Cuba, Illinois
September 16, 2008 – 9:27 pm by John Keston
Once again, today I set out to experiment for a few minutes and make a new sound using some processing I had yet to use. But like it is prone to happen, as I tweaked and played around a musical piece started to emerge. I sequenced a series of vocal samples then applied a real-time randomizer to the sequence. Second in the chain was a vocoder plugin programmed to produce a Csus chord, followed by a stereo delay. Underneath it I layered a low melody and automated the waveform setting for one of the oscillators to get a digitized static effect. I titled it Cuba, Illinois after a town of about fifteen hundred people in Illinois called Cuba. I’ve never been there, but I like the juxtaposition of the town and state names.
8 Responses to “Cuba, Illinois”
mood, internal conversation, and subconcious chatter.
By SKINK on Sep 17, 2008
what was the real time randomizer?
By Paul on Sep 17, 2008
In Ableton Live under MIDI effects you’ll find “Random”. It randomizes the notes in your MIDI clip in real-time based on a few simple settings like chance, choices, and scale.
By John Keston on Sep 17, 2008
Hi John, just stumbled upon your track whilst looking for info on the random function in Live. Still a total beginner, was very impressed with your track, i can’t get my stuff to sound so good. Would you mind emailing me the project file so I can have a look at how you did it? Just for ideas, would be over the moon if you did, need something to kick me along. Thanks, Luke.
By Luke on Sep 22, 2008
Interesante hermano!
By pedro briceño on Sep 23, 2008
I don’t understand what you’re talking about, but omg, You never wanna come to Cuba, Illinois. It sucks, and it’s really small. Why in the world would you name anything after it? Btw, Nice Sound.
By Sam From Cuba on Apr 18, 2010
No reason, other than I just liked the irony in the name. Thanks for the note!
By John Keston on Apr 19, 2010