Ken Palmer: Synthesizers/Percussion

KEY TOYS

I guess I'm the gear junkie of the band, and a big fan of KORG products in particular. For those of you who care, my current equipment includes a new Korg MicroX synth, a new Korg D888 8-track digital mixer/recorder (which I'm using at smaller gigs to mix and record the band live), my beloved Korg Karma (with Chemistry sound bank added), a Korg 707(semi-retired, unless I revive it as a <gasp> "keytar"), two Korg X5s (love those sounds!), Alesis QSR module (with added Alesis Santuary QCard) run through an Alesis AirFX, Yamaha SU200 drum sampler, and Yamaha DD55 digital drums. Also scattered around the studio are my beloved (and currently DOA)Korg Mono/Poly, a now-classic Roland MKS-70 module, old Akai sampler, Korg DDD-1 drum machine, and a recently reborn and upgraded Kat TrapKat percussion controller MIDIed to an Alesis DMpro (and sometimes to one of the X5s too). I just have to mention my first synth, a Univox MaxiKorg, purchased just after high school back in 1975 (which I regret selling to my friend Ed years ago). Not mentioned are all the recorders/cables*/mixers/amps/speakers/effects/pedals/beer used to create and capture every little Brainstatik sonic interlude.

*Note box full o' spaghetti in the photo below (under red Karma synth)!

Other toys include an Apple iBook running Ableton Live 2.0 (yeah, I know, I'm waaay behind revisions!) with a Griffin iMic I/O attached to the iBook via a USB hub. Samples loaded into Live come from collections licensed from EastWest/SoundsOnline (I'll give 'em a plug...maybe they'll throw a few CDs my way), and from my own tape archives. I've been triggering samples with an Macally iShockII USB game controller mapped to Live. It's more fun than clicking a mouse, and I get to more around a bit more too! I've also got a Logitech 2.4GHz cordless game controller as a cool wireless option. I've been spending waaaay too many nights making noise with the potent compact music combo of the iBook and Live... the less gear I have to lug to gigs the better! This is the future...Apple's OS-X has been rock solid!

Note: The M-Audio Oxygen 8 controller pictured above was recently sold (but remains within the BS family) to Mike for him to use as a video trigger/conntroller for his Ombient solo adventures.

KEY INFLUENCES

My musical and artistic tastes/influences include Yes (a longtime fave), Gentle Giant, Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, Synergy (Larry Fast, (who I gave a bunch of Brainstatik CDs to in June, 2002), Kate Bush, Happy Rhodes (bonus points if you know who she is!), and a bunch of world music artists, especially of Celtic, African and Asian origin or influence, such as Afro Celt Sound System, . And just to throw a little subversiveness into the mix, I often listen to Tool, Gary Numan, Sigur Ros and Nine Inch Nails at work (with headphones of course). My design aesthetic was heavily influenced early in high school by Roger Dean and Frank Lloyd Wright. (I finally got to meet Roger at NEARFest in Trenton, NJ in June, 2002. The poster he signed will get a prominent spot on my studio wall.)

I previously played keyboards and guitar in the bands E. Echo-K and Liquid Idiot in the 1980s, which definitely influenced my approach to music composition, especially with my preference for improvisation and the use of non-traditional sounds.

KEY SOUNDS

In the good old days you could always tell where the synth sounds were coming from...the keyboardist, ME! But when you jam with electronic drummers, they can sound like me too...only faster. And Rob's ART guitar effects module and Roland guitar synth can crank out some pretty wild non-guitar sounds as well. Not that I'm complaining: I crank out more than my share of guitar licks and drum fills too! So when you're listening to our music, don't make any assumptions about who's making which sound-- you're probably wrong! This of course, drives recording engineer (and brother) Wayne nuts sometimes!

Remember that Brainstatik music is ALWAYS recorded LIVE-- with no overdubs. So if you happen to hear a few sonic oddities sprinkled throughout, they just happened... good or bad, we don't always know WHY, but we live for those moments. So please, don't ever ask us how we did it... I ask myself that same question all the time, especially when we're trying to reproduce a song for a live show! If I only could only have remembered to write down those damn patch settings...

KEY TOY SUPPORTING GIG

I'm a graphic artist by profession-- a longtime Apple Macintosh user and the Art Director of Bloomberg Japan magazine at Bloomberg L.P in New York City. Photographic and digital illustration, image scanning, manipulation and restoration, and book and magazine design are my specialities. Quark XPress (though I'm weening off of it and using Adobe InDesign almost exclusively now) and Adobe Photoshop are my main tools of the trade ...a nice G5 with dual monitors helps a bit too!

KEY FREE TIME ACTIVITIES

I am the founder and host of the Cosmic Coffeehouse (www.cosmiccoffeehouse.org), a bi-monthly event in that showcases unique local musicians.

I create my own digital fine art for fun and occasional profit-- some of which can be seen online at Boston's 911 Gallery, and at SITO.org, going way back to 1995! For the full effect, get really close to your monitor while listening to some Brainstatik! As soon as I do my own personal art page (DHYB), I'll post more artwork links right here. I'm waaaay behind the learning curve with this Web stuff (pretty obvious, huh?!), but I AM trying to learn Adobe GoLive in my spare (ha!) time. I also enjoy sci-fi (reading and watching), keeping up with the latest in science, technology, inventions, space,(member of the Planetary Society), alternative transportation, industrial, automotive, and graphic design, font design, computers and Web cyberculture, toys (robots, aliens, spaceships) and off-beat/left-of-center films, art, music, events, local legends, televangelists and other kooks, and the local brew pub. Hey, I'm an artist-- we seek out our own kind!

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