apparently it's new year's eve. Last night we went to a gourmet night where at least the prices were recognisably gourmet-style. Even though it was supposedly french cuisine I confess I was surprised to encounter french fries and onion rings. Still, enjoyed it all the same although hoped for a little more flavour. Or some flavour. Maybe I lost all my tastebuds?

Today I registered the tracks of Twilight on PRS. I'm vegetating slightly, listening to some Spyra and pining a little for the Ricochet Gatherings. As I have the Octatrack I could finally, belatedly, compete with the laptop-squinters on even terms. Funny how when the gigs dry up I am at last able to do something that sounds slick and polished, even if it ain't quite so much fun as spinning plates with no safety net...

More coffee, I think.

I think today was Thursday. It rained.

Not doing a lot today, have got 12 songs into the Cirklon/Octatrack embrace, could keep going but that's the principle established. I should maybe do more fleshing out of patterns now, but somehow my heart's not in it. Not sure how much time/effort I want to put into the live side of things given there really aren't many gigs going and they don't pay either. Should concentrate on the stuff that does. Or hopefully will, a subtle distinction!
Will I get drunk again this evening?

Hmmm CD Baby not working out so well yet - keep being told "won't buy cos only mp3 quality"... sigh. Odd that a company called CD Baby doesn't offer CD quality audio when you come to think of it...

Maybe shoulda stuck to Bandcamp. Would have if they had only agreed to the idea of not fully previewing every track. It's as if they want your stuff to get pirated... moan, moan. Feeling rather delicate today.

It's chrimbo. Didn't get much done yesterday, felt I probably shouldn't creep off to the studio so sat around while Pat and her aunt did a jigsaw, Dawn read a book, I sorta treaded water. Hope to get up there today for a bit to continue my Octa habit. Now I have a system I've already thought of a way to improve it - won't populate so many slots in future in advance cos you can't read the fecking file names on the Octatrack list.

Nice afternoon doing more Octatrack/Cirklon songs, have worked out a pretty decent system now, still a few glitches related to having to wait for Octatrack to switch patterns and therefore be able to trigger a new set of samples. Have requested that slot selection be a MIDI CC or do-able by note (over the full range of MIDI's 128 notes) as opposed to chromatically, per track, would mean I only ever needed one part, could forget parts really.

Album released today, haven't thought who to tell except the usual few places. Still, typical really. :)

Fecking CD Baby spent a couple of days sitting on my audio before telling me they deleted it all and can I reupload. No info on why, just give it us again please. Sigh. I do have this special gift eh?
So I extracted it from the CD rather than use Mick's wavs - extracted files are smaller so I wonder what he did? Still, maybe CD Baby use some odd proprietry s/ware that is over-fussy. Shame their website is so bloody slow though. Moan, moan, I know.

Had a day playing today. I always make less progress with the Octatrack than I expect. Not sure why, maybe I try to do too much with it or just don't have a system yet, no idea...

Hmm so where was I? Busy day today, I'm uploading the clubland tracks tonight despite some vague and frankly contradictory comments. Hope the results are good, I've done my best anyway. I wonder if some mastering Mick-style would have helped, I think I should go watch him and see what I can learn. Anyway...

Waiting for CD-Baby to tell me my album is live and available on iTunes/amazon etc. Decided to do it myself as that record label dude seemed a waste of time in the end, or maybe he was misinformed or just amateurish. Anyway better not to give away 20% unless it's damn well worth it.

Should get some time tomorrow to relax, have been pretty hectic lately. Want to try and wrap up that review that's almost complete though. Clear the decks and all that. Must be something else I have to report but of course this isn't the place for the deep stuff. I sorta wonder what value looking back over these could possibly have. If none, why do I do it?

Got mastered album today, Tim sorted cover text, just have to decide who to release it with. Was gonna go CDBaby but then a chap suggested his record label might wanna help so I've sent an mp3 of the whole thing. Decided that bandcamp don't deserve it cos they ain't interested in limiting the previews. You can do that on vibedeck but not sure that's worth the effort compared to better distribution possibilities. We'll see.

Mick did a good job I think. Doesn't sound totally different either which is a relief - but will go listen in the library tomorrow. He's done a nice job with the loudness though, better than I would unless I used that hooky version of Waves, nah not even then, be honest lad!

No work done today, meeting in the morning then Emma from volunteering afternoon then faffing generally.

Survived the castle party. Seemed to spend most of my time looking for somewhere warm and pleasant to sit, listen to music and trip. The chillout had become a frenzied and noisy place this year and I totally forgot to go look downstairs after an initial foray. Maybe I'm getting too old to appreciate it but the acid was nice and the peyote interesting.

castle party weekend! :)

Good day, sent off two african tracks done pretty quickly. I might get time to work on that other synth tomorrow as current review ticking along nicely. Blimey, I'm organised. Have to get costume for Saturday yet, no idea what - something cheap.

Good day, polished off "Wintermute" and did "Android" for Carl. Liz suggests more African ones so will look at doing that tomorrow. Made progress with Monotrons review too so all in all a productive day. Didn't get chance to ring Dave Hill though, which I shall rectify tomorrow.

Didn't get much done yesterday as blinds man was here through the afternoon. Snatched an hour or so in the late afternoon then another hour in the evening to work on a tune that had been going through my head. Didn't get much done for that christmas radio thing, couldn't find my mic and then I got into the track for Otamate, a kinda drum and bass thing inspired by an old track of mine called Winterhaven.

This evening I want to try and concentrate on the Korg reviews, get them well started . Even if it means no music gets done. Don't want to lag behind there, especially with two other analogues to do. Castle party next Saturday and usually it's hard to focus on the Sunday night when I get back so the weekend could be a work writeoff. :)

Groovy, got first payment from US library, not a whole lot ($200) but it's a start.

Good day, sent one track off and made a good start on another, an Egyptian one. Finished programming the Fantom, hopefully it'll be what the guy wants. I won't be glad to see the back of it though.

Made some progress with new review synths, fortunately very easy to grasp and writing shouldn't be hard. Octatrack new OS due and finally can have tracks of individual lengths. Yay! Gonna wipe Cirklon and set up my ultra-streamlined box of gigging tricks based around Octatrack and the absolute minimum of other gear, probably Proteus, Radias and something nice and analogue from Vermona.

Almost done with review, new one lined up already, a queue forming in fact! Need also to write some new tunes AND sort filling that Fantom with mellotron samples (proving to be a pain in the arse to do!).

Quite proud of our Dawn getting that posh restaurant to take foie gras off the menu.

Good day. Got first draft, right length, readable and says what I want to say. Language improvements and polish to be added tomorrow and still a few days to stew.

Off cycling with Les tomorrow. Hope it doesn't rain. Working through the Fantom stuff, recording its parts so I can start to fill it full of mellotrons. This to fund the Perfourmer 2, assuming it's as good as it surely will be. Right, gonna have an hour watching shit telly. is there any other kind?

Good day. Worked out I have a lot of songs using the Fantom meaning I'll have to record versions of all into Logic. What I'll do is put the Fantom on its own track so I have that in isolation. In case I need to put parts into Octatrack for a future performance of those songs.

Also wrote a good chunk of review. I've already got more than 1,500 words more than needed and not sure I said everything I want to. However I've repeated several ideas and with trimming can hit the word count and keep it readable. I reckon anyway. Tomorrow I'll aim for draft #1 leaving two more nights for polish then a couple of days stewing and final polish. Shame I can't afford one...

Pleasant day. Sent off two house tracks, they suggested Meloday AM as basis for future ones, which is... unexpected. Be good to get back to it with that in mind next week, this weekend I'll be concentrating on review. This afternoon I pottered happily and without direction. Traditional Friday.

Good week, ish, made a start in earnest on the review. Fortunately I've worked hard with the instrument in question and even turned around my opinion on it having done some stuff I like. Sent off two new ancient worlds tracks and am now returning to the house stuff, trying to find whatever it is they want. Still no clues of a comp album to get so I'm thrashing around and hoping. It's not a bad life though.

Um, published the video on Youtube, I know it's naff but I have learnt a few things in doing it and Tim showed me proper layers at last.

Tonight I'll work on reviews I think, should make a start. First a quick listen through the persian track and see if a few small tweaks are needed.

recorded some stuff today and videoed too. As usual I cocked up some of the recording but it was fine, just good to do something and find it still works. Whatever "it" is. Good fun, will put something together tomorrow or Sunday with whatever we got. Should get another Triple C so I can put the digital input into Wavelab and end this bus thing with the mixer where I can not record some things we hear...

got next to nowt done today. I had wanted to prepare something for tomorrow's video sesh but failed there too. No library work done but did have a nice breakfast with John in Preston which was long overdue. Where does time go? Oh right, it's us that moves.

