Federico Solazzo

In the Summer of 2016, Federico Solazzo visited us because he was curious about the C15. He is a very experienced and versatile musician, a proficient synthesizer expert and sound designer. We decided to give him one of our C15 pre-production units for a few weeks. We wanted to find out how the C15 would inspire him in the way he plays keyboards and designs sounds.

In October we brought a C15 to his home in The Hague (NL). Federico started to explore the instrument and created a collection of his own presets. We asked him to think about a number of music pieces or improvisations that would show some characteristics of the instrument in a video recording session.
As a location we chose Studio Helmbreker in Haarlem (NL) where Federico had recorded the latest album with his band "Azure Hiptronics". The main room has a great sound and atmosphere.

We were very lucky that two other members of the band - Luciano Poli (bass) and Satindra Kalpoe (drums) - joined in for some of the pieces. The recording took place on the 6th of December, 2016. Bowie Verschuuren was the man behind the camera. All tracks were recorded 100 % live; no overdubs or effects were added - only slight EQ-ing and limiting was used.

Please check the text under the videos describing the control elements Federico was using when playing that piece.

A Visit to Haarlem

The Solo Session

Plucking a Bell

Pitchbender on decay and damping of the comb filter.

Orchestral Drama

Pedal 1 on brightness, pedal 2 on octave mix and distortion.

Xylesta

Ribbon morphing to a more diffused and sustaining sound.

Wah Clav

Pedal on filter cutoff and on flanger.

FBK Sitar

Eastern tuning scale. Aftertouch on feedback and pedal on damping.

Sandstorm on Mars

Ribbon on oscillator fluctuation (noise) amount.

Old Pipe

Pedals on fluctuation and feedback of the oscillating loop. Pitch offset with soft velocities.

Überton

Continuous sustain pedal on release times.

Baroque Circuit

Pedal 1 on exciter spectrum and ring modulation. Pedal 2 on signal mix and saturation.

Porta Brass

Aftertouch first on saturation, then on detune. Pedal on brightness (phase modulation).

Trancy World

Pedal 1 on release times, fluctuations and filter. Pedal 2 on detune and reverb.

The Band Session

Caribbean

Ribbon 1 on exciter brightness, ribbon 2 on decay and damping of the comb filter.

Saraswatish

Pedal on reverb size and mix. Aftertouch on decay and damping. Pitch bender also for vibrato.

D-n-B

Pedal cross-bending the oscillators by one octave, pedals on waveforms and filter.

Funk Anaki

Velocity on the filter.

Rough Wave

Ribbon 1 on cabinet (distortion) mix, ribbon 2 on feedback.

Gtr Blues

Aftertouch on gain and feedback, ribbon on decay. Pitch bender also for vibrato.

Slow Plucked

Pedal on reverb size and mix. Aftertouch on decay and damping. Pitch bender also for vibrato.

Turkish Sketch

Oriental tuning scale.