Warbled Delay Trails on Korg MS2000

I came across this sample from a performance on July 13, 2006. It is a delayed synthesizer line that I played and captured as a clip in Ableton Live during the show. What’s interesting to me about this clip is the obvious modulation in pitch on the delay trails. This is not something that I programmed into the patch and I suspect is actually caused by a bug in the Korg MS2000. It’s possible to recreate this bug by enabling tempo delay then sending external sync to the instrument. I rarely experience this glitch anymore because rather than using the delay on the Korg, I usually run it through tempo delay in the software. However, I kind of like the ghostly quality it creates in this short passage.

Warbled Synth Delay

Full Length Original Version of Onikoroshi

In order to put the last entry in context I thought I would share the original track that the Clavinet recording was made in. As I said before it is called Onikoroshi and it is the ninth piece on the album Super Structure Baby, re-released electronically in 2004 on Unearthed Music. I think the piece dates back to 1998 or 1999. Perhaps Saronni (Nils Westdal) will have some input on that.

Onikoroshi
from Super Structure Baby (2004, Unearthed Music).

Chopped Up Clavinet Through Wah Wah

I just recycled this ten year old recording made on my Hohner E7 Clavinet. It was originally a track in the piece Onikoroshi on the album Super Structure Baby (2004, Unearthed Music), which I think was recorded in 1999.

Unfortunately the rubber hammers on my clav have deteriorated so it is no longer playable. I have been meaning to restore it when I can find the time, but it is apparently a time consuming and arduous undertaking as you can tell from this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZXYU48P90Q

Robot Clavinet

Froth and Bothered

I recently recorded loads of bits and pieces of melodies and bass lines with my Maxi-Korg. This is an example of one of the ways I have attempted to assemble the parts into a musical form.

In this piece I have layered a synth bass line with dry analog drums. Soon afterward a duo-phonic melody is introduced running through reverberation. I really fancy the gritty texture of the Maxi-Korg bass.

Maxi-Korg Experiment

Segment of Piano Piece with Rhodes

With help from my father who was visiting recently, I have built a new desk for my studio. The idea I had was to build a desk wide enough to build a keyboard drawer underneath. What I came up with was a simple design using three quarter inch plywood, quarter inch ply for the backing and one by three pine for a brace and attachments for the eighteen inch ball bearing drawer runners. The keyboard is a CME UF7 semi-weighted controller.

It has made a huge difference in the ergonomics of my studio to have this controller readily available without having to have it take up extra space on a stand. Here’s a segment from a piece I wrote soon after putting the studio back together with the new desk. I’m using the CME to control my the grand piano patch on my Yamaha A3000 rack mount sampler. The Rhodes is my 1976 suitcase model that does not leave the studio.

Segment of Piano with Rhodes