Electroacoustic Piano Concert via Modular Synthesis

The last time I performed a series of electroacoustic piano pieces was November of 2016 (click the link for an audio example). However, I am always imagining interesting ways that the piano, one of the most ancient of all synthesizers ;-), can be processed, resampled, or re-synthesized. To that end I was recently offered an opportunity to play at Berlin, Not the city in Germany but the music venue in Minneapolis, on April 15, 2024.

In my previous performance I had used a Korg KP3+ and a Minifooger delay to simply sample and process the piano. While that simplicity allowed me to focus more on composing, this time I wanted to take a more flexible and unique approach to the electronics. Modular allows for this so I pillaged some modules from my main system and purchased a Happy Nerding FX AID XL to make an electroacoustic skiff designed for sampling, resampling, filtering, and processing incoming acoustic piano signals. From right to left the system includes Bela.io Gliss, Make Noise Morphagene, ALM Pamela’s Pro Workout, Make Noise Maths, Shakmat Dual Dagger, Electrosmith patch.init(), Happy Nerding FX AID XL, and Intellijel Outs.

Practicing and composing with this system has been challenging. One of the things I wanted to be able to do was record sound objects without moving my hands away from the keys. I accomplished this by building a Y cable for a standard sustain pedal based on advice from Joe Novak at Midwest Modular. On one end there’s a 6.35mm TS female jack (standard instrument jack). The other end includes two 3.5mm male plugs wired tip to ground and tip to tip. This allows me to send a gate-on signal from Pam’s to the pedal with one of the Y ends and then use the other for the record gate input on the Morphagene. Stepping on the pedal either breaks or connects the gate-on signal depending on how the pedal is wired. This works perfectly for hands free recording on the Morphagene. There’s a lot more to this system that I may share in another post or video demo, but for now checkout the video examples (above and below) and let me know what you think!

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About John CS Keston

John CS Keston is an award winning transdisciplinary artist reimagining how music, video art, and computer science intersect. His work both questions and embraces his backgrounds in music technology, software development, and improvisation leading him toward unconventional compositions that convey a spirit of discovery and exploration through the use of graphic scores, chance and generative techniques, analog and digital synthesis, experimental sound design, signal processing, and acoustic piano. Performers are empowered to use their phonomnesis, or sonic imaginations, while contributing to his collaborative work. Originally from the United Kingdom, John currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he is a professor of Digital Media Arts at the University of St Thomas. He founded the sound design resource, AudioCookbook.org, where you will find articles and documentation about his projects and research. John has spoken, performed, or exhibited original work at New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2022), the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2022), the International Digital Media Arts Conference (iDMAa 2022), International Sound in Science Technology and the Arts (ISSTA 2017-2019), Northern Spark (2011-2017), the Weisman Art Museum, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Walker Art Center, the Minnesota Institute of Art, the Eyeo Festival, INST-INT, Echofluxx (Prague), and Moogfest. He produced and performed in the piece Instant Cinema: Teleportation Platform X, a featured project at Northern Spark 2013. He composed and performed the music for In Habit: Life in Patterns (2012) and Words to Dead Lips (2011) in collaboration with the dance company Aniccha Arts. In 2017 he was commissioned by the Walker Art Center to compose music for former Merce Cunningham dancers during the Common Time performance series. His music appears in The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (2012) and he composed the music for the short Familiar Pavement (2015). He has appeared on more than a dozen albums including two solo albums on UnearthedMusic.com.

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