Rule Based Electronic Music: REPL

Posted on December 19, 2013 by John C.S. Keston

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This is the forth piece in a series of rule based electronic compositions. I used the DSI Tempest, Korg Volca Keys, Novation Bass Station II, and Memory Man Delay. I also followed these rules: 1) No overdubbing. All tracks were recorded at the same time. 2) No computer sequencing. All sequencing was on the instruments used. 3) No looping or shuffling parts in post. Editing for length and content was allowed. 4) One reverb send, one delay, and fades were allowed. No other processing. 5) No mix tricks in post. Reverse and rolls were performed live.

Rule Based Electronic Music: Upsilon Andromedae

Posted on December 18, 2013 by John C.S. Keston

Here’s another piece using the DSI Tempest, Korg Volca Keys (this time not running through the Monotribe), Novation Bass Station II, and Memory Man Delay. I also made slight modifications to the rules: 1) No overdubbing. All tracks were recorded at the same time. 2) No computer sequencing. All sequencing was on the instruments used. 3) No looping or shuffling parts in post. Editing for length and content was allowed. 4) One reverb send, one delay, and fades were allowed. No other processing. 5) No mix tricks in post. Reverse and rolls were performed live.

Rule Based Electronic Music: Corpus of Utterance

Posted on December 17, 2013 by John C.S. Keston

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Here’s another improvised electronic track produced with a similar set of rules to the piece I posted in the article, More Rule Based Electronic Music.

Korg Volca Keys MIDI Out Mod

Posted on December 16, 2013 by John C.S. Keston

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Recently I have been looking for a way to sync the Novation Bass Station II (BSII) and the Korg Volca Keys. So what’s the problem? They do not communicate without a third party. As the firmware stands on the BSII, MIDI clock is not sent via the MIDI out port. The BSII cannot be used as a master clock to sync other devices. Fortunately it can receive MIDI clock, but unfortunately the Volcas only have MIDI in. The Volcas have gate clock out, but the BSII doesn’t do gate or CV.

This is particularly frustrating because I bought both synths for an upcoming project and would like them to play well together. To get around this I have been using a third device to send MIDI clock to a thru box then taking outs from the thru to the Volca Keys and BSII. This creates a mess of, what should be unnecessary, cables and power supplies. The upcoming project involves travel and requires battery operation in remote locations without power, so this work-around is not acceptable.

My next thought was to build a MIDI clock box. There are a few examples on the market, but they can be expensive (except for this one). Fortunately DIY solutions, like the Arduino, are fairly easy to build. Another way is to use the Highly Liquid MIDI CPU. Sending the MIDI CPU a signal from a circuit with a 555 timer chip controlled by a potentiometer is a great solution. Using this technique I was able to sync the BSII from a test gate signal. I may finish building this anyway because I have all the parts and it’s an interesting project.

However, the ideal solution would be for these instruments to communicate without additional hardware. Novation has said that they might enable MIDI clock out on the BSII in a firmware update. This remains to be seen, so I can’t get my hopes up. As it turns out Korg, like with the Monotribe and Monotrons, made the Volcas very easy to modify. A simple MIDI out mod sends MIDI clock, note on/off, velocity, and more.

To add MIDI out one simply needs to attach a MIDI jack with three leads to clearly labeled solder points on the circuit board. There’s almost no room inside for a recessed MIDI jack, so I used some spacers and mounted the jack on the right hand side. This also keeps the MIDI lead away from the knobs for playability. Voila! It works beautifully. Thanks, Korg!

More Rule Based Electronic Music

Posted on December 15, 2013 by John C.S. Keston

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In October I discussed a rule based approach to music making and quickly produced an album of material based on that dogmatic system. Since then I have been experimenting with refinements to the rules consisting mostly of different configurations of equipment. For this piece I used the DSI Tempest, Korg Volca Keys running through the Korg Monotribe, Novation Bass Station II, and Memory Man Delay. I followed these rules:

1. No overdubbing. All tracks were recorded at the same time.
2. No computer sequencing. All sequencing was on the instruments used.
3. No looping or shuffling parts in post. Editing for length and content was allowed.
4. No additional processing in the mix. Fades were allowed.
5. No mix tricks in post. Reverse and rolls were performed live.

Previously I allowed myself to use delay and reverb plugins in post. This time I applied no additional processing apart for normalizing the final mix. I also included the Bass Station II, and recorded the Memory Man Analogue Delay during the performance.