Today, Joey and I are going to look at what's inside this box.
But we're also going to be using another one of our senses.
We're going to listen to what's inside this box.
[FINGERS TAPPING]
Let's peep this.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Here we have--
Hmm!
--the LittleBits Synth Kit.
So this is a kit to make your own synthesizer.
If you're familiar with our LittleBits kit
that we already sell at Vat19, it's kind of a--
Modular.
Yeah, invention kit.
Yeah.
There's these little circuit boards
that you can easily snap together and create
all kinds of cool stuff.
So this is by the same people, LittleBits.
But it's specifically a kit to make a synthesizer, which
sounds awesome.
Oh, and it looks like LittleBits teamed up
with Korg to produce this kit, which if you are a musician--
You know Korg.
--you know Korg.
They're legit.
So here are our 12 bits.
You've got power and an included battery.
A keyboard.
A microsequencer.
Two oscillators.
Filter.
Envelope.
Random.
Delay, delay, delay, delay.
[LAUGHTER]
Mix.
Split.
And a speaker.
[IMITATES BASS]
This whole kit is designed to be super easy to use straight out
of the box.
And so you don't have to be an expert or a musician
or know anything about synthesizers or circuit boards
or anything like that.
Anybody can pull these little bits out
and snap them together with the magnets.
Yeah, and just kind of--
Yeah, and start just creating your own fun sounds and music.
So let's get started with something simple.
I'm just going to take the power,
hook that up to an oscillator, and then
hook that up to the speaker.
OK, so we're kind of building a chain, right?
It starts with power.
Yeah, and then you go from left to right.
So let's just turn this on.
Turn the volume up a little bit.
Turn the oscillator.
[WARBLING]
Nice.
And you adjust the pitch.
So you've got volume pitch.
[WARBLING]
Then you can change the wave from square to soft.
You're actually changing the shape of the waveform.
You can hear the difference.
[MELODIC WARBLING]
Yeah.
Let's add some more to our circuit here.
And they give you suggestions of different instruments to build,
different sounds you can make.
We're going to stick the keyboard.
Looks like that.
Stick that on after the power.
Then hook an oscillator to get that waveform.
[MELODIC TONES]
Oh!
Suddenly music.
So the keyboard bit has all kinds of buttons on it
for different pitches.
Yeah.
So it's monophonic, right?
It only plays one pitch at a time.
But you can adjust the tune.
[HIGH-PITCHED WHINING]
Oh.
OK.
So you kind of just experiment, you know?
You throw on--
That sounded like some club music or something.
[BEATBOXING ALONG TO FUNKY TONES]
We need a big drop.
Oh!
Wait for the drop!
[BEATBOXES]
[LAUGHTER]
So that's just the basic keyboard.
Let's get into something that's slightly more advanced.
OK, so I just added the delay bit.
[LOW-PITCHED WARBLING]
Oh, OK.
So the delay takes the signal that you sent it,
and then it repeats it.
So we've got time and feedback.
Time is kind of like the distance between the delay.
And then feedback is how long that echo plays out, so.
[ECHOING TONE]
It's kind of a short, quick delay.
Then it fades out slowly.
[SLOWER ECHO]
[DISTORTED ECHO]
Slow it down.
Nice.
Change the pitch.
[BUZZING]
So I just added the filter bit.
That lets you kind of--
[WAVERING TONE]
[INAUDIBLE] sound a little bit, give it a little
more of a dark, less attack-y sound.
You can get crazy.
You just kind of make your own sounds from any sequence.
And you can put these in any sequence you want, really.
What's cool about the synthesizer
is it's not really one instrument.
It's kind of like a modular system
that allows you to make any kind of sounds you want, really.
And you just are manipulating frequencies.
This is kind of cool.
We've got a bunch of different projects laid out in the manual
here.
Oh, nice.
There's one called percussion party.
Oh.
So this is more up your alley.
This is up my alley.
I'll let you take this one.
So we need power.
We got the microsequencer, which is right there.
So the whole thing goes power, sequencer, splits
to random filter, envelope.
The other side of the splitter's coming into the envelope
and then out to the speaker.
[BRUSHING NOISE]
Oh.
All right, we got a little something going.
So the sequencer's going--
[SNAPS FINGERS]
It's actually going--
[CLAPPING ALONG]
Mm-hmm.
And then it's only playing two of those four.
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2.
But it's going on two and four.
2, 4, 2, 4, 2, 4.
All right, here's our filter.
[CHOPPY WARBLING]
So that kind of gets you the sound of the percussion
instrument.
So you make it kind of like deep and dark.
You can go bright.
And get some tone in there.
That's kind of like a small snare.
So that's like a--
[RHYTHMIC HISSING]
Now we can just play around the beats.
So now--
[RHYTHMIC CLICKING]
Got a little gallop.
All I'm doing is twisting these knobs
to add in more or less beats in a sequence.
I have a idea.
