Ken Suguro

Man, so my server goes down and takes all my files with it.
So I guess this gives me an excuse to build yet another quickie homepage.
Yes, with Netscape's internal composer. Which does serve its purpose actually.

This site is just a layout of a bunch of my tunes. Followed by a short
description of each of the tunes.

Before we get any further, let me give you a list of the gear I use:
Samplitude 6.0, Creamware Pulsar II, Yamaha DSP Factory, Max MSP
Korg Triton, Nord Electro, Nord Modular
Focusrite Vocalmaster with Shure beta 58 A
and a bunch of junk I found in my room.

You can also get my bio/resume here.
Nothing fancy, just a text file.
And for your information, I look like this:

So, I'm not going to bother with frames. Just keep scrolling 'till your sick of it. Now, for the tunes.

Mikyou Suite

Mikyou is a theatrical performance I did in 2002, August. It was performed at a contemporary museum
in Helsinki, Finland, called Kiasma. The director of the theater at Kiasma is a really nice lady
and I really respect the way she works. Anyhow, the performance was a blast.
We had lots of media attention, and the crowd went wild. It was a great experience.
I think the Mikyou suite best represents my composing style as of now.
You can go straight to the Mikyou website from here.
m0-1.mp3 (intro)
m0-2.mp3 (intro)
m0-3.mp3 (intro)
m1.mp3
m2.mp3
m3.mp3
m4.mp3 (laser show and finale)
m6.mp3 (curtain call)
m7.mp3 (encore)

Toad & Spider, interactive audio engine for atMOS

Toad & Spider is a collection of a bunch of Max/MSP patches that does algorithmic composition.
It was my attempt at automating the task of composing mundane techno/trance pieces.
atMOS is a project from imgl Inakage Labs at Keio University.
(which is the school I graduated from)
atMOS was presented at e-tech, at SIGGRAPH 2003 at the convention center
in San Diego. Pretty cool place. But lots of hard work.
I actually studied Max/MSP just for this. Thanx to my background in
modular synth programming, I survived the Max attack.
In the actual atMOS installations, the player could play interactive instruments
over these basic tunes. The demos here don't have that tho. Cuz it sounded ugly.
Unfortunately, I only have a 30 minute megamix of a bunch of Toad & Spider's
outputs, to show off its capabilities. Just listen to the first few minutes and you're good.
The click that happens at the start of every pattern is due to running the software on my
1ghz powermac G4. Not enough power.
atmos
Now hear some examples where Toad & Spider is triggering some external
modular synths on my Pulsar II.
atmossupersaw1.mp3
Notice the incredible increase in audio quality..

Electronic Experimentations

I had a phase of my creative development where I did lots of
electronic sounding stuff. Perhaps I was trying to run from the wrath of
the eternal reign of harmony. Lots of synth programming learned during this phase.
shower.mp3
2stepisha.mp3
12stepVIPb.mp3
oldskool.mp3

Sound Scapes

Apart from composing, something keeps telling me I like working with sound effects,
or more of a sound "scene". Here's one of a make believe airport,
for a game called Vega Strike. The concept appeals to me in that I have to make
use of all I know about sound. A bit of composing, effects processing, etc.
cosmostation.mp3
Here's two where I actually synthesized the sounds. All sounds were programmed
on a modular synthesizer, where it would randomly calculate ALL the sound.
So, NOTHING in the scene is sampled.
troutfishing.mp3
rain.mp3
notice how the thunder sounds super realistic in rain.mp3. That took a lot of effort to achieve.

Some semi "Commercial" sounding stuff

Which actually translates to tunes with vocal elements. I do most of my
vocal works with a girl called Aiko, who's extremely talented I think.
Great voice. These tunes have lyrics, but don't listen to them. They're just
there to fill in the space.
aikodubluve.mp3
aikornb.mp3
aiko2step.mp3(practice take)
fulltest.mp3 (practice take)

Off Beat

Aside from the rest of my passions, I have a passion for supporting
the hip hop dance culture. I've been a part of it for a long time now,
and despite the strange turns it's taking especially in Tokyo, I try to
stick on the scene. This tune was written for a friend of mine in
Helsinki, who goes by the name, D'Maestre. This tune was for
a 2 minute introductory video clip to his theater performance.
urbscapes.mp3
On the other side of the spectrum here's a clean sounding,
inspiring tune for the introduction of our collaborative
video project.
environment.mp3
which was obviously composed after my Mikyou project,
because it uses a technique I developed in the process.
It's the strange reverb effect you hear alot in this tune.

