Resonant Wobble

Posted on February 6, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

One thing I hadn’t explored yet on the Roland Juno-106 is how well it produces synthesizer effects. This is the sort of sound that I would normally create using my Sequencial Circuits Pro-One, and admittedly the filter on the Pro-One is a little more agressive, but I decided to give it a go on the 106. This sound was made using the filter self-resonance discussed in detail in the article Eerie Pseudo Oscillator Microtrack. Using the LFO on the VCF creates the wobble, then I adjusted the LFO manually for speed modulation.

Resonant Wobble

Spacey Roland D50 Arpeggio

Posted on January 30, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

Here’s a little arpeggio I recorded using my Roland D-50 and the factory preset, Vara Coma Veri La. A quick search shows that the patch, somehow on my D-50s internal memory, was part of the Cinascope Studio soundbank programmed by Paul Naton. All the processing heard is native to the D-50. No additional processing was added. Patches like this really show off the spacial qualities of the instrument with hard, slow auto-pan drenched in reverb.

Spacey D50 Arpeggio

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

Sounds from a Contact Mic Frozen in Water Ice

Posted on January 17, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

I just got a note from Dan Pugsley of Radium Audio. regarding their new resource Radium Audio Labs. The site will feature a broad variety of sound experiments and explorations. Dan writes,

“Radium Audio has recently started a blog demonstrating some of our explorative processes, and though it’s very much in the early stages of development we have some pretty interesting pieces uploaded already and I was wondering if any of it might be suitable for Audio Cookbook? We have two new explorative projects in the works at the moment, one of which is based on binaural recordings and the other will be revolving around the use of dry ice to create a variety of sounds.”

The projects posted so far include using a coil mic to record the electromagnetic fields from various electronic devices, like an iPhone and a printer/scanner, and my favorite at the moment, sounds captured from a contact microphone frozen in water ice as it melts.

Frozen Contact Mic in Ice by Radium-Audio

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