I had a wise thought last night I was gonna note down. Alas, that was last night.

Don't get much done on Mondays so today was, at least, typical. Have got my head round both bits of review kit, fortunately not a lot of complication. Tomorrow should be a better day in terms of productivity. Must get bits of gear advertised, some items not being used and would be good to clear the decks.

Really enjoyed the George Harrison documentary. Got some good quotes too, not that I expect to use them much.

A good evening with a piece of kit that I'm starting to see more potential in. Looked at a few of the library pieces too and not sure I can majorise one without fucking it. Messed with hardware side a bit but as usual got bogged down in the Octatrack's many laborious side paths. Nevertheless I make progress in small steps each time and one day will laugh at all this. Someone suggested on the user group that parts make no sense and I really think they're right. Why not do away with them and have each pattern contain the stuff parts do. If you really wanted you might be able to temporarily use the samples of another pattern but personally I couldn't be arsed with this. There's enough to do already!

Gonna watch the George Harrison thing now.

Good feedback for recent tracks (phew!) although I'm still not 100% I know the direction I should be taking. An apparently simple change of minor to major for one track proving harder than it first appeared. Still, something to work on. No sign of new hardware yet for review.

Well well, I'm 50 years old and still can't decide whether I can be arsed keeping a diary. I have got to a special place for sure. :)

Can't get into studio tonight as I wanted. Jasper stressed with fireworks so I'll get stoned and watch Frost/Nixon instead. Tomorrow night though, tomorrow I'll work on some tunes. In the mood to get more cool stuff into Octatrack.

new laptop arrived exactly as Amazon said. Full of lots of shite Toshiba software. Not totally sure I like the keyboard, why do they skew them to the left now? Setting up software, can't find my Paintshop Pro CD but otherwise getting on with it...

Nowt much to report this week, have been pottering with Octatrack trying to fill it with songs and patterns that will work as improvisational starting points. It's a frustrating instrument in many ways but I'm getting there. New Animoog for iPad is good - but fecking well has "start at zero" envelopes!

Got most of review done tonight. Will have to chase 'em tomorrow for a definitive answer on the MIDI out thing. Wordcount pretty much right, got screenshots (and captions). Spent time with OP-1 too, to rest my eyes.

Another glorious sunny day, a bit of Octatrack in the afternoon, meal at Colin's in the evening. Pat's cold seems to have come back so I'm alone watching telly and she's gone to bed. Poor thing, never seems to be right.

Saw Hawklords last night, great to see Harvey enormously popular. Good gig but I couldn't find my fecking earplugs again.

Got some feedback on submitted tracks - need to work on a few of them which is a pain. Carl was saying similar I recall so maybe they're just getting pickier - probably can afford to be, lots more talented people than me writing for them. Must try harder.

OP1 arriving today, trying to get through Mikro review. NI stopped replying to questions. Why does that always happen? I know, I'm an old windbag who persists in digging and digging until it annoys...

Hmmm Tuesday is it? Yesterday I submitted what I hope is a decent Tibetan/Mongolian ancient world track plus started a new club one that has potential. Gathering drones/bridges for the Octatrack, could be handy as there's the chance of a one-off gig in Poland.

Review progressing, seems pretty straight-forward to write thus far, clear what's good and less good about it. I miss proper step-time input and still can't get the step input in Logic working right. Key command defs just don't seem to stick. No idea why. Still pining for Cubase's editors. Today: more of the same.

Hehe an interview I did http://elmuzyka.blogspot.com/2011/10/paul-nagle-girls-of-poland-are-very.html

A shit day yesterday was improved considerably by Tony - chatted until two in the morning very happily. Earlier I'd fed my Mac DVDs until it was sick - or until Logic wouldn't work anyway which is as bad. Something in the Komplete 8 install screwed it badly, and it was only help from David on the Logic forum that got me going again. I'm way too clueless about all that stuff and have to learn.

Not that much extra in Komplete 8 as far as I can tell, some pianos and drums but not a lot I absolutely needed. Seem to have used up loads of disk space for very little benefit - also downloaded new Emotional Piano but was it worth it? Not installed but another Files menu entry.

Komplete 8 integrates with Maschine, which is the main point - although I will still need to see what Elements includes so I can mention that. The visibility of all the patches is very good though.

Today I sussed most of Mikro, which is nice.

And there's a new Walking Dead!

Got a bound version of FAF which was nice. I'll have to go through it with a pencil though and mark the stuff to fix. Probably...

A shit day yesterday was improved considerably by Tony - chatted until two in the morning very happily. Earlier I'd fed my Mac DVDs until it was sick - or until Logic wouldn't work anyway which is as bad. Something in the Komplete 8 install screwed it badly, and it was only help from David on the Logic forum that got me going again. I'm way too clueless about all that stuff and have to learn.

Not that much extra in Komplete 8 as far as I can tell, some pianos and drums but not a lot I absolutely needed. Seem to have used up loads of disk space for very little benefit - also downloaded new Emotional Piano but was it worth it? Not installed but another Files menu entry.

Komplete 8 integrates with Maschine, which is the main point - although I will still need to see what Elements includes so I can mention that. The visibility of all the patches is very good though.

Today I sussed most of Mikro, which is nice.

And there's a new Walking Dead!

Got a bound version of FAF which was nice. I'll have to go through it with a pencil though and mark the stuff to fix. Probably...

I'm 5o today. Went to Pear Tree with mum and Janet and stuffed ourselves so much I went to bed when I came home. Didn't get much work done although more Maschine for an hour or so in the morning, making good progress there. Pat out all day in B'ham for horse of the year.

Well well, finished a japanese one, a bit dynamic possibly for the "atmospheric" brief. NI Maschine Mikro arrived - installing now. Making some odd noises, ah, "installation failed". Looks neat and sleek though... :(

Saturday was another nice one, got an ancient chinese track done, although I'm gonna review and probably simplify the percussion. Didn't do much else but happy enough lazing. Nick worried me with tales of seeing a specialist but wouldn't say what her symptoms are. I guess she'll tell me in her own good time.

very hot day today - end of september ffs!

well well, dreadzone were fab once more. This evening we watched another dreary film in the twilight series. No more, that's three and I'll never get that time again. Nowt fecking happens!!!

I finally understand the whole less is more thing. More sunshine equals less work.

Still, who's complaining!

Off to Dreadzone tonight, not Hawklords as I wrongly wrote on my calendar. Good job Tony reminded me or I'd be heading towards Liverpool like a total eejit. Which I am, of course.

More glorious sunshine. Sap is rising. Dunno how high it might get.

Looks like a decent day. Got a new track started last night, today probably not much time as I have Les and then Colin's PC to fix. Hey ho. :) Should have this evening to work.

Have a shortened version of Christiania and a version of Flyby done, still not sure about the latter. Have I polished a turd, then rubbed off the polish afterwards? Listening to one of Picko's wicked production jobs on Haunted Doobie and wishing I had even a tenth of his composition/performance/production chops. I should really have learned to play something by now... :(

I think the interview went well, I restrained my usual windbag nature despite having a little pipe before I started. Hadn't thought about 1983 for a long time...

A couple of days with little work done. Friday was tree hacking, Friday night was spent with Pat and Mickey Blue Eyes (horse with collic), well until around 6am Saturday. Spent a little time in the afternoon half-awake so decided to work on hardware - standardising my Octatrack tracks/parts/banks and starting to lay out stuff properly. Lots of work and a Bank Copy command would really help. Also as I'm triggering lots of events from Cirklon, have asked Colin to let us set a default note per instrument for P3 tracks, so I don't have to keep transposing +32 for each one.
I have to be awake for an interview at 01:15 tomorrow morning. Let's hope it's possible or at least I can make some kind of sense. Avoiding chemicals though or I really will talk shite!

Very attractive lady doctor got to play with my willy today. It gave neither of us much pleasure. However, it was a total joy compared to the next stage in which a camera wends its way up there. Hey ho. SOS out and three reviews in, which is good. Fairly pleased with the Octatrack one, really needed a few thousand more words so the style could loosen up - but too much to cram in. Should give those interested a fair idea what to expect though.

Sometimes when the muse won't answer you, demand that she replies! Turns out the muse rewards impertinence (although that doesn't mean she likes complying). Anyway, demand and sometimes you are rewarded with a gem - but always with something. So using the muse as an excuse just won't wash with me. Started one I like. At last! Checking Geist where I hope to find the right drum loop...

Hmm, drum loop ain't right but track is started.

Watching Shamless, first time in ages. Character in it called Jesus O'Toole. Class name.

