March of the Robot Field Mice

Posted on February 18, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

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Here’s another “straight-to-tape-no-overdubs” track. This time I gave myself the liberty of pre-recording a few MIDI loops in the DAW with the mutes routed to a MIDI controller. I used eight of my favorite instruments including the Rhodes, Roland D-50, Roland Juno-106, Roland MKS-80, Korg Volca Keys, Novation Bass Station II, and SCI Pro-One.

Incidentally, the title of this track was inspired by a comment on Japan, California, UK that reads: “If, within 6 months, this isn’t the soundtrack to an inspirational, animated montage where cartoon field mice build an aeroplane from junk and fly above their home waving down to their friends, then there’s no justice.”

Japan, California, UK

Posted on February 14, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

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Here is another no-overdubbing, straight-to-tape, composition using four of my favorite synths. The Yamaha FS1R provided the brittle, sustained, chord pattern. The Tempest handled the synth bass. The Bass Station II produced the arpeggio. Finally, I used the mighty MKS-80 for the lead playing. BTW: I took the photo in Seattle.

Synth Wall Mix #4

Posted on February 13, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

Here’s another offering from experiments concocted in my studio. I created this piece with no overdubbing. All tracks were recorded simultaneously. Post-production was limited to editing for length, fades, and one reverb send.

Wall of Synth with Juno-106, Volca Keys, Tempest, and Bass Station II

Posted on February 4, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

This is one of the first recordings that I made after putting the final touches on my recent home studio remodel. I went from dark wood panelling and old carpeting to cork flooring and drywall with fresh white paint and acoustic panels. The room sounds better, looks better and brighter and feels like a proper studio. To finish things off I installed a five tier shelving system to house a wall of my favorite synthesizers.

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For this track I wanted to try using the Korg Volca Keys as a sequencer for my Juno-106. “How is that possible?!?,” you might ask. Well I’ll tell you how. I have modded the Volca Keys to include a MIDI out port. Using this mod I sent the MIDI out from the Volca Keys to the Juno-106. Both synths played the same sequence, but because the Volca Keys is polyphonic the Juno-106 consistently played chords, while I switched modes on the Volca Keys between poly, unison, and fifths, etc. I fleshed out the piece by adding an arp provided by the Bass Station II and a bass line from the Tempest.

iPad only Track with Samplr, iSEM, Figure, QuNexus

Posted on December 30, 2013 by John C.S. Keston

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I started this track on the plane during a recent trip to Seattle, Washington. Being away from my studio for a few days, I brought along my iPad and QuNexus to produce a few tracks while traveling. I decided to use Samplr as the foundation for this piece because I enjoy its simplicity and intuitive interface. It also offers a unique way to work in contrast to mobile DAWs that are usually analogues of their PC based counterparts.

I started out by experimenting with the kora samples included with one of the Samplr demos, arpeggiating and processing them in different ways. The rest of the sounds were produced with Propellerhead Figure and iSEM from Arturia that I played with the QuNexus. Once I had the tracks organized I performed the mix in Samplr while capturing the results in AudioShare.