Tag Archives: Music

Piano Mallet Loop

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I extracted this loop from a recording of my piano that I made with the specific intention of not using the keyboard to make sound. I used a metal mallet to gently strike the strings and got lucky with this short ascending melody. It’s a one bar loop in 4:4 time at 67 beats per minute. I’ve looped it four times at full volume and then faded it out during the last two loops. I’m also including this sample in the “Share Remix Adapt” category, so if anyone wants to have a go at making a track out of this, please post the results in a comment so we can all have a listen. As stated in this post, all the examples in the “Share Remix Adapt” category have been licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license.

Piano Mallet Loop

Ultraviolet Amphibian Live Segment

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This segment of Ultraviolet Amphibian was recorded during a live performance at the Nomad in Minneapolis on June 10, 2008. I’m including it as today’s sound to give you an idea how Keston and Westdal’s live performances sound compared to our studio recordings. There’s more improvisation during our live shows as well as the addition of live drums. This performance features Graham O’Brien.

Unfortunately board mixes like this one are rarely balanced because the sound is being mixed for the room. Anything loud or amplified on stage like bass guitar or drums don’t come through very well. Since the laptops, Rhodes and synth are going direct they are much louder in the board mix. I ran the recording through some pretty complex equalization and compression to try and bring out the bass guitar, but it still lacks the luster of the mastered studio version.

Tonight we are playing at the Kitty Cat Klub in Minneapolis. Tuesday, September 2nd we are performing at Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis for a pro-art and political progress rally put on by TheUnConvention.com, and held during the Republican National Convention. For more information please visit our shows page on unearthedmusic.com.

Ultra Violet Amphibian Live Segment

Studio Version of Ultraviolet Amphibian

Illuminator Console

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To create this sound I started by programming a beat. In this case I pitched each slice of the beat individually to create a variety of pitches in the loop. Once I was satisfied with it I rendered it to a clip and applied a plugin by Paul Kellett (MDA) called Tracker, distributed by smartelectronix. Tracker tracks the frequency of a sample with a waveform, such as a sine wave, and then allows you to transpose, slide between pitches, adjust the mix and so on.

Running drums through Tracker can create some interesting and unpredictable melodies. At the start of this clip I left the mix at 100%, only hearing the melody created by the pitches tracked, then adjusted it down to zero by the end so you can hear what the beat sounds like without the pitch tracking. In front of Tracker I added Beat Repeat and turned it on a couple of times to generate some fills. I touched it up with some tempo delay mixed in here and there for some dub flavor.

Illuminator Console

Logical Psychosis

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Once again I have opted to feature a mini-mix of an unfinished idea, rather than an individual sound or example of processing. I am finding that creating these 1 to 2 minute snapshots of the idea is giving me a new perspective on unfinished compositions that I might have otherwise left by the wayside. Perhaps rendering simplified versions of these pieces will serve as an interim step to producing completed versions. I’m also appreciative of the feedback I’m getting on these rough mixes from friends, family and even a handful of very nice reader comments. Thanks!

I wouldn’t exactly call this piece a remix, but it does use bit of my Rhodes playing and other samples from prior Keston and Westdal tracks and performances. The arrangement, bass line, chord progression and processing are all new, so it only obscurely resembles any other tracks. I’m quite fond of how the bass line sounds. It reminds me a little of an analogue, male vocal simulation that Tomita produced on his interpretation of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”, which otherwise has no similarities to this piece.

Logical Psychosis

Everything Sounds Better Backwards

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Those of you with a discerning ear might recognize this phrase of reversed Rhodes electric piano from a recent Keston and Westdal release. Here it has no processing other than being reversed. Sometimes I wonder what attracts me to reversed sounds. They are strange, but somehow familiar. We have become accustomed to hearing things backwards in music and film. The intent is usually to unnerve the listener or sound disturbing or bizarre. I hear reversed sounds as beautiful and symmetrical counterparts to the forward versions.

As far as I know, reversed sound does not happen naturally. Yet it is something that has been technologically possible since the very first sound recordings were made in the late eighteen hundreds. Thomas Edison may have been one of the first people to hear sound in reverse. He noted that when music is played backwards, “the song is still melodious in many cases, and some of the strains are sweet and novel, but altogether different from the song reproduced in the right way”. Everything sounds better backwards.

Backwards Rhodes