The Taming of The CPU Excerpt

Posted on January 23, 2015 by John C.S. Keston

I recorded this track while rehearsing for an upcoming solo performance. It’ll give you an idea of what to expect at the show. Everything was recorded in one take with no overdubs. The instruments include the DSI Tempest, Elektron Analog Four, and Moog Sub 37. I plugged it all into a Mackie 1202 including patching the sends to the external inputs on the Analog Four. I configured the left external input to route to the Analog Four internal reverb and the right to go to the delay. This gives me a knob on the mixer for delay and reverb on each channel. It’s ideal for live performance because I can instantly or momentarily add the Analog Four effects to any instrument without any menu diving.

Zeitgeist Arts: The Taming of the CPU

Posted on January 20, 2015 by John C.S. Keston

I’m am very excited to announce an upcoming concert at Zeitgeist Arts this Friday, January 23, 2014 in Duluth, Minnesota. I’ll be performing a set of brand new material using the DSI Tempest, Elektron Analog Four, and Moog Sub 37. Live coding artist, Mike Hodnick (Kindohm), and Ableton guru, Lucas Melchior (MKR) are also on the bill. All three of us are recipients of the Minnesota Emerging Composers Award (MECA) for electronic music.

In addition to the music Chris LeBlanc will be performing live visuals at the event. I’ve had the privilege of working with Chris on several occasions and I’m really looking forward to experiencing his latest concoction of analog video, circuit bent NES, and vintage video mixers. At this event he’s bringing four gorgeous CRT monitors from a vintage 9 x 9 video wall. You can see a still of them in action above.

Facebook Event Page
Zeitgeist Arts Event Page

Mobile Studio: Analog Four Drone

Posted on January 1, 2015 by John C.S. Keston

10864708_400769743406337_447530709_n

I made this drone with the Elektron Analog Four while traveling away from home. I used the Zoom H6 as an audio interface and captured the mix in AudioShare on my iPad. I applied normalization with AudioShare and also used it to upload the track to SoundCloud.

Real Orchestra vs Synth Mockup – Part 6/6

Posted on December 19, 2014 by lost track

This is the sixth part in a small series of blog posts I’ll make about the real-world differences between orchestral mockups (or synth orchestras) versus real orchestras. As a composer who is fortunate to work regularly with live orchestras, I’ll try to help show the difference from a decent demo recording, to a mixed and mastered finished recording. For this example, I’ve chosen an exciting track from my album “Resonance Theory” called “Forever Lost”. The synth version was my demo – with live cello (my instrument) and lots of synth work.

Continue reading →

Real orchestra vs synth mockup – Part 5/6

Posted on December 15, 2014 by lost track

This is the fifth part in a small series of blog posts I’ll make about the real-world differences between orchestral mockups (or synth orchestras) versus real orchestras. As a composer who is fortunate to work regularly with live orchestras, I’ll try to help show the difference from a decent demo recording, to a mixed and mastered finished recording.

For this example, I’ve chosen an exciting track from my album “Resonance Theory” called “Takedown”. It’s a no-holds-barred action trailer piece, with extreme amounts of energy, rises and synth work. Still, a huge role for orchestra and very demanding on the players. This is one section I knew no samples could never play…as they don’t exist!

Continue reading →