OK, haven't prepared anything as such but have tinkered with the Octatrack all afternoon, mostly stand-alone this time using the Virus and KP3 to provide sample sources, effects sends, extra looping and resampling etc. All clicking together nicely. Getting a few more ideas on how to improve the Octatrack and speed up workflow but won't bombard them just yet, let's see how the weekend goes.

Have to call in at mum's on the way though, she has a new telly and can't get the ariel connection to work. Will sniff around for some extra leads/adaptors etc. and see what I can do. Will take binocs in case sky clear.

Busy couple of days. All 15 tension tracks done and edits too, just those to master then I can get the lot uploaded. Also did the Tuttit review yesterday, will have a last run through and polish tomorrow before getting it off.

Should be ready for Thursday and the Lakes, even if I don't prepare anything (as usual).

Winding down for a bit watching Bill Hicks.

OK, busy weekend doing the tension edits and also should get Tutti review done then the decks are clear for the Merz Barn project. Also spending some time setting up Octatrack patterns ready to sample creatively into. Octatrack plus synth (SH-101 or Virus haven't decided) should sort my parts nicely. Neat but powerful. Should practice though if I get time.

Survived Portugal. Funny these posts all starting to seem the same. Can I afford a week in the Lakes doing Dada music? I really should be working, should get those library tracks done - tweaked three today and would like to work more on several more that are just "OK". I don't really want OK tracks out there, they all have to be good.

And I need to look at getting my novel to that guy. Time!!

Survived Solfest. A bit grey and windy in places but good music (finally) on the Sunday. Surprised how many Stranglers tunes I knew. Indian Postal Service and Bongoman both excellent but only got 30 mins to play - WTF??!!

Now, will I survive Portugal tomorrow? :(

Solfest weekend

It's raining.

Quite heavily. One year, just one year I'd like a completely dry and sunny Solfest experience all the way through.

Did a reasonable mix of "feelin the love" today and uploaded, will see what Liz thinks. Margaret's vocals excellent, don't think I've done them justice yet but getting there.

Before Art there must be Time and Space

Finally I have my third wise saying. Nowt to stop me forming a cult now. Whooppee.

To remind you, the others were: do good shit and love is all you need or something like that. Hehe.

Anyway, two tracks this evening - one "let yourself go" based on a sample I've used before. The other was the more finished version of I feel love. Must get Maggots to do the singing.

Well well, Saturday here. Must pick apples. Finished a track yesterday I quite like, Christiania, started a bit housey but went dark and stranger than I think library would like.

Two good nights of freedom so should get the Tutti review done and more music too plus transferring tracks into Octatrack. This evening I may go for a curry with Carl and Dan, in fact, sod it I will!

Listening to Andy G on the radio doing an Inkey$ special. Nostalgia eh? Reminds me of the early 80s when everything seemed possible. Maybe it was but it needed someone able to grasp the possibilities and that someone sure wasn't me.

I had a great day making real electronic music - in the style of Conrad Schnizler. I seriously think I may do a whole album of this stuff, it's inspiring me! Used Cirklon, Octatrack, Synthi and Eventide Space. I think I may stick to that lineup for more.

Don't want any more days like today. Said farewell to Murphy. Glad Pat wasn't there though. She remembered, later, today is her mum's birthday.

I sent off two house tracks, called shine and together, seemed to think later I had the titles the wrong way round. Not doing anything tonight except consoling.

Have started 4 "cafe del mar" type tracks, must get one actually finished.

Horse to be put down Friday. Not looking forward to that. Hard to write euphoric dance music in this mood.

Almost completed Octatrack review. Struggling with wordcount though, can get there but not saying everything I want.

KX8 working fine, have setup buttons to do what I want also. Manual doesn't make clear but they send notes and on a different USB MIDI port. SO you can identify and use those specifically. Sorted.

Bloody rain. It must be August just prior to Solfest.

Great night jamming with Octa, really can do magic with it now I've set it up. That's the key. It's not yet the instant jam machine cos of the gaps. But prepare some stuff, which I wanted to do anyway, add a couple of 303 clones, could get the whole thing in a single flightcase. Hehehheeeehehe. At last: option not to sound shit BUT still no laptop. Philosophical win! Nutter!

New track too. Used that Octa loop, can do a lot more of that. Like having Ableton synced to Logic.

Possibly two new tracks actually.

Pat not too well today, thinks her medication needs adjusting, very weak. Went out for a meal even though she seemed too tired but she didn't eat much. Early night poor thing. :(

Today new cafe del mar stuff started. And another tune I'm calling "He's Spartacus", although that may change.

Let's hope for a better day tomorrow

Oh dear. I just realised the KX8 doesn't have class compliant drivers. Bugger. I really should do my own research. Octatrack review coming on well, no replies from Elektron yet, maybe my questions were too much too soon. I do have a tendency to do that. Or do I have a tendancy? Nah, dense, that's me.

It's Wednesday already! I must do something soon. Maybe write some music, there's a thought. Having too much fun, that's my problem. :)

Got a CME UF6 keyboard from Dave today, very kind. Not class compliant so will try out drivers and hope. Looks nice though, hopefully will do the job. Must dump that M-Audio. This evening will try and get it all working.

Some bugs with Octatrack related to Arranger it seems - my lack of trigs/plocks isn't isolated. Hope to hear from them soon as I do need to start writing out all my notes.

Still waiting for KX8, guy said it could take until Aug8th for cheque to clear - wish he'd been into using bank transfer.

Lovely sunny day yet I managed a fair bit of work. Think I have the Punch review complete, started the Tutti one and worked more on Octatrack. Tomorrow's meant to be rainy so I should get lots done. Apparently I had the offer of a free keyboard, wish I'd known/remembered that! Anyway eBay guy sounds genuine so hope that'll work out OK.

Great day, went to Devil's Bridge with mum and Janet, then Oojami and Phil came round. Got a song to try out some stuff on, Phil played his guitar through Space, even have a couple of hours left to work on the Punch review. Octatrack would be useful for the Turkey festival.

Mmmm busy week but making good progress after a difficult first day yesterday. Seen forum posts that suggest my recording issues aren't isolated so maybe there are minor bugs. Definitely had some inconsistencies today. Impressed though and starting to see real potential.

So what else? Meant to be going to Sheffield on Saturday to see Oojami and Dean. But I should also work, could get a lot done. Dilemma.

Reviews done, video rendering working again but not impressed with the short thing I did. Will try and do something more coherent soon to demo a few things properly. Need to get that second camera involved.

This week I'll start on Punch and Tutti and hopefully find out where Octatrack is. Oh and hopefully get the tension stuff sorted once and for all. Maybe one or two more tracks, then the edits. Be glad to see the back of those.

Good day, sunny too. Did tense_8, seems OK, redid ultimate_challenge, still not really sure about that one, especially as I seem to do this weird thing where it starts in F then switches to E.

I need to get maybe one more, a slower, more subtle one I think. Anyway, may start Tutti review tomorrow or even do more work on Punch.

Mmmm two deadlined reviews done, new track started (tense_7) and two old ones cleaned up. Signed up for bandcamp and began preparing awakenings live for it.

Cambridge was expensive this year (£15 for a fecking burger! I don't even like burgers!!) and our fave pub shut due to an EDL march. Can't seem to escape those fuckers.

Almost completed Spark review now and may start Tutti one also. Working like mad. Got 12 tension tracks to do, completed 5/6. Tidied two that needed minor tweaks last night but three that are "OK" could be hard to modify. Gotta get busy even though I am busy. Really doesn't help that Dawn keeps just dropping round and hanging around for ages. Getting old and miserable, just want the peace of my own house. Trying not to show it. Even when she still insists on bending the spines of my books back, fully aware of how much I hate her doing that.

Righty, Cambridge here we come. Meant to be sunny so I've packed accordingly. Will probably get soaked.

Space review done, Spark well under way (need to lose about 700 words though!), one new track uploaded and Synctracks website has gone live - so hopefully can start to earn some money. All in all, things looking good. Hoping Octatrack here very soon. Will it be the missing link??

Tony to fix the inverse Synthi scaling, if time. Not too worried if not, getting to rather like it although it is a mindfuck when I'm stoned.

Enjoyed Symphony at the Tower last night, perfect weather although got cold later. Some complainer on Waldorf list going on about how reviewers should also perform beta testing, then admitted he hadn't read my reviews anyway so had no idea what they contained. Sigh, the internet is full of these people.

In fact the world is starting to fill up with complainers, and worse we're starting to be ruled by fear of complainers rather than by people with imagination and direction. Still, fuck 'em, it's sunny again!

Well on with Space review, will return to Spark next week when hopefully there's an OS update. Synth-DIY coming so that's a weekend I won't have to write.

Hottish day. Didn't get a lot done, lots of crashes. I've raised 3 fault reports now, hoping there's a way round this.

Lots of moaning and groaning with Dawn's business again. Very disruptive and seemingly no end to it.

