Elektron Analog Four, Moog Sub 37, and DSI Tempest

Posted on December 9, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

You may have noticed that my contributions to ACB have been sparse as of late, so I really appreciate Tom Player’s fascinating articles comparing electronic orchestration to the real thing. I have been busy teaching interactive media at two institutions and just finished an artist residency at Metropolitan State University working with students in the Experimental Music and Intermedia Arts program headed by professor David Means (I’ll be sharing more about that later).

In addition to teaching and other academics I have performing regularly and maintaining a studio practice when my schedule allows. Recently this involved the addition of two new instruments: the Moog Sub 37 and the Elektron Analog Four (A4). The Sub 37 arrived back in September and the A4 in November.

This weekend I had a couple of hours to interface these new additions with my DSI Tempest analog drum machine. These three instruments seem to complement each other really well. The Tempest is gritty and a little unpredictable, the Sub 37 is instantly gratifying and expressive, while the A4 is precise, clean, and technical. Here’s an excerpt from one of my experiments last weekend.

Real Orchestra vs Synth Mockup – Part 3/6

Posted on December 8, 2014 by lost track

Hi again, This is the third 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 another Christmas advert I worked on – Morrisons 2013 campaign. Featuring a re-recording/arrangement of Alan Menken’s “Be Our Guest” from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Here is the instrumental version only.

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Real Orchestra vs Synth Mockup Part 2/6

Posted on December 1, 2014 by lost track

Hi again. This is the second 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 a piece that was recorded at Abbey Road studio 2, with the English Session Orchestra, and was used for the 2013 TK Maxx Christmas campaign. It was an arrangement of the 80’s synth pop hit, “Only You” by Yazoo. A simple piece which relies on expressive playing and fluid, agile string movement is always going to be tricky for samples. Here’s the before and after.

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SoundsCloud Flashback: Music for People on Shelves

Posted on November 28, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

I used Ableton Live to produce in real-time and my wavetable glitch machine Max patch to make most of the noises, which I routed into Live using Soundflower.

This five year old set is one of the very first things I ever posted on SoundCloud and it’s 86 minutes from a live solo performance with Minneapolis Art on Wheels. Checkout the original posts here:

Video documentation:
audiocookbook.org/people-on-shelves/

The original article:
audiocookbook.org/music-for-people-on-shelves/

Real Orchestra vs Synth Mockup – Part 1/6

Posted on November 27, 2014 by lost track

Hi there, Tom Player here – it’s been a while since my last post! This is the first 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 me, undoubtedly the ‘highlight of the job’ is getting to work with live players. There’s nothing like the moment at the beginning of a session you hear the first note, and suddenly your work is brought to life by an ensemble of talented players. You can breathe! And then the rest of the hard work starts. :)

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