drukqs prepared piano

i was listening to drukqs this morning and the piano tracks are imo some of richards best work. it got me thinking about how he created these tracks. i know hes quite secretive but what do we know about how he prepared the piano?

most of it just sounds like, specific things on the piano, like tacks etc. and detuning.

he did it systematically and recorded everything individually (or just eq'ed it fantastically). i like on the first song that the sound of the hammer striking wood (not making contact with strings) is used. that is brilliant. also on another song he recorded the sound of pressing piano pedals which was pretty cool.

these sound like they could have been performed live. were the sounds recorded individually and then arranged afterwards?

I know one track is just a pump organ, right? If my mom would let me, I'd buy one right now. I already have a organ in my house, but it's not the same, and my mom is about to sell it.

  Wikipedia sez said:

At least 13 of the 30 tracks are piano compositions, both prepared piano (a style pioneered by John Cage), and normal piano. These tracks have an acoustic beauty not commonly associated with an electronic music artist such as James. The instrument used was a MIDI-controlled Yamaha Disklavier, which James programmed to play via sequencers, rather than from the piano's keyboard. The Disklavier is a modern descendent of the player pianos of the late 19th and early 20th century, which were controlled by rolls of punched paper tape.

cause im too lazy to think of a theory.

  pry buddigs said:

these sound like they could have been performed live. were the sounds recorded individually and then arranged afterwards?

I believe it was live. He was using a yamaha midi piano. The mic positions and such were different for the different tracks though.

putting common household objects between the strings right? cause that is what prepared piano is i'm sure.....?

i was crusing Bleep.com the other day and theres a live version of Jynweythek from the London Sinfonietta album....i find it difficult to believe that it is anything but pure acoustic piano

A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects (preparations) between or on the strings or on the hammers or dampers. (Wikiepedia)

  Caustic said:

  Wikipedia sez said:

At least 13 of the 30 tracks are piano compositions, both prepared piano (a style pioneered by John Cage), and normal piano. These tracks have an acoustic beauty not commonly associated with an electronic music artist such as James. The instrument used was a MIDI-controlled Yamaha Disklavier, which James programmed to play via sequencers, rather than from the piano's keyboard. The Disklavier is a modern descendent of the player pianos of the late 19th and early 20th century, which were controlled by rolls of punched paper tape.

 

cause im too lazy to think of a theory.

i dont really understand the control by sequencers bit. does james not tinkle the ivories?

so everything is written in sequencers (like how i write in buzz) and then sent via MIDI to this yamaha. and it was prepared by him messing with the settings on the keyb? the preparedness aludes me now. is knob twiddling now preparing a piano? modern day equiv

you can do things like mute the strings, put a cat inside, etc. to get weirder noises i'd imagine

also, of course, velocity and extereme octave use, mic placement, eq, postprocessing

i thought everybody knew what a prepared piano is...anyway most of the Cage stuff i heard is shit (sorry Johnny). he released an album with Sun Ra that totally sucked ass.

cats eh?

sounds like a plan

  awkward said:

  Caustic said:

  Wikipedia sez said:

At least 13 of the 30 tracks are piano compositions, both prepared piano (a style pioneered by John Cage), and normal piano. These tracks have an acoustic beauty not commonly associated with an electronic music artist such as James. The instrument used was a MIDI-controlled Yamaha Disklavier, which James programmed to play via sequencers, rather than from the piano's keyboard. The Disklavier is a modern descendent of the player pianos of the late 19th and early 20th century, which were controlled by rolls of punched paper tape.

 

cause im too lazy to think of a theory.

 

i dont really understand the control by sequencers bit. does james not tinkle the ivories?

nope, rdj cannot play piano as far as i know

  awkward said:

so everything is written in sequencers (like how i write in buzz) and then sent via MIDI to this yamaha.

yep

  awkward said:

and it was prepared by him messing with the settings on the keyb? the preparedness aludes me now. is knob twiddling now preparing a piano? modern day equiv

nope. one of the reasons the diskclavier (which i believe is a relation of the synclavier, which frank zappa was a huge fan of) is so damn expensive is that although it can receive midi data, it physically plays the notes via a hammer striking a string, the same as a regular piano, except here the hammers are activated by a solenoid (in essence an electromagnet) instead of a human striking a key - the piano was prepared by inserting various objects, damping strings, odd slack or very tight tuning of the string, that sort of thing.

at least that's my understanding of things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disklavier

  AlexPallas said:

  ka.ini said:

the piano was prepared by inserting various objects, damping strings, odd slack or very tight tuning of the string, that sort of thing.

 

at least that's my understanding of things.

 

correcto-mundo on the prepared piano info, john cage shoved some stuff in between the strings one day when he was bored. i think he was a school teacher at the time.

NO WAY

  Quote

however i do believe rdj can play piano, i think i read that somewhere, he taught himself yet doesn't understand music theory et cetera

rdj says a lot of stuff. i promise you he can't play piano to any great degree.

d00d quit acting like an aol user. you said you werent sure, so i told u, no need to pull the captain obvious. also i know rdj lies in his interviews, if you have noticed i have quite a few of his interviews posted.

  AlexPallas said:

i thought everybody knew what a prepared piano is...anyway most of the Cage stuff i heard is shit (sorry Johnny). he released an album with Sun Ra that totally sucked ass.

don't be hatin on cage, the sonatas and interludes for prepared piano are wicked

sorry, i just assume everyone knows who cage is cos he's mentioned in every drukqs review ever, for one.

i'm in a somewhat odd mood cos my dog died this morning.

that's not some new internet slang. my dog actually died this morning. :(

that sucks, man. that's the worst part of having a pet.

i'd advise working on some tunes to help yourself out.

Come on guise, it's totally sequenced. Take Avril 14 for example, that's rigid as fuck. Same with Kesson Dalef or whatever the hell the title is.

well, i buy the yamaha midi piano dealio. i think he should also get a robot that plays guitar.

  AlexPallas said:

he released an album with Sun Ra that totally sucked ass.

I enjoyed that album.

  Dr. Elemeno von Hat X: PhD said:

well, i buy the yamaha midi piano dealio. i think he should also get a robot that plays guitar.

Yeah, it was definitely a real piano, you can hear the mechanics of it.

yeah john cage invented that prepared pianos "genre", that version is expensive but you have another cd, bonus cd, of improvisations (with prepared pianos, like the "cage parameeters" if u know what i mean, done by the pianist), the Sonatas & interludes are pretty well known in the classical music world (at least in contemporary music), its really good.

http://www.amazon.com/Locations-Interludes...TF8&s=music

John Cage was cool way ahead of his time, his buddy David Tudor is amazing his litrle boxes of electronics,,,,yes Cage and Sun Ra was crap, I own all of Sun Ras work and all of Cages and it was embarrasing