Have raised a couple of problems re: recent drum machine review, sent off the first one this morning with screen shots. Have done a fair bit with the second now, don't think there's a lot I don't understand about it now. No reply re new track. Will be glad when these are over, I don't think tension is my thing.

It was the heatwave today I think. Most of the morning and a fair bit of the afternoon. I think it's done though.

BBC Glastonbury coverage the usual dire mixture of repeating the same stuff and lots of annoying chatter from folks who have surprisingly little to say but take a long time to do it. Like me eh? :)

FAther forgive me, etc. and it's been almost 40 years since my last confession. The thing is: I'm watching Coldplay. And, worse, I think they have some decent songs. But that must be the worst lead singer voice in popular music? The falsetto doesn't suit him, sounds like a strangled cat. So weak.

I'm a whining old man eh? Did new track today http://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/breaking-the-cycle# and completed one drum machine review and made a start on another. Easier one to grasp this one, not so deep. Good day but Pat tired.

Sometimes I struggle to go with my own philosophies. Such as "if you can't change something then make the best of it". I still moan and whine and get grumpy when my precious composing time is interrupted. Can't get across the point that I write music best when alone, unheard. Editing, tweaking all no worries but blowing air on that first spark!

Pascal came round, brought some wonderful, inspiring music.

More drum machines today. Good job I like 'em.

Wrote quick review that totally failed to mention you-know-who or his crappy patches. Tempted but was proud I could resist.

Now, work!

Aha :)

Pat working 5-midnight, some cockup.

WOrked out well, review done I'd say and new track started, pretty much a full length sketch just a few rough edges to polish and a few transitions to do. A wee smoke and beer may have helped. Dammit but it always does! That peace and being able to leave something looping until you see the thing it needs, have to be alone for that kinda indulgence. :)

Then a wicked new track from Volker on myspace. Top day!

Made good progress with two reviews over the weekend, using stuff is the key, like in songs.

Nothing done today. Our Dawn working in 'her' office. So an afternoon wasted. Hey ho. Arranging to meet with Pasc sometime this week, John suggesting we meet also but I really don't think I'm gonna have time. Want a day with Pat and I just have too many reviews queued up, not to mention I should be writing some music. But not today, well maybe this evening I'll get some peace.

Jeez I sound like a right moaning old git. Dunno why this malaise, apart from news of horse I guess. Also nothing on horizon to really anticipate, spose there's Synth-DIY next month but I feel I need a holiday. Really do. No sign of shares cheque yet.

Damn, Thursday already. Reviews stacking up and have got the first deadline at least (and already realised I need 500 more words). Sent off tense_4 so we'll see what happens with that. Gonna be busy for a while, even forgot today was the day Pat and I have been taking off together lately. Slow down dude!

Oh shit, the vet gave Pat the verdict on Murphy. As bad as her worst fears, he'll be drugged up now until his last days and not long for those either. Can't believe her bad luck, especially as no horse has been looked after better.

It's a sunny day but somehow it should be raining. I've abandoned work for now, can't get in the mood. Instead it's lager and Vangelis (Oceanic) and moping. Have cashed in BT shares and I think once it's all over Pat and I will go off for some time away. Maybe Centerparcs, always a good refuge for us. I'll take the iPad and see if it really is any use for working with by itself.

Maybe I'll cut the grass. Feel I should do something. Why is writing this shit cathartic? It's meaningless, I never look back over it, I avoid putting anything other than surface thoughts and sanitised ones at that. Baffling really. But I feel better having done it no matter how thin and unappetising it is.

Finished and submitted a track "the waiting", awaiting feedback on that and a couple previously. Very little get up and go, or perhaps it's got up and gone and I didn't notice. Would do another Cirklon video but all my renders turning out shite, no real idea why. Gonna try another program as Sony Movie studio is a bit of a pain, very slow and getting on my nerves. Why is the render never like the preview??

Mmm more sun = less work! Did some work on tense_3 yesterday, it's sounding OK I think. Another listen and slight production work over the weekend sometime and it's complete. Probably not today though, it's glorious again and supposedly gets colder after today.

Good meal last night, must've been hungry though cos we were only there for just over an hour - a record considering we had starters and sweet too!

Sunshine!!

Magnificent day. Worked in the garden. Meal at night for last week's anniversary. Might get to studio later, dunno, sorta in the mood annoyingly enough. Probably that bong and all the writing to the Independent that fired me up. Silly old fart I am.

Looks like some of our Berlin performance wasn't recorded or if so, has vanished. Hope it can be unvanished as it's a bit stupid to lose what I think was a good gig. Typical though, alas.

Little to report today, a track done (tense_2) and seems OK but will sleep on it.

Review off OK this morning, think I pitched it right. Today I'll look at the three bits of software I've blagged and see which should be reviewed first.

Oops. double whammy: forgot our wedding anniversary and my mum's birthday.

Still, got Cirklon MTC sorted and review almost complete.

Now, back to Surface Detail...

Trying not to lose myself in new Iain M Banks, not entirely succeeding. Have sussed the easier of the two drum machines, the other I've parked for now until next week after review and when I can sit and watch the various tutorial videos.

Seems I lost Eric as a fb friend after my suggesting I didn't believe in the loch ness monster based on the available evidence. He's one of those serious american christian types, probably still smarting over the analogue envelopes request that he'll probably never sanction now. Ah well.

MTC fix arrived, will test properly today. BOB also due today or Tuesday so finally I can sequence the Synthi directly.

Monotribe review almost complete, said everything I want to, just the words to tidy/streamline/polish. The three software reviews will be next I guess, unless cool things arrive first.

I'd better put that curtain rail up today!

Wow, quite a day. Two software drum machines downloaded for review, both quite different to each other which is nice. I've even done a track with one of them, following some of Paul's tips and hopefully resulting in something I can use. The other I'll install later is it was quite large. Have bust the monthly 10Gb limit by a LOT. Gonna have to leave BT I think and go to O2.

Novel contract arrived, will sign and get off. Busy, busy, busy. :)

Worked on another track today, Paul has told me some things I should fix and pointed me to some decent examples so I'll try again. Not really getting this tension beds lark but I think I maybe have a better idea now. Review progressing well so I think Pat and I should do something tomorrow together.

Groo-vee. Got a copy of Tutti that I'll review, seems to have the kinds of elements I need for "tension" so let's see if I get more work done now.

Good progress with iPad now I've added a USB hub. I've absolutely no idea why this should be the case as the hub isn't powered but that's all part of the mystery eh? Anyway, the Behringer now works successfully for both audio and MIDI, which is a great step forward. The iMS20 app now really starts to kick ass. Shame the Behringer has a broken key, not sure how that happened but I've attempted to fix with superglue...

Right, no more procrastinating.

Um, Behringer doesn't work with iPad - same old power issue as with other keyboards. Bloody thing. Will try USB hub next but rapidly losing interest.

Have two tension tracks done and a selection of others that I'll make some ruthless decisions about, later. Also polished up "twilight", which I rather like and started "rapture" which might be useful for something.

Made a decent start on Monotribe review last night, fortunately an easy thing to write about.

Worked on some "tension" tracks yesterday. Not sure I'm happy with any of them.

Quest for a pro iPad app continues. Everyone seems so keen to hype the thing up that reality is not part of the equation.

Monotribe didn't arrive, hopefully today.

Pondering whether Behringer keyboard will work properly with iPad - for audio too. Will give it a try, assuming John not actively using it. Jah Wobble playing Manchester tomorrow night, would love to go but can I be arsed? Getting too stay-at-home.

Bought the iMS20 app at last. Seems pretty good, comparable to the Nintendo version but more powerful. No MIDI clock sync though and don't think you can assign knobs to MIDI CCs but hey, I'm starting to expect that sort of thing.

Backing up Mac using Clone Copy. Back to work this evening on the tension stuff, about time eh? So much time wasted on the hardware stuff and didn't even get to fecking play. Time to seriously reconsider just agreeing to anything similar in future.

Raining again.

Sigh. Usual hippy "organisation" meant that music wasn't allowed in the chill dome. So I lugged all my gear for nothing, which was kinda depressing. Put a brave face on despite it ending up an expensive weekend for me (no petrol money was volunteered). A good festival though, weather was nice and vibe very good throughout, security/council/whatever objection notwithstanding. Asked to do loads of things, agreed to more than I'll be able to do, the usual. Met Frank who bought my P3 who I liked instantly, nice bloke.

Maybe it's just too much hard work playing live at festies/parties, don't think I've yet played one where I've been really satisfied.

Have moved Proteus into Cirklon flightcase where it has some airspace around it. I think that was the source of those strange pops I've been hearing too, let's hope it'll be OK or I may have to consider loading my PCM cards into the Planet Earth module, which I really don't want to do.

