Super cool sounds and techniques. It's been absolutely wild watching people teach me about sounds that can be made with an instrument that I helped make! Way cool, gonna go do some experimental patching on mine first thing when I get into the office tomorrow :) Thanks for taking a look!
I can NOT wait for this masterpiece of a machine to be in my hands. Richard followed his muse and he & his team made my dream experimental synth, no hyperbole. And as always, fantastic demo. I feel like a kid in December!
Yes! I was waiting for this video! It was your review of the Taiga that made me buy it (and start building a eurorack system around it), so I was looking forward to see what sounds you would get out of this one. :) I already was lucky enough to play a bit with this instrument at Superbooth, and have a really nice chat with Michael about DIY electronics. Landscape FM's Eric was standing right next to it, so I had a great time there. Thanks for the video!
Pittsburgh is so underrated it’s silly. Their designs are so ahead of the curve. Truly new developments in analog synthesis. Been following synths since the early 80s and some of what they’re doing is unprecedented. Like their generation of new harmonics by folding/clipping the wave from the center. (I have the standalone ‘safari’ module with the center clipping circuit, the one that’s here in the VL2.) Their Microvolt mini-synth is a slept-on classic. It’s amazing for percussion due to its envelope, LPG, and other snappy function generators.
All the original Star Wars trilogy sound effects plus some more in one synth review. And Kit-mode is included as well! 😅 Great presentation, as always, great sound beast.
The combination of your lovely voice and the synths' gnarly screams was wonderful again. I think you showed us ideas that not even Richard from Pittsburgh could have dreamed of :)
I had a Taiga, and I liked the sounds I got out of it, but the midi implementation was apparently limited by cost-cutting and the midi processor they used couldn't manage quick inputs. It also had firmware issues with settings and notes being stuck and needing a power reset, ruining my patch. I'm hesitant to trust them again, regardless of how cool their designs might be.
Hi! I'm Luna Moth, I've been doing firmware at pgh mod for the last 4 ish months, I did the code that is in the VL2. On the topic of MIDI issues: the problem isn't anything to do with the component quality; it's been purely a software issue having to do with how we've been handling the MIDI buffer. I can report that I have diagnosed the problem, and am working through updating, testing, and deploying new code for all the products impacted by this issue. In the next few weeks we'll have bug fix and feature updates out for Taiga, East beast, and West pest; they're all finished, just in need of testing. These will address this and any other known software issues with those synths. Thanks!
@@LunaMothPGH didn't expect to get an answer like this, thank you! i did love the sound of the taiga and was sad to return it. it's good to hear that it's something that be fixed and not an old midi controller being used.
I find the Voltage Lab 2 to be a fascinating and visually appealing synthesizer. However, I haven't heard too many good musical patches from people who are far more skilled than I am. This makes me wonder what an amateur like me would be able to achieve with it, besides producing terrible sounds. While I am intrigued by the new types of synthesis it offers, it doesn't seem to produce traditional, harmonic tones. I suspect that some of the underlying technology has been explored before but wasn't widely adopted because it wasn't found to be useful in a musical fashion. I want to like this device and would love to own one, but considering its price and the sound output, I'm uncertain about its practical use. If I can't create convincing music with it, I question the value of having it, as it might end up sitting idle after producing some initial bleeps, bloops, and scratches.
Hi, I'm a friend of the folks at PM and have spent time playing with one of the prototypes. I'd say the VL2 is VERY capable of producing conventional tones and extremely nuanced musical shadings. In a video such as this with someone like SBR, you're getting more of the boundary pushing experimental kinds of approaches as that's the territory she tends to travel in. As you refer to yourself as an amateur, this may not be a best first choice. The VL2 is extremely deep and has no normal-ed connections. If you're interested in Pittsburgh's designs, Taiga has many of the same wave shaping/warping features as VL2 's oscillator 1, is smaller, less expensive, has a normal-ed signal flow (and is fully patch-able) and is available with or without a keyboard. Check out some vids, you may like it.
The VL2 can definitely produce very beautiful, tonal sounds. As I mentioned at the top of this video, I wanted to take a look at some of the more experimental, noisy, and unusual corners of the instrument - since that’s typically where my personal musical focus lies. That said, everyone’s tastes are different, so if you’re not loving the sound that’s ok too!
I gotta disagree. Even the VCOs and controller, alone, are pretty unique and flexible. There are patch points for almost everything. It ships with 20 cables.
