Door #24: Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht (Silent Night, Holy Night) - Synthmas '21

video upload by Synthfluencer

"Ho-Ho-Ho! This is Synthmas '21, the virtual calendar presenting a Christmas carol played by synthesizers - every day from 1st to 24th of December.

The song:
Maybe the best world's known Christmas carol, this song premiered in 1818 in Salzburg/Austria on the 24th. Unesco made it into intangible cultural heritage in 2011.

The gear:
I wanted to add something special to the last performance of my Synthmas calendar. What else could I choose than the Moog Claravox Centennial theremin. I was in doubt if I really should do a performance; we got that instrument 3 weeks ago and I could'nt really practice since then. So, I'm absolutely far away from being able to play the theremin in a decent manner. But so what, please don't be hard on me judging my very first steps with this tricky to play instrument.

In the second part as a littel redemption, the Yamaha CS-5 and Kawai S100F take over the lead voice. The Japanese duo is routed through the MODX fattening the sound with some bread & butter effects. Also this time I got the Kawai in tune, in a recent video the synth's tuning drifted away beyond measure. Instead I lost focus on the levels when I recorded the track. Sorry for the distorted pieces.

I wish all of you a peaceful Christmas time and I hope you enjoyed my cheesy little Synthmas calendar '21

Trailer material: Pexels.com (image @seurafrancis99, video @cottonbro)"

Door #22: O du fröhliche (O, how joyful) - Synthmas '21

video upload by Synthfluencer

"Ho-Ho-Ho! This is Synthmas '21, the virtual calendar presenting a Christmas carol played by synthesizers - every day from 1st to 24th of December.

The song:
The lyrics by German orphanage founder Johannes Daniel Falk are combined with an italian folk song creating one of the best known German Christmas carols. The text has a Christian background.

The gear:
Once more I choose the Casio CZ-5000 for this job. I found the organ patch in the depths of the internet. It was posted by a chap called Mike Cripps in a newsgroup (the elder among us may remember) and is dated 1989. Since I couldn't get the CZ-5000 receiving patch files via sysex, I programmed the patch by hand. The pipe organ sound becomes way more convincing by adding a suitable reverb (Zoom MS70 CDR, 'Church Hall')

Trailer material: Pexels.com (image @seurafrancis99, video @cottonbro)"

Door #20: O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree) - Synthmas '21

video upload by Synthfluencer

"Ho-Ho-Ho! This is Synthmas '21, the virtual calendar presenting a Christmas carol played by synthesizers - every day from 1st to 24th of December.

The song:
This song was first mentioned around 1550. In the first place a tragic love song, it describes the ever-green and steady fir tree as the opposite to a unsteady philandering lover. In late 19th Century verses were changed and made this one of the most famous German Christmas Carols.

The gear:
I play the lead voice by hand using the Yamaha CS-80 and the Kawai Synthesizer 100F. Both built in the late seventees, these mono synths formed together with a Moog Prodigy, ARP-2600 and Roland Jupiter-4 the basic setup of Depeche Mode's Speak & Spell era. The Kawai 100F (also branded "Teisco") is a mono synth with a very unique sound. At first the synth seem to be quite basic but it has some very neat modulation options under it's hood.

Both synths sound is passed through chorus / delay effects and backed by Deepmind pad and Blofeld arpeggio sound.

Trailer material: Pexels.com (image @seurafrancis99, video @cottonbro)"

Door #19: Am Weihnachtsbaum die Lichter brennen - Synthmas '21

video upload by Synthfluencer

"Ho-Ho-Ho! This is Synthmas '21, the virtual calendar presenting a Christmas carol played by synthesizers - every day from 1st to 24th of December.

The song:
Also a secular Carol, 'Am Weihnachtsbaum die Lichter brennen' (On the Christmas tree the lights are burning) is about the Christmas vibes and puts a view especially on the Christmas tree. Christmas trees are mentioned for the first time in German historical documents of the 15th century. The tradition of having a decorated Christmas tree in private homes started in 18th century but was a privilege of the rich. When mid of the 19t century The Illustrated Londons News published a picture of queen Victoria and prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha celebrate Christmas showing a decorated tree, it started a trend. By deliberated culturing firs and spruces Christmas trees became available for a broader public.

