Glassy Pad from the Roland D-50

Posted on January 31, 2011 by John Keston

Before I continue I must admit that I have always had a problem with the term “pad” as a catch-all term for sustained synthesizer textures. I also have an aversion to using sounds that are described in that manner. I’m not exactly sure why, but it might have to do with the idea of padding. Padding is an unnecessary stuffing use to protect things from hard edges, or prevent delicate items from being broken. I’ll stop there with the metaphors, but my aversion comes down to not wanting to produce work where any sound is considered filler. However, I realize that this term is impossible to escape, so over the years I have tried to embrace it, but it still doesn’t sit right for me. In any case here’s a “sustained synthesizer texture”, produced by the Roland D-50, that I’m quite fond of.

Glassy D50 Pad

Spacey Roland D50 Arpeggio

Posted on January 30, 2011 by John Keston

Here’s a little arpeggio I recorded using my Roland D-50 and the factory preset, Vara Coma Veri La. A quick search shows that the patch, somehow on my D-50s internal memory, was part of the Cinascope Studio soundbank programmed by Paul Naton. All the processing heard is native to the D-50. No additional processing was added. Patches like this really show off the spacial qualities of the instrument with hard, slow auto-pan drenched in reverb.

Spacey D50 Arpeggio

Sleazy Organ

Posted on January 29, 2011 by John Keston

This is an organ part from a track that I’m working on, and will probably perform in my set at Nick and Eddie this Thursday, February 3, 2011. The sound was produced on the Casio CZ-1000. I modified the original slightly by adjusting the speed and amount of the LFO (slower and less).

Sleazy Organ

Mystery Synthesized Sound #1

Posted on January 28, 2011 by John Keston

On a few occasions during the One Sound Every Day project I presented a sound without any explanation and left it to the readers to guess at what it was and where it came from. Bragging rights went to the first reader to get it right and post their answer in a comment.

So here’s a mystery sound for you. You can tell it’s a recording of synthesized drums, but from where? What device made this beat?

Clue: I’ve used it on a couple of mixes that I have posted on ACB. Bonus goes to anyone who can identify exactly what device it was.

Mystery Analog Drums

Weird Sound Generator Meets Memory Man

Posted on January 27, 2011 by John Keston

This evening I introduced the Weird Sound Generator (WSG) to the Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man delay. The two of them hit it off and the next thing I knew was that someones jack went into someones input and some completely unprotected signals went down. A little mood lighting later and… here’s the result of the union.

WSG Meets Memory Man

Prophesser #5

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Saronni

I’m not going to mention software or instruments that I’ve used. I will mention that one of my main artistic functions has been the roll of a bass player since age 11. In this case the bass guitar has been silenced. This is not the first time I’ve produced music without the use of my reliable four stringed chum but maybe the first time I’ve used a foreign instrument as the key writing tool, and may very well be a catalyst for my fourth full length release as ten72. This track has the working title of Prophesser #5.

Prophesser #5

Eyeo Festival June 27-29, 2011

Posted on January 26, 2011 by John Keston

In late June 2011 I will be presenting the GMS and Grain Machine, as well as performing with Ostracon, at the Eyeo Festival. Eyeo is a new festival organized by Dave Schroeder, that includes an ever expanding and incredible list of speakers. I am honored, humbled and invigorated to be participating in this event. Here’s a blurb from the festival website:

“eyeo brings together the most creative coders, designers and artists working today, and shaping tomorrow – expect an amazing three days of talks, labs, demos & events fueled by the people and tools that are transforming digital culture.”

Just to give you an idea of the scope of the presenters, both Ben Fry and Casey Reas, founders of the Processing.org language (that I used to build the GMS) are on the roster among many other brilliant talents. Checkout the website for a list of the presenters so far. Here’s a track from the upcoming Ostracon album to illustrate what we’re producing.

Entropy Procedure by Ostracon

DGK Rehearsal Segment

Posted on January 25, 2011 by John Keston

During a rehearsal with DGK tonight for our upcoming show this Friday at the Turf Club, I put the Roland Juno-106 on top of the Rhodes and ran them both through my Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man delay. I had the Sony PCM-D50 setup to capture the session with TIm Glenn on drums and Jon Davis on bass. It was a fun rehearsal. I’m looking forward to our show. Here a segment from the recording where I was playing chords on the Juno through the Memory Man.

DGK Rehearsal Segment

More from the Casio CZ-1000

Posted on January 24, 2011 by John Keston

Here’s an arpeggio I recorded with my Casio CZ-1000 that’s part of a composition I’m working on. I really love this synth. There’s something special about the way it sounds when combining phase distortion with ring modulation. I added a bit of reverb to give it some space.

Bell Like Casio CZ-1000 Arpeggio

Processed Glitch from Juno-106 with Bad Voice Chip

Posted on January 23, 2011 by John Keston

Here’s another segment from the recording I made of my Roland Juno-106 while it still had a bad voice chip. This time I decided to run it through some spacial processing, including ping pong delay and reverb to hear what it sounded like with some atmosphere.

Roland Juno-106 Processed Glitch