OK,GG in this case being Gordon Giltrap. The guy gets better, which really should not be possible. It's been a few years since I saw him but still in awe. Still telling the same jokes too.
Saw a little of Rolling Stones on BBC2, can't say they quite caught my imagination but I'll record it and watch it at my leisure along with all the other footage. Thank heavens for fast forward as my Humax seems to have selectively left out bits of the schedule. I expect I'll be moaning about it gently as and when I get chance to watch.
Review to finish tomorrow, maybe Monday but it's mostly written. Need to start the software one but that's short. Oddly, the company ain't replying any more, since my (usual) 'envelopes' moan. Sigh.
Wondering when the little MS20 is gonna turn up. Also wondering when my theremin is coming back, almost a month since my last message saying it would be on the way, nothing since despite efforts. Weird.
Novel still at a point where I don't want to go too far ahead until I resolve all the background stuff. Made real progress yesterday in two important areas but there's still a blockage to push past so it'll flow freely. A few things have happened and I'm not totally sure why, plus something is about to happen and even I am not sure who's going to be responsible. The more characters I have the more I have to think about each one, even when they're "off camera", which slows everything down. I'm seriously thinking of making the third another first person because they're such a breeze to write. Mind you I just read a PG Wodehouse and I see how the English language should be written.
At the GG gig, no I've not suddenly started stuttering, someone came up and introduced himself. A classmate of mine I haven't seen for, um, about 35 years. He used to play drums, now plays guitar. I remember his saying in latin: whey hey bantissimus suntis estis. Why I remember this I don't know, what it means I don't care. :)
Saturday, 29 June 2013
Tuesday, 25 June 2013
Popular Fiction
Well, the sun continues to shine. The results of this are as follows:
I take some lovely long walks each day.
I sit in the garden a lot.
I don't do a lot of work.
I went to the library though to get some reading material. Came back with a Stephen King, PG Wodehouse and Tom Holt, which I believe could mark me as low-brow. See if I care. :)
This evening I will make more progress on the review I started, fortunately it's not terribly complicated and I've successfully tried out 90% of what it can do already. Phew!
Cashed in a policy that would otherwise mature in 2027 or something stupid like that. No point paying £20 a month when it's making jack anyway. This isn't an indication I'm dying, except in the sense we all are. Rather it's an indication I'm living and intend to have fun while doing it.
This is all I shall write today because I'm heading out into the garden again having secured beer and chocolate. Let's see if there's a half-decent photo from the morning walk shall we...
I was gonna fix the levels on the Jasper one but haven't. Will probably need to isolate the sky and bring up the contrast of the lower section quite a lot. Can't see me bothering, not that good a pic.
I take some lovely long walks each day.
I sit in the garden a lot.
I don't do a lot of work.
I went to the library though to get some reading material. Came back with a Stephen King, PG Wodehouse and Tom Holt, which I believe could mark me as low-brow. See if I care. :)
This evening I will make more progress on the review I started, fortunately it's not terribly complicated and I've successfully tried out 90% of what it can do already. Phew!
Cashed in a policy that would otherwise mature in 2027 or something stupid like that. No point paying £20 a month when it's making jack anyway. This isn't an indication I'm dying, except in the sense we all are. Rather it's an indication I'm living and intend to have fun while doing it.
This is all I shall write today because I'm heading out into the garden again having secured beer and chocolate. Let's see if there's a half-decent photo from the morning walk shall we...
Sunday, 23 June 2013
Back home after a great party
Could have been the best party I ever attended, which is saying something. At a secret location and with invited guests there were some incredible performances, great weather (tiny bit of rain but lots of sun), wonderful people and so nice to have company for the trip too. I could gush but then I'd have to clean it up.
