String Patch Modified with Filter Sweep

I created this patch today by starting with a typical string setting on the synth that I can’t keep my hands off of late, reworking the envelopes, and adding a slow, resonant filter sweep. After playing with it a or a while it reminds me a little bit of a sitar sound, which is coincidental because I was listening to Ravi Shankar records shortly after making the patch.

String Patch Modified with Filter Sweep

Execute Rogue Citizen with Music by Ostraka

Tonight I am honored to be performing during the opening night of Execute Rogue Citizen. I have a lot of time to fill during the opening, so as well as performing the latest Ostraka material, I’ll be playing the newly mastered yet unreleased Ostracon (John Keston and Graham O’Brien) album, Unauthorized Modifications, and a recent bootleg of DGK from Try This at the Slam Factory. The City Pages writes,

Execute Rogue Citizen” will be on display at Gallery 13 until April 1. The opening reception, Incarceration, will be this Friday night and features music by Ostraka starting at 7:30 p.m.

The closing in two weeks, Reprieve, will feature the music of Seawhores. All the art that has gone unsold during the show’s run will literally be executed. By doing this, Rogue Citizen hopes to acknowledge the way the system benefits only those who can afford it.

Let’s hope there will be no art leftover on execution night. Created by science-fiction nerds who love to paint the abnormal, Rogue Citizen’s work is much too nifty to get tossed, even if it is to make a valid point on our current social system.

Here’s an excerpt from a track a produced today that I’ll be performing in my Ostraka set tonight. All the sounds in this piece were made with the Roland Super Jupiter MKS-80 apart from the drums.

Execute Rogue Citizen by Ostraka

Shinny, Watery, Wet and Sticky MKS-80 Microtrack

I recorded this collection of arpeggiated notes as they poured out of the Roland Super Jupiter MKS-80 while I manipulated the controls in real-time. A lot of it ended up on the cutting room floor, but I’m pretty fond of these last two minutes forty seven seconds. I dipped it in a vat of reverb and delay before presenting it here for your enjoyment.

Delayed and Reverbed MKS-80

Patch #13 Synthetic Harp in 6

One of my favorite sounds on polysynths are the plucky, fast decay patches that are great for arpeggiators. I have found myself gravitating toward generating lots of these on the Super Jupiter as I learn the instrument, but I hadn’t bothered saving any of them knowing that I could easily dial them up again when necessary. However, a couple of days ago I decided to start managing my creations. So far I have saved thirteen original patches including “Clangorous Bells” (one through three), a synth clav, a PWM bass, and the most recent of the lot that I titled “Synthy Harp”. Here’s a short passage produced with “Synthy Harp”, patch number thirteen.

Patch #13 Synthetic Harp in 6