The Taming of The CPU Excerpt

Posted on January 23, 2015 by John C.S. Keston

I recorded this track while rehearsing for an upcoming solo performance. It’ll give you an idea of what to expect at the show. Everything was recorded in one take with no overdubs. The instruments include the DSI Tempest, Elektron Analog Four, and Moog Sub 37. I plugged it all into a Mackie 1202 including patching the sends to the external inputs on the Analog Four. I configured the left external input to route to the Analog Four internal reverb and the right to go to the delay. This gives me a knob on the mixer for delay and reverb on each channel. It’s ideal for live performance because I can instantly or momentarily add the Analog Four effects to any instrument without any menu diving.

Rule Based Electronic Music: Whistle While You Work

Posted on December 15, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

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My rules for this piece were to compose, arrange, and produce music in real-time (edited for length, but no overdubbing) using only the three instruments discussed. The track starts with a sequence I programmed into the Moog Sub 37. Next an arpeggio is introduced from the Elektron Analog Four (A4). Soon afterward we hear the high hats from the DSI Tempest and a long sustained melodic chord progression also from the A4. Finally the rest of the percussion is supplied by the Tempest along with a bass line. From there on out it’s a matter arranging the existing parts (muting and un-muting) with a little real-time knob tweaking.

What makes this piece different for me was sending the output of the Tempest into the A4’s external inputs. This allows for processing external signals through the reverb and delay built into the A4. So when performing a roll on the Tempest, for example, I can turn up the reverb or delay on the A4 external input to add some additional character to the sound. This is going to be really nice for upcoming performances. Since the A4 has two inputs I may just run sends into each then apply reverb to one and the delay (perhaps with a touch of chorus) to the other. This would give me a reverb and delay send for everything plugged into the mixer. Expect to hear more experiments exploiting these and other techniques in upcoming posts.

New Video from Moog: Sub 37 | Modulation & Sequencing

Posted on December 12, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

Moog Music has just posted a beautifully produced new video exploring the modulation and sequencing functionality of the Moog Sub 37. Last weekend I did some exploration of my own into modulating the self oscillating filter while driving it through the feedback circuit. Here’s a snippet from the sounds that happened during that experiment. All the sound is from the self oscillating filter. I used exactly none of the three oscillators (OSC1, OSC2, Sub OSC) on the instrument. It’s also running through the Memory Man Delay.

WARNING: The following track contains extremely high and low frequencies. Please start with low volume levels.

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.

Duet No.7 for Synthesizer and The Singing Ringing Tree

Posted on November 26, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

This is the last of seven videos produced documenting my five day recording session and performance series at the Singing Ringing Tree (SRT) in Burnley, UK. There’s a lot more content in the can, but for now this is enough to represent the project. My part of the collaboration with the SRT was simultaneously recorded on site using a Novation Bass Station II connected to a USB battery. I also ran the Bass Station II through a Moog Minifooger Delay.

My last day on site was also the windiest and it turned out that the best wind reduction happened to be a very thin cotton t-shirt wrapped around the binaural head as you can see in the photo below. The strong winds, although useful, made the process quite difficult, and the binaural effect seemed a little less prominent with any sort of wind reduction applied. However, I was able to get couple of good takes by carefully placing the dummy head next to the SRT and opposite the wind. Please checkout the playlist of all six duets (#2 was omitted) on my YouTube channel.

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