Heh

What a surprise, Elektron user forum broken again. Could have been a logic error this time generated when someone called me "sensible". Another night alone, Pat working. Will try to do something useful, little app review, that sample lib review I've been putting off due to underwhelmment. I'm being told I made up that word but still I don't care. Could work on the novel, need to fight the inertia...can I even be bothered to mark this day by pressing the "publish" button? Realistically, is it of any value to myself or anyone else? Yes, yes, we all know the answer. Fukit.

Still feel like shit

Think I'm coming to the end of it though. Had to get up in the night to change my t-shirt as it was ringing with sweat. Poor Pat! Studio is still a pile of boxes and flightcases, have not sent off review as still waiting for reply despite raising two problem records and talking directly to the new Communication Officer who has passed me to the Project Manager. Sigh.

Seriously wondering whether France next year is gonna be a good idea if this is the impact it has on me afterwards. Really must get out more, must start to gather more germs rather than do it big-style once or twice a year. Either that or stay in forever! I think my wheelie bin goes out more than I do.

New theremin on the way. Old one on the way too - to France.

This is basically all I have to say today. It's raining too - Pat's taken Jasper out for me and, despite only getting up at 10:00, I'm fighting the urge to return to bed. Let's hope I never get really ill, I find it incredibly frustrating not to be able to do stuff.

Mag arrived, new theremin too. Must go and start sorting studio later. Not sure I fancy an MS20 mini as much now if the knobs are a bit naff and the jacks not so good. Mind you they're the same jacks as all the eurorack stuff. Confused. May just blow my cash on the entire Volca range. :)

New theremin arrived. Didn't make it into the studio but did have good chat with developer about my review and sorted a few things. Phew!

Sniff

Another day of snotting up hagfish slime, my eyes like plum tomatoes. Hope I feel better tomorrow. Finally listened to the remaster of Tree & Lead, had forgotten how long it was! Not bad though considering its date of 1981. Harv rang to see if I had a van for the weekend, he's doing a gig in Derbyshire. Don't think my hatchback would suffice though,

Heard some of the mad results of the weekend. Spent a fair bit of time in bed. No response from my queries so review will have to go as is. Thierry offered to sort my theremin so will send tomorrow. Ordered the little theremin.

http://soundcloud.com/sonic-weekend/phantom-hand-ii

https://soundcloud.com/sonic-weekend/charles-bonnet

Knackered after brilliant Sonic Weekend

I admit it, I'm getting too old for the very late finishes and gallons of alcohol. Had a fab time though even if I seem to be coming down with something nasty today. Looks like something is wrong with my theremin which is good in a way cos I can chase that up. Played some good stuff, I think we recorded a few masterpieces and made some good new friends. Just wanna sleep for a week or two to recover...

those pix are as good a way of summing up the weekend as any :)

also got Headshock gig recording (it's good, phew!) and Tim has finished the video, bless him! I think he may have forgotten to make it freely downloadable but hopefully that can be sorted.

It's here
Headshock Explorers

HS - some pix

So today I put everything back and Colin sorted the Scene chain play mode. All looking good. Need to use JSON to convert all my scenes to songs, hope it's easy but expect it will be faffy. Good day, lots of great pix from the gig and good feedback, worked on review and I like what I've written. Agreed to do SW10 in France, I know, I know, but it's dedicated to the works of Iain Banks so how could I refuse? I should write to him and tell him what we're doing, know he'd be chuffed that his stuff reached us. Wonder what else I agreed to today? Seem to think there's something...

Going to  confine octatrack to weird noises and ambient, static stuff. It's just fucking impossible to ever know what all its tracks and scenes are for every part so I'll reign it in for a bit, let it expand again later. Have I ever struggled to love any device so much? But I'm determined to prove it's worth it, no matter how inscrutable it is!

A gig of randomness and delight

OK, I overran. Didn't dare to slip into Song mode because I wasn't sure I'd saved all the scene status as Man again after trying out the new scene chain test OS. Therefore I had no idea of total played time and when the end of the film came we were miles off the one place we'd planned. In future either ditch all plans or, well.. :)

A few interesting challenges, not least fitting everything into the car on the way home. Scenes as songs is no good though the way Cirklon is now. I struggled to relate the on-screen two columns of scenes to the 16 lit buttons, I think the selected scene should be inverse video on-screen so I have a better idea of where it is. So I selected a few scenes that were totally wrong - sometimes with interesting results. I'm using the word "interesting" a lot, I note.

The vid looked great, what I saw of it. Was hard to hear ourselves clearly and I think Tim struggled too. I filled in, inevitably adding sequences. Often I'd turned the Octatrack down on the mixer but forgot - having to go to the mixer for that one device is shite, frankly when it has a totally unused "volume" knob sitting there.  I'm having a pine for P3/ESX-1 simplicity today.

Got into bed just before two, very tired but content.

OK, last practice before tomorrow's gig

I shouldn't really call it a practice though. Yesterday we set up the mixers how they'll be and finally compiled the DVD. I'm still tempted to re-render and make it smooth and seamless rather than 3 joined parts but we'll see. It works as is despite Tim's being not quite what he hoped (either not enough or too many Cybermen, I can't remember). I think it looks great.

Interesting how gigs increase music sales - sold 6 albums yesterday, three of which were the live solo gig I did. Also got my PRS, showing most of my money comes from channel 5. That's something I have to tackle next week, put together a better showreel and hit De Wolfe again.

