Video: Duet for Synthesizer and the Washing

Posted on May 9, 2012 by John Keston

Note: This video was produced with binaural sound. Please listen with headphones to experience the binaural effect.

In this “duet” I am using the Korg Monotribe to join in with the laundromat ambience as if it were a conscious participant in an improvisational ensemble. The activity in the space produced oscillations that caused sound waves forming drones and rhythmic patterns. I responded with basic oscillators like pulse, saw, or triangle waves. I manipulated the filter, LFO and pitch to create more complex textures that alternately blend and contrast with the ambient sound.

The ambience was recorded with a set of binaural microphones. When wearing stereo headphones the playback of a binaural recording accurately positions the direction of each sound for the listener, immersing them in the spatial soundscape. In contrast the synthesis was recorded in mono, without additional processing. This simulates a process called phonomnesis, or imagined sound, by placing the signal in the center of the listeners sound-space.

Concept, Music, Sound: John Keston
Camera, Binaural Head Model: Web Baker

DKO Rough Segment from Studio Session #1

Posted on April 26, 2012 by John Keston

On January 27, 2012 my trio DKO (Davis, Keston, O’Brien) spent about thirteen hours at the lovely Waterbury Studios in Northeast Minneapolis. We have yet to properly edit or mix any of the six or more hours of material that we performed during the session, but Jon Davis has condensed a few segments recently for sharing. Here’s one of those segments for your listening pleasure.

Monotribe Meets Pro-One Part 10: Grooved Sync

Posted on March 20, 2012 by John Keston

This is the latest piece from a group of microtracks that feature the Korg Monotribe synchronized in various ways with the Sequential Circuits Pro-One. In this case, to create the swing on the Pro-One, I ran it’s sync track through an eighth note triplet groove setting. In post I took the liberty of adding some delay during the outro and reverb in a couple of places.

Monotribe Meets Pro-One Part 9: Delayed Sync

Posted on March 19, 2012 by John Keston

For this experiment I recorded the Monotribe sync signal into Ableton Live, then I made two separate tracks of warped sync output – one to drive the Monotribe and one to drive the Pro-One. Not only does this give me the capability to set the tempo in Live, but I can also manipulate the sync signal independently for each device.

Notice the galloping shuffle on the Pro-One bass line? This was created by adding a delay to the sync signal that is going to the Pro-One. Using this technique I can instantly add groove, double-time, or triplet feel to either or both of the instruments. Who knew these instruments, 30 years apart, would pair so well together.

Monotribe Meets Pro-One Part 8: Plus Monotron

Posted on March 17, 2012 by John Keston

This is my favorite from the series of microtracks featuring the Korg Monotribe synched with the Pro-One that I’ve produced so far. For this experiment I also plugged my Korg Monotron into the Monotribe’s audio input. This can be heard as the higher pitched drone following the bass line. At around 0:15 the Pro-One arpeggiator fades in. Finally at about 0:54 the Monotron pitch ramps up about an octave, goes a little sharp, goes at little flat, then rests fairly close to the octave as the feedback on the Memory Man saturates the Pro-One notes.

Monotribe Meets Pro-One Part 7

Posted on March 16, 2012 by John Keston

Here’s one more from a group of microtracks that feature the Korg Monotribe synchronized in various ways with the Sequential Circuits Pro-One.

Monotribe Meets Pro-One Part 6

Posted on March 14, 2012 by John Keston

This is the sixth piece from a collection of microtracks that I have produced using the Korg Monotribe synchronized with the Sequencial Circuits Pro-One. This one starts out with out drums and then double bass drum fills come in near the end.

Monotribe Meets Pro-One Part 5

Posted on March 13, 2012 by John Keston

This is the fifth microtrack from a series that I produced using the Korg Monotribe synchronized with the Sequencial Circuits Pro-One. This one was edited out of a longer session where I was taking a few liberties with knob turning on the Memory Man and on the Pro-One.

Monotribe Meets Pro-One Part 4

Posted on March 12, 2012 by John Keston

Here we have the fourth example of microtracks made with the Korg Monotribe synchronized with the Sequencial Circuits Pro-One. The odd time in this case is caused by setting the number of active steps differently for the synthesizer versus the drums — a new feature that was added with the Monotribe 2.0 software update.

Monotribe Meets Pro-One Part 3: Two Sequences

Posted on March 9, 2012 by John Keston

This is the third example from a collection of microtracks that feature the Korg Monotribe synchronized in various ways with the Sequential Circuits Pro-One. In this piece I switched between the two available sequences on the Pro-One while manipulating controls on both instruments.