The top photo is the barn where I played, definitely the place I wanted to be. Played early so was able to party later although Oood were meant to be on the main stage so I didn't get a huge audience. Fortunately they started late so I could see their performance - excellent. As were Spacehopper, assuming I remembered their name right, and Akahum, again probably not spelt correctly. Actually, now I look at them, all three of these pix are from the barn. I didn't take many! Didn't party too hard, had planned to on Friday night but some faffing on the main stage scuppered that. Must replace my Behringer mixer - thank heavens for Astrodruid who lent me his Mackie. You meet the absolute best people at these things. Anyway, my set went well - better where it was than at 01:30 where I'd have been in between two full-on DJs! Octatrack only did one weird thing - seemed to be playing the wrong sample, however it's possible I'd accidentally hit Cue on a previous pattern for track 1, routing the signal to the non-connected Cue outputs. I really don't think that slow flash is visible enough for such a vital feature as I've missed it before. Doesn't usually matter as the Xone VF-1 is connected to the thru output then routed right back in so in the studio I'd never noticed. A bit naff how track mutes and cue settings are maintained through the whole project rather than per pattern or at least scene. End of moan. Wish I'd recorded it, some nice spontaneous SH-101 sequences and noodles, at least I thought so.
Julia Bradbury looking lovely on Countryfile today, just thought I'd share that.
Phew, got through the assessment stage. Glad they could read my writing! :)
The top photo is the barn where I played, definitely the place I wanted to be. Played early so was able to party later although Oood were meant to be on the main stage so I didn't get a huge audience. Fortunately they started late so I could see their performance - excellent. As were Spacehopper, assuming I remembered their name right, and Akahum, again probably not spelt correctly. Actually, now I look at them, all three of these pix are from the barn. I didn't take many! Didn't party too hard, had planned to on Friday night but some faffing on the main stage scuppered that. Must replace my Behringer mixer - thank heavens for Astrodruid who lent me his Mackie. You meet the absolute best people at these things. Anyway, my set went well - better where it was than at 01:30 where I'd have been in between two full-on DJs! Octatrack only did one weird thing - seemed to be playing the wrong sample, however it's possible I'd accidentally hit Cue on a previous pattern for track 1, routing the signal to the non-connected Cue outputs. I really don't think that slow flash is visible enough for such a vital feature as I've missed it before. Doesn't usually matter as the Xone VF-1 is connected to the thru output then routed right back in so in the studio I'd never noticed. A bit naff how track mutes and cue settings are maintained through the whole project rather than per pattern or at least scene. End of moan. Wish I'd recorded it, some nice spontaneous SH-101 sequences and noodles, at least I thought so.
Julia Bradbury looking lovely on Countryfile today, just thought I'd share that.
Phew, got through the assessment stage. Glad they could read my writing! :)
Pen and paper, oh no!
Well, today I went for my "pre interview assessment". I think companies can afford to be choosy these days and it makes sense to whittle down the candidates if possible. Good set of questions for suitability for the job too, I'd have been far happier if I didn't have to write all the answers down longhand. My writing is truly appalling and after answering the first question I switched to block capitals. This looked a different kind of ugly but may have been more readable. Anyway, fairly happy with what I put. I also had to do a phone thing and I realised later I missed a couple of details but at least I was concise. Now, we'll see... other folks there seemed nice and good candidates too, so it's in the lap of the dogs.
Just packed up the studio, as usual I'm taking too much gear but too late to rethink. Seriously dude, what's wrong with an Octatrack/A4 combination with a keyboard to play along? Cirklon plus Perfourmer 2 plus delay plus SH-101 plus controller keyboard... madness given it'll be a small space, no soundcheck, probably torrential rain coming in too. Fecking eejit as usual!! Hey ho :)
Here's a picture of Pat on her horse. She's in the distance, if you're wondering. You're not though, are you?
Just packed up the studio, as usual I'm taking too much gear but too late to rethink. Seriously dude, what's wrong with an Octatrack/A4 combination with a keyboard to play along? Cirklon plus Perfourmer 2 plus delay plus SH-101 plus controller keyboard... madness given it'll be a small space, no soundcheck, probably torrential rain coming in too. Fecking eejit as usual!! Hey ho :)
Here's a picture of Pat on her horse. She's in the distance, if you're wondering. You're not though, are you?
Sunday, 16 June 2013
Tickety tock
WTF, how the hell did it get to be the end of June already? Well, almost. Oh, alright we're half-way through but I'm loking at the calendar and thinking this time next week I'll be on the way back from wherever this gig is. In the week I must prepare something as well as prepare for this interview thing.