The German guy putting out the old stuff on vinyl has discovered 1981's Tree & Leaf. He likes a lot and wants to get it cleaned up and reissued on CD. Which is nice.

Have been laying off the smokes. Don't think that bong is helping my throat.

Right, time to do something. Frustratingly, I have a pile of new ideas for the Eternity Program but no time to write them down.

Excellent day. Decided on a start piece and an end piece and the rest we'll make up. Recorded a few things just to test the new mixer setup and sounded fine. In fact a few new, cool things made up that I think we're gonna really like. Will be different tomorrow though as a fair bit of sh101 sequencer. Could easily use just two of those instead of cirklon and Perfourmer, wild idea but like the old days when I did just that.

Mellowed out again, over my spoilt brat, insecure phase and back in the appreciating what I've got phase where I'm most comfortable. So what if I'm lowly, I'm a happy lowly! :)

Phew, hate it when I'm miserable so decided not to be. Today there's a new Cirklon OS to play with, I went on the roof to potter with the wobbly aerial, I booked my car in for two new tyres, I rendered the video again with extra scenes and less pratting about.

I should now turn my attention to those tracks I planned to fix and make some progress with the one review I have outstanding. Easy one though so just a matter of time and discipline.

Correction, wound up again. Gig Saturday and my Prodigy throws a sickie! Nasty distortion, suspect main volume pot and dearly hope I can get it sorted in time. Bloody typical! Please let that be it for the month, please, OK? This is why I want good new synths, practically all the Prodigy really needs replacing.
I look around my classics though and I ask myself: how many would have been better with a 2 octave keyboard???

Answer: fucking none of them!



I think my film is gonna be OK. Made it simple, didn't overcook. Enough amazing visuals - that's why I chose it after all!

Korg - wow can those be real. Glad I realised I was being a nob rather than whining.

Afternoon - disaster Prodigy making distorted noise. Suspect main volume pot. Intermittent though. May have to visit Tony before gig. :( Or borrow Tony B's Prod, would miss my mods too much now).

Later, after Tim came Prodigy had behaved. Tim's new synth wicked - put through Digisound filter and even better. Not used that thing for too long. Note to self. Didn't mean to drink/smoke again tonight, not getting work done. Doing the one review I have now, for an hour or so. Planned gig shape. Follows classic symphony actually, maybe a Mahler with the whole brooding gradually growing thing going on in the middle. Right boy, work!

Ahem, pretty sure there was something important I'd planned to write down. Braindump instead. Work!

Wow, quite a day. My 1980-85 vinyl cover looks fab. Some changes to text but very impressed. The 7" will have a best of T&L also, real shame I never found those other tapes. A  feeling there's better material still unused, story of my life though that heh. Guy doing the covers sounds like a sound bloke, or as stoned as me. :)

Arse Feck

Today I am pissed off. Some you lose but this one, well, nowt I can do so move on.

Cheered myself up with a nice curry, working on V2 of Die Nibelung which is taking shape the more I look at it. With more time it might even have been good.

Didn't do owt else though. Curry didn't cheer me up that much! Everyone is crowing about Margaret Thatcher in a way I don't really like. Not from the love and peace generation. I dunno, seems to me that hate is a sword without a handle. If you use it you have to grasp the blade you're using against others. And that after but a single bottle of San Miguel.

So April hasn't started well. Wonder what else it has to throw at me? Possibly a seriously stupid question to dare to ask but on a day I'm struggling with my own mundanity, I'll go with it recklessly.

night in...

Didn't go to System 7 last night after all, the man wasn't so good and I think his other pals might've cried off too. Don't mind not going but was a waste of money and I coulda gone to Hawkwind after all, just didn't feel like doing both. Hey ho. Made some music with Tim, which was ace fun as usual, may try and get some padding footage tonight from Fritz Lang, recorded from the phone then messed with in Movie Studio. Won't be as class as "the film" but will be suitably atmospheric. 

Dr Who was a bit naff. I think he'd be unable to do anything at all without his sonic screwdriver now, was he always such a one tool wonder? Not the best story ever but hey I don't wanna be a complainer. Oops too late.

Ugh

A cold Friday, a PRS day, sent off review started in 2011. Afternoon was an Octatrack one, made more Cirklon requests and felt bad cos how many things have I asked for in the last three years? One solution for a different type of gig would be saving song in cirklon as a "version", so HS2 and HS1 existing in parallel. Keeping the first two chars consistent I should be able to make projects and songs with those numbers that play together in any combination, say HS1(Ck) with HS3 (OT).
If Colin ever adds the tempo change between scenes thing then that will be even better, plus if he allows a "ignore stored tempo" as a song playback option, well better again. My set is scalable now though from OT by itself right up to the whole studio and owt in between. Spent a lot of time with a dubbly bass, a long synthi sample, a single drum loop with different delays today, a sure sign it was an old-style friday afternoon.

No reason for that picture, just thought these blogs getting really dull and pointless. It's worse than a bloody diary and has less in. Ludicrous. Not going to Hawkwind tonight, lazy I know but can't be arsed. Sorta wish I wasn't going to System 7 tomorrow but such is life...

BDABR

Got the awful news about Iain Banks today, absolutely gutted. Wrote him a quick note and was humbled to get a reply. He's gonna see exotic places and buy a big fast car - good luck to him!

Doesn't seem worth writing anything else. Oh, I recorded a dream memory thing for a project of Dean's. Not sure he'll use it cos my dream wasn't that exciting and my voice is a bit rubbish.

Otherwise worked on review. Tim updated our website with interview text.

Headshock