I normally do all my composition and production work indoors. I decided it was just about time to do some sessions outdoors considering the fantastic summer weather and locations we have here in Boulder. Here is my first session  “#01 Octatrack meets Absynth” (watch embedded video).
 

2013 Summer of Synth Sessions Boulder – #01 Octatrack meets Absynth from Mark Mosher on Vimeo.

Octatrack

I’m just getting started with the Elektron Octatrack performance sampler but I decided it would a perfect instrument to kick off a summer session as it’s possible to do entire compositions with effects from this one box. I’m finding that playing it from the front panel even without the sequencer can be incredibly expressive even though it doesn’t have velocity sensitive buttons. The secret sauce is in the morphing scenes. You can create up to 16 scenes each with it’s own parameter settings. You then assign one of these to either Scene A or B on-the-fly. You can then morph between the settings of each scene with the incredibly sensitive optical crossfader which causes the Octatrack to smoothly interpolate between A & B parameter settings. In a nutshell, you are able to control and perform with incredible amount of number shaping parameters in realtime.

#01 Octatrack meets Absynth

I’ve seen a lot of beat-driven videos so I thought it would be fun to do an ambient piece. This piece is an original improvisation recorded in real-time in one pass playing Octatrack buttons in Chromatic mode. No sequencing is used. There are 3 tracks of audio samples being played. The source samples were rendered from Absynth and include 1) a factory patch called Choiromechanoidz 2) A custom Absynth granular synth patch based on a custom Aalto patch I sampled 3) A custom absynth patch called Broken FM – pure FM synthesis. The piece makes heavy use of morphong with the crossfader, scene switching on the fly,  FX morphing on on tracks and via chained effects (Neighbor Machine).

Sun Position and Aspen Trees

I didn’t intend this, but I happened to line the Octatrack up with the shadow of the roof. The piece is long enough and the shadow is close enough to the edge of the instrument  that you can easily observe the earth’s rotation via the shadow movement. I finish right as the sunlight is about to hit the Octatrack. You can also see a reflection of the Aspen trees above me in the Octatrack’s display.

A note to my fellow artists – the Octratrack display and LEDs are easily visible outside as long as you are not in direct sunlight.

If You Enjoy The Piece…

If you enjoy this piece leave a comment by replying below.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician, Composer, Performer
Boulder, CO
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

I released a new dark ambient single today called “Inner Sanctum”. You can listen to it in the player above or here on ReverBnation.

Fan Exclusives
If you are on my email list the downloadlink in the player will allow you to download the MP3 version. You should have already received bonus link to  a digital booklet with behind-the-scenes notes and photos in an email. If not, check our spam folder and then please add me to your safe sender list.

Not a fan yet?
If you click the download button you’ll be prompted to join my fan email list. You’ll then be able to download the MP3. As part of the confirmation process you’ll receive a link to the Fan Exclusives download page where you can grab the liner notes.

Leave a Reply
If your enjoying this song and the liner notes, please leave a comment below :^)

Thanks for listening,

Mark

I wanted to let you know I’ll be doing the next Digital Salon Series at Boulder Digital Arts on  Tuesday June 4th. I will be giving a live performance featuring original electronic music and visual controllerism followed by an explanatory lecture and Q& A.

Please plan to arrive between 6:00-6:50 pm for food and cocktail hour. The performance will begin promptly at 7:00 pm.

The event is FREE, but you must register here https://www.boulderdigitalarts.com/events/details.php?offering=424.

I look forward to seeing you at the show.

Mark

The latest edition of Recording Magazine has hit the news stands. I’m happy to report that I helped Mike Metlay with the “Ableton Live 9″  review. Some of the screen shots in the article are from my Live performance sets for my controllerism show.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician, Composer, Performer
Boulder, CO
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

New addition to my rig – the Electron Analog Four

A few posts back, I mentioned I had an idea for a new set to compliment my current set. The  current set is based around computers, virtual instruments, and controllers. My idea for the new set is a new workflow based around hardware-based instruments to compliment that virtual rig.

To this end I’ve added the beautiful Analog Four Synthesizer which will be the center of the workflow. It’s essentially four monophonic analog synths in a box + sequencers + digital effects. You can also play it from a controller keyboard. This instrument will of course come in handy in the studio and as a live jam synth as well.

In the short time I’ve spent playing the instrument I’ve been very impressed with the sound and tweakability. Now I’m off to learn this deep instrument and consider the creation of the  new set.

Have a great weekend!

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician | Composer | Performer
Boulder, CO

Using NI Maschine to lay down some late night grooves

The NI Maschine pad controller is the perfect size for chillin’ in the living room. You can see my laptop off in the background running the Maschine software. Maschine is in my lap.

Dreaming…

I’m very happy with my new “Dark SciFi Controllerism” set that I started performing in 2013.  It’s a solid 45 minutes of music with interactive visual with live camera input and the feedback from people who attended previous shows has been great. My next goal is to add second set I could perform after a short intermission. This would be a  brand new 25 minute show using a completely different approach to the music and visuals – yet remain in the same “universe” as the first set.

I laid down for a nap nap today and just before I dozed off, the the whole concept came together for me. Afternoon nap FTW! I’ll let you know how it all works out when I get further along with the show idea.

Now time for a walk.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician | Composer | Performer
Boulder, CO

Photo #1 from recent video shoot

I did a video shoot in April. Before I share the video I’ll offer series of posts with with behind-the-scenes photos. Here is the first photo.

I’m working on some new songs – woot. A fun shot of the studio after a recent session.

Here are some photos from last night’s Future Fest Show (see invite for this event for more details on the show). What a great experience. Lots of enthusiastic questions by computer science students after the show. Student Jose Lamp joined me on stage to dance during my song “Arrival”. I’ll post a video of that performance soon.

You can also see these photos in a Flickr photo set here.