Haven't quite got everything as slick as it was but it'll be OK I think. Tomorrow I label cables, do the power supply floor box etc. Then I can have a last run through and decide the running order. Colin has added the looper mode with velocity decay and it's nice, just not what I need right now. Some very niggly little things like being unable to delete scene volume settings as the UI has been removed. I could add a CC7 event for the offending instruments I guess.

Last day I'll work seriously on Bearded set. I say "seriously" for want of a better word. I'll also label all my power supplies and cables to make it as close to plug and play as poss. Then I'll gather the power supplies in their own floor case. Then I'm as fast as I can be - still have to wait 6+ mins for the fecking Fantom XR to boot.

Weather not looking great for the weekend. Why am I not surprised?

So freaked out by losing a night's work that I thought about my Mac and bought yet another 1Tb drive with which I'm gonna do an image backup of the system disk. I should also think in terms of how easy it would be to rebuild my two data disks as I spread stuff over those too. Darn it to heck!

Made a start on "tension beds". Contemplating investing in more sounds just because.

BACKUP AT THE END OF EVERY SESSION YOU IDIOT

BACKUP AT THE END OF EVERY SESSION YOU IDIOT

Lost all last night's work (thanks heavens I recorded it at least). Tonight tried to recreate but it's not got that fresh charm. It'll be OK eventually but ah well. Was even told of the bugs in that beta and still loaded it. Wipe memory? SUre, I remember taking a backup. Shite, a backup at the start of the night. An odd thing to do but it was after retyping all those labels. Wanted a backup so I didn't do them again. Doh. Remembered doing backup, forgot why until too late. So lost all the evening's work on every track, most especially "Charlie" which reverted to its original name "Bliss". IDIOT IDIOT IDIOT.

Being soothed by Noggin the Nog on BBC4. Wonderful. More on tomorrow.

Moron tonight.

Another glorious day, OTO Biscuit packed and ready to go via UPS. Will continue mastering the sci/tech tracks and maybe doing the edits, even though not had the need for edits confirmed yet this time. Contracts? Forced myself to watch some crap TV in order to grasp "tension beds" and I may start some work on those.

To do

Ring tax office. Decide whether I can spare the afternoon to go sip tea with John.

Later: Cirklon 058 and new quantize options to test (excited!). Do I have enough tunes for Bearded now? And are they getting a bit complicated? Can I afford to go off this weekend and get mashed under the stars (yes!).

Quite impressed with Amazon/Kindle delivery thing to iPad.

Edit: Of course it's strangely impossible to get through to the tax office!!!! Bastards.

So, Osama Bin Laden retires as the World Hide & Seek Champion and another sunny day passes blissfully for the rest of us. Still, fair play to the Yanks for taking out the Bins on a Bank Holiday.

Don't think I'm gonna make humour the main point of my blog. Not when I have so much pointlessness and wibble to fit in. Um, worked on a few variations of things for Bearded. Still have to think logistically but no hurry for that.

Biscuit going back this week. Shame, I'll miss it. Still waiting for Minimax cash to filter through from Paypal to my account, Bank Hols delays? Anyway, should take care of the Octatrack which I'll probably need if I'm gonna do this festival in Portugal. Be nice to hang with Oojami properly too so fingers crossed I can make it.

Anyway, maybe I'll spend the evening doing more tunes and, well, the usual. What am I like! :)

Well now, I certainly won't be turning gay anytime in a hurry if that's what having stuff up yer arse feels like! Jeez! Fascinating to be able to see my guts on a camera, really, but no, repeat no desire to ever go through that again. I resorted to the laughing gas at the first opportunity, as I tend to do at parties too. Hope this doesn't work its way into my consciousness by association. The guy played some Beethoven to me too, the ninth symphony. Only when it began did I think "Clockwork Orange".

Have got sign-off for the 15 sci-tech tracks, including a couple I thought not included, one I like the other still not sure. Will do good masters of the lot though then move on to tension beds or something. Not tonight though, doing very little tonight...

Bought Bebot and Funkbox for iPad but dithered over iMS20 even though I'm sure I'll get it eventually. Also fancy Fairlight app and Reaktable but owt more than a couple of quid I wibble over.

Oh good, powerful laxatives. Didn't do a lot today other than tidy "weird science" and improve "radio telescope", not sure either are brill but I'm probably done with the science stuff now.

Not looking forward to tomorrow morning's "procedure". Nosirree.

Cirklon track defs coming on nicely.

Impressive Cirklon advances today including track / instrument defs and multitimbral improvements I've been hoping for since day 1. Sold Minimax, guy asked for one in SOS so I flogged it. Can afford Octatrack when it comes now. If I don't like it I've got cash for the Eventide Space. Still intending to resist Perfourmer 2 when that comes. Yep, that's the plan alrighty. Will move Prody into Minimax's slot, all good. :)

Aaaah, good curry. Dan did this great magic trick too, very impressive card trick right before our eyes.

Dunno if I can be arsed going upstairs to work on music, might just veg in front of TV or draw on my iPad. I know, I know, so shoot me. If I hadn't broken the credit card might buy another app for it, as it is I'll have to mess with the ones I've got.

I'm thinking it's Saturday and I ain't posted much. Not that it matters especially as only I read this (AFAIK). Some more envelope discussion, can't believe someone can fail to get the point after quite this many explanations but a lovely comment to me from one of the synth's patch coders: he's a christian, the more facts you give him the more it'll get his back up. I tried, sod it, is my perspective now.

Started a track yesterday, wanted to do "weird science" - essentially by trying for some Conrad Schnitzler-type structure. We'll see if it works out when I listen again today. Also did the extended Leaving Orbit which still has a few rough edges to smooth and might be overlong at the end now. Dunno if I actually need that but could be useful "DJ" material.

Some MP3 pirate site I'm sposed to look at and complain about cos it has some Binar/STDM on it.

Two latest tracks were OK apparently. All is good. Dunno how many more needed. Looking hard to get to SW8, no obvious flights locally.

The DJ app I got is OK but output seems quite low. I added a load of my MP3s and they play OK but I dunno if it's gonna be quite what I want. That's the trouble with these apps, you buy them, you realise they're shallow or crap, you buy more. Tim seems to have got a good one though but it doesn't send MIDI of course.

Heard back from someone behind Multitrack DAW along the lines of "gee, that's a useful idea, we'll check it out". I asked about MIDI clock. I think that's a good reflection of the current state of play of music apps on the iPad right now. Hopefully some pro companies will get involved but for now, don't buy an iPad thinking it's just like a regular computer in terms of its power and applications. They call them "apps" for a reason you know!

Got Murphy moved to his new place, just have to go back up to Rivington today and clean up his old stable. Finished two tracks last night, one dreamy and enigmatic for Brian Cox and the other faster and more positive for general sciencey use. Couldn't seem to get anything happening on the hardware that pleased me.

Played with Brushes a bit, like it. Wish Apple would get file import/export sorted for the iPad. It's a fecking bodge right now.

Still down with stinking cold, must press on with new tracks today though, no sick leave anymore. Want to go back to bed really, perhaps listening to new Younger Brother album again.

Just ordered my iPad 2 (64Gb Wifi) - from Comet, the only place that claims to have one for instant order, delivery Friday. We'll see. I shall be cross if they've lied.

Need to sort the cover and camera adapter of course but hopefully can get those locally.

Started two tracks today, one a bit happy, might temper that, another a bit ambient, I was thinking of Brian Cox gazing enigmatically into the distance.

Still have a stinking cold from SW7.

Blimey, what an experience Sonic Weekend 7 was! An amazing bunch of people, they already feel like a new family. Was delighted to be able to play with them, let's do more. :)

Damn, I think Tim passed on the iPad virus to me last night. I can see that an iPad could do the job I wanted from the Octatrack in terms of live backing, assuming I can get it synced to Cirklon. Loved "Brushes" and that little robot theramin thing. Would like to see some kind of DAW/Sync happen before I shell out but realistically I can see myself finding lots of uses for that little mother...

Cheaper than an Octatrack too.

A delicious whizzy Sunday night, pottered with some Cirklon tunes and generally idled around. Sweet.

Monday, sent in "charged particles", I'm happy with it so hope that's a good sign.

Thursday already. Seem to be resolved to playing Bearded totally live, gonna hold off on the Octatrack until I get one to try at length for review. Should really think about SW7 and what I'll do there, may take Synthi, Repeater, Electribe and Eventide effects. That should be enough to make some wacko noises. Should have something in mind I guess but don't seem to. UFOs, hmmm.

I seem to be resolved to selling the Filterbank 2 now, and possibly the Minimax. Could so easily sell that Virus C and replace it with a B actually. I truly hate the orange screen on it, wonder how easy it would be to replace?

