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!
This is incredible! I would love to see this live and make something related myself. Cheers!
Thanks! The concert went really well, so I may be sharing footage of that here soon