!"
What the hell?
Seriously, it's SO well written. The use of color is superb.
Here's the Easy Steps page.
About sound, and synthesizers. If you read this,
you'll have no problems understanding synthesizers.
There are detailed explanations of all the modules.
I talked about them a bit, but this has all the details.
VERY easy to understand!
What a well-written manual!
Fantastic!
This section is "The Synthesizer and Pop Culture."
You can learn about the background of synthesizers in popular culture,
and then "Let's Build a Circuit."
Explanations of practical examples.
We've done this kind of thing just a minute ago.
But I saw a neat one I think we should build. This.
"Frequency Modulation."
This uses one oscillator to modulate another.
This looks neat. Let's build it!
Ok finished!
As you can see, one oscillator connected right after another.
Well, what does that mean? Listen.
You can hear it cycling right? Ton ton ton ton..
The second oscillator is set to sawtooth.
Change to square.
Hear the difference?
Back to sawtooth.
Let's make it faster.
Neat! The main pitch is this one, ok?
Awesome!
Next, this was another neat example. The random voltage module
makes an appearance. I've hooked it up like in the manual.
What's going on? First of all,
we'll just use a sequencer and oscillator here.
And by doing so...
That's what it does. Four steps,
four pitches that sound in order.
Four is neat. BUT!
You might get bored quickly though.
"I wish something neat and random would happen"
Well, this guy is good for just that.
The Random Module.
A very good one.
It can do noise and also random, which outputs
random voltages actually.
You connect this module after the step sequencer.
Like so.
What's going to happen?
It's still 4 steps, but the steps get randomized.
This is fun!
Sample and hold. This is called sample and hold actually.
Speed it up.
That's that. Kind of 'Outer Space' sounding.
Let's slap another module in here. The Delay module.
THIS!!!
By moving the delay time *** in realtime, you get super spacey results.
Awesome!
Next, the "Percussion Party!"
"Let's make dancing drums!"
That's what it says. Let's look at this setup.
For this one we'll use the sequencer.
We take the four step sequencer,
connect the splitter, the one that separates the signal,
and take the first lead and connect it to noise,
so these four steps from the sequencer will make
the noise module trigger, and just that.
Not concerned with pitch at all.
And we'll filter the output of the noise module.
We'll take the other lead from the splitter,
this one,
and take those same four steps,
use them for what we call triggers,
and connect it to the envelope module.
The envelope will take the sounds of the four steps,
and give them different expression.
Let's have a listen.
There we go.
It sounds at the speed of the steps.
We can tweak the cutoff.
That's nice.
Now, we can take this percussive sound,
and raise the attack here,
Ok? Sounds like a steam locomotive!
Turn it way down and you get this.
You can speed up the sequencer.
That's pretty fast!
And this is the sound you get.
By tweaking the decay *** here,
you can change the expression of the sound.
This is neat!
Great! next, let's go with this. "Metal Music."
"Use the envelope and make metallic sounds."
Metallic sounds? We'll use the sequencer and oscillator
modules, two in a row, for some frequency modulation.
And, we've got the envelope module at the end,
so let's connect the speaker. Speaker, on!
There we go, getting closer to that "metallic" sound.
Oh, I see...
I see. That's neat!
Ok, what shall we do next?
Well, this caught my eye: "Monster Synth."
Let's try this one.
We've got the keyboard, two oscillators,
a mixer, envelope, filter, delay.
What a setup!
I've built it already.
From the keyboard,
split the signal, to two oscillators,
which get mixed here.
1 on the left, 2 on the right. Mix 'em up.
And then we've got
this being triggered, attack and decay,
through the envelope, then cutoff,
uh, cutoff and peak,
then through the delay, and out the speaker.
Not so unlike the structure of this MS20.
The MS20 has two oscillators, a filter,
a mixer section,
through the envelope and then the output.
Right?
Sounds good.
Comparable to the MS20?
Let's play with the filter.
Oohh, oscillation!
The filter really goes off!
Let's change the octave.
Adjust the tuning.
Yeah, that's nice.
That's a monster.
This might not be all that interesting,
I'm the one having all the fun here after all,
but let's make an even bigger monster!
I've got a second kit here.
Let's really get a monster going here.
For the last bit here, since we've got two kits to play with,
I'd like to do something really interesting.
Have a look.
First,
there's the kit I've been using all along.
Keyboard, two oscillators,
then through the filter and the delay.
What does it sound like?
That sounds good!
That's that one. Ok, the middle.
What's going on here?
This is connected hre, but it's split too.
And it sounds like...
THIS!!!
This one also uses two oscillators,
a step sequencer and the random module.
Right? Random makes lots of different sounds happen.
Then through an envelope generator and a dealy.
So,
Extreme!
Awesome!
AND the system up at the top here.
It's setup as a percussion system like we saw earlier.
And this over here, uh,
is a noise generator,
with a sequencer driving it in rhythm,
and via the cutoff ***,
the result is this kind of sound.
Niiiiiiiice!
That's really awesome.
But we're not done.
Mix them all together!
And play the MS20 on top of it all!
Here we go!
Translation & Captions by:
SWCreativeJapan.