The gear:
This arrangement is played by one synth only, the Waldorf Blofeld but using different sound patches. Synths that can play more than one patch at a time are called multi-timbral. Four different patches are used for this song. I wanted to give this song the touch of a music box. My great grandfather built a music box when he was a war prisoner in WW1 that plays this song. So I always have this familie's heirloom in mind when the song is played.

Trailer material: Pexels.com (image @seurafrancis99, video @cottonbro)"

Door #17: Sind die Lichter angezündet (When The Lights Are Lit) - Synthmas '21

video upload by Synthfluencer

"The song:
This song was the best known Christmas carol in the former GDR and also named a Christmas album that was played in almost every family on Christmas eve. The text written as a poem contains all the ingredients for a typical Christmas celebration: The lights, a tree, gifts, joy and peace.

The gear:
What else can I use for this arrangement than the Vermona stack: Vermona Synthesizer and Piano Strings. Both instruments have been made by VEB Klingenthaler Harmonikawerke, a large instrument manufacturer of the former GDR based in Klingenthal/ Saxony. More than 3.000 employees produced accordions branded "Weltmeister" and later electronic organs and synthesizers under the brand Vermona until 1990. Today the brand name Vermona lives on hold by the company HDB electronic that still produces high quality electronic instruments.

The synthesizers lead voice is routed through a TC Flashback unit adding it's wonderful Mod Delay effect. The Piano Strings goes through a Zoom MS-70 CDR end is enriched with a stereo delay and a very neat Small Stone Phaser simulation. You see in other videos on my channel the Vermona Phaser 80, but in this case I preferred the silky dreamy Jean-Michel-Jarre-signature sound of the Small Stone over the harsh Vermona phaser. Here I compare the sound of the effect units: https://youtu.be/yraACszuvAA

Vermona Synthesizer is controlled via MIDI (I built in a VS MIDI device some time ago, video showing that will follow) and play the Piano Strings by hand cause it's lack of any external control input.

Trailer material: Pexels.com (image @seurafrancis99, video @cottonbro)"

Door #16: Jingle Bells - Synthmas '21

video upload by Synthfluencer

"Ho-Ho-Ho! This is Synthmas '21, the virtual calendar presenting a Christmas carol played by synthesizers - every day from 1st to 24th of December.

The song:
This well known winter's song was made by american composer James Lord Pierpont around 1850. The song is actually about a horse sleigh race and has no context to Christmas.

The gear:
Before technology made digital multi track recording available there was tape recording. And before polyphonic synthesizers where were mono synths. In this arrangement I walk on the paths of history doing a multi track recording track by track on a loop station. All sounds come from the Yamaha CS-5 mono synthesizer. The challenge of multi track recording is timing. The loop station BOSS RC-202 represents state of the art technology that helps to synchronize the tracks. I can imagine how much work it was to record albums like "Switched on Bach" by Wendy Carlos when everything had to be done by hand and ear.

PS Sorry for the bad video quality

Trailer material: Pexels.com (image @seurafrancis99, video @cottonbro)"

Door #10: Leise rieselt der Schnee (Let it snow) - Synthmas '21

video upload by Synthfluencer

"Ho-Ho-Ho! This is Synthmas '21, the virtual calendar presenting a Christmas carol played by synthesizers - every day from 1st to 24th of December.

The song:
One of the best known German carols was written in 1895 by parson Eduard Ebel. The melody is most likely a traditional folk song.

The gear:
The lead melody is played by the Vermona Synthesizer from 1983. This two oscillator mono synth got nicknamed "Zonen-Moog" while "Zone" refers to the eastern zone of Germany where this synth was produced. Because of the import embargo for electronic parts produced in capitalist countries all circuitry had to be designed from scratch. However, these mostly discrete designed oscillator and filter ciruits give the synth a warm analog and unique sound.

In this stoned song's version Vermona synth is accompanied by Blofeld bringing a deep bass and Deepmind adding some dazed background harmonies.

