Not the Ubiquitous Autotune of the Same Name

Posted on May 28, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

One of the very special things about the Roland MKS-80 is that is has true analog, voltage controlled oscillators or VCOs. Unfortunately (or fortunately) VCOs are sensitive to environmental conditions especially temperature, not to mention lunar cycles and barometric pressure, but I can’t confirm those reports. In any case, this means that the synth needs time to warm up before the VCOs are stable.

Fortunately the MKS-80 has an autotune (no relation to the ubiquitous vocal processing of the same name) button that tunes all sixteen of the oscillators to each other automatically. Although, if you just turn it on, press autotune and start playing then it will drift out of tune again as the components warm up to a stable temperature. Below is an example of me doing just that followed by a pause where I pressed the autotune button and tried again.

Although an inconvenience to some, to me this gives the instrument more soul than its digital counterparts. As a piano player I know that a piano is never perfectly in tune. Also, the frequency of the notes played on a piano change slightly as they decay. Voltage controlled analog oscillators have a soulful, mysterious character to them that is partially defined by their imperfections.

Out of Tune In Tune

The Battle of Everyouth Rehearsal Segment Part 1

Posted on May 27, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

On Saturday, June 4, 2011 from 9pm until midnight I will be performing with DKO (Davis, Keston, O’Brien) and DJ Luke Anderson at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) for the Northern Spark Festival. Our experimental music will be live accompaniment for an amazing piece called the Battle of Everyouth (Jenny Schmid and Ali Momeni). Here’s a more detailed description of the piece.

The Battle of Everyouth is a projection-based performance which blends live cinema, participatory theater, music and live animation. A miniature set, the Circarama serves as a tiny stage for projections and stop motion animations, while wireless devices offer ways to engage with live theater and contribute to the resulting projection panorama on the facade of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

DJ Luke Anderson joins the amazing trio, DKO, which features Jon Davis (Bass, Bass Clarinet), Graham O’Brien (percussion) and John Keston (Rhodes, Pro-One, electronics) for live experimental music on the steps of the MIA.

Students from Washburn High School are audience guides. This group has been studying youth and violence in their Art, Geography and Literature classes during the Spring, 2011 term. Their studies have included a mock United Nations focusing on child soldiers, the reading of graphic novels Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Maus by Art Spiegelman as well as discussions about artists that address controversies about borders, faith and security.

Artists Jenny Schmid and Ali Momeni are stationed at a “mixing station” which combines live video feeds from these numerous dispersed performance contexts. Jenny layers drawings and words over the input imagery, while Ali animates and manipulates the many visual elements of this project.

In preparation we have begun rehearsals to formulate musical strategies and create a vocabulary of ideas. Here’s a short segment from one of these rehearsals featuring Luke Anderson on electronics, Graham O’Brien on drums, and myself on GrainMachine with some Rhodes toward the end.

Battle of Everyouth Rehearsal Segment (Part 1)

Arpeggio with LFO Routed to the VCF

Posted on May 26, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

Here’s another arpeggio from a previous session where I recorded a broad collection of Roland MKS-80 sounds arpeggiated by the Bitstream 3X. What I like about this piece in particular is the way the free-running analog LFO is modulating the VCF. The typical behavior of a digital LFO is to restart the waveform from zero for each new note. However, on the MKS-80 we can hear the continuous, counter-rhythmic pulse of the LFO on the notes as they are played.

Arpeggio with LFO Routed to the VCF

Ostracon Debut Excerpt: Dwarf Plutocracy

Posted on May 25, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

Here’s an excerpt from the fifth track on our upcoming release, Unauthorized Modifications by Ostracon. We will be celebrating the release with a live performance at the Honey Lounge in Minneapolis on June 24, 2011. Artists performing with us at the event include Dosh, Smyth, and Ghostband. Rogue Citizen will be doing live painting during the performance for added visual stimulus.

Dwarf Plutocracy (Excerpt)

Reason 5 with Oxygen 25 Demo

Posted on May 24, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

I created this simple microtrack while demonstrating how to use the M-Audio Oxygen 25 controller with Reason 5 for my audio production class. There’s a heavy dose of Curtis Mayfield in this and no artistic merit on my part, but it was fun to see the reaction from my students as I created the track in a matter of minutes. If only I got a commission from Propellerheads for all the new Reason users I churn out of my classes (wink). During the demo I illustrated how to use the O25 to play instruments sounds, remap controls, and apply automation.

Reason 5 with Oxygen 25 Demo