Tacoma Noise Rodeo - June 29 Featuring John L Rice, cathartech & Underground Clouds

For those in the Pacific Northwest, the Tacoma Noise Rodeo will be hosting a few performances Thursday June 29. I pinged John L Rice and he will be performing with his eurorack modular which was featured at the MMTA Summer SYNTHFEST (see this video and the MMTA SYNTHFEST 2012 label for some pics. Note he wont be bringing his 5U system, but if you are in the area this is a good opportunity to check out modular gear live. Details:

cathartech
John L Rice
Underground Clouds

Esoteric electronic music has always had a hard time finding a place and a time.
Tacoma Noise Rodeo exists because there is no outlet for in Tacoma for those who make music that tends towards the experimental. The idea behind the noise rodeo is to locate this venue. Each of the artists was selected because of their vision of what music should be.
That place is Metronome Coffee, 3518 6th Ave., Tacoma, WA 98406
The time is Friday June 29th 8pm.
The price? Free

John L Rice - Percussionist and synthesist John L Rice has had such a long and inconsequential pursuit
of musical endeavors it's difficult to adequately describe it all in just a blurb. Maybe a blob,
but not a blurb. Expect to experience order in his chaos and chaos in his order. Especially
expect to be disappointed so you'll walk away thinking "Well, that wasn't so bad." ;-)

cathartech - Cathartech is aj lindner, a long-time noise and drone purveyor and former curator of Seattle's No Tomorrow experimental music series. His current focus is on parapsychological techniques within a sound and performance context, weaving various forms of media and entrainment procedures to create altered states of awareness in the listener/viewer.

Underground Clouds - When not honing his incredibly low bowling score, underground clouds enjoys Asian food and hanging out in the basement. He is the CEO of a major corporation that turns cat fur into renewable energy. Sometimes he does beats and sometimes noise"

Moog Sub Phatty Exploration by John L Rice

Published on Aug 13, 2015 matrixsynth

Hi everyone!  Moog Music was gracious enough to send over a Sub Phatty.  I know John L Rice, and love his videos, many of which you have seen here on MATRIXSYNTH.  I asked him if he would be interested in giving the Sub Phatty a go and making an unboxing video.  He obliged and here it is!  Enjoy!  Side note: I have some engagements to attend, so this will likely be the top post until I start up again tomorrow.  Until then, catch up on posts!

You can check out the Moog Sub Phatty at

http://www.moogmusic.com/products/phattys/sub-phatty

And of course the multitude of posts here on MATRIXSYNTH (remember you can sort by date up top).

And the video description on YouTube for completion:

"Moog Sub Phatty unboxing video and demo by John L Rice. An exploration of presets, live tweaking, and processing with external effects and modular gear.

Huge thanks to Moog Music for the Sub Phatty and John L Rice for taking the time out and make this video!"

John L Rice Modular Rack

via John L Rice

"Moon Modular M569 sequencer. My Moon M564 quad switch is now in the top row (not show here) with 6 open space impatiently waiting the M569. Bottom row is the COTK C1670 Ensemble Generator, COTK C1680 Delay and ‘Moog’ 9504A LPF."

be sure to check out John L Rice's YouTube channel.


The Last King
YouTube via JohnLRice
"(note: the sound starts out at a very low volume intentionally!)

I started this piece over 2 months ago but, faced with the difficulty of telling the story I envisioned for it and not being particularly happy with all of the music, I kept putting it off. A couple days ago I decided to just go ahead and finish it the best I could with the smallest amount of time and money I could tolerate.

I have a few ideas as to what the video now represents to me but if you happen to be inspired, please write down your story line, scenario or thought in the comments section, I would love to read what think!

Thank you for watching, rating and commenting on my videos!"

Tags:
modular synthesizer Moog MinitMoog Synth Tech MOTM Synthesizers.com Club Of The Knobs COTK Moon Modular king royalty castle tower end of an era percussion prog rock destruction mankind

John L Rice's 5U Modular Live Synth Rig - Perfect Imperfections (featuring Veela)

"5U Modular:
Moon Modular
Modcan B
Synth Tech MOTM
COTK
Synthesizers.com

Plus:
Novation Ultranova
Korg microStation"

Click here for videos by John L Rice featured here on MATRIXSYNTH.

