Bastl Kastles: LFO Sounds (Part 1)

Back with some more experiments with the Kastle 1.5 synth and the Kastle Drum (both made by Bastl Instruments). It probably seems like this is turning into a Kastle-only channel, but I just enjoy the minimalism of these two little synths. There is something kind of fascinating about seeing a wiring pattern and knob settings gradually turn into a specific musical idea. This video mainly focuses on getting audiorate (audio frequency) sounds out of the Kastle 1.5's LFO, also pairing it with the Drum to get a melody/bass. The next video, Part 2, will flip things around (which is really the better way). After that, I'm planning to do a video about EMF coils and then a couple of videos on granular synthesis (one with the Model:Samples, the other with the Volca Sample 2). Thanks for watching!


TIMELINE

00:00 STARTER
It's easy to go from the Kastle 1.5's default sound to something a lot different.

00:45 INTRO
General discussion. The opening shot is silly, but our new place has some sight lines that are MUCH longer than the old place. Now the first 82 Undulations videos take on some new nostalgia.

02:47 KASTLE LFO DETAILS
I know we use the Kastle 1.5 LFO's all the time, but there are a couple of minor points about the LFO Reset and Bit-In features that are easy to overlook. Very relevant to making sounds with the LFO. I also get distracted and set up a pretty catchy tune :)

12:24 AUDIO LFO v1.0
I'm sure somebody will watch this and go "how obvious!" - and it is - but that's the point. I did this for a couple of years without knowing about...

14:33 AUDIO LFO v2.0
This method of driving the LFO frequency with the main oscillator (via LFO RST) has a much bigger frequency range and a lot of interesting consequences. I got the idea to do this from an 0-Coast video about subharmonics (by the ever-amazing Loopop). It's not exactly a subharmonic method but there are some similarities. It's basically a sort of lo-fi digitization of the main oscillator's frequency content, and the sharp edges introduce a ton of sidebands/harmonics, giving a very nice sound.

19:52 ADDING THE KASTLE DRUM
This one never really seemed to land, but that is sort of the point. The first thing in the next video will be to switch things around and use the Drum's Pattern LFO at audiorate, letting the Kastle 1.5 take on the jobs of melody and modulation. Then add in a lot of complexity from the Drum's other LFO's. Then I want to show the Drum doing this stuff on its own, quite interesting alone and with the 1.5, and also what I call "Quark Mode" on the Drum (for lack of a better name). And lastly, something I haven't really tried - both devices doing audio frequency LFO voices at the same time.

26:19 OUTRO
A different look at the new place's kitchen.

30:55 ENDER
Running the 1.5 solo through the Korg NTS-1's reverb. This is the fast LFO on the LEFT channel and the 2nd Oscillator on the RIGHT channel. I do a little bit of the formant synthesis mode at the beginning. To me, this sort of drone work is all about the beat frequencies and trying to create a little tension in between times of stability. Will you hear the beat frequencies in headphones? Probably. Try not to think about it.