Tonight (Friday, January 6, 2012) DKO is performing our first concert of the year. We’ll play two sets at Acadia, 329 Cedar Ave S., Minneapolis, MN 55454. This little gem of a venue has one of the best beer selections in the city. There’s no cover and all ages are welcome. Here’s another segment from our December 16, 2011 performance at the Kitty Cat Klub. This one starts out with some Pro-One arpeggios then moves into Rhodes playing with a solo at 4:43 and then a Pro-One solo at about 9:25.
This improvised piece from my trio DKO was recorded live at the Kitty Cat Klub on December 16, 2011 (live mix by Ryan Olcott and post mix by John Keston) and features Jon Davis on bass, John Keston on keyboards (that’s me), and Graham O’Brien on drums. For more music, information about DKO, and booking please visit dkomusic.tumblr.com. My rig on this track included two of my favorite standbys; the Rhodes electric piano and my newly calibrated Pro-One. I also had my Electro-Harmonix Memory Man Delay on a send and used the Korg Monotron for some atonal synthesizer textures.
I recently cleaned the j-wires and re-calibrated my Sequential Circuits Pro-One. I cleaned the j-wires and the contact bar with isopropyl alcohol and cotton swaps, although proper contact cleaner is recommended. I also gently bent a few of the wires to improve the connection to the contact bar.
I knew about the calibration problem prior to any of this maintenance, but I noticed it even more after cleaning the j-wires. I’m not sure why this would be the case, but I resolved to take a stab at the calibration myself having not attempted it before. Looking on the scope I could see that an octave on the keyboard was actually a quarter tone sharp and therefore unplayable. I made the necessary adjustments for both oscillators and now it sounds great.
After the calibration I produced this sequence entirely on the Pro-One in a single take by programming two short sequences into the on-board sequencer. The first sequence was played at several pitches to create a progression. I also switched off the oscillator sync at the same time I switched to the second sequence to create an octave doubling of the melody then re-enabled the sync at 1:41.
Pro-One-Sequence-Calibrated
I recorded this all analog synthesizer jam recently while my friend and fellow synthesist Michael Moline, otherwise known as Miditerranean, was visiting. I played an arpeggio on the Roland MKS-80 while Michael made noises on my Pro-One. In addition I played a few notes on the Roland Juno-106 for some additional melodic content.
Ostraka_with_Miditerranean
Former A&R rep and all-around minneapolis music nut, John Kass recently posted eight tracks ripped from a couple of demo tapes that we submitted to his record label back in the mid-90s. You can check out all of the tracks on his blog gojohnnygo.com. I’m including an instrumental track below that’s loaded with some note-y Pro-One lines revealing that I have been using that synth for at least sixteen years. Crazy!
Instrumental