Here’s another analog synth, electro-funk composition that I have kept in a locked drawer for almost a year, taking it out occasionally to brush of the dust and hold it against the light. If this track doesn’t become your Summer jam then it is time for me to give up on music and wonder When did music become unimportant? Aside from the drums, this track was made entirely using my restored Roland Juno-106. Few instruments rival the punchy sounds that the 106 seems to spurt out with only a few careful strokes of her many sliders. Please enjoy responsibly.

I made this track, titled Crowd Dance, almost entirely using the Korg Monotribe synced in Ableton Live. There are 8 layers of the instrument plus a subtle analog drum pattern that includes the wood block, sampled from an old organ. This is one of several works in progress commissioned by the American Composers Forum for a collaboration with a choreographer. It is music for the opening vignette of “In Habit” that will be performed by the Aniccha Arts Dance Company at Northern Spark on June 9, 2012.

Note: This video was produced with binaural sound. Please listen with headphones to experience the binaural effect.

In this “duet” I am using the Korg Monotribe to join in with the laundromat ambience as if it were a conscious participant in an improvisational ensemble. The activity in the space produced oscillations that caused sound waves forming drones and rhythmic patterns. I responded with basic oscillators like pulse, saw, or triangle waves. I manipulated the filter, LFO and pitch to create more complex textures that alternately blend and contrast with the ambient sound.

The ambience was recorded with a set of binaural microphones. When wearing stereo headphones the playback of a binaural recording accurately positions the direction of each sound for the listener, immersing them in the spatial soundscape. In contrast the synthesis was recorded in mono, without additional processing. This simulates a process called phonomnesis, or imagined sound, by placing the signal in the center of the listeners sound-space.

Concept, Music, Sound: John Keston
Camera, Binaural Head Model: Web Baker

This is the latest piece from a group of microtracks that feature the Korg Monotribe synchronized in various ways with the Sequential Circuits Pro-One. In this case, to create the swing on the Pro-One, I ran it’s sync track through an eighth note triplet groove setting. In post I took the liberty of adding some delay during the outro and reverb in a couple of places.

For this experiment I recorded the Monotribe sync signal into Ableton Live, then I made two separate tracks of warped sync output – one to drive the Monotribe and one to drive the Pro-One. Not only does this give me the capability to set the tempo in Live, but I can also manipulate the sync signal independently for each device.

Notice the galloping shuffle on the Pro-One bass line? This was created by adding a delay to the sync signal that is going to the Pro-One. Using this technique I can instantly add groove, double-time, or triplet feel to either or both of the instruments. Who knew these instruments, 30 years apart, would pair so well together.

This is my favorite from the series of microtracks featuring the Korg Monotribe synched with the Pro-One that I’ve produced so far. For this experiment I also plugged my Korg Monotron into the Monotribe’s audio input. This can be heard as the higher pitched drone following the bass line. At around 0:15 the Pro-One arpeggiator fades in. Finally at about 0:54 the Monotron pitch ramps up about an octave, goes a little sharp, goes at little flat, then rests fairly close to the octave as the feedback on the Memory Man saturates the Pro-One notes.

Here’s one more from a group of microtracks that feature the Korg Monotribe synchronized in various ways with the Sequential Circuits Pro-One.

Motherboard.tv has an article on what is probably the world’s largest synthesizer (let’s not forget T.O.N.T.O) created by Joe Paradiso over about twelve years starting in 1974. It has recently been installed at MIT. What is amazing is that you can listen to long audio files of patches that Joe creates every couple of weeks, or (now for the really crazy part) visit an online interface to literally control the synth remotely with other users doing the same thing!