Trailer material: Pexels.com (image @seurafrancis99, video @cottonbro)"

Door #9: Kling, Glöckchen, klingelingeling (Ring, Little Bell) - Synthmas '21

video upload by Synthfluencer

"Ho-Ho-Ho! This is Synthmas '21, the virtual calendar presenting a Christmas carol played by synthesizers - every day from 1st to 24th of December.

The song:
Together with the melody presumably originating from an traditional german folk song, the carol was published first in 1862. The text relates to the "Christkind" - a German Christmas variant of Baby Jesus often characterized as a girl - wishes to let into the homes bringing gifts in return.

The gear:
Bell-like sounds always have been somewhat problematic to generate by subtractive synthesis as most analog synthesizers utilize. FM, LA and wavetable synthesis do a much better job. So the three tracks of this song are played by the Yamaha MODX (acting as a DX-Synthesizer), Waldorf Blofeld for wavetable sound and Roland JV-1010 to add LA-synthesis.

Trailer material: Pexels.com (image @seurafrancis99, video @cottonbro)"

Door #8: The Little Drummer Boy - Synthmas '21

video upload by Synthfluencer

"Ho-Ho-Ho! This is Synthmas '21, the virtual calendar presenting a Christmas carol played by synthesizers - every day from 1st to 24th of December.

The song:
The American Christmas carol was composed by Katherine K. Davis in 1941 titled 'The Carol of the Drum'. It might trace to a czech carol 'Hajej, nynjej'. Countless cover versions were done by famous artists, including Ray Charles, Neil Diamond, Jimi Hendrix and Joan Baez. The song tells the story of a poor boy giving his drum play as a gift to the new born Jesus.

The gear:
The song is played by the Electron Model:Samples. Groove box might be the best description for this sample-based instrument. Samples can be arranged in 6 tracks. The pattern based sequencer can contain up to 4.096 steps (per "project" or song). I divided the songs into 10 different patterns that I switch by hand. Bass drum is a factory sample, snare drum is a sample from a 909. For the bass and lead voice/s I used factory samples of square and sawtooth waves with some filter modulation. On Model:Samples there are some neat sound manipulation features: the drum roll is created with a retrig function. The pitch of a sample can variate trig (= step) -wise, thus melodies can be formed on one and the same track.

Trailer material: Pexels.com (image @seurafrancis99, video @cottonbro)"

Door #7: Vorfreude, schönste Freude (Anticipation is half the pleasure) - Synthmas '21

video upload by Synthfluencer

"Ho-Ho-Ho! This is Synthmas '21, the virtual calendar presenting a Christmas carol played by synthesizers - every day from 1st to 24th of December.

The song:
In 1970 the non spiritual carol was recorded for the GDR's most popular Christmas album "Bald nun ist Weihnachtszeit" (Soon it's Christmas Time) by the Rundfunk Kinderchor Leipzig (childrens choir). Each of the four verses is about lighting one advent candle until Christmas eve.

The gear:
I play this song on my Vermona Piano-Strings. The instrument was built from 1978 by "VEB Klingenthaler Harmonikawerke" and is one of the very few string machines produced in the late Eastern Bloc. It's appearance might resemble famous string machines like ARP Solina, however the features of the Piano-Strings are quite limited. There is a piano part and a strings part, but they can't be played together. Each section has 3 tone faders changing its character. I feel oddly bonded to that instrument: in my youth I was playing the piano in our music school band. At a rehearsel I failed playing my part because I was too lazy to learn my sheet. So I was degraded to playing some simple string chords - on a Vermona Piano-Strings! I was very happy to get one of these after all those years. Most prominent Vermona player was Moby before his one was sold on Reverb.com [Moby Reverb posts]

Since the Vermona Piano-Strings neither got MIDI nor CV/Gate control I play by hand.