Update: The system was used for the following video. You can download a high quality mp3 for $1.00 here: http://official.fm/johnlrice

Perfect Imperfections (featuring Veela)

Published on Jun 24, 2013 JohnLRice·209 videos

Perfect Imperfections
featuring the vocals of Veela arranged by John L Rice
--------------------------
I walk through these old city streets
I'll be who I wanna be
(An) imperfection of this world

Back home they don't know me
Back home they want me to believe in things
I told them no

Respect me and inspect me for your imperfections
imperfections

It's like a cage for me back home
I will not be who you'll be
I want my own . . . world

Imperfections
Perfection

Follow me with your eyes
I believe how much you fantasize
about this
about this
about this

(We're) imperfections of this world
Don't you see I'm perfect, like you?

[instrumental]

(a) rock in the ocean
doesn't get the sound,

(a) rock in the ocean
doesn't 'get' the sound,

That you will know
--------------------------


Thanks for watching, I hope you like this one! :-)

You can buy a copy of this music at: http://official.fm/johnlrice

CLICK FOR MORE »

PNW Synth Gathering 2010 Pics

flickr set by matrixsynth (click here for a full screen slideshow - 127 photos)

It was a great event this year. Speakers included John Bowen with the Solaris, Dougcl with a Buchla 200e, Aaron of Analog Bytes with the Atari Pokey module, Carbon111 with the Yamaha VL1, David Skinner with new modules from Synthesizers.com and the Korg MicroSampler, Scott Jaeger of The Harvestman, Scott Rise of Division 6, John L Rice and his massive modular, George Mattson of Mattson Mini Modular, Sonja of flight of harmony, James Husted of Synthwerks, Computer Controlled with the Bitchen Sync and other gear, Jeff Sanys with the OLPC, Lorne with various noise makers, and Dana Countryman with the Ondioline and his DIY pitch controller based on the Ondes Martenot.

This was also the last PNW Gathering to be hosted at the Renton Technical College by our gracious host John Marshall. Carbon111 and Laura picked up the cake below for him.

Videos of each talk will follow through the week. I took 23.7 G of pics and video. Big thanks to John L Rice for his 16 G memory card! And Jarett for loaning me his PC to move pics and vids off my memory card.

Theatre - 1980's Prog Rock Featuring John L Rice

Theatre - Locust Uploaded on Mar 30, 2008 Theatre1982·25 videos

"Recorded live at Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA in 1983..."

Those who have been following MATRIXSYNTH for some time should be familiar with John L Rice from his numerous modular videos. John is well respected in the modular synth community and has presented for Moon Modular at NAMM.  Like many musicians his skills cross other instruments. In this case he was the drummer for a relatively unknown band Theatre in the late 70s and early 80s.

According to John: "Locust was one of our most popular pieces and was always instrumental only. This version is a little slower than we usually played it. Back in the late 70’s and the first half of the 80’s I was in a progressive rock band called THEATRE. At best we only performed live a couple times a year . . for free (no one wanted to hear original prog rock in the heydays of disco, punk and new wave ) We rehearsed one to four times a week for many years though and had a few personnel changes over time. I played drums and percussion but on a couple songs I played keyboards . . although crappily ;-) Let me see . . . piano on Sfear (there is video proof! ;-), Synergy on another and Minimoog D or Moog Source on another . . .forgetting song titles in my old age ;-)

Here is the THEATRE channel, many videos are just rehearsal boom-box recordings with one too many still shots, some are good quality studio recordings and a few were shot at the Evergreen University video studio. Be prepared for poor quality recordings and many rough edges! ;-)"

On keys: Mike with the following:

Helpinstill PG-21 Electric Portable Grand Piano
Roland VK-09
Yamaha SK-30
Moog Source
Moog Minimoog Model D
DKI/Crumar Synergy

Quick Random Tests - Moon 517 VCF and Krisp1 OCTO LFO

Published on Dec 8, 2017 John L Rice

"Featured:
Moon Modular 517 Coupled Dual High&Low Pass VCF and Krisp1 OCTO Quadrature LFO

Additional items used at different times throughout:
Synth Tech MOTM: 300 VCOs, 310 VCOs, 800 EGs, 101 noise, 190 VCA, 650 MIDI-CV
Moon Modular: 511c EG, 526 mixers, 568 trigger sequencer
Modcan: 58B VCOs, 31B VCAs/mixer
Roland: A-88 keyboard, Integra-7 sound modules, RSP-550 effects
Yamaha: FS1R synthesizer
Allen-Heath: MixWizard 20S
Strymon: BigSky and Timeline pedals

Since I was learning how to use the Moon 517 and Krisp1 OCTO I decided to throw a camera up and record some of it but I didn't take the time to make sure I had everything setup well so the focus is weird and during editing I didn't take the time to explain what is taking place so . . . this may be of interest only to people looking to buy the Moon 517 or Krisp1 OCTO . . .and maybe not even then?? ;-)"

And a track:

He Who Brings Fire Waits For No One

Published on Dec 8, 2017 John L Rice

"This music was done at the tail end of the recording session for my previous video https://youtu.be/o9ygPNKcSGU but I decided to make a separate video for it. It features the Moon 517 VCF and Krisp1 OCTO LFO although you don't really see them.

