Sequential Synth Tips With Sheenah Ko: Prophet-6 Sequencer

video upload by Sequential

"Welcome back to “Sequential Synth Tips,” where some of our favorite artists share their tips, tricks, and techniques on Sequential synths. In this episode, Sheenah Ko demonstrates how to use the sequencer on the Prophet-6 keyboard.

Sheenah is a professional keyboardist and artist, writing vibey synth pop music under Sheenah Ko, and often seen on stages around the world with bands like psych rockers The Besnard Lakes, electronic dance group, Le Couleur, and so many more!

Sheenah is releasing her sophomore album, FUTURE IS NOW, on June 3rd, with 2 new singles available now, all craftfully made with Sequential gear!

Follow Sheenah Ko:

https://sheenahko.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/sheenahko
https://instagram.com/sheenahko

For more information on Sequential instruments:
https://www.sequential.com/"

The Cave Sessions (Jams with Sheenah)

video uploads by Sheenah Ko

Playlist at the time of this post:

1. Cave Sessions with Sheenah Ko (Improvised jam with Roland Juno 60, Prophet 6 and Toraiz SP16)

"Here's the 2nd video of my new series, the Cave Sessions, where I invite you deep into my woman cave to watch my solo jam sessions, featuring special guest, Ginger! Jamming and improvising is my way of discovering and learning more about my gear, my voice, and creating new ideas without any rules. I also compose a lot of my songs this way. This time I am improvising on the Roland Juno 60, Sequential Prophet-60 (Master) and Toraiz-SP16 (Slave)!

2. Cave Sessions with Sheenah Ko (welcome to my creative process)

"Welcome to my cave....where laundry and synthesizers have their place. I invite you to watch my song-writing process. The way I write songs is through meditative and improvised jam sessions; I press record and let myself go, and because each instrument is being recorded separately, I can go back to my jam and sculpt/chip away and create a new song. MY GEAR: Sequential Prophet-6 (Master), Nord Stage 2, Sequential/Pioneer DJ Toraiz SP-16 (slave), Roland Juno-60"

About Sheenah Ko:
"I'm a professional keyboardist and solo artist based out of Montreal, Canada, and a Sequential Keyboards artist. I am often composing music under my name (Sheenah Ko) or touring the world rocking international stages with so many rad bands like The Besnard Lakes, Antoine Corriveau, Le Couleur... (the roster is looooong). I love geeking out on synthesizers, writing trippy music, travelling, spending as much time as possible in nature, hanging with Ginger cat and spreading good vibes. I have a brand new album coming out on June 3, 2022 called FUTURE IS NOW, stay tuned!!!

Official website: sheenahko.com"

The Crow Hill Company Introduces VAULTS - TUNED GONGS

video upload by CROW HILL

"There is a cave, near Rome, Italy, and in that cave they make gongs. In this video Christian unveils the latest free offering as part of our vault range. An extraordinary quartet of tuned gongs, designed and used by meditation gurus as part of gong bath setups we decided, in this "first pancake" to leather them. Much to their sonic distress."

Press release follows:


The Crow Hill Company brings beautiful set of tuned gongs to free VAULTS… VI collection as …TUNED GONGS, a downloadable drop with a difference

EDINBURGH, UK: The Crow Hill Company is proud to bring a beautiful set of tuned gongs to its free VAULTS… VI (Virtual Instrument) collection as …TUNED GONGS — germinated as a downloadable drop with a difference, effectively enabling anyone to play an extraordinary quartet of harmonised gongs designed and used by meditation gurus as part of gong bath setups in a way that was never intended by their Italian creator after being bought and sampled by composer Christian Henson, original founder of the Edinburgh-based enterprise, abiding, as always, by its Make Music, Your Music motto — as of January 8…

It is sometimes said — quite often, truth be told — that All roads lead to Rome. And although that popular proverb does not apply to The Crow Hill Company’s VAULTS - TUNED GONGS in the true sense of those words’ intended meaning, Italy’s capital city could be said to have played a passing part in the VI in question’s road to reality. Composer Christian Henson picks up the tentative thread, teasing, “There is a cave, just outside Rome, and in that cave they make gongs; we’re not sponsored by them — they don’t even know we’re making this thing. They do more than you’d expect out of a big cymbal.”

Changing tact, Christian Henson clarifies: “Ask any member of The Crow Hill team about my attention span and they will say that whilst, like most of us musos, I have the capacity for hyper-focus, I’m also easily distracted — especially when it comes to something new. We’re meant to be working on a fascinating new addition to the Origins… series, but, unfortunately, I’m easy prey for an Instagram post featuring an instrument I hadn’t heard before. Correction: I’d heard gongs before; I’ve even had the chance to play one, but none that sounded like these ones. Or rather this one. The big one. So I bought a whole tree of them! That’s what’s so fulfilling about this Crow Hill project; we get to make investments on behalf of the composing fraternity, so we all get a go.”