Great night, stopped over with Dave Fell watching the stars and tripping nicely. In the morning saw dancing hares. Most excellent. Still sunny today, work boy if you can!

Up early this morning, not sure why. I started the Neal Stephenson but didn't get far. A style of writing I'm not keen on: smug, self-satisfied, wordy without reason. Moved on to the Paul Auster and was instantly pleased I had. I can see why Tim recommended it too, like a (much) better version of how I write. And already I want to read it all. The sun is shining today too, a perfect day to sit in the conservatory and read, which I must force myself not to do. Work boy, work!

Haha! I did three tracks yesterday, three that had been started in some form or other but basically I completed 'em and sent off. I think one is good, one OK and the other I ain't sure of yet... I did have a wee smoke to help me along so judgement could be impaired. :)

Sold Perfourmer. Will I regret it? At least to a nice guy. Didn't get much work done today, pottered with "machine" a bit, a track with some potential. Explained to Spectrasonics again about envelopes. Got recording of gig (good) and cleaned it up very slightly. Only one really odd part, which was a random loop I dialled up on the Repeater. Having dedicated controls handy would have helped me save that bit I think, taking it down to 1BPM always does something interesting.

Asked some questions of Elektron, the reply should help me decide whether to sell more gear and get an Octapad now. Octatrack. Octatrack, why can't I remember that??

Got gig video too, looks good, not watched more than a few mins so far but will. Not a busy day if I'm still typing eh? Not gonna touch novel again unless I get some feedback, it'll remain a flawed and weird thing. Sketching out new one in my mind. Started the other day but held back now until I have an actual plot! Otherwise another start that goes nowhere.

Read my latest review and I think I was less critical than I'd intended. Not sure why, perhaps one revision too many. Still makes the points I wanted but in a wishy-washy way I think.

Um, had my bits looked at today. Cleaned and tested Perfourmer. How come stuff sounds its best when you're about to sell it? Will I regret selling? Sigh...

Gig went well, very pleased. Got all put back together today in the studio so I could continue with review tonight. Good progress there, hope to finish tomorrow if I can.

Tired though, the late drive last night still taking its toll.

Future Art Factory

My novel was published today, on Kindle. Which is nice. I sent out loads of spammy emails to folks telling them to invest 71p in it. They'd better. :)

Started new track: the nuclear option.

Colin added some nice preset MIDI CCs that control the Repeater, Proteus and Fantom. Forgot to ask for the Lancet's two or three CCs but that's OK, I'm happy.

uploaded new track "polymers" today and did a few little jobs but nothing substantial. Took the frogspawn.

Good progress last night, did most of a new track and polished the last one's drums. Happy now. Had a quick look through gig and decided what songs I'll play, should be no probs. Hoping Colin can sort my Repeater CC control or I'll have to take the Remote 25.

Worrying noises from both the V-Synth and Virus. Will make sure I only use low resource Virus patches to avoid disaster.

Some very surreal news about M&T. Looks like it may even make the nationals.

Today did very little but got review deadline and wordcount, will start this evening. Should not be bad to do as I've played it quite a bit and have stuff to say. Thinking the Octatrack could be my solution to live gigging of polished-mixed-with-live material. Must chase getting one so I can be sure it's as good as the manual reads.

Bought more mouse poison.

Phew, last night's Kulu was a blast. I'm definitely struggling to keep up though. Took all my chems early so I'd be able to function again in the morning (horse duties). The result was that by about 3:30 I was flagging. Not totally sure about this Bearded Theory thing now, everything was so loud and full on last night, my quiet, ambient noodlings really won't work in such an environment. Talked to AstroD about potential collab (time?).

Got vid from sb, great stuff but only 20 mins. I need to put it together with Tim's stuff, if Tim can think of a way to get it to me. Seriously thinking of just putting on Arcs & Angles. Just watching it now for the first time in a while and the visuals are really, really good. Not massively colourful but not bad. Could just run that or Vic's DVD (if I can find it in this fecking tip!) or splice them together with the coloured blocks in between. All time though...

Had intended to polish "tortured earth" today and/or start the Swarmy review. Have done neither. Listened to what I have in Cirklon and decided what is playable. Synthi sounding good, that and the looper offer much fun. Looks like a busy week next week, dunno quite how it'll pan out.

Oh and to really help things out, the V-Synth old motherboard problem seems to have recurred. Nasty distorted noises on some patches. Damn and buggerations!

It's Friday. I'm knaggered (as Nick would say) but at least have a track in the bag. It's still not totally sci-tech I think, it's called something cheerful like "the tormented earth" and I was thinking of all those gloomy documentaries about the way we're gobbling up resources like there's no tomorrow. Whether this is the right thing I don't really know but it's something.

I put off M&T, but now instead of working on more tracks I truly feel like going back to bed. Rock and roll eh? I think I *am* going back to bed... no chance to make it through the night otherwise. Synthi back and lovely as ever. The sync mod in particular makes a difference, the shape mod I'm not so sure about yet.

Pat looked a bit woozy before, if she's still like that I'm gonna drive her up to the horse just to keep an eye on her. She may have to wake me up though!

Feel like crap. Going to Kulu anyway so will probably take it easy.

Off north today to see Tony and get my Synthi back. Taking John's Wasp too. So another day of no work but has to be done. May put off M&T tomorrow as I really have to get something done this week.

Funny day. Took my bits to see the nice lady doctor who probed me. I've got to go to the knobologist and the arseologist. Brilliant. The joys of being nearly 50!

Wrote track "leaving orbit" today and sent to Liz cos I thought it was quite good. Initial reaction is good - I was afraid it's a bit 90s - so a good day.

Filled in the census. I said I was a Jedi again, childishly enough. It's as valid a religion as any other, although I was tempted to say buddhist as I'm closer to that than owt else.

Synthi ready, gonna go get it on Thursday. Excellent, Tony rocks!

Frozen Shite

I took a walk one winter's night

and chanced across some frozen shite

well 'chanced' isn't quite the perfect word

for such oft-encountered icy turd

It's like dog owners just don't care

Their stupid mutts squat everywhere

This causes general consternation

I'd love to give them constipation

but instead I whitter and I whine

and write stupid poems that don't even rhyme.

You may not worry, fret or care

that frozen shite is everywhere

cos being cold it hardly smells

so just step by, what the hell?

But a trillion dogabytes of data

Splattered round for now and later

Can't be good to step around

It isn't clever or profound

We must do something, purge this shite

that I chanced across one winter's night!

great day! Did my Omnisphere review, a bit of polish tomorrow will see it done. Jeez I was in Florence and missed David! Went for a fecking coffee instead? Oh, did a part 2 for E-Ville, both parts are pretty wicked I think. But I am stoned. Wibbled with the Swarmatron in the background, didn't realise it was recording - but it sounds ace, fortunately. Must try it with the looper. Suspect it will rock!

In fact can capture some of it in the Repeater and use at gig. Heh!

great fun with new review toy yesterday, finally started to get it having worked out all the controls (I think). Did a little filming with Tim but didn't achieve a lot. An old-style Friday. Agreed to play Bearded Theory, not sure how yet. :)

I think I agreed to play Bearded Theory today. That'll wake me up! Two flightcases and a keyboard to play has to be my aim to make it as easy as poss. Hopefully it will be dark though.

Did a new track today "Newton's Cradle" which is a bit dancy, I guess the festival was in my mind. Might be OK for some science/tech though. Also wrote to Apple woman, pretty sure that iPad is faulty cos it poofed out a few times today. Can't be arsed with it anymore, I know enough to write my review and will do that this weekend.

Wonder if I should ask anyone else along to play or keep it as just me?

Sent Superboss some CDs. Synth went back to Livid.

lol, spotted my "frozen shite" poem again, could never put it anywhere visible of course.

Frozen Shite

I took a walk one winter's night

and chanced across some frozen shite

well 'chanced' isn't quite the perfect word

for such oft-encountered icy turd

It's like dog owners just don't care

Their stupid mutts squat everywhere

This causes general consternation

I'd love to give them constipation

but instead I whitter and I whine

write stupid poems that don't even rhyme.

You may not worry, fret or care

that frozen shite is everywhere

cos being cold it hardly smells

so just step by it, what the hell?

But a trillion dogabytes of data

Splattered round for now and later

Can't be good to step around

It isn't clever or profound

We must do something, smite this shite

that I chanced across one winter's night!

Achieved nothing this evening.

Good progress: Synctracks like the stuff and the variation on "far away" so that's a relief. Will do some edit versions of "nonvox" and then look at starting the new stuff. Today I'll do more with Omnisphere as I was really getting into the granular parts yesterday. First priority is to unhang the iPad. Bizarrely it froze on my at 20:55 yesterday and every time I touch it all I get is the same screen flickering; won't respond to anything, can't take the battery out. Dearly hope when I connect to iTunes it will be restorable. I don't think I want one.