I Play the Chinese Bamboo Flute

Yes I do. I started playing it since the Mikyou project, and I've
fallen in love with the sound. But, this tune is played on a very
cheap flute (around 3 bucks) that I found at an amusement park.
Anyhow, this tune is a combination of the cheap flute, and a rhodes patch
that I made on my modular synth. (pulsar II)
Despite the imminent cheese on the melody, there's something very intimate about this tune.
rhodesandflute.mp3

4x4 for Everyone

There was a period of time, during winter of 2001, where I just wrote 4x4 music.
There's something about 4x4 that makes them really attractive to me.
Maybe it's because I can concentrate on the harmonic elements while still
being quite funky with the groove.
32sticks.mp3
furtherdelights.mp3
dancinginthesunshine.mp3 (definitely inspired by EWF)
coreblast.mp3

Ol' Skool!

This tune was released on a compilation album called Polartracks,
released from a label in Helsinki called Kool Kat records.
The production wasn't top notch I guess, but I really enjoyed
working on it. The tracks were trageted towards b-boys and
b-girls. This was my shot at it. It's sort of a mix of different
textures I remembered from old TV shows.
pitched.mp3

Quasi Orchestral stuff

I don't use Gigasampler, and no, my samples don't sound realistic.
I use the samples directly from my Korg Triton. Yeah, I'd buy
Giga sampler and Garritan strings, or Vienna Symphonic Library the moment
I have enough money for them. That said, there are some qseudo orchestral
works of mine. Most of these tunes were written for an open source
game called Vega Strike. It's a developing game, and I especially liked the
idea that it was open source. Vega Strike is a space game, so think about space.
galacticbattle.mp3
terranbattle.mp3
terranpeace.mp3
peace1.mp3 (not orchestral at ALL)

Merry Christmas

Ok, something every musician has to do is to write a Christmas tune.
Well, a bunch of my cousins and nieces were over at my house,
and I so decided to write a tune that they could all sing together.
Cute ain't it? Well, it sounds TWICE as cute. It'll put a smile on your face,
no matter how sad your life's been up 'till now. :-)
kidsmaster.mp3
They LOVED it!

So anyhow, I think that's all I have time for. I thank you for taking your time to read
this extremely poorly written homepage.. I hope you've enjoyed every bit of it.
Please feel free to write me.
e-mail!

