March of the Robot Field Mice

Posted on February 18, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

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Here’s another “straight-to-tape-no-overdubs” track. This time I gave myself the liberty of pre-recording a few MIDI loops in the DAW with the mutes routed to a MIDI controller. I used eight of my favorite instruments including the Rhodes, Roland D-50, Roland Juno-106, Roland MKS-80, Korg Volca Keys, Novation Bass Station II, and SCI Pro-One.

Incidentally, the title of this track was inspired by a comment on Japan, California, UK that reads: “If, within 6 months, this isn’t the soundtrack to an inspirational, animated montage where cartoon field mice build an aeroplane from junk and fly above their home waving down to their friends, then there’s no justice.”

Japan, California, UK

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

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Here is another no-overdubbing, straight-to-tape, composition using four of my favorite synths. The Yamaha FS1R provided the brittle, sustained, chord pattern. The Tempest handled the synth bass. The Bass Station II produced the arpeggio. Finally, I used the mighty MKS-80 for the lead playing. BTW: I took the photo in Seattle.

Wall of Synth with Juno-106, Volca Keys, Tempest, and Bass Station II

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

This is one of the first recordings that I made after putting the final touches on my recent home studio remodel. I went from dark wood panelling and old carpeting to cork flooring and drywall with fresh white paint and acoustic panels. The room sounds better, looks better and brighter and feels like a proper studio. To finish things off I installed a five tier shelving system to house a wall of my favorite synthesizers.

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For this track I wanted to try using the Korg Volca Keys as a sequencer for my Juno-106. “How is that possible?!?,” you might ask. Well I’ll tell you how. I have modded the Volca Keys to include a MIDI out port. Using this mod I sent the MIDI out from the Volca Keys to the Juno-106. Both synths played the same sequence, but because the Volca Keys is polyphonic the Juno-106 consistently played chords, while I switched modes on the Volca Keys between poly, unison, and fifths, etc. I fleshed out the piece by adding an arp provided by the Bass Station II and a bass line from the Tempest.

Rule Based Electronic Music: Good Morning Mr. Paik

Posted on December 20, 2013 by John C.S. Keston

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For the sixth piece in the series I left out the percussive layers. This was also a test for the MIDI output mod that I recently applied to the Volca Keys. The setup included the Volca Keys MIDI output (mod) going to the MIDI input of the Novation Bass Station II. To sync the Monotribe I ran the sync out from the Volca Keys to the Monotribe. This can be problematic because there’s some crosstalk between the audio and sync out ports on the Volcas. Keeping the level of the Volca Keys just under full prevents stuttering on the Monotribe, but I’d like to find a better solution.

I also followed these rules: 1) No overdubbing. All tracks were recorded at the same time. 2) No computer sequencing. All sequencing was on the instruments used. 3) No looping or shuffling parts in post. Editing for length and content was allowed. 4) One reverb send, one delay, and fades were allowed. No other processing. 5) No mix tricks in post. Reverse and rolls were performed live.

Rule Based Electronic Music: Another Scientific Toy

Posted on December 20, 2013 by John C.S. Keston

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On this fifth piece within the series the lead was played on the Volca Keys using a MIDI controller allowing for spanning several octaves and applying pitch bend and velocity. To get the intermittent pitch modulation I adjusted the LFO amount during play. Other instruments included the DSI Tempest and Novation Bass Station II.