The patch is 4 MOTM-300 VCOs, two are set to static drone notes and sent to separate L & R Moon 526 mixers and two are voiced with MOTM-800 EGs and MOTM-190 VCAs and then also sent to the mixers. The output of the mixers go to the L & R inputs of the Moon 517 VCF in Separate mode and the Krisp1 OCTO is slowely modulating the 517.

I'm using a Roland A-88 keyboard to control the two voiced VCO via a MOTM-650 MIDI to CV module and the gate out is also routed to a Moon 511c EF that modulated the speed of the OCTO. And a Moon 568 trigger sequencer is modulating the 517 for some rhythmic content.

The outputs of the 517 go to an Allen and Heath MixWizard 20S mixer and well as the Roland Integra-7 that is playing the high voice brought in half way through and controlled by the same keyboard.

The only effects used are Strymon BigSky reverb and Timeline delay which are connected via the 20S effects send/return channels.

Additional video clips licensed through Pond5.com"

John L Rice at the PNW Synth Gathering 2010

YouTube via matrixsynth | July 27, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/user/JohnLRice

"John L Rice Goes Over his 5U Modular System at the PNW Synth Gathering 2010. Note this is a module overview, not a music demo. There is some brief modular audio at the end of Part 2 and in Part 3. See John's YouTube channel for what he creates with his modular systems. BTW, I spoke to John at the gathering and he only had one and a half hours of sleep prepping his system before the event. Crazy man! LOVE THE T! :)"

IDOW & MATRIXSYNTH Modular Pic of the Week - Week 18 Contest Winner!

"Our eighteenth winner of the Modular Pic of the Week contest goes to John L Rice for his 'Stretch Factor.'

John currently has a big mixed format 5U modular.

Check out John's 5U modular in action: http://www.youtube.com/JohnLRice

We'd like to give a big thanks and congratulations to John L Rice for his submission! This is the 18th week of a 30-week contest, and we are looking forward to many more modular photo submissions, so please keep 'em coming! For details on how to submit and what you can win, see this post.

For more info on the upcoming 'I Dream of Wires' documentary, be sure to see the trailer and IndieGoGo fund raising campaign here.

See the IDOW label for all posts pertaining to the film including the weekly contest winners."

John L Rice Coming to Noisebug on Tuesday January 26

John L Rice is going to do a synth demo and "life" meeting at Noisebug this Tuesday post NAMM. Experience his wisdom!

You should all be familiar with John's work through his numerous videos here on MATRIXSYNTH, and please welcome, Noisebug back as a site sponsor!

And... I am finally off to NAMM! Enjoy John's mug for the day! :) And of course catch up on posts! There are a total of 182 NAMM posts so far this year! As for total posts, Thursday we had 71 posts, and yesterday, Friday, we had 86! I think there is plenty to keep you busy for a while. :)

Strymon DIG ADM Exploration #1

Published on Dec 18, 2015 John L Rice

"Some random playing around with the Strymon DIG delay! :-)

There's more info on Strymon products at http://www.strymon.net/

Also, if you like synthesizers check out http://www.matrixsynth.com/"

Thank you John! :)

Update:

CLICK FOR MORE »

5U Modular Synth Pics via John L Rice

A couple of wallpaper shots in via John L Rice. You can find John's musician page on Facebook here and you can find his videos on YouTube here. And of course, you can find him on MATRIXSYNTH here. :)

Update: one more added below.

