Yamaha FS1R Formant Sequencer Ra Re Ri Ro Ru

reriraroru

This short experiment was produced by programming a custom formant sequence into the infamous Yamaha FS1R. This is not possible to do with the unit alone, but there are some great tools that make it possible that I’ll discuss an upcoming article. A formant sequence essentially modulates the formant shaping operators on the FS1R modeled after the spectra from am audio signal. This patch repurposes a vocal track from my project Voice Lessons as the formant sequence.

Ra Re Ri Ro Ru FS1R Formant Sequence

DSI Tempest Synthesized Clavinet

clavduo

I recently programmed this synthesized clavinet sound using the DSI Tempest. There are no samples involved, only analog oscillators. It turned out to be quite effective thanks to the speedy envelopes in the Tempest synthesis engine. I added a little reverb and delay to give it a little bit of space. I also used a sustain pedal on part of the phrase, something that you cannot do on a Hohner E7.

Tempest Synthesized Clavinet

Perihelion Dub

Here’s a piece dedicated to our planet’s recent astroid near miss and “unrelated” spectacular meteor explosion. I went back to my roots and produced some psychedelic, dub-delayed business with a little arabesque-miami-vice in the middle. Please enjoy responsibly.

DKO at FRANK Part 3: Everyday Music

This is another excerpt from a performance by DKO from the MCAD MFA open studio night on December 7, 2012. The document features Oliver Grudem (not shown) who produced the audiovisual score in real-time. The video and sound coming from the LED display and loud speaker below it was broadcast into the performance space as Oliver walked around the Minneapolis Uptown area during a snow storm. Listen for traffic, footsteps, car horns, and the occasional blurt of humans speech. The visuals and sound from his walk provided a “score” for the ensemble to respond to as we improvised. Oliver was also able to hear the musical reactions to the audiovisual score as he was broadcasting and respond accordingly.

The piece was recorded with my custom built binaural head microphone (Vincent) to capture the sound localization of the performance space. Remember that it is necessary to wear high quality, circumaural headphones to experience the binaural effect. While watching, imagine you are in the same position as Vincent. You should hear the bass clarinet in your left ear, the Rhodes and synthesizers to the right and the drums and video sound in front. The relative height of the sound should also be noticeable.