Let's add in some delay.
[PERCUSSIVE MELODY]
Nice.
Just a little bit U2-esque.
It is.
A little edge.
So that's pretty sweet.
It is really cool.
Last but not least--
The synthesizer with the works.
It's the grand finale.
Keyboard, split, oscillators.
Split back down to mix.
Oh, OK.
And that goes to the envelope.
That goes to filter.
And delay.
OK.
Kick on the power.
Let's do it.
[MELODIC NOTES RESONATING]
That's a cool sound.
It's kind of like a harp.
Yeah.
[HIGH-PITCHED ECHO]
There's a sound.
So I'm messing with the filters.
I'm messing with the frequencies here.
You go this way, and it sounds more like a harpsichord
or something.
You turn it down.
Somewhere in there, it sounds a little smoother, kind
of like a harp.
It's almost percussive.
It's got a little bit of a tone in it.
I'm going to let you run the keyboard,
because I want to play with some of these other switches.
Sounds good.
[ACCORDION-LIKE NOTES]
That's cool.
It sounds like, even though it's one key, it's a chord.
[PLAYING NOTES]
It's like a robot falling off a cliff.
[PLAYING NOTES]
Just going off script here.
Going off script.
Putting a sequencer in the mix.
Yeah, I put the sequencer, then random, and then the oscillator
at random voltage.
So it should be kind of--
[QUIRKY SYNTHESIZER NOTES]
(ROBOT VOICE) It is the year 2000.
LittleBits Synth Kit also great to annoy your parents.
[NOTES PLAYING, SPUTTERING]
Sounds like a fart.
[CHUCKLES, SPUTTERS LIPS]
I have no idea what's going to happen here.
[LOW SYNTHESIZER NOTES]
It's getting out of control.
Oh no.
[NOTES STOP]
[LAUGHTER]
So many different sounds and--
Yeah, it's like create your own instrument.
Yeah, so you could make a drum, like you did.
Or you could make--
A keyboard, yeah.
Keyboard, a guitar sound.
We kind of got that harpsichord thing going at one point.
So how are we going to make a commercial for this thing.
I think we need a little synth band.
You be on drums.
And I could rock something, like keyboards.
Everybody has their own-- yeah.
Make your own instrument.
And then make a cardboard shape, like a guitar--
Yeah, yeah.
--or something, and then put these on there.
Then you could play it in a different way
than on just your desktop.
Dim the lights.
Yeah.
Get some party lights in there.
Little fog.
Yeah, and be the colors guy.
You could pop out.
Colors guy can come in, yeah.
Colors!
Yeah, Joey and I have been making music in a band
together for, well, since like seventh grade
playing all kinds of instruments, guitar and drums
primarily.
But I mean, we've built a recording studio.
So we've learned a lot of this stuff in a computer.
But to actually be able to get your hands on these little bits
and connect them together and see
what a filter does or an oscillator does,
it's a really cool way to learn it.
It's definitely fun to start with a book
if you don't know what you're doing,
but then to just go crazy and have fun with it.
We have a character, DJ Chicken Skratch.
Mm.
DJ Chicken Skratch is Vat19's house DJ.
He's downstairs pumping some tunes right now.
House as in, like--
Yeah yeah.
[BEATBOXING]
In-house, not house music.
Right, exactly.
Another cool thing, it's got a headphone out,
so you don't have to annoy everybody that you're around
if you're--
Oh.
You're just kind of figuring it out,
and you're making these squealy noises.
I was wondering about that.
Plug your headphones in.
And I guess you could go into a recording software.
Yeah, that's true.
If you've got some recording software,
you could play out a part and then play your other parts
and mix it all in.
If you have GarageBand or something
like that on your computer, you can record multitrack
and really take it to the next level.
Seriously.
That might be something we could do,
like record a song made from the LittleBits Synth Kit.
I'm not saying full-on music video, but--
I like this idea.
I like the DJ Chicken Skratch.
I think he could maybe put something together for us.
Yeah, I think it would be cool to show people
how you could really take this to the max
and make it a real song.
[MUSIC - "TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LITTLE STAR"]
[WAVERING ECHO]
Nice.
Boom!
That's how you play "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
We want to hear some of your ideas,
maybe songs that you'd want to hear us play in the commercial.
We want to give you your very own LittleBits Synth Kit.
So if you want to win your very own LittleBits Synth Kit,
check the description below.
And all the details are there.
It's easy.
Hey, look.
Vat19 just uploaded another video.
Oh.
You know what?
I'm going to check that out.
He's subscribed.
I am subscribed.
You should subscribe to Vat19 so you know
when we make another video.
That's right.
It's free.
Why not?
Yeah, why not?
All right, Jon.
Play us out.
[PLAYS VAT19 JINGLE]
[IMITATES CLICK]
[LAUGHTER]
(SINGING) Vat19.com.
[CLICK]
[MUSIC PLAYING]