Glassy Pad from the Roland D-50

Before I continue I must admit that I have always had a problem with the term “pad” as a catch-all term for sustained synthesizer textures. I also have an aversion to using sounds that are described in that manner. I’m not exactly sure why, but it might have to do with the idea of padding. Padding is an unnecessary stuffing use to protect things from hard edges, or prevent delicate items from being broken. I’ll stop there with the metaphors, but my aversion comes down to not wanting to produce work where any sound is considered filler. However, I realize that this term is impossible to escape, so over the years I have tried to embrace it, but it still doesn’t sit right for me. In any case here’s a “sustained synthesizer texture”, produced by the Roland D-50, that I’m quite fond of.

Glassy D50 Pad

This entry was posted in One Synthesizer Sound Every Day and tagged , by John CS Keston. Bookmark the permalink.

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.

2 thoughts on “Glassy Pad from the Roland D-50

  1. comment in support of your position on the use of the word “pad”

    PS
    (physical, real) padding is in many cases _necessary_ stuffing I think!

  2. I can see that; crash helmets and such. Sustained synthesizer texture is a little awkward though. We need a new term. How about stratum?

    stra·tum   
    –noun, plural stra·ta
    a layer of material, naturally or artificially formed, often one of a number of parallel layers one upon another: a stratum of ancient foundations.

Leave a Reply