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! :)