Get this, though. “This VAULTS… features four incredible-sounding tuned gongs that were designed, I suspect, for gong bath therapy,” theorises The Crow Hill Company’s original founder, following up with some characteristically vibrant verbiage: “Beautiful, bold fundamentals; mystical, engaging harmonics; and also a bottom end that shakes the room. I very much get the feeling that these gongs are not designed to be whacked. They really do complain when they’re abused in this way. The big one… well, she growls like a distant dragon, while the smallest protests in the shape of a scoop up an entire perfect fifth before it reluctantly settles into its fundamental. We’ve basically overlapped them and layered them to give you a quite rudimentary piano-style, chromatic instrument.”

It is fair to say, then, that the sometimes badly behaving VAULTS - TUNED GONGS sounds somewhat different to any of its software siblings. Saying that, though, its intuitive GUI (Graphical User Interface) is comfortingly familiar to anyone who has laid eyes on any VAULTS… release, identical in (almost) all aspects — bar its distinguishing background colour change — to all of The Crow Hill Company’s current collection. “Front end-wise, we’ve got EXPRESSION on CC11,” continues Christian Henson. “On the gongs that are higher in pitch you do get a kind of rumble, so I would recommend being very cautious about the SUB BASS control — particularly when you close the LPF [Low Pass Filter], when there’s a super-wide low end, which is so difficult to achieve; getting that kind of fatness, but also having that stereo width is pretty incredible. If you’re confident with your bass response in your studio or on your headphones, then go for it, but this thing really does shake the room. Then we’ve got some DELAY. You can make it even wider with the REVERB, and, because we’re naughty, there’s a little bit of CRYSTALLIZER in there, which is just incredible. As always with the VAULTS… macros, they’re designed so that you can’t make it sound terrible — everything has a subtle musical quality to it.”

Concludes Christian Henson: “We’re doing something incredibly exciting; a new way of sampling, but also treating these gongs with utmost respect, appreciating their soft, infinitely nuanced harmonics that change on every hit. The distraction has become a serious one, taking weeks as they’re not easy to record. When something is shaking the room and all the air inside it, what do you mic? So we needed a test recording. What better way of ushering in 2026 than with a shuddering tree of room-shaking gongs? There are some lower dynamics in there, which will give you a sense of where we’re headed with this project — a useful tuned metallophone that’s difficult to place, but, really, the purpose of this VAULTS… is to gong these! For that odd time you need a gong for a cue, these are pure class. I also found turning my speakers up and playing at full velocity to be an excellent way of getting my teenagers down for breakfast; they don’t like them at all.”

VAULTS… releases from The Crow Hill Company — including …TUNED GONGS — are free for all to download and make music with for the rest of their lives from here: https://thecrowhillcompany.com/vaults/

For more in-depth information, please visit the dedicated VAULTS - TUNED GONGS webpage here: https://thecrowhillcompany.com/tuned-gongs/"

MFB Dominion 1 Videos by Cave Way

Published on Jun 16, 2016 Cave Way

Three videos that capture a bit of the character of the MFB Dominion 1. Tonally it reminds me a bit of the SCI Pro One.

Playlist:
1. MFB Dominion 1
2. twiddlin' knobs - MFB Dominion 1, Elektron Analog Four & Octatrack
3. Jimmy Jam - MFB Dominion 1 - "Another day, another recording of the D1. Lots of overdubbed instruments including the D1, acoustic drums, various Elektron gear, a yamaha CS reface, real baby grand, the list goes on. D1 starts ripping about 2 minutes to close the piece out on a high note."

Waldorf Kyra - Test 2

Published on Oct 14, 2019 Cave Way

Cave Way Kyra videos

"Do you like fresh fish?
It's just fine at Finney's Diner.
Finney also has some fresher fish
that's fresher and much finer.
But his best fish is his freshest fish and Finney says with pride,
"The finest fish at Finney's
is my freshest fish, French-fried!"

SO . . .
don't order the fresh
or the fresher fish.
At Finney's, if you're wise,
you'll say,
"Fetch me the finest
French-fried freshest
fish that Finney fries!"

Also this is the antithesis of test 1."

Scratch That Itch - MFB Dominion Club & Tanzmaus, MPC Live, Octatrack & Analog 4, KArp Odyssey

Published on Oct 29, 2017 Cave Way

"If your first question is: 'hey cave way, is that a white russian you are sipping on?' The answer is yes.... yes it is. There's a whole mess of gear strung up together in this track to create a symphony of bleepy-bloops. With that being said the showcase synth is definitely the Dominion Club. The patches float through sub osc, to digi osc, to rubber band osc, to over driven osc growls. It handles the patch change instructions from the MPC live without a hitch. Hopefully this scratches the itch for some of you waiting on your Club."

Almost Gone - OB-6, MPC Live, Dominion Club & Dominion 1, Arp Odyssey, etc, et al.....

Published on Jan 6, 2018 Cave Way

"This week I had a brush with my own mortality, and almost took myself out in an extremely unintentional and careless way. 1 trip to the ER, and its all better. While I was going through an emergency surgery, and under the influence of propofol, I asked if I could record the room - and those samples and vibe turned into this. Much like the other vids, lots of gear being used and an attempt at playing some solos using some of my favorite OB-6 sounds (read presets). Later all - and PSA - CFY (Chew Your Food)!"

