Try This: DGK Slam Factory Bootleg and Show Tonight

Posted on March 13, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

Here’s a segment from a recording made at “Try This” a new series at the Slam Factory in Minneapolis curated by James Hungelmann of my trio DGK (Jon Davis on bass and bass clarinet, Tim Glenn on drums, and John Keston on Rhodes and Pro-One). This set was a pleasure to play. It was a great space with a great audience and amazing hosts. The recording was made by the house and it’s the best quality representation of our sound to date.

If you’d like to hear it live stop by Honey, 205 E Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, Minnesota tonight at 10pm to hear two sets with special guest musicians and DJ’s including Martin Dosh, Andrew Broder, Scott Fultz, George Cartwright, Rajiah Johnson, Christopher Robin Cox, Kristoff Krane and more.

Try This: DGK Slam Factory Bootleg

Patch #13 Synthetic Harp in 6

Posted on March 13, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

One of my favorite sounds on polysynths are the plucky, fast decay patches that are great for arpeggiators. I have found myself gravitating toward generating lots of these on the Super Jupiter as I learn the instrument, but I hadn’t bothered saving any of them knowing that I could easily dial them up again when necessary. However, a couple of days ago I decided to start managing my creations. So far I have saved thirteen original patches including “Clangorous Bells” (one through three), a synth clav, a PWM bass, and the most recent of the lot that I titled “Synthy Harp”. Here’s a short passage produced with “Synthy Harp”, patch number thirteen.

Patch #13 Synthetic Harp in 6

Synthesizer Noise Jam #4

Posted on March 12, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

Here’s the forth entry in my series of synthesizer noise jams. Once again I chose the Roland MKS-80 because since I have repaired it I’m spending most of my time programming this magnificent synth. I just can’t seem to leave it alone. Although this segment is almost two minutes long, it came out of a recording that ran over ten minutes.

Synthesizer Noise Jam #4

Eight Minute Drone

Posted on March 11, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

Here’s an eight minute drone in D. The chord is fifths with a ninth on top. I added delay and reverb to the output while manipulating various parameters in real time.

Eight Minute Drone

Clangorous Cross Modulated Analogue Bells

Posted on March 10, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

After working out a new MIDI control scheme for the MKS-80, I decided to take a closer look at the cross modulation section. After reading the article in Sound on Sound that I discussed in Cross Modulated Microtonal Improvisation I thought it would be a good challenge to try and create some “clangorous bells”. It took me a little bit of trial and error, but I programmed a couple of bell-like patches that are pretty damn clangorous. Here’s the more clangorous of the two. They sound very analogue, weird, and more bell-like in the upper versus lower register, almost like something off a Tomita record. I added a bit of stereo imaging and reverb to liven them up a bit.

Cross Modulated Clangorous Bells