This month I will be playing a solo set at RÖK Eatery in St. Paul on Thursday, October 20th at 7pm. 7th St. W, Suite 12, St. Paul, MN 55102. This is an exciting opportunity for me to improvise with some amazing instruments that I have been working with recently. These include the Numa X Piano GT, a gorgeous sounding stage piano, my beloved Prophet REV2 polysynth from the late Dave Smith, and a handheld tracker/sampler/synth called the Dirtywave M8.
I am still surprised by my own decision to include the Dirtywave M8 in this setup given that I did not anticipate using it in a live setting, but with the collection of customized tools I’ve been crafting that aid with improvisation and experimentation I’m finding it to be a rewarding combination. More to come!
My ongoing search for a stage piano to suit my somewhat unconventional desires has led me in several directions described in part one and part two of this series, but when I came across the details online about the Numa X Piano GT my head was decisively turned. I ordered the flagship stage piano from StudioLogic without even trying it back in February, 2022 and due to chip shortages didn’t receive it until the end of July. It was worth the wait. It isn’t without flaws, but they are easily worked around and overshadowed by the exceptional flexibility, playability, and sound quality of this marvelous machine. This article will not serve as a review, but as an explanation of why this instrument suits me where others might not have.
The first thing I’d like to address is the action. The key bed is Fatar’s new TP/400 Wood and includes realistic escapement, velocity, and aftertouch sensitivity. Many stage pianos do not include aftertouch, limiting controller capabilities, so having it was an important factor in my decision. The key bed feels fantastic and responds better than any other weighted controller or stage piano I’ve tried. Another characteristic of the key bed that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere is the key texture. More often than not electronic instruments have glossy keys that can feel sticky or slippery to your fingers. The Numa X Piano GT has a soft, ivory, grain-like texture on the keys that feels great under my finger tips. In the light the subtle grain appears to be different on each key. The texturing is a thoughtful detail that I never considered, but ultimately helps me connect with the instrument. Continue reading →
This summer I am performing a piece at two international conferences and streaming a pre-recorded concert at a third. The generative, audiovisual piece is titled SYNTAX and is in collaboration with Mike Hodnick (aka Kindohm). Mike and I debuted the piece in November, 2021 and when we did, we both had complex hardware setups. Mine included a Prophet REV2, an Arturia Keylab 88, Blokus Midihub, and a Yamaha Reface CP. This was a local performance for us in Minneapolis so I did not hesitate to utilize the best instruments I had access to.
But when those instruments are large and I need to travel light I seek out portable alternatives. Some of the gear I’ve travelled with includes: Novation BSII, Novation Circuit, Korg Volca Keys, PreenFM2, Moog Minifooger Delay, Organelle M, Arturia KeyStep, and Korg nanoKONTROL. These devices allow me to play parts and improvise in a natural and organic way. Visuals are often part of these sets, so usually there’s a computer and/or tablet in tow, but generally I reserve the sound making for dedicated hardware.
Custom iPad UI with MIRA and AVGM (a Max project) on the Mac. At Echofluxx in Prague CZ, 2014
For these upcoming performances I came to the conclusion that iOS would do a better job of providing the sound design, signal processing, and multitimbral capabilities that I needed in a carry-on form factor. I surprised myself with this revelation, but it became clear that it was the right decision as I began working. And it wasn’t my first choice. I had started the process using other tools, but using iOS was faster and solved a series of issues I was running into with alternative setups. I paired the iPad with an Arturia KeyStep to play the parts. In addition I included an audio interface (iConnectAUDIO4+), a powered USB hub, and a Korg nanoKONTROL for tactile sliders and knobs.
Toxic from SYNTAX (Mac) with ID700 (iPad)
AUM from Kymatica by Jonatan Liljedahl made this setup possible and convenient. It’s basically a mixer for iOS synths, sequencers, and signal processors supporting AU, AUv3, Audiobus, or Inter-App Audio. Using AUv3 in AUM conveniently allows for multiple instances of the same synth or plugin. The MIDI support is phenomenal and allowed me to configure everything exactly how I wanted. All my effects are on bus sends and controlled with my ancient bus powered Korg nano. I play everything I need to with my Arturia KeyStep. AUM even lets me even split the keyboard (not natively supported on the KeyStep) by specifying a MIDI keyboard range per track. Setup and configuration was much easier than I expected. Every time I wondered if AUM was capable of a feature that I needed I found it with limited menu diving. The interface is clean and only shows you what you need, but access under the hood is merely one or two taps away.
