Prophesser #5

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Saronni

I’m not going to mention software or instruments that I’ve used. I will mention that one of my main artistic functions has been the roll of a bass player since age 11. In this case the bass guitar has been silenced. This is not the first time I’ve produced music without the use of my reliable four stringed chum but maybe the first time I’ve used a foreign instrument as the key writing tool, and may very well be a catalyst for my fourth full length release as ten72. This track has the working title of Prophesser #5.

Prophesser #5

Eyeo Festival June 27-29, 2011

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

In late June 2011 I will be presenting the GMS and Grain Machine, as well as performing with Ostracon, at the Eyeo Festival. Eyeo is a new festival organized by Dave Schroeder, that includes an ever expanding and incredible list of speakers. I am honored, humbled and invigorated to be participating in this event. Here’s a blurb from the festival website:

“eyeo brings together the most creative coders, designers and artists working today, and shaping tomorrow – expect an amazing three days of talks, labs, demos & events fueled by the people and tools that are transforming digital culture.”

Just to give you an idea of the scope of the presenters, both Ben Fry and Casey Reas, founders of the Processing.org language (that I used to build the GMS) are on the roster among many other brilliant talents. Checkout the website for a list of the presenters so far. Here’s a track from the upcoming Ostracon album to illustrate what we’re producing.

Entropy Procedure by Ostracon

Auto Octave Filter Sweep

Posted on January 18, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

Here’s a test composition using another patch I created for Curve titled Auto Octave Filter Sweep by AudioCookbook. On this patch I used two of the LFOs. The first one I setup to alternate between the octaves with a square wave, and the second I used with a sign wave to modulate the cutoff frequency on the filter configured with a 24dB low pass filter. On the second LFO I used the fixed rate that ranges from 0.020 hertz all the way up to 5.24 kilohertz. I mapped a MIDI controller to the LFO speed and adjusted it over the full range during the sequence. I also made adjustment to the cutoff frequency, resonance, and envelopes during the 5:20 minute recording.

Auto Octave Filter Sweep

Roland D50 Microtrack No. 5

Posted on January 10, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

This microtrack was made with a D-50 factory preset called Twilight Zone. The D-50 is quite capable of generating sophisticated special effects. Still looking for a PG-1000, but might start using some librarian software specifically designed for the D-50 to at least be able to use a mouse or track pad to program patches.

Twilight Zone

Roland D50 Microtrack No. 4

Posted on January 9, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

The D-50 factory preset, A Fifth of Space, used in this microtrack sounds remarkably analog, a result of the unique linear arithmetic synthesis model that Roland debuted in this instrument.

A Fifth of Space