Octatrack to go

Someone offered to swap my Octatrack for an Analog Four. Despite investing more time in the Octatrack than anything else in years, I still don't love it even though on a good day it does wondrous things. Perhaps in future I'll have another, when there's manager software to take all the drudgery out of using it. Too slow for me. A4 appeals far more at the moment, especially if I do Finland. Yeah, still waiting someone to confirm but feeling edgy. June tomorrow. 

Hope to get Mini back next week, well go get it. Roof possibly being done, have been covering up, more to do. Upheaval but worth it for peace of mind. 

They gave the wrong time for the electronic music thing so we were 2 hours early. Will try to go next month. Possible jam there on 21st. 

Up to chapter 46 in my polishing. Obviously not giving every chapter a deep shine, some parts possibly will need a third pass but readable on this one for select few. Around 80,000 words and has taken two years, shows I've been busy with other stuff. Not music though, let's get back into that when this dealt with. :)

Happy anniversary me & Pat

Yep, it's 26 years since we did it. As I tell everyone, the best £65 I ever spent. That was for the buffet put on in a pub owned by one of the black belts at our Ju-Jitsu club. Course we were together longer than that but I was in no hurry to tie the knot. A good move on my part though. :)

So I've been organising to have the roof done on the house, which is gonna leave the studio under wraps for a while. Rushing to get as much review work done or started so in theory all I have to do it work on all the texts. Everything in progress except one that bit of software that refuses to authorise. They're working on that right now...

New roof, new garage, jeez gonna be skint!

Still awaiting OT/A4 swap, can't recall what the delay is about, should probably ask.

I started a couple of pieces of music yesterday just to keep my hand in. Neither were amazing but they used a fair few of the new sounds I've been gathering in reviews and although musically dull they sounded classy. Which I suppose is what's required. No time to work much on novel, have sanitised 19 chapters so far and they're reading well, hanging together well. I know there are issues to comb through but should have the momentum to do it. It's time that's the issue. As always.

Glad I didn't get the Finland tickets yet. More are dropping out. Not actually seen one flight confirmed so far and I'd be feeling pretty nervous if I'd shelled out. Otso is probably worrying it'll all fall through, poor lad. If it does I guess I'll be going to Synth DIY after all. Should save the money but what the hell.

Arc playing Liverpool in November. Must go, should be cool.

Another thing to go to is the Electronic Music night in Preston on Friday. Have to get CDs pressed too, Tim did a brilliant cover, back and on-CD print.

a dog with the squits

I awoke to a strange melancholy, the song 'Green Green Grass of Home' playing on a loop as a dream faded. The feeling may have been related to Jasper with a dicky tummy spraying our bedroom with diarrhoea at around 03:30. As this was the second night on the run this happened, I was far from pleased, as you can imagine.

So today I'm back reviewing stuff, or will be after lunch. Did some work yesterday that I've yet to write up but it gave me the excuse to pack off to the pub the for afternoon, which was all rather nice.

Tony has given me his estimate of work on the Mini and I've told him to go ahead. As it has some mods already it'll have oscillator sync and a switch to decide whether modulation is sourced from the regular source of VCO3 or a new wide-range LFO Tony will make for me. The one installed was so naff and limited it's hard to imagine why it was added. The pitch range knob is going to be a mod amount for a hard-wired connection between VCO3 and the filter. This should just about cover all the good stuff of the Prodigy although I doubt the sound will be the same as the oscillators are quite different. Tony also pointed out that one of the three VCOs is a Studio Electronics clone. It's functionally identical but I may replace it at some point along with the wood. We'll see. Given the high price of my battered and modified Odyssey currently on eBay, people will pay silly money even for stuff that's less than perfect.

Still deliberating over the Godwin. May make more sense to get the little Waldorf box for strings as it's very portable, just in case Headshock do any gigs. OT/A4 swap awaiting the guy being ready. Not too worried either way.

Note to self: book Finland you lazy git!

Mini joys

Well it made me very happy, firstly because it arrived in a (quality) flightcase. Secondly because it was in such decent condition - only issue concerns two mods I'd failed to notice (!), one of which adds a pitch bend range, the second adds a dedicated LFO. Unfortunately whoever fitted the mods didn't get them quite right, the LFO mod totally takes VCO3 out as a possible mod source. Worse, the lowest level of mod wheel still produces a small amount of modulation. Tony is going to fix and put in a switch so the mod source can switch back to VCO3 when I want, plus add sync. Since it's been modded, adding two switches won't do it any harm and will make it a better instrument to play (although it's gorgeous already).

Hmmm last night's curry making its presence known! Good to see Tony & Colin, looks like being a scorching day, ramble, ramble. Should I buy a Godwin string synth? Hmmm have bought too much lately.
Roland no reply to my 'odd loop length fail' email, sods.

Must do some work.... however, weather: scorchio!