The next thing I needed to do was make similar sounds to what I was getting out of my REV2 and Yamaha CP. I say “similar” knowing that that won’t do for artists who aim for their performances to replicate released recordings of their work. In our case we’ll be performing experimental music interpreting generative, animated, graphic scores. We expect every performance to be different, however every movement also has its own signature, so I need approximations of the original sounds that behave in a similar way. To stand in for the Yamaha CP RdI model I used the excellent VTines, which I wrote about recently. For the Prophet REV2 it took three apps to design the sounds I needed: ID700, Animoog Z, and an early app named Bebot – Robot Synth that’s been around since 2008.
Buchla 700 iOS synthesizer ID700 by Jonathan Schatz
I will write more about these apps in upcoming articles. For now I will say that the Buchla 700 inspired ID700 was new to me and is featured throughout this project. ID700 is unconventional, peculiar, bizarre, and I love it. One of the things that makes it standout are the fourteen complex envelopes per voice. The envelopes have an arbitrary number of “points” or stages that are either linear or logarithmic and each point can be modulated by anything from pressure (including MPE) and note on or off velocity to continuous or one-shot randomness. Furthermore each point has conditional actions that can be used to pause or stop, jump to other points (making looping envelopes possible), and several other actions. ID700 is well worth a look for anyone after experimental sounds, long morphing drones, metallic percussion, and other worldly textures. The learning curve is steeper than conventional synths, but the rewards are well worth the learning it takes to understand this fascinating approach to sound synthesis.
EDIT: In conclusion using iOS isn’t better and doesn’t replace small hardware setups, but it is a fast and convenient choice if you need to approximate a hardware setup/project that’s already been designed. If I was starting on a new project and knew I was traveling with it I might have opted for the Organelle M or Monome Norns over iOS. With so many choices of hardware, software, and combinations of the two the landscape of potential electronic music setups can be daunting. I hope that sharing my approach is useful or interesting. Thanks for listening!
If you’re interested in experiencing SYNTAX, the series of audiovisual works I’ve referenced throughout this article, our three upcoming performances include:
A recent setup for John C.S. Keston with a Rhodes EP at the McGuire Theater, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
As I continue my search for the “perfect” stage piano (spoiler: there isn’t one) I have been asking myself if it is practical and/or desirable to use a VST instead of a dedicated hardware instrument. This is an approach that I have used in the past, and one that many professionals choose, so I have decided to explore a few modern examples of this possibility in detail.
Since the Rhodes (the actual 130lbs version) has been the instrument of choice for me for many years, the first thing I wanted to determine was if there was an electric piano VST that could emulate the Rhodes well enough to satisfy my ears. Over the years I have used Lounge Lizard (Electric in Ableton Live), Arturia’s Stage-73 V, and several others with limited success. This article is a reflection on a new-to-me VST that might just work in my weird and atypical performance and studio setups. No emulation has the ability to replace the Rhodes, but I’m hoping to find a satisfactory facsimile for live performances.
The latest Rhodes VST that I have found interesting is VTines MK1 from Acousticsounds. Although VTines MK1 provides only one electric piano model, is it by far the most adjustable of the examples I have used. For example VTines MK1 allows for the adjustment of around 9 parameters on a per key basis! In other words you can adjust the virtual “pickup distance”, “tine height”, and more for individual notes on the instrument. Continue reading →
On Black Friday, 2021 I released a solo album of 20 tracks, all recorded as a response to the despair of isolation and the horrors of… space. Yes, they were also recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, and although the “despair of isolation and the horrors of” the global disease were (and are) a daily realty, working on this album was a way to escape.
The music was inspired by Mothership, a sci-fi horror tabletop role playing game, from which I borrowed the title. More accurately, it was inspired by group of friends with whom I played Mothership (the game) via video chat. I started with one dark ambient piece to get us in the mood for the game, which led to another, and another until the album was complete. Mothership (the album) is available by the good graces of Æther Sound. Read on for the liner notes: Continue reading →
