Warren Walker was raised in the rural Northern California gold rush town of Grass Valley. He became enamored with music at a young age, and by his early teens he was performing on jazz and blues gigs with his guitarist father, Thomas Walker.
Walker earned a BM from the University of Nevada’s rigorous jazz program, where he studied with stellar musicians such as Peter Epstein, David Ake, Hans Halt, Andy Heglund, and Larry Engstrom. After graduation, Walker lit out for Europe to pursue his career as a musician. In February, 2007, he settled in Paris, France and quickly forged ties with some of that city’s most adventurous players. In Paris, Walker formed the Warren Walker Trio (renamed The Kandinsky Effect), and began performing and touring internationally with it and other projects.
Walker maintains an international presence through various groupings with international tour schedules; including The Kandinsky Effect, oddAtlas, Collektor, and TwinLux.
We chatted with Warren about how he’s using the Prophet-6.
What made you choose the Prophet-6?
“The first time I played it at NAMM 2015 I was just blown away and had to have it.“
How are you using it?
“I use it primarily for composing for my groups The Kandinsky Effect and Collektor. But most recently I started a live, improvised electronic duo with Axel Rigaud called TwinLux. In that group, the Prophet-6 has become a centerpiece, and it will be the first time I’ll be using it live. I’m really excited for that.“
What’s one of your favorite things about it?
“Versatility. I can get anything I need sound wise out of the instrument. The amount of texture you can get from the instrument is really incredible and I can always find a place for it in the mix no matter where it needs to sit. I also really like having the on-board poly sequencer and arpeggiator. I’ve had some really nice starting points for some of my compositions from programming the sequencer quickly and just letting it run. Anything, from some cool rhythmic idea to a weird lopsided melody.”
What does it give you that other instruments don’t?
“That famous DSI sound and an amazing layout. It’s all very intuitive and really fun to use.”
Any interesting tricks or techniques you’d like to share?
“There’s one thing and it’s kind of silly (but it works!) that I discovered in the effects section recently when I made the TwinLux recording. If you max the Mix Out on the effects to 127, you can quickly scroll through the different effects while playing or running a sequence and you can get some very interesting results, especially when adding additional delay or reverbs.“
LINKS
Warren Walker official website
The Kandinsky Effect official website
The Kandinsky Effect on Facebook
Music and Videos
The Kandinsky Effect’s latest album on BandCamp
The Kandinsky Effect’s “Loops” on YouTube
A sneak preview of the TwinLux Recording (featuring the Prophet-6)
MORE ABOUT THE PROPHET-6
For more information, check out the Prophet-6 product page here.
Find your local dealer for Prophet-6 pricing here.
If you’re using your DSI gear in interesting ways, tell us about it. Contact us at .