Week 7 - Build your own synth

This week's class was so much fun as we got to build our own synths with the many Korg synth kits. This was a very creative process as we were learning how to be the masters of creativity within the educational paramenters of the synth kits. Below is a picture of what the kits looked like. These kits included oscillators, split, filter, envelope and synth speaker. (The big bluetooth speaker was not in the kit, my partner and I wanted to be extra louder and thought we would use a speaker upgrade). 





With these little bits kits we were able to link an oscillator to a mini keyboard to an envelope and sequencer to create cool and wacky sounds. We learned that an oscillator is how a synth generates it sound. It is a single cycle waveform that is looped to match a specific pitch. An oscillator converts a DC current to an AC current. We also learnt that an envelope is a form of automation within a synthesier to alter the parameters of things such as volume and frequency cut off. My partner and I in todays class partook in trial and error creating different synth chains and playing around with all the different parameters. Below's video is what we made in the class 

After playing around with the synth kits James Humberstone taught us how to create and play with synth sounds on roundtrip. This for me is where I take the educational value for classroom application. With the nature of where music is going electronically I think students/kids would love playing around with these synths virtually on a computer as they would be making sounds relevant to the music they listen too.  I think it's important when music education explores the arts/sound that are relevant in the life of a student.

This for me was all complete new learning in a world of knowledge I have never explored. This world is endless and full of exploration. What I also really like is how easy it is to setup and build as all parts connect via a magnet. This is crucial in the classroom as minimal instructions are required to get a musical, 'synthy' end result.

The link below is a video of what me and my partner created with the synth kits:




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