Music doing well, the Vietnamese tracks I did are being aired on Thursday, Ch5 at 21:00
http://www.channel5.com/shows/extraordinary-people/episodes/the-baby-with-a-new-face-extraordinary-people

So that's good. Spent the day with the drum machine today. Think I've sussed it all without the manual but will have to read it to verify a few things. Should be able to start writing soon. Sorted the Logic end - basically it is 32 bit only and didn't even show up in my Logic until I started it in 32 bit mode. Then when I went back to 64 bit it showed up via the bridge. Support guy was on my Mac 2 hours before it dawned on me what the problem was.
Need to write more music. Not keep faffing aimlessly. Still, novel making progress of sorts although it's straining to go in a direction I hadn't planned.

Phew, didn't flood but I left the sandbags over the gate for now. Pat off tomorrow for a week so should get plenty done. Horse duties but shouldn't be too bad.

Wrote most of the app review I have to do, a hundred or so words still to trim off but should be fine. Started the drum machine review also, will progress as the week goes along. Hope to also get lots of the novel done, prepare gig for Awakenings and write some orchestral stuff. Have set the Humax to record the ch5 program with my music in, better than listening on a laptop. :)

Probably won't take Octatrack to Awakenings. Most of what it does suits dance/festivals so I'll use the Perfourmer 2 I think. Must check whether Synthi really is sick. Cirklon's individual song load/save working well, will be able to grab some older material never properly performed/recorded.

Less good today. Rained, rained then rained some more. We have some sandbags and the drains are backing up. I worked on the app review and played with Albion, which sounds fabulous although I am going to learn how to use it just as I did with Solo strings.

I made a nice chilli and Pat and I took Jasper for a walk in the rain. Didn't do a lot. Not really looking forward to my stint horse-managing next week but will do my best. Just hope the weather improves.

Cracking day

Learned that some of my stuff has been used in channel 5's programmes about serial killers
http://www.channel5.com/shows/killers-behind-bars/episodes/peter-tobin
(for example), got an email telling me which made my day.

SO much that I decided to order Spitfire strings, over £400 including £70 VAT. Have to keep working hard.

So I moved my Sherman Rodec Restyler over from the Mac, connected it to the Cue outputs of the Octatrack, routed its output back to ins A/B and started to experiment. Initially great results but then I noticed the mix wasn't right as I progressed my songs through their scenes. I use up to 14 scenes in most songs and these control the mix transitions as well as effect changes and other stuff. It turns out that when I code XLV of Min in a Scene, this is ignored if sent to a Cue output. Tried the Studio setting but you can't set the levels of each output per scene either. Doh! Asked on forum but no replies.

Next: very disappointed with Elektron's response.
Asked why the Cue output does not honour scene XLV automation and was told it was due to DJ-style performance and headphone use (!)*. Apparently you're supposed to cue stuff up in headphones before introducing it. Fair enough but is that the only way to use it??? I begged them to consider musicians too and allow a personalise option "honour all the effort I put into scene level programming". The only option they suggested was using XVOL which alas I can't because I've already used this programming volumes for my 25 songs.

* IMHO someone sat on stage wearing headphones is disconnected from the audience just like gazing into a laptop. I know we're all different but...

I dearly hope they will reconsider. Never have I come across a company that thinks so completely differently to me and appears unsympathetic to other views. Views that keep consistency with existing functionality but would make such a difference to me. The last time was when I tried to explain to a German company how classic arpeggiators work or to a softsynth company about the function of the capacitor in an analogue envelope.

I've gone off the idea of writing an updated review about all the extras added until now. Anyway, got a new drum machine in and a quick app review to do.

Sweet Changa

Glade was awesome, really hope I can get there next year and perhaps be officially on the bill. My set was just under 4 hours followed by some CDs when they told us to turn it off, then later changed their mind after I'd packed my synths up! Best part was having some lovely young thing climb on stage and do her best to persuade me to turn it up. A real shame they told the previous DJ to blast it out then told me to turn it down and be ambient. Talk about being hamstrung! The place was heaving and I had plenty of grooves but had to hold them back - frustrating! Still, sounded and felt good. The rest of the party excellent too!

Didn't sleep a wink. Ah well, like a zombie I'll follow my satnav to Glade and maybe get some sleep this afternoon in my tent. Yeah, right!
Weather looks OK.

Well well, should maybe have done a last minute practice but no point stressing now :)
Gear packed, a few spare leads etc. to gather and other useful things. Then to find my tent, sleeping bag, get some supplies and check car air pressure. Discovered Glade opens at lunchtime so chances are it might be bloody busy when I arrive and maybe lots of people listening when I do my lengthy, doomy set. Note to self: do some cheery material!
Now to find a few CDs to play to break it up a little. Some JIC/Headshock and anything else I can find I guess. I'm no DJ so I'll keep it just to things I know... wonder if there will be noise restrictions?