MFB Dominion Club - Demo drei

Published on Oct 1, 2017 Cave Way

"Someone asked how low can it go? Well.... it can go all the way to the floor. One of things I like to test out with my monos is the bass (or kik or tom) sounds of using a highly resonant HP filter. The Club tracks notes "ok", but (at least on mine) anything more than an octave in that low of a register is problematic, and starts to go out of tune. Maybe it needs calibrated? maybe its user error? Maybe I shouldn't try and play the filter that low.... not sure, not concerned. I DO know it rips some bong rattling bass."

Jomox Alpha Base - Post Ambient

video upload by Cave Way

"Finally found some time to create.... its been awhile. Ive been exploring the MPC live drum probabilities (which Ive been asking about for a million years) and the results found their way into a track. I call this Post Ambient Spa Music, enjoy."

The Completely Incomplete Tanzbar 2 tutorial?

video upload by Cave Way

"Yo! Whats good? Some asked so you all shall receive. Not really a tutorial guy, but regardless here's how I use the TB2. Focus is on minimal house (with a side of funky shuffle). The 'Techno' I make is much more experimental and effect driven... and wouldn't be a good way to show y'all how to use this awesome instrument. If this is useful - let me know I'll make another episode with parts I didn't cover. If you have questions - let me know and I'll include in part 2. Think it sucks? let me know in the comments and we can argue!"

You Up? (that's hot) - MFB Tanzbar 2, Dominion Club, Tanzmaus, Akai MPC live, Tascam Model 24

Published on Jan 18, 2019 Cave Way

"You up? cool."

Meditation No. 3 - Behringer Deepmind 12, MFB Tanzmaus

Published on Jan 18, 2017 Cave Way

"Snow

Recently picked up the Deepmind, and I thought I'd layer it up over a piano riff that makes me think of snow. First impressions on the Deepmind its awesome at pads, sound FX, and brass. For the pads you literally just need to hit 1 key and the synth blasts off into outer space. I will dive into more sounds shortly. More videos to come....

And how about that Tanzmaus? It kicks!"

MFB Dominion Club - Demo 2

Published on Sep 23, 2017 Cave Way

"I'm taking viewer questions, and making patches to cover different sonic territory. All sounds are from the Club. Presuming people are cool with it, and MFB doesn't send me a cease and desist, I'll keep it up :) One of the questions I got was can the Club make brass, stringy type sounds? The answer I feel is a resounding yes. A sound designer with more experience and time could really shape sounds much better, but this should give you a good idea before you buy. Have questions? let me know. Next on the list are Digi Osc exploration, How low can it go (sub bass), and ambient territories (self-generating patches)."

Tanzbar 2 Techno

Published on Sep 30, 2019 Cave Way

TB2 + Logic FX + Alchemy

Get wrecked

Modular Leap Year Jam

Published on Mar 3, 2020 Cave Way

"#euroracktechno #modulartechno #stereodipole

Recorded a jam on 2/29 - built around a melody being modulated by the SSF stereo dipole."

Ambient '97 - Akai MPC Live

Published on Jul 8, 2017 Cave Way

"Non offensive electronic music channeled straight from the 90's, specifically 97. Sampled some birds in my back yard, some D1 in my office, found some stock video of pigeons, the rest is Saturday night."

Tanzbar 2 Vibes

video upload by Cave Way

"Dusted off the TB2 recently and unfortunately it's developed a new feature where random lights are on all the time..... Each time I reboot some other light will develop this feature. It makes using the onboard sequencer extremely difficult as the lights serve a much needed purpose :(

Fortunately it still sounds great. Captured this groovy vamp and thought I'd through it on the Tubes."

Modular Techno b0220

Published on Feb 23, 2020 Cave Way

#eurorack #modular #techno

Live Jam edited down to the better parts. Enjoy some B roll

Snark Out - Akai MPC Live, MPC Dominion Club, D1, & Tanzmaus, Motas -6, kARP Odyssey, DSI OB-6

Published on Jun 5, 2018 Cave Way

"Lot's of synths coalescing into a puddle of mentalism. MPC is holding down the sequencing with the kARP Odyssey making some yazz floot sounds."

Switch - Motas-6, DSI OB-6, MFB Dominion Club, Dominion & Tanzmaus, Akai MPC Live

Published on Mar 8, 2018 Cave Way

"Picked up the Motas-6 recently, which if you haven't seen or heard.... it is a paraphonic synth handmade in England. It is extremely versatile has a billion controls and every parameter has its own LFO/Envelope generator so the sound design goes deep. It sounds great. I've been sitting on this recording for awhile and finally had a chance to upload it. If I get some time, I'll put a proper sound demo out where the synth isn't sitting in a track."

More Motas here.

Morocco - MFB Tanzbar 2, Tascam Model 24, Akai MPC Live

Published on Mar 20, 2019 Cave Way

"short snippet of the middle of a new track. TB2 Bass voice + Akai Talkbox plugin = fun for all."