Pulsing Automated Bass Note

Posted on March 27, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

Since configuring the Bitstream 3X to control the Super Jupiter instead of using the reKon Audio VST-AU MKS-80 editor I have been creating loads of sounds without bothering to save to save them as presets. Thinking back, this seems to be my modus operandi. I’m feeling pretty comfortable with this instrument now and using the BS3X I can usually dial up the sound I’m looking for in less than a minute. Not saving presets is nice because when dialing them in manually they never come up exactly he same way twice and you learn a lot about the instrument in the process. Here’s an example of one of the sounds I programmed today.

Pulsing Bass Note

Roland D50 Automation

Posted on March 26, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

Now that I am able to program the MKS-80 with the Bitstream 3X I am attempting to do the same for other electronic instruments that lack tactile controls. This involves digging into the MIDI implementation of these instruments and then programming the BS3X to send the appropriate values. The first instrument I’m trying this with is the Roland D-50. So far I have had no success in getting the Roland D-50 to respond to the values I’m sending it, but hopefully I get it figured out soon. Here’s an example of what I’d like to accomplish. To create the sound below I used the D-50’s joystick to change the cutoff frequency on the first upper partial while sending it notes via MIDI.

Roland D50 Automation

DGK and Friends Bootleg Part 1

Posted on March 25, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

On March 13, 2011, my trio DGK (Jon Davis on bass, Tim Glenn on drums, and John Keston on Rhodes and Pro-One) performed at the Honey Lounge in Minneapolis, Minnesota in collaboration with an esteemed line-up of colleagues. Through the night people came and went, so in the upcoming parts of this series I’ll name the individuals involved. For the beginning of the evening it was DGK with Martin Dosh on additional drums, and Juno Alpha 1, Scott Fultz on electric guitar and soprano saxophone, Andrew Broder on electric guitar, Rajiah Johnson on flute, and Brandon Wozniak on tenor saxophone. The record is a bit chatty at times, but that’s to be expected with bootleg recordings. You never know, you just might stumble across a bizarre conversation buried in the mix.

DGK and Friends Part 1 (36:16)

Synth Bass Through Resonators

Posted on March 24, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

I made this synth bass patch today on the MKS-80 and performed real time edits with the Bitstream 3X sending sysex directly to the instrument. This technique feels a lot smoother and lower in latency that any other routing method I have tried so far. After recording it I ran it through Ableton’s resonators and automated some chord changes. Here’s an excerpt from the results.

Synth Bass Through Resonators

Arpeggiator High Note Glitch

Posted on March 23, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

I discovered this glitch while attempting to get my Bitstream 3X controller configured to handle sending MIDI notes and sysex from Ableton to my MKS-80. For testing purposes I setup several complex routing schemes. Some of them worked better than others, but this one in particular create an odd smattering of notes several octaves above the notes that were meant to be playing. Presumably I’ll resolve this eventually, but I’ve learned to capture these glitches when I discover them since they often have interesting qualities worth exploring.

Arpeggio High Note Glitch