Waiting almost over...

Or is it? The Minimoog is supposed to be 'here' according to the tracking info - after sitting a week in France. So fingers crossed.

Colin and Tony visiting for a couple of days so anything the Mini needs can be sorted, yay. I predict lots of curry and Pat struggling to breathe, poor thing.

Finished review yesterday, really struggled to write it - not because I didn't like the toys in question but because I kept wanting to go back and play them. Giving me 4 synths is hard cos I'm forever bouncing between them. Would take several months to really do them justice.

The Roland RC-505 looper is an interesting beast. I did a mini review after half an hour which I'll post here so this blog has some potential value (yeah, right):

...has a number of things going for it including 3 hours internal memory, 5 stereo tracks, MIDI sync and independent track lengths. I've only been playing for half an hour or so but so far the sync seems to work.

30 min pros:
99 lots of 5 tracks (up to 3 hr limit)
Can do reverse on the fly
Can record independent track lengths
One-shots too
Can load wavs from USB (not tried yet)
Quite small and very easy to use
Effects handy to have, haven't explored much except to note no dotted delay times

Equally hasty cons:
timestretch is warbly horribleness (and it can't go as far as Repeater)
does not 'decay record' as far as I can tell
no way to bounce tracks
no transposition of tracks except via effects (big shame)
+ some odd behaviour recording 'quirky' numbers of bars, sometimes doesn't drop out of record after specified bars. Still pondering that one...

It's strangely limited in some ways compared to the Repeater and if the recording of different loop lengths really doesn't work then I may not keep it. Roland are an intensely frustrating company sometimes, so near and yet not only missing the mark sometimes, but often missing the entire point. Let's hope there's a solution.

So anyway, best go tidy up ready for visitors. Expect gratuitous Minimoog shots soon.

Oh, Headshock's album 'Tales of Summers Past' came back from mastering sounding superb. Did I tell you that already little blog?

It's all good

Exciting times, the CDR of Headshock's new album is on the way and it sounds fantastic, really. I am also really glad to drop a 5 min track towards the end that Tim confessed he only thought was OK and the difference between a 62 min album you mostly like and a 57 min album you're proud of all the way through is surprisingly profound. Dean kindly said the production was already good and he didn't have to do a lot - but he sure made it sound a lot better than my primitive techniques have achieved in the past.

My Minimoog is being sent tomorrow, I just wrote to beg it be packed with love - memories of that SK20 still haven't gone away. I'm sure the guy know what he's doing and I'm just fussing as usual. 

Sent in a review this morning and making progress with the others I have in hand ready for more stuff to come. I may even get some music written this week using some of the new sounds I reviewed recently - may as well!

What I'd love to do is dig into the novel since it's at that stage I like best: pretty much there apart from the smoothing. What I do is go through it a chapter at a time in order, streamlining the grammar, deleting anything that slows down the pace or gets too explainy or just is laboured or dull. At the same time I'm looking for cheap gags to throw in, vocab to improve, maybe some topping and tailing of chapters, perhaps even - gasp - descriptive passages. It's still acres of dialogue sat on a wafer-thin plot sat on top of a stupidly complex idea that can barely be seen for the fart jokes. Ah, sophistication wherefore art thou?

Today I also filled the punch-man and gave him a short lesson. I'll probably ache tomorrow being old and feeble now so I didn't overdo it.

Should I add a recent pic? I think I'll loook.....

that's Tim's BTW...

A day off, lots happened

OK, lots is pushing it. I got a review in first thing. Did the lawn and the gutters and then didn't go swimming, had a lovely lazy afternoon in the sun with Pat instead. As we were relaxing I dug into FBTE and got the chapters in the order I want, made small tweaks here and there, removed the deleted scenes (as I always do). In the end I have a novel. It still needs a read-through and fine-adjustment, still lots of plain vanilla sections, unadorned bits, general shite but it hangs together. Was 57 chapters not counting the intro, the epilogue and the 3-4 chapters still floating at the end with no actual designation.

Considering whether to let someone read it, someone sympathetic. Carl is usually good but perhaps not critical enough...

Then, as I sat and mused, got email to say our mastered album is ready to audition. Grabbed wav, converted to mp3 and uploading now to dropbox so Tim can check it in France. Meanwhile burning a CD and wondering excitedly. Looks like some tracks are LOUD.

May not have time for recording sesh tomorrow. I need to get that 3/1 review done by tuesday then I can concentrate on the 4/1 - these days of indulgence put me behind, especially with christening Sunday. Only bank holiday can save me... :)

Wotta blast!

 
Hopefully my Minimoog arrives next week. Today two more cropped up, one I'd tried to get before but bloke wouldn't let me come listen. Mine's coming from France so fingers crossed it's well packed. Sigh. Would much rather have come to agreement with guy in Scunthorpe.