March of the Robot Field Mice

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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.”

Rule Based Electronic Music: Good Morning Mr. Paik

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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

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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.

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: REPL

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This is the forth piece in a series of rule based electronic compositions. I used the DSI Tempest, Korg Volca Keys, Novation Bass Station II, and Memory Man Delay. 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: Upsilon Andromedae

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Here’s another piece using the DSI Tempest, Korg Volca Keys (this time not running through the Monotribe), Novation Bass Station II, and Memory Man Delay. I also made slight modifications to the 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.