The new novel is running at 47,000 words give or take. It feels about 2/3 of the way through but it's hard to say - sometimes I sit and write and loads of things come together and click into place. Then I sit again and introduce a whole bunch of new and frankly unexpected events and/or characters. I'm still working on the principle that Hitch Hiker's was most effective when it didn't know where it was going and I can be too. One of my sketchy later chapters will probably change as I'm going off the idea I had for it. I have at last got a very good idea about the Hunt and some of the underlying plot that had been pretty foggy.
Today's picture of Jasper was a lucky one, taken in the grounds of Whittingham Hospital, still all fenced off but rotting and decaying.
The new novel is running at 47,000 words give or take. It feels about 2/3 of the way through but it's hard to say - sometimes I sit and write and loads of things come together and click into place. Then I sit again and introduce a whole bunch of new and frankly unexpected events and/or characters. I'm still working on the principle that Hitch Hiker's was most effective when it didn't know where it was going and I can be too. One of my sketchy later chapters will probably change as I'm going off the idea I had for it. I have at last got a very good idea about the Hunt and some of the underlying plot that had been pretty foggy.
Today's picture of Jasper was a lucky one, taken in the grounds of Whittingham Hospital, still all fenced off but rotting and decaying.
Friday, 14 June 2013
A warm but wet Friday
I created an author page on Amazon and rattled off a biography, which I should, but probably won't, revisit sometime. This is it, prepare to be underwhelmed. In it I mention the existence of this blog, which could prove to be a mistake given the shite I tend to write in it. Probably not ideal for attracting folks to my stoner prose. Ah well. Oh, I said "this is it"...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00DD620OW
Today I did very little, again. Couldn't start review as I don't have an iLok dongle - hope to get one sorted. Also no point starting the other review - just not enough in there to warrant the words, makes me wonder whether some things are developed entirely in a vacuum.
Still looking for a cool little analogue synth with a MIDI out so I can use it with Cirklon. Best bet could be getting Colin to work his magic on my SH-101 but perhaps now he has an MS20 mini there's a chance there. The Minibrute would've been OK if it had a longer keyboard although I'm not mad keen on the square shape. Other option was Alesis Micron but I think editing it would drive me mad. New Cirklon OS installed, some tweaks to Ck edit but for me still not a delight to use. Managed to kill all the rogue volume events thanks to Colin and his useful diagnostic page. Cirklon and Octatrack becoming a slick little rig, add Proteus and Perfourmer and a keyboard as an input device and I'm sorted for the gig next weekend. Can do it all spontaneously enough - not going to plan it, have a few long static samples I can kick off anytime if I want some relaxing time. Must find out where it is!
Today I got to the end of my second volume of Calvin and Hobbes. One more to read, chuckle with, reflect on and marvel at. Looks like a weekend with no actual work/deadlines again. I'll cope somehow. :)
Pat's cooking the lamb I was given for returning that dog. It smells amazing. I'm a vegetarian in principle but my principles are so damn flexible they're more like goals really, something to aim vaguely at (if I understand the principles correctly) but not be a slave to. Or was that morals?
Obviously a quiet day given this wordy entry. I should post a photo or something. Here you go. It was one of the ideas for the Bogus Focus cover.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00DD620OW
Today I did very little, again. Couldn't start review as I don't have an iLok dongle - hope to get one sorted. Also no point starting the other review - just not enough in there to warrant the words, makes me wonder whether some things are developed entirely in a vacuum.
Still looking for a cool little analogue synth with a MIDI out so I can use it with Cirklon. Best bet could be getting Colin to work his magic on my SH-101 but perhaps now he has an MS20 mini there's a chance there. The Minibrute would've been OK if it had a longer keyboard although I'm not mad keen on the square shape. Other option was Alesis Micron but I think editing it would drive me mad. New Cirklon OS installed, some tweaks to Ck edit but for me still not a delight to use. Managed to kill all the rogue volume events thanks to Colin and his useful diagnostic page. Cirklon and Octatrack becoming a slick little rig, add Proteus and Perfourmer and a keyboard as an input device and I'm sorted for the gig next weekend. Can do it all spontaneously enough - not going to plan it, have a few long static samples I can kick off anytime if I want some relaxing time. Must find out where it is!