Trailer material: Pexels.com (image @seurafrancis99, video @cottonbro)"

Synthmas '21 w/ Synthfluencer

Door #6: Lasst uns froh und munter sein (Let us be happy and cheerful) - Synthmas '21
video upload by Synthfluencer

"The gear:
This song is played on the Casio CZ-5000 digital synthesizer. With the CZ series Casio stepped into the professional music market after getting famous with the VL-1, PT-1 and other casual instruments. All CZ synths used a synthesis technology called phase distortion. Some preferred PD before FM synthesis, since it can create bell-like sounds as well as warm analog sounding pads. Even though missing velocity and aftertouch as built in the CZ-1, the CZ-5000 was the second best equipped synth of the family. The two DCOs are capable of playing 8 different wave forms, can be ring modulated and formed by 3 envelopes for each DCO (DCA = VCA, DCW = VCF, DCO = VCO). The envelopes can have up to 8 stages what gives huge possibilities for sound design. Key split, layer sounds, a sequencer - not really easy to operate but unique in the price range at the time - and a really good sounding chorus made the CZ-5000 a dream synth for many electronic music enthusiasts.

Because operating the internal sequencer is a fiddly job I used a Korg-SQD1 for sequencing the song. The simple multi track sequencer was very popular in the 80s Detroit techno scene.

Trailer material: Pexels.com (image @seurafrancis99, video @cottonbro)"

Door #5: Morgen, Kinder, wird’s was geben (Tomorrow, Children, Something Will Be) - Synthmas '21
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The song:
Originally named "Die Weihnachtsfreude" (The Joy of Christmas) the song occured first in the 18th century. It describes the childrens thrill of anticipation awaiting Christmas Eve.

The gear:
For this song I used the Yamaha MODX. The modern digital synth is basically using two synthesis engines: AWM2 is a sample based engine while the FM part is an enhanced version of legendary DX-7 engine that shaped 80s pop fundamentally. As the AWM2 synthesis allows an instrumentation in any thinkable fashion, the song's version presented here makes use of original DX-7 factory patches only. That gives the desired retro touch.

FM synthesis was a giant leap in synth architecture. Not only that digital synthesis was available for a broad customer base; the DX-7 put cutting edge expression technologys into play like breath control and MIDI and made upper class features like after touch available for the ordinary synthesist. The (then) unique e-piano patch defined a new standard and became a mandatory element of 80s synth ballads. The possibility of adding a (digital) filter and effects to the FM engine's sounds makes the MODX kind of a 'super DX7'. Hence the name MOreDX?

Trailer material: Pexels.com (image @seurafrancis99, video @cottonbro)"

Door #4: Es ist für uns eine Zeit angekommen (Unto us a time has come) - Synthmas '21


"The song:
The melody came up in the 19th century as a traditional Swiss star boys' singers Christmas carol. From it's origin, the Wiggertal in the Canton of Lucerne it found it's way to Germany. While first sung with the original lyrics, under the reign of the Nazis a secular version was created. Like years later the communist GDR regime, the Nazis tried to remove the christian aspects from Christmas - our celebration of commerce we all love so much today. Nevertheless, this version is the most common used for the song today.

The gear:
The song is played by a Roland JV-1010. Sometimes derided as a "ROMpler", this multi-timbral digital synth is equipped - like it's bigger brother the JV-1080 - with many legendary sounds of Roland's 80s flagship D-series (10/20/50). Like Roland D-synths the JV-1010 creates it's sounds using LA-Synthesis. Therefore calling it "ROMpler" is simply wrong. LA-Synthesis was Roland's bold move to finally break the success of Yamaha's FM-Synthesis intruduced in early 80s with the legendary DX-7. The idea behind LA-Synthesis is that real instrument sounds (back then synths aimed most notably to imitate real instruments) are recognized by the very first parts of a sound. So LA or linear arythmethic synthesis using very short samples at the beginning of a sound continued with subtractive synthesis.

For this song I only used factory presets. I think the JV-1010/1080 has a wonderful warm sound. A Roland D-10 was my very first synth that broke a few years ago and I always thought about replacing it by another one or a D-50. But the JV-1010 turned out to be much more than a makeshift. Love it!

Trailer material: Pexels.com (image @seurafrancis99, video @cottonbro)"

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