Good day's work, reckon I have about 25 songs now, most with two or three sub-songs - so a collection of ambient weirdness, prepared tracks (including some reworked library tracks) and sequencer stuff, all intechangeable and very messable.
Have to copy the Octatrack card tomorrow. Then test. Have to do that the long way for some reason - copying the samples and project stuff manually always results in card errors. Bloody thing! It's almost 14Gb now I think.Discovered a fair few Cirklon bugs, I am pretty sure related to the restore I did. Had more cool ideas, I think, for streamlining performance. Got msg from J, seems I have no worries about light and there will be food also. Excellent. Whatever the weather, will do me best!

Must check about recording.
Provis gear:
Seq box (Cirklon, Radias, RX1202, P2K), Octatrack, Prodigy, Timefactor, iPad, Monotron Delay.
Will the Octatrack fit on my mini-easel?

Glade Prep

Spent last night going through all my Cirklon songs and making sure none of them have the Octatrack try to play on the first beat. Eventually Colin's gonna add a programmable offset for sending prog changes that will get round this. For now, I can jump from song to song without stopping and still trigger the correct samples. In theory. Yes, I know the whole ambient bridge thing might be a little formulaic but needs must and all that! I'll make it a feature!

So the only thing stopping me playing "forever" would be a hostile audience armed with pitch forks. I'm hoping they'll be chemically calmed and into the idea of hours of meandering sequences instead... probably too late to write new stuff, especially as going out for a curry tonight. May get time for a run-through tomorrow evening - some of these things are mere sketches to be developed live. Oh the humanity!


Really, really wish that Octatrack did not silence samples that are already playing when a MIDI start is received. A total pain for ambient bridges is that. Similarly, if you're using Ext sync, it would be great to be able to send MIDI stop but have samples continue to play. You still have the onboard Octatrack stop button if you need it plus individual track stops. I think I need to convince Elektron of a few things but I don't think they do a lot of Ext sync, as evidenced by the recent Looper. If they had Cirklons they'd get it. :)

Worked on my latest chilled/house/lifestyle album for Abs today. A bit of a drag doing all the 48kHz stuff (cos Logic can't remember in between bounces that's what you want) and the various edits. But I've made a good start, even contemplated adding a couple more tracks but will settle for the dozen I have. They go well together I think and should be OK for holiday/travel type progs too. Have compiled some metadata and all I need to do is write some album notes, tempii etc.
Did 10 tracks out of 12, some of the ones I've done may need further tweaks but I prefer to plough on fast and fix later.

Would rather be playing but such is life. Colin working hard too, hopefully cracking the final tough hurdle so it'll be on to the good stuff at last!

Good day. Well, worked on some details of the two short reviews I'm writing, dropped a line to someone about another article and got the news that one of my tracks was used on a channel 5 program "10 things I hate", which I unfortunately missed. Seems like progress, obviously need lots more but it's cheered me up.

Did another piece for Glade today, just some basic beats and ambience to be made into something, hopefully. Used a long synthi static sample plus a library piece that blends in for a couple of minutes of normality before I slide it out again as if it never happened.

Well well a good evening because I have a new "song" to play which is actually two headshock songs but joined together using Octatrack. Very, very pleased with what I'm doing with the two of them at the moment. Big love!
http://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/rumping-excerpt

it actually can last forever and nearly did...

Fantastic family wedding yesterday, couldn't have been better. Saw some family members I hadn't seen for years and years. Feeling a little delicate today so cooking myself a vindaloo for tea.

Asked what to be billed as for Glade, didn't realise I'd be mentioned anywhere. Settled for smokyfrog and now thinking of maybe taking a keyboard of some sort, Virus maybe, just so I have some way of jamming along. Aiming to play from thursday midnight until friday 6am with CDs to play whenever I run out of steam. Won't be able to do much if it's too light as can't see LEDs etc. Was gonna mainly wing it but now thinking of possibly preparing a bit more. Time permitting.

Lots of royal shit on telly today. We're all to celebrate queen not being dead or something. Old people seem to like this stuff though so no room for my cynicism. If they were a bit less into the cruelty and bloodsports I might be able to stomach giving 'em forty million quid a year to sit on, or whatever...

This evening continued to go through my songs, trimming here, pruning there.
http://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/letgo-improv
I think I need more Synthi - loops and noises. Aim to make each of the songs I have last 30 mins (do-able). Hey ho!

Swapped my old Proteus for the new one. It seems to run cooler and its screen is dimmer but I can live with that. Had to upgrade the OS and transmit my patches over then, interestingly, had to swap the rack ears because my screws wouldn't go through the holes on the new ones.
All running well though. No actual work done except a small amount of song tweaking. A bit of a pointless week it has to be said. But hey!

Had fun playing the Prodigy, still haven't calibrated the theremin. Getting Dave's Arturia thing as he bought another version. Hope there's no faffing about getting the reg transferred, I remember Paul's hassle with them.

Considering which keyboard to gig with this year. I think if I could get MIDI out on the Prodigy I'd take that. Don't think Colin will have time though.