Pat still hardly speaking, she's starting to worry me a bit. Carrying small things on ain't good and I think this hassle at work has hit her harder than she admits. Another disciplinary meeting isn't a good sign.

Good seeing Isgar again yesterday.

Pebbles went home this morning, has been nice having a cat around. No sign of any mice at all.

iPad arrived, new phone arrived, Pat's on a downer (partly my fault), gotta learn the iPad and get it setup for Orb. Airport pickup later, not looking forward to the drive but must put on a brave face and not let it show. Feeling a bit stressed which isn't like me. Just don't seem to have any chilltime at the moment and for the forseeable future.

Cool, review and screenshots sent in. I think it's OK and balanced, took a bit of effort but happy with the results. Gonna look at Omnisphere in more detail today and consider the iPad thing. If a new one is due, can I get an older one cheaper?

May also try and polish those two shorter reviews in case a deadline appears. Actually, should try and get some of those tracks moving. Jeez I'm shite at multitasking! Tasking, even.

More coffee. That'll sort it. Wednesday already. The sand never stops pouring.

Good day. Apple are lending me an iPad, which is excellent news. I ploughed on with the edits, more tomorrow but I also did a "nonvox" version of Far Away, adding piano to replicate the melody of the voice, ish. Some of the edits are proving difficult but the weird ones, at least, are easy. In the evening I had a good Cirklon session, new OS adds a few small but important enhancements. May get Tony A to fit new screen cos of my flicker. Have a few reasonable tunes for the gig I think, now considering having Cirklon do the patch and volume changes of the two synths I'm gonna be playing. It would make quite a lot of sense as stumbling around looking for patches when there's just me juggling plates already is prone to too much wackiness. Good discipline to get into.

Phew, airport trip is to Liverpool not Manchester. But have acquired a second trip on Tuesday. How to tell my friends I'm not actually just hanging around the house all the time but working, pretty much all the time? Reviews and music to do, gig prep will have to wait. Latest review done, will send in morning after final read. Then it's Omnisphere 1.5 (can I borrow an iPad?) and also get those masters to Synctracks. When will I get chance to write some "science/technology" tracks? No idea.

I should stop saying yes. Seem to be living Leaf By Niggle and hope I ain't got a journey any time soon. When will I get time to go get the Synthi? Again, no idea.

Funny old day. An Ikea trek to get a chair that didn't look how the shop version did. Of course we didn't discover that until I put it up. So I took it apart and it goes back tomorrow.

Managed to get a good chunk of the review done. Should get the polish on it tomorrow ready for deadline Wednesday. Might even get a look at Omnisphere and perhaps start some of those edits for Synctracks. Can at least upload some of the main 24 bit files. And ponder iPads.

A bit bog-eyed now, that's it for the day I think.

Musta been busy or something. Well, pressing on with review and hope to have something decent by the end of tonight. Last night I got a fair bit of the donkey work done, didn't do much else though.

Got my first draft done, it's getting there. Taking a break now. Tomorrow night I'll polish leaving Tuesday night to do the final licks and checks. New Ck OS changes from 17% to 41% free. Groovy.

Lovely day but I'm waiting in for lino man. Pat in bed after nightshift. Hopefully this evening I can start repopulating the library, get the shelves in and CDs/books.

Will continue with review later, see if I can get any decent sounds out of that thing. And Cirklon 050e adds pattern rotate, which should help a lot in Scene switching. That just leaves instrument def level CCs as the main thing I really need pre-gig.

The sky sure is blue but there's nothing I can do.

Started new tune last night, getting easier to work with Cirklon but still some rough edges and bits awaiting attention. Think I've sorted some video for gig, hopefully Tim can take some fresh and we can use some of his earlier things too but Steve of Magic Lantern was in touch and can do some nice swirly colourful stuff. Most excellent!

This evening Pat is working again so I'll do more review stuff and sequency stuff. What a life!

Darn, just looked and realised this gig is in Huddersfield. Dunno why I thought it was closer. Ah well. Review keyboard coming next week so gonna try and tidy up the two smaller s/ware reviews so they're out of the way.

New neighbours have moved into that little house and they have two kids. :(

Gig was good, ears still ringing (forgot earplugs). Good to see Harvey again, it's been too long. Must buy Satnav, I'm bloody hopeless in strange places in the dark! Hopeless generally actually, but you knew that of course.

Sent "Far Away" to Liz cos even though it's an odd tune I think it has something. She liked it too and has promised to let me know where I should deploy my energies next. No reviews in so worked a little on the Ethno World 5 review. I have a fair bit of stuff written for that and the other now so could get into shape reasonably quickly if asked. Pottered with Cirklon. I find that removing the JV from the live box was a good thing, have more than enough instruments already so it was a distraction. Could flog it I guess but no hurry, all those expansion cards worth more than the synth.

Still nothing from Tony about my Synthi, will it be ready for gig? I now have two mixer channels free and would dearly love to try Synthi through new Eventide Space pedal, whenever that arrives.

Must push Colin for instrument-level CCs as that, at least, I need for gig for Repeater control. I have compiled yet another TBI, a "me priority" one as usual. Got new PSU and no flickers yet, hope that's solved.

Mice eating poison. Don't feel good about that but has to be done.

Pat's horse OK, made miraculous recovery once at vet's for x-ray. Typical! Still, relief all round.

May try Pascal again today and see what he's up to. Would be good to get together. Starting to feel like playing again.

Gig Saturday, Dave Gurr and Harvey. Looking forward, really must get together with H for music sometime.

Hmmm, must've been busy or just not interested in blogging for a bit. Sunday morning and feeling worse for last night's curry. Have trashed two rooms chasing mice, will continue today. Cirklon making good progress, lots of little bugs found and squashed. Have yet to install the latest OS that arrived at 03:26, Colin burning the midnight oil.

Oh dear, 20 underscores to redo and remove all percussion. Previous instructions were to replace kicks with toms etc. and my last project was done like that. This one I did exactly the same but the goalposts have moved. Ah, the vague and woolly world of working for folks as vague and woolly as me. :)

The three new tracks to Liz all OK, her fave being the one where I basically hold a note for 2 and a half mins. I'm learning, albeit slowly. Paul right, as usual. :)

Wrote a little Monotron Q&A but very generic as the person who asked didn't give any details at all about what he has.

GenoQs are no more, which is a real shame. Mind you I've had a Nemo here for maybe a year and haven't bothered to touch it, lovely though it is to look at. If only they'd listened...

Did a couple of ambient pieces, still not convinced by Epic World and the company are ignoring my basic questions about automation which might give the drones at least a tiny bit of usefulness.

Killed two mice last night, heard them in the kitchen and decided it was time. Felt a little bad but serves the feckers right for chewing my speaker wire. Will have to stop Pat leaving bird seed all over the place as that's where they were living.

Council no longer replying to me, sod 'em.

Hopefully nearing some kind of resolution with council jobsworths as their boss proved just as petty. Have involved the press (good to have contacts) and hopefully the ridiculous situation can be calmed before too many people are terrorised. Will also use this opportunity to point out some of the council shortcomings in this area, such as their repeated failing to fix the "stream flowing over the steep path" anomaly that has been present for years and which the idea to fix always involves simply putting down more tarmac over the path (rather than fitting a diverting pipe as sensible councils would). Jeez, at this rate I'm gonna become a Daily Mail letter writer, pah, wash my mouth out with soap!

Did a couple of ambient ones including "dog day afternoon" but have struggled to fully concentrate on my work this week and ain't finding "Epic World" to be a great source of inspiration. It's all one-note evolving pads and I've never really coped well with those. Trying though.

Bizarre morning. Was just harassed by two jobsworth types wanting to give me a fixed penalty notice for walking my dog off the lead in a disused road. They said it counted as a "public highway" and that this was now a sin. No joke. Anyway, told them where to shove it. Very odd. Must find out when that particular law came in and what the details are. Madness eh?

Installing Epic World now, 7.something dogabytes of stuff. Tiddly pom.

Good day, of the three new tracks 2 are OK, one needed slight tweak (done). Now uploaded a new one (stalker). More tomorrow.

Moved Cirklon into top part of rack where I think it looks better. Dunno whether to keep Lancet in live setup or go all rack/programmed. Adding JV again but surely overkill. Still, no harm it being there except weight.

Started new track "stalker". More dark drama. And there's another, rather odd, ambient one and have started "menace". Good productive night.

Contemplating using Cirklon vertically again but still in the bigger box with Radias lower down. Moving stuff around in flightcases...

