Sunny day...

Pete's headed for home, shame about his computer thing but a very pleasant visit all the same. Agreed to alternate sequencer tracks live rather than combine them which should work well I think. Some nice ideas about things to do in the set.

Right, walkies :)

Practice didn't go too far yesterday, computer problems for Pete and lack of prep for me. Need for more channels on Cirklon pressing - so I can have some part set up to play. Colin working on it and seeming confident he can make a change soon. Which is amazing even for him. He's talking a change from 16 to 256 tracks (top secret, good job only I read this blog!).

Today we will make more progress.

Would love to know where my OSX system disk is.

Uh, last night's curry making its presence known...

Good day, found lots of shrooms and later went to watch Phil fly his planes. Very impressive stuff - he sure can make it do clever things.

Last night I worked on a few of the "not quite there" tunes in advance of Pete coming next week. Will do more on Monday night. Review is almost there, just a few phrases are ugly and a few low quality paragraph starts and vocab can be improved. I'm hopefully in a position to go see Mick's band tomorrow night though.

Completed "Earth Dreams" for Abs, posting data DVD this morning. Review going well, may even be able to go to Mick's gig on Sunday. Good discussions with Colin over Scene Chains and an extra 32 tracks, hoping I'm being persuasive enough.

Pete coming next week, gotta sort when (and tidy up!)...

Even got a spot of DIY done yesterday, including fixing that gutter (inevitably it rained later so dunno if the sealant fully dried) and getting Dave round to look at trees. Today I'm helping Les's pal with a broken multitracker, although I've already told him what's wrong he needs me to see it for myself. Hey ho.

Cirklon took significant step forwards with the introduction of the instrument fdac. Has opened up lots of arrangement possibilities. I need a few things still for Berlin but we're getting close. For my needs anyway, I know Colin has other priorities such as the card file system. Bless.

Got most of my first review draft done, also got an interesting snippet about the 303 filter I could work in maybe. Always wanted to nip that 18dB thing somewhere, a bit like in QI where you answer the obvious thing and the light flashes cos it's actually not so...

Abs2 given thumbs up so starting on the edits. Not totally sure what title to use, either Earth Dreams or First Breath (or something else) seem workable, will see what Mike thinks. I think I've settled on the track titles now and have created logic versions of each edit I'll do.

Pat working until midnight (getting a bit too often this I think) so I guess I have time. Will do edits this afternoon, review tonight (unless Colin sends new OS over).

Managed to get SokkOS loaded into Xoxbox which is good as it gives me more to say.

No reply from P.Origo (again) so I'm starting to think that's gonna go bad. Wasn't happy initially after they "lost" all those Headshock CDs and really didn't seem to give a shit. Will I ever learn about dealing with these folks? Anyway, their "agreement" (the one that talked about regular statements!) says I can get my CDs back at any time. Well, assuming they reply to my emails that is...

Well, we've reached Friday morning and I'm knee-deep in the Xoxbox review having completed all tracks for Abs2. Been trying to get alternate OS loaded with lots of pratting around with COM ports and shitty toytown software. Given that the review is gonna have plenty of words (I've already banged in a lot of notes) I probably don't even need to mention the alternatives but I want to try it for myself.

Anyway, easy day today I think. Cirklon sysex via USB looking good and fast too, which will help lots. Those full dumps were taking a long time. Hopefully will have something to test for the weekend with new fdac per-scene functionality so I can work on my intros and outtros. Then I'll start pestering for scene re-ordering. :)

Um didn't manage to get started on a new track despite trying. I did at least get two Xoxboxes for review and fortunately not too much to get my head around other than how to upgrade the OS. A very arcane method that has so far defeated me, but there's an OS I really want to try if I can.

Hopefully I'll get it written and still have time to do the last new age track and work on the Berlin gig. Oh, and the Superdupernova if that comes. Busy, busy. Berlin's definitely starting to look "interesting" which makes it annoying we're missing the Monday. Duh!

And will Cirklon be ready?

Edit: I did, through sticking at it doggedly, produce a track that I rather like in the end. Titled "Ether" it's light but has a lot of subtle stuff going on, tinkly, ghostly piano and celeste, lots and lots of pads added with a very light touch and a sort of ringing metallic solo part. So that, with a few more tweaks and general evening-up work, makes 12 decent tracks I'll get on a CD so M@Abs can OK. With luck I can get the project completely done alongside any review work and Berlin prep in the next month.

Right, gotta look for a tuner and some lightweight racking next.

Hah blog gaps are when the fun stuff happens

It's true. I don't have time to blog if I'm doing cool stuff, as in this case going to Barcelona, having a great time with John, meeting Isgar and Michel and being in a lovely city during perfect weather. No way I'm gonna write it all up here. So we'll skip past it with just the thought that both Isgar and Michel are inspiring human beings in their own way and I hope we'll continue to be friends.

Pix at http://www.flickr.com/photos/soft_room/

although didn't get any of Isgar and Michel.

Just had curry with Carl - excellent and included a new dish they did for us that isn't on the menu. Nice too, dry, minty and hot with a dusky almost Jalfrezi taste. Things looking good for Carl and I really hope his new project works out, looks like it could. :)

Today didn't do a lot but potter; Tim came round which was pleasant.
Oh, went to Gong yesterday in Manchester with Tony. Excellent as usual. Those guys still have what it takes - and some!

Hehe impossible to sum up Barcelona in a paragraph but I did. Weird.

Shit, that bloke off Torchwood is on the proms! WTF???

LOL, last night, after hopefully calming down the Facebook interchanges, I laughed my tits off at Tim Minchin, especially his song about keeping an open mind. :)

Fantastic walk today, saw a bunch of deer who were totally unafraid of me. Later, painted the shed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/soft_room/4955027662/

Got a spare 10 mins while my Fantom XR loads up. I daren't put any more samples in it even though there's tons of space left. Anyway, ample time to hammer in a blog entry. Can't be arsed with new age stuff tonight so gonna mess with Cirklon sequences and see if "Song 13" is as good as I thought it was. Very unusual for Pat to comment on a tune from the hardware side of the studio.

Having an odd Facebook conversation with a guy whose principle frames of reference in life are Star Trek and Uri Geller. Hope he never hears "Eaten By Pigs"! He's ranting against Richard Dawkins. Only other person I know who does that is John and his is a purely religious reaction. I dunno what M's reason is. Ah, Fantom booted, over and out.

Yesterday I finished, or damn near finished, a new one with lots of persian santur in it. I think it's OK but time will tell but that makes 11 new age tracks now. If I start another today I'll be well chuffed - I think the collection needs something largely ambient, maybe with echoing piano and lots of space. We'll see what turns up.

More sunshine so I'll take advantage and get on the hills again. Life is good and each day I pinch myself to make sure it's not a dream (although a better test is to turn the lights on and off). We're both ready for Barcelona, hope the Natwest didn't bugger things up by changing the credit card - the one I booked the car park with!

Still no progress on Cirklon's important (IMHO) ability to use different instruments per scene. Even just a channel override would really help but I don't want to be restricted to the same 16 instruments for the whole song. Having 16 tracks only is fine but I need to be able to vary what each one does over the course of a song. Poor Colin must be desperate to get on with the features he feels more important. I also really need the instrument's CC control - initially for the mixer but also cos the synths I'm taking to Berlin won't come to life without external control of this type and I'll probably struggle otherwise.

Will I get a production unit in time? Dunno, Colin heading for Italy for a week so time getting tight...