New Years Improvisation

Miami Hotel Improvisation

Detroit Modular City

SYSTEM-500 // Z8000 // AIRA FX Ambient Performance

TR-8//MX-1//Reaktor 6//Octatrack// Dining Room Jam 1

This was the first improvisation video I filmed, and essentially the start of my YouTube channels new focus on original music content, in addition to tutorial videos. 

The setup here is more complicated than almost all of the other videos. Equipment used consisted of the following:

• Roland MX-1
• Roland TR-8
• Elektron Octatrack
• Arturia Minibrute
• Roland TB-3
• Roland SYSTEM-1m
• Native Instruments Reaktor
• Akai mpk mini
• Nikon D3300 mounted on several large books and a stool

The improvisation here was driven largely by the TR-8, and a sequence on the Octatrack triggering the SYSTEM-1m. The MX-1 provided essential mixing and effects to help blend the elements together. This was also a main tool in incorporating a custom "semi-random" Reaktor instrument I programmed. Because the MX-1 acts as a soundcard, I could route Reaktor's audio from my computer into the mixer, while combining everything else together. I really liked this approach, because the Reaktor instrument provided a nice tonal bed to improvise on top of, and also provides the concept to how I incorporate modular in future videos. The Octatrack, for all of its insane capability, was mostly functioning as a MIDI sequencer. There were a few sample tracks of a piano sample being played back, which I was able to manipulate with the cross-fader. The TR-8 and Octatrack are polar opposites, and thus compliment each other very well. The TB-3 was left unused.  

Team Catastrophe Wins LA Hackathon

I had the honor and pleasure of collaborating with this great team of programmers and designers in providing music and game design for the winning Friskies Hackathon game submission. Here are some news excerpts:

“Friskies® is proud to announce Team Catastrophe comprised of Jeremiah Ingham, Arthur Danskin, J. Spencer Kennedy and Peter Brown from the Los Angeles area the winner of the first-ever Friskies GamesforCats.com Hackathon.”
…
“The winning team’s game “Catastrophe” combined their expertise in music with interactive visual elements to allow cats to make interesting music with their paws while defending the universe in a play-like manner.”

Here is a sample of the Boss music I wrote for the game: