Duet No. 2 With The Singing Ringing Tree

Posted on May 14, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

This was the second take on day one of my Duets recording project with the Singing Ringing Tree (SRT), a wind activated musical panopticon in Northern England. The sculpture was designed by architects Tonkin Liu and completed in December 2006. I performed accompaniment for the SRT binaural recording simultaneously using a Novation Bass Station II connected to a USB battery. I also ran the Bass Station II through a Moog Minifooger Delay. Eventually I will be producing videos of these compositions. For now I wanted to try a quick mix to get an idea of how things will sound.

NOTE: This is a binaural recording combined with a monophonic synthesizer track. Although it sounds great through speakers, circumaural headphones must be used to experience the binaural effect.

Volca Keys with Bass Station II through Minifooger

Posted on May 4, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

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This simple layering of the Korg Volca Keys and Bass Station II through the Minifooger Delay came about during my preparations for the Echofluxx.org festival.

Bass Station II through the Minifooger Delay Part 2

Posted on May 4, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

Here’s another example of the Bass Station II running through the Moog Minifooger Delay. At the end you can hear the feedback alone with some time knob manipulation.

Bass Station II Through the Minifooger Delay

Posted on May 2, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

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I finally got my hands on a Minifooger Delay by Moog. I wanted something battery operated and more portable than the Memory Man for my performance at Echofluxx.org on May 7th, 2014 and an upcoming recording project in Northern England. Lucky for me it showed up at Foxtone Music just days before my flight to Prague. Thanks, Eric!

Audiovisual Grain Machine Demo

Posted on March 31, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

Here’s a quick demo of the software I am designing to do audiovisual granular synthesis that I’ll be presenting at Moogfest and performing with at Echofluxx. It allows a performer to apply granular synthesis to sound and corresponding video using a touch interface such as MIRA (shown). The audio and video are synchronized in parallel. The software also has the capability to capture and repeat gestures so that the performer can accompany the projections with multiple layers and arrange compositions in a performance setting. This demo granulates the voice and image of Lister Rossel. In addition I use analogue synthesizers to contrast the digital manipulations.

This work alludes to the speech-to-song illusion discovered by Diana Deutsch. It also evokes an “event fusion” as vocalizations are repeated much faster than humanly possible until they enter the audio range. Adding the corresponding visuals makes it appear uncanny as video and sound are looped in millisecond intervals.