Today I got to the end of my second volume of Calvin and Hobbes. One more to read, chuckle with, reflect on and marvel at. Looks like a weekend with no actual work/deadlines again. I'll cope somehow. :)
Pat's cooking the lamb I was given for returning that dog. It smells amazing. I'm a vegetarian in principle but my principles are so damn flexible they're more like goals really, something to aim vaguely at (if I understand the principles correctly) but not be a slave to. Or was that morals?
Obviously a quiet day given this wordy entry. I should post a photo or something. Here you go. It was one of the ideas for the Bogus Focus cover.
Monday, 10 June 2013
Iain Banks RIP
Although we never met and exchanged only a handful of emails over the years, Iain Banks was the kind of author who seemed to speak to you from in between the lines of his novels. It was great that he enjoyed JIC's Excession and took time to share tales of his own music-making. Whatever I write about the man is inadequate, therefore I shall raise a glass to my favourite living author, somehow living no more. Time to dip into one of his books again. The only question: Culture or not?
Funnily enough I finished the 5-volume Hitch Hiker's recently and realised, amazingly, that I wasn't madly impressed by the last two books. I'm still trying to understand exactly why they didn't work - and a rambling dissertation here wouldn't be of any value to anyone so I'll just keep musing.
It's sunny again. Weather due to change so for now it's back to the garden. Worked on a cool 32-bar loop last night using some samples I found plus the new review thing. Woke up with a headache and a resolution not to buy any more beer today, sun or no. Will try and write review tonight, it's only 500 words and I know the thing pretty well now so should be able to do it off top of my head (always best).
Garden, here I come!
As there are so many pix of synths on the net, here's another shot of my dog Jasper.
Funnily enough I finished the 5-volume Hitch Hiker's recently and realised, amazingly, that I wasn't madly impressed by the last two books. I'm still trying to understand exactly why they didn't work - and a rambling dissertation here wouldn't be of any value to anyone so I'll just keep musing.
It's sunny again. Weather due to change so for now it's back to the garden. Worked on a cool 32-bar loop last night using some samples I found plus the new review thing. Woke up with a headache and a resolution not to buy any more beer today, sun or no. Will try and write review tonight, it's only 500 words and I know the thing pretty well now so should be able to do it off top of my head (always best).
Garden, here I come!
As there are so many pix of synths on the net, here's another shot of my dog Jasper.
Friday, 7 June 2013
More sun worship
OK, could be the weather or it could be the fact I had little scheduled work but last week was awesome. Hardly dare tell Pat what a brill time I had alone - wouldn't want it permanently though! Nice having her back jabbering away at me.
Got more time on the Arturia Minibrute as Tim left his. It's an odd beast, wondering if the decay is linear cos it really isn't suitable for the kind of blippy sequence stuff I like to do. Seems to have some fairly small sweet spots for certain types of sounds with the bi-polar depth knobs actually a bit naff. One full range modulation far better and personally I never use inverse polarity on envelope mod anyway, never found it as useful as just modifying the envelope as you play. The filter only seems to work properly if you keep its modulation sources to the absolute minimum. The 200% keytracking is one knob with more scaling than necessary so I've found keeping that to nil seems best. Still, can't deny some interesting sounds - sounds that occasionally hint MS20 in its scratchy, gnarliness. Yeah, longer keyboard and I might have been interested myself. Lots of good interfacing, well made, well laid-out and a great size. Stupid velocity routing only done in software though! Nice to see a new analogue that actually is new and sounds different, good on them!
I should probably drink less beer next week.
Bloody police helicopter is out early this morning. They have a never-ending supply of fuel for that thing supplied by the tax payer.
May do some music today if Tim fancies it. Happy to bask in the sun though. My prep for Gareth's party has been, er, nil. So it really will be made up and messy. Hey ho. Will see if Pasc also playing, maybe we can share travel costs.