Moved bits of the studio around (again). More for the sloping Cirklon access than anything else. It means the JV2080 was dropped from the live set, replaced by the Radias which probably makes sense.

We'll see how I like it now. Sent three tracks for L to listen to.

A better afternoon yesterday. Admit I resorted to Martin's wonderful spacecake but whatever did it, I got a track dredged up from thoughts of childhood that's quite mellow/melodic/ambient and it uses both virtual instruments I have in for review. The result is too long for library but the first half will be ideal with a bit of trimming back (I got carried away with the duduk, you know how that can happen). Might have been inspired by a little bit of online chat first thing; the track is called "rope swing". Paul also thought one of my rambling dark tracks was OK. They don't all have to be classics I guess but I really want to give this library my best stuff...

Chuckled at latest SOS cover and wondered if it was intentional. Bammy thought the same thing. :)

Review came out OK, or at least I'm pleased with it.

Trying to work through my writer's block again today, ordered Epic World and then realised I coulda got it as download. Idiot! Anyway, waiting for Pat to go out which seems to make things easier. Thankfully she's put Holby City off now as its depressing tones seem to eat away at any creativity I might have. Only thing I hate more is Casualty. Lowest Common Denominator shite.

Think calm thoughts. Maybe do something ambient/melodic as the dark stuff is not doing me any good.

Funny day. Lovely walk in the morning then a frustrating afternoon not making progress with the library tracks. Am I trying too hard? The ingredients go in but the result is always overcooked and without flavour. In the evening went to M&T's for a fabulous meal, great night and good company. Now stuffed and contemplating my navel.

Good couple of Cirklon days. Analogue board fitted, some useful OS tweaks including note audition, mixer improvements and chase LED decay removed (the spangliness will return as a user config option or poor Colin will never recover).

Apparently I stink. Last night's naga proved too much for poor Pat who crawled out of bed around half two in the morning to take refuge on the settee. Hey ho.

Most excellent day, I now have the analogue board in my Cirklon (borrowing Colin's breakout box for the next day or so to try it out properly). Also got a few jobs done including finally fixing that LED decay (and removing poor Colin's hard work to go for a retro chase LED effect instead), mixer now has direct access and the store for scene/song seems to work just fine. A few other little details, hope to bag more today. Yay!

Some interesting stuff at NAMM, hoping it means a few choice items come my way. Synth-DIY to book. More curry tonight, I wonder? Poor Pat, she has a lot of patience, bless.

Contemplating the old sloping rack box for Cirklon as vertical ain't great. May also take Radias and leave JV at home, moving the Repeater around into the other case in its place. Will have a fiddle. Radias would be better for electronic/sequencey stuff, could leave SH-101 at home then and maybe slot in the MAM or Freebass, esp the MAM for the MIDI control that Cirklon can do. Maybe that's what I should push for today... :)

I'm sat listening to Mozart's Requiem, sipping a pint of Murphy's and reflecting on my day. It doesn't take much reflecting. At one point, during the cleaning of my studio space, I fell over and hurt my toe. A little later, replacing the vacuum cleaner, I disturbed my bong which was inexplicably still full of water. It fell and broke in half but also splashed my painting-in-progress, which made me a little unhappy that Pat had simply placed the bong on the bookshelf without, at least, emptying the foul water. That I have now done, inadvertently. I'm cleaning up, incidentally, because Colin and Tony are coming tomorrow. There will no doubt be curry but also Cirklon will advance some more and Colin will see how I work and probably sigh a bit.

My toe's aching a bit and as today is our "telly-free" day, I'm now returning to the Vonnegut I'm reading. I notice when I read dear old Kurt that my sentences get short and snappy. He really does inspire me to write more than any other writer. I wonder if that would amuse him? If so, his smile would quickly fade when he sees the number of semicolons I use.

Sent in review this morning along with screen dump. That should be that. No word from Liz but fortunately no hurry from me. Will email her towards the end of the week if still nothing. I've pottered with a few pieces that might become something if needed.

No reply from Picko re: his new track. He's either fuming quietly or doing something else.

Excellent day, surprise delivery this morning of two virtual instruments, one of which is superb. For review too so that's good, keeping me busy.

Not much done today except I did the mini review. Will send tomorrow after a last look. Nothing beyond 046 yet, hope to get an update soon. I expect the man's hard at it, or cursing rack dimensions...

Cirklon days...

Spent a little time tonight, starting to be able to do my mixes properly in Cirklon, hopefully getting better tomorrow. Note audition good and I think Colin now back firmly in coding mode. Excellent!

Gonna chill and watch Men Who Stare At Goats. Has to be my sorta film that!

Good day yesterday, I used the fact I'm between projects to move the studio around (must be spring) so I now have all my live stuff to hand. Seems if I'm to play alone I'll need to take a largeish gearpile, loopers, effects, keyboards. This now includes two main rack cases with the sequencer/Repeater and the JV/Fantom/P25K plus mixer. Stupidly, I forgot to leave a mixer channel for the Synthi and now I have to see if I can double up the Lancet/SH-101 through the Eventide delay and whether that pans them hard left and right, in which case I don't think it'll work. No other aux inputs on that mixer either so will have to rethink, definitely has to be no more than 16 channels or it's getting silly. Really would be daft to take two mixers! Possibly leave the JV out of it?

I have everything in sync (except Repeater, deliberately) - including the arpeggiators on the Virus, V-Synth, sequencer on the SH-101, KP3 looper and delays on both Eventides. I've got rack spaces spare too so still some flexibility for change. Cirklon ain't as perfect where it is compared to the nice angle in my rack but it's OK, will see how I get on. With a core song prepared and all the stuff I have to jam with over the top, should be quite fine for what I intend. Must see how I can improve setup time though as there's a fair bit of connection to do and break-down will take a while...

Pah, I'd forgotten the Fantom's inputs which I can use. Phew!

Sketched a few track ideas but little progress really. Pat stressing over horse but fortunately all seems OK again so I suspect it's time for an evening of indulgence and music. At least I can relax now all is well.

Just had this inspiration, after reading some Jehova Witness guff:

If eating an apple's a sin

You pretty much know you can't win

And with that in mind

I lift my behind

And drop the "good book" in the bin!

or

If eating an apple's a sin

You pretty much know you can't win

The invisible guy

Has loaded the die

So drop his "good book" in the bin!

Got a new softsynth to review - and instantly wondered why they'd want it reviewed yet.

Still nothing much happening with Colin, all too little too slow. I think he needs a work environment as he can't be pro music gear maker and babysitter at the same time. I dunno whether I should nag but that could just add to the pressure without really helping. Don't know what I can do to help...

Pat having a long lie-in this morning.

poem

What is a sin

We know it's not gin.

Control your rocks,

Don't covet that ox.

Your neighbour's wife,

can ruin your life.

Don't worship idols

Though it is rife

What is a sin

but a loss or a win?

The victor writes the history

what he leaves out is a mystery

The common good, a bloodless coup

what he don't like you mustn't do

Freedom hidden, fake free will

it takes just a herb to rouse old Bill

But faced with rape or theft or mugging

expect to see some shoulder shrugging.

Our taxes fund an endless war

They take our cash but what's it for?

Top dogs in pursuit of money

Worldly goods and milk and honey.

Bush, Blair and bankers worship god

He's on their side and their iPod

An ephemeral being, much like a ghost

His face crops up on towels and toast

Spread by missionary zeal

They take a myth and make it real

Plant the seed early if you can

Give me the child I'll shape the man

I left the club because I chose.

The emperor he wears no clothes

Or (v2)

What is a sin

We know it's not gin.

That used to be out

But now it's back in.

So reign in your rocks,

Don't covet an ox

(even a fit one

in suspenders and socks).

Your neighbour's wife,

can ruin your life.

Oh, and don't worship idols

Though the practice is rife

Bush, Blair and bankers all worship god

He resides in their team, their church and iPod

This ephemeral being is much like a ghost

His face crops up often on towels and toast.

Together they maintain a terrible war

Mouthing thanks for the taxes - but what's it all for?

Yes my cynical rants often fail to be funny

Just like these top dogs wagging tails for the money

Spreading their wisdom with missionary zeal

Taking a myth, making it real.

They say: plant the seed early whenever you can

And: give me the child and I'll shape the man

If you're going to believe cos you're plain fucking lazy

Don't come crying to me when you find it's all crazy

Try leaving the club and awake from your doze

Cos the emperor's laughing and wearing no clothes

Where are we? Almost at the end of the CSI stuff, just tidying up the last edits prior to uploading. Then it'll be touting for new work, want to try some other libraries hopefully to spread myself about and get better coverage.

Colin has been quiet for too long so hopefully an update soon. Gig in March and I should start thinking about it in a bit more detail. Well, some detail.