JLR Live At Volunteer Park - MOTS Seattle - August 2018

Published on Sep 12, 2018 John L Rice

"This is actually part of the second piece I was going to perform at my live broadcast on KSER FM 90.7 the night before if there was time but it didn't happen so I used it for MOTS the next day! ;-) Here's the link for the KSER show video I made in case you missed it! ;-) [posted here]

Modules in the case:
4ms: ROW POWER 30
Qu-Bit: EON
2hp: Trim, Mult, LFO v2, Seq, Mix, Delay, Verb
Synth-Werks: Lamp3
Erica Synths: Pico Trigger
Happy Nerding: HM VCO x 2, MMM VCF, ADSR,
Division 6: Multiplicity VI
Synth Tech: E950, E951
Erica Synths: Pico DRUMS (not used)
SSF: ADSRVCA
Intellijel: Springray
Circuit Abbey: Unify

Direct audio recording by Bradley Millington
Video and additional audio content via John's Canon M5 camera
Post production by John L Rice using Sony Vegas Pro 13"

http://modularonthespot.com/

MMTA SYNTHFEST - Now That's What You Call a Modular

via Asher Fulero on Facebook

"Next to us... making it hard to stay focused! — with George C Mattson, Matrixsynth Jones, Steve Turnidge, James Husted and Scott Rise." And John L Rice! to the right. :)

Incredible shot featuring George Mattson reaching the top of his custom EML modular (See the Mattson EML label below for more posts on the system). That is one massive system with some custom work from George.

To the immediate right you can see three cases of his Mattson Mini Modular Phoenix series. They pack a ton of power in a small space.

The system further to the right belongs to John L Rice and includes modules from Moon Modular, Modcan, and others. I'll have some close-up pics coming, and of course check out the previous post for some close-ups via Larry Kleinke aka Computer Controlled.

Be sure to see the MMTA SYNTHFEST label below for all posts on the event.

http://www.mostlymodular.com/

John L Rice - Rain Love Over Me

Published on Jul 20, 2015 John L Rice

"Video card died, then operating system died . . . arg. Finally up and running again but I have a different style of video card now and I don't have the settings in Sony Movie Studio figured out yet and didn't manage to get the render to produce the correct size. Close enough for now . . . ."

John L Rice Modular

click on each for the full size shot.

click here for videos by John L Rice.

John L Rice August 28, 2022

video upload by John L Rice

Let's Do Each Other! by John L Rice

Published on Apr 30, 2014 John L Rice·256 videos

"I predict most people wont like this! ;-) Just an experiment I decided to record before unplugging the patch."

Apocalypse NAMM

via John L Rice

“NAMM tends to make me a bit . . . contemplative . . . . “ ;-)

Thought this one was pretty funny. Note the JLR logo on Marlon Brando's shirt. Readers of the site should be well familiar with it via John L Rice's videos. One thing you might not know, is that he has been manning the Moon Modular booth each year at NAMM. If you happen to be going to NAMM, be sure to drop by. He's a bit kinder and less ominous than Brando. :)

April 26, 2022

video upload by John L Rice

Manikin Schrittmacher sequencer on the top left. Vermona Perfourmer & Mellotron Micro featured in this one. You can find additional John L Rice Mellotron posts here.

Update: YT description added:

"Realtime test after recently reconfiguring my custom pedalboard patch bay. Recorded on my iPad with no edits. Besides the Mellotron Micro Keyboard, the case is a modified MXC-008-10 mixer case from Audiopile.net and contains the following:

Left side:
Manikin Electronic Schrittmacher sequencer
Vermona PERfourMER MKII quad synth

Right side:
Mackie 802-VLZ3 mixer and power supply
Keeley Electronics Fuzz Master pedal
Electro Harmonix Mel9 pedal (mellotron emulator)
Dunlop/MXR Octave Fuzz pedal
Mooer Ocean Machine pedal (reverb, delays, looper)
TC Electronic T3 pedal (modulated reverbs)
Strymon Engineering Zuma R300 power supply (for pedals)
Custom patch bay for pedals and mixer

The patch bay has Canare GS-4 cables soldered directly to the jacks with the other ends terminated with Squareplug SP400 Low Profile Flat TS plugs that connect to the pedals. The patch bay jacks are all normal'd together right to left, and by using patch cables I can easily reconfigure how the pedals are interconnected. The normal connections are:
Mixer EFX send - Fuzz Master - Mel9 - Octave Fuzz - Ocean Machine - T3 - mixer EFX returns*
but in this video I used the mixer insert for the channel the Mellotron is plugged into to connect to the Fuzz Master - T3 and then the rest is configured as:
Mixer EFX send - Mel9 - Octave Fuzz - Ocean Machine - mixer EFX returns*
*the jacks connected to the stereo mixer returns have a second set of cables that go to mixer input 7/8 and by turning up the Aux send for the channel I can create feedback."