Later - rescued a dog lost on the moors (what a hero), now listening to Tomorrow's Harvest. Enjoying it too, although I could enjoy most things in this sunshine. Still it's sounding very good indeed with all those little ingredients I enjoy so much. Sounds like something a little further down the road from a point that started with Cluster and which, IMHO, goes through Headshock, FSOL and maybe Black Dog. I really think we should send a Headshock CD to Warp. Would put it on the "to do" list if I had one.
Nelson Mandela. How old can he be before people stop panicking each time he's ready to conk out? Seems really strange how anxious the media are getting over a very frail, very old man. Almost feels like a manufactured drama.
Here's a picture I took yesterday or the day before.
Got more time on the Arturia Minibrute as Tim left his. It's an odd beast, wondering if the decay is linear cos it really isn't suitable for the kind of blippy sequence stuff I like to do. Seems to have some fairly small sweet spots for certain types of sounds with the bi-polar depth knobs actually a bit naff. One full range modulation far better and personally I never use inverse polarity on envelope mod anyway, never found it as useful as just modifying the envelope as you play. The filter only seems to work properly if you keep its modulation sources to the absolute minimum. The 200% keytracking is one knob with more scaling than necessary so I've found keeping that to nil seems best. Still, can't deny some interesting sounds - sounds that occasionally hint MS20 in its scratchy, gnarliness. Yeah, longer keyboard and I might have been interested myself. Lots of good interfacing, well made, well laid-out and a great size. Stupid velocity routing only done in software though! Nice to see a new analogue that actually is new and sounds different, good on them!
I should probably drink less beer next week.
Bloody police helicopter is out early this morning. They have a never-ending supply of fuel for that thing supplied by the tax payer.
May do some music today if Tim fancies it. Happy to bask in the sun though. My prep for Gareth's party has been, er, nil. So it really will be made up and messy. Hey ho. Will see if Pasc also playing, maybe we can share travel costs.
Later - rescued a dog lost on the moors (what a hero), now listening to Tomorrow's Harvest. Enjoying it too, although I could enjoy most things in this sunshine. Still it's sounding very good indeed with all those little ingredients I enjoy so much. Sounds like something a little further down the road from a point that started with Cluster and which, IMHO, goes through Headshock, FSOL and maybe Black Dog. I really think we should send a Headshock CD to Warp. Would put it on the "to do" list if I had one.
Nelson Mandela. How old can he be before people stop panicking each time he's ready to conk out? Seems really strange how anxious the media are getting over a very frail, very old man. Almost feels like a manufactured drama.
Here's a picture I took yesterday or the day before.
Monday, 3 June 2013
A week of freedom!
Yes, posted Pat and Dawn at Liverpool airport this morning and had a blissful day in the sun myself. I had plans for quite a bit of work this week but if the sun continues, those plans might slip.
The most sophisticated choice I made today was to have rice with the curry I made. Sadly it was a bit bland, I never went out to get stuff so improvised a bit. Tasty though, I had lots of garlic and cumin.
Had a great idea for a character for the novel, have been toying with it but I'm wary of having too many. We'll see if it flows when I start to write later, after some more beers and some shortbread. May not get into studio or start review or owt much.
Should really play with new OT effects some more. Didn't even bother with spatializer, for example. I did kinda realise I could almost cope without a mixer and delay if I used the OT more for external processing of the Perfourmer and Proteus. Of course if I ever decide exactly how I'm going to use that thing the universe will probably wink out of existence to be replaced by something equally improbable. No prizes for guessing what I've been reading today.
Bless this little frog spotted in our pond today
The most sophisticated choice I made today was to have rice with the curry I made. Sadly it was a bit bland, I never went out to get stuff so improvised a bit. Tasty though, I had lots of garlic and cumin.
Had a great idea for a character for the novel, have been toying with it but I'm wary of having too many. We'll see if it flows when I start to write later, after some more beers and some shortbread. May not get into studio or start review or owt much.
Should really play with new OT effects some more. Didn't even bother with spatializer, for example. I did kinda realise I could almost cope without a mixer and delay if I used the OT more for external processing of the Perfourmer and Proteus. Of course if I ever decide exactly how I'm going to use that thing the universe will probably wink out of existence to be replaced by something equally improbable. No prizes for guessing what I've been reading today.
Bless this little frog spotted in our pond today
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