Supercritical Redshift 6 | Cinematic performance

video upload by Jay Hosking

"Please support my work on Patreon: / jayhosking
A live synthesizer jam performed with the Redshift 6 at the centre. Percussion added afterward in the box.

Fair warning: both Supercritical and MAS Distribution sent along their respective gear (the Redshift 6, and the Solarfaze/Polyphrase, respectively) for free. Take that as you will. Neither of them explicitly asked me to make a video with the gear, although I'm sure that was the point, right? But in both cases, the gear they sent along was a joy to play, which is why they're here.

I ended up really enjoying the Redshift 6. It's ostensibly analog where it counts—6 DCOs and VCFs—but it's also really clean and precise sounding, giving it a digital sheen. That's somewhat less my thing. However, it has a few things to really give it personality: multi-timbrality, up to a different timbre for each of the six voices; a Character parameter which vastly can change the sound of a voice, its filter and mixing and more; a great built-in effects suite (can only run one at a time); three pairs of stereo outputs to run your timbres separately (as here); easy-to-setup macro knobs for live performing using multiple timbres, all from one page; and a built-in sequencer for getting basic ideas onto the table without outside help. In many respects, it feels like an iteration on some of the ideas from the Elektron Analog Four, another synth I really love, only with enough voices to create a pad, arp, and drone at the same time.

Here, I run one timbre, a constant note, into the Vongon Solarfaze, which adds chorus and then drive/saturation. The second timbre, a single-note sequence, runs to the Vongon Polyphrase, adding delay. Both of these pedals impressed me way more than I had expected; there is something extremely performable about the Polyphrase that makes me want to get it on the table again straight away. And then for the third timbre, the pad, I run it direct out from the Redshift 6, using the synth's built-in reverb. I'm pretty picky on reverb these days and I think it sounds awesome.

With the macro knob opening all filters at once (to varying degrees), this live performance got huge. I had originally intended it to be only the synth, but once I heard the final performance, and how much it reminded me of a soundtrack cue, I knew I had to add orchestral percussion. I built the percussion out of modified samples from the Reason Studios loop library.

Altogether, it created an extremely cinematic performance and I'm very happy with the musical results. I was having such a good time with it that I'm excited to get back to the studio today and explore a little more. Thanks for listening.

https://jayhosking.bandcamp.com"