Ken's Tunes and Whatnots
	Man, so my server goes down and takes all my files with it. So I guess this gives me an excuse to build yet another quickie homepage. Yes, with Netscape's internal composer. Which does serve its purpose actually. This site is just a layout of a bunch of my tunes. Followed by a short description of each of the tunes. Before we get any further, let me give you a list of the gear I use: Samplitude 6.0, Creamware Pulsar II, Yamaha DSP Factory, Max MSP Korg Triton, Nord Electro, Nord Modular Focusrite Vocalmaster with Shure beta 58 A and a bunch of junk I found in my room. You can also get my bio/resume here. Nothing fancy, just a text file. And for your information, I look like this: So, I'm not going to bother with frames. Just keep scrolling 'till your sick of it. Now, for the tunes. Mikyou Suite Mikyou is a theatrical performance I did in 2002, August. It was performed at a contemporary museum in Helsinki, Finland, called Kiasma. The director of the theater at Kiasma is a really nice lady and I really respect the way she works. Anyhow, the performance was a blast. We had lots of media attention, and the crowd went wild. It was a great experience. I think the Mikyou suite best represents my composing style as of now. You can go straight to the Mikyou website from here. m0-1.mp3 (intro) m0-2.mp3 (intro) m0-3.mp3 (intro) m1.mp3 m2.mp3 m3.mp3 m4.mp3 (laser show and finale) m6.mp3 (curtain call) m7.mp3 (encore) Toad & Spider, interactive audio engine for atMOS Toad & Spider is a collection of a bunch of Max/MSP patches that does algorithmic composition. It was my attempt at automating the task of composing mundane techno/trance pieces. atMOS is a project from imgl Inakage Labs at Keio University. (which is the school I graduated from) atMOS was presented at e-tech, at SIGGRAPH 2003 at the convention center in San Diego. Pretty cool place. But lots of hard work. I actually studied Max/MSP just for this. Thanx to my background in modular synth programming, I survived the Max attack. In the actual atMOS installations, the player could play interactive instruments over these basic tunes. The demos here don't have that tho. Cuz it sounded ugly. Unfortunately, I only have a 30 minute megamix of a bunch of Toad & Spider's outputs, to show off its capabilities. Just listen to the first few minutes and you're good. The click that happens at the start of every pattern is due to running the software on my 1ghz powermac G4. Not enough power. atmos Now hear some examples where Toad & Spider is triggering some external modular synths on my Pulsar II. atmossupersaw1.mp3 Notice the incredible increase in audio quality.. Electronic Experimentations I had a phase of my creative development where I did lots of electronic sounding stuff. Perhaps I was trying to run from the wrath of the eternal reign of harmony. Lots of synth programming learned during this phase. shower.mp3 2stepisha.mp3 12stepVIPb.mp3 oldskool.mp3 Sound Scapes Apart from composing, something keeps telling me I like working with sound effects, or more of a sound "scene". Here's one of a make believe airport, for a game called Vega Strike. The concept appeals to me in that I have to make use of all I know about sound. A bit of composing, effects processing, etc. cosmostation.mp3 Here's two where I actually synthesized the sounds. All sounds were programmed on a modular synthesizer, where it would randomly calculate ALL the sound. So, NOTHING in the scene is sampled. troutfishing.mp3 rain.mp3 notice how the thunder sounds super realistic in rain.mp3. That took a lot of effort to achieve. Some semi "Commercial" sounding stuff Which actually translates to tunes with vocal elements. I do most of my vocal works with a girl called Aiko, who's extremely talented I think. Great voice. These tunes have lyrics, but don't listen to them. They're just there to fill in the space. aikodubluve.mp3 aikornb.mp3 aiko2step.mp3(practice take) fulltest.mp3 (practice take) Off Beat Aside from the rest of my passions, I have a passion for supporting the hip hop dance culture. I've been a part of it for a long time now, and despite the strange turns it's taking especially in Tokyo, I try to stick on the scene. This tune was written for a friend of mine in Helsinki, who goes by the name, D'Maestre. This tune was for a 2 minute introductory video clip to his theater performance. urbscapes.mp3 On the other side of the spectrum here's a clean sounding, inspiring tune for the introduction of our collaborative video project. environment.mp3 which was obviously composed after my Mikyou project, because it uses a technique I developed in the process. It's the strange reverb effect you hear alot in this tune. I Play the Chinese Bamboo Flute Yes I do. I started playing it since the Mikyou project, and I've fallen in love with the sound. But, this tune is played on a very cheap flute (around 3 bucks) that I found at an amusement park. Anyhow, this tune is a combination of the cheap flute, and a rhodes patch that I made on my modular synth. (pulsar II) Despite the imminent cheese on the melody, there's something very intimate about this tune. rhodesandflute.mp3 4x4 for Everyone There was a period of time, during winter of 2001, where I just wrote 4x4 music. There's something about 4x4 that makes them really attractive to me. Maybe it's because I can concentrate on the harmonic elements while still being quite funky with the groove. 32sticks.mp3 furtherdelights.mp3 dancinginthesunshine.mp3 (definitely inspired by EWF) coreblast.mp3 Ol' Skool! This tune was released on a compilation album called Polartracks, released from a label in Helsinki called Kool Kat records. The production wasn't top notch I guess, but I really enjoyed working on it. The tracks were trageted towards b-boys and b-girls. This was my shot at it. It's sort of a mix of different textures I remembered from old TV shows. pitched.mp3 Quasi Orchestral stuff I don't use Gigasampler, and no, my samples don't sound realistic. I use the samples directly from my Korg Triton. Yeah, I'd buy Giga sampler and Garritan strings, or Vienna Symphonic Library the moment I have enough money for them. That said, there are some qseudo orchestral works of mine. Most of these tunes were written for an open source game called Vega Strike. It's a developing game, and I especially liked the idea that it was open source. Vega Strike is a space game, so think about space. galacticbattle.mp3 terranbattle.mp3 terranpeace.mp3 peace1.mp3 (not orchestral at ALL) Merry Christmas Ok, something every musician has to do is to write a Christmas tune. Well, a bunch of my cousins and nieces were over at my house, and I so decided to write a tune that they could all sing together. Cute ain't it? Well, it sounds TWICE as cute. It'll put a smile on your face, no matter how sad your life's been up 'till now. :-) kidsmaster.mp3 They LOVED it! So anyhow, I think that's all I have time for. I thank you for taking your time to read this extremely poorly written homepage.. I hope you've enjoyed every bit of it. Please feel free to write me. e-mail!

Ken's Tunes and Whatnots