Stressful grey limbo day

Got ourselves worked up about a lump on Pat's back and the day dragged until the x-ray results came back. Had to push it through, practically demanded to see the doc and finally all was well. Past history made us jumpy but yet another example of us counting our blessings. Getting soft in my old age. Couldn't write a word but did get some great answers back on a review I can probably finish in the next session, once I confirm the answers and try a few suggestions. Drank beer in the evening that I'd been saving for weekend. Felt justified.

Watched some mindless footie while making patches and sequences. This is me doing it in my Angry Bird pants:

Tomorrow I go see Tony and get my Minimoog, Poly800 and Radias back. So that's cool. Have considered selling the Radias, might regret it though. It's still a fab thing, that and a P3 a perfect pair, even better-sounding than the KS. The A4 has the analogue lushness but the Radias has multiple synthesis technologies...

Will take Tim's Vermona drum machine to be fixed and also his alphajuno programmer.

Sun, Synths, small amount of work

Yes, another glorious day. Programmed some new sounds and patterns on the A4, really starting to appreciate the fact that I can have so much stored and ready to go in there. Working to make some meaningful performances for each kit, doing variation kits with a few subtly different kits to apply to the same patterns - thinking that a command to instantly assign kits to multiple patterns would be quite nice. Also still think the pattern copy process needs to be slicked up, it's just too long-winded given you must switch to the right pattern swap mode before doing it every time. Kills the spontaneity. Made a couple of Moog Modular type patches, the envelopes are pretty good but I'm not 100% there. Close enough for now though.

Also forced myself to work on review, cracked on with one I've held off for a while. Could do more but the sun is so lovely and I'm re-reading David Gemmell's Troy series, starting to think that might even be his best. Such a loss, had hoped he'd be writing new stuff for years to come.

Someone sent me recordings of stuff I did at UK Eletronica 1984. Sounds like I played everything with extra sugar in those days, really quite cringeworthy.

Hot but productive day

Studio quite muggy but spent all afternoon with A4 making patches, kits and starting to make patterns. Pretty staggered by its capacity even though I had a heart-stopping moment saving the project I was working on and it renamed it to 'new' as if it'd been wiped. No idea why it would do that but anyway, nothing seemed lost. Bloody UNDO doesn't work in external sync, jeez those guys are need a kick sometimes. I have to keep saving patterns but I guess it's a good routine to get into.

The review synth grew on me a bit. Which is a relief, I so hate it when I fail to find cool things.

Seems I'll be able to borrow a Studiologic Sledge for Finland. So basically that, the A4 and the RC-505 is more than enough for me. Might even treat myself to a Volca Beats or take the Tanzbar or ER1.

A pic or two from this morning's walk

OT out A4 in

Well, I swapped the Octatrack for an Analog Four. It'll be interesting to see if I miss it. I hung onto the Octatrack for a long time thinking I might use it live, usually for festival-type stuff where full or prepared tracks were useful. But I really don't see myself doing that any more - if I can't do my usual looping ambient noodles totally live and improvised from scratch, then I won't fancy the gig anyway. The A4 keeps the small and compact form but I may use it more. Certainly will try to sort something for Cosmic Smokers and definitely Finland with it. Much smaller than a P3/module.

Spent a short time setting up a new project in it, programming a kit to use as my starter, complete with some performance setup to work as a base. Want to program a load of my basic patches as starting points too so lots to do.

New review thing turned up today. So that's what I should really be working on this weekend.

Some more CD orders, more countries but I need to send some promo/review stuff to mags and maybe a few other places like Radio 3's Late Junction etc.

No words from Tony. Hope he's OK but won't hassle him. The Mini's ready when it's ready.

Novel went out to readers. I made some improvements to last few chapters afterwards but we'll see if I make more before updating them. Really need that cover soon...

Sunshine and Magpies

Yesterday was a great day, lovely sunshine, baby birds chirping in their nest, CDs sold and some great feedback coming in for the free download we added as thanks. More good feedback this morning and absolutely no work done. I did finish the novel, barring that complicated subroutine at the end (which I may still drop). Gonna let a few readers read it anyway, perhaps without the end bit as it could confuse...

More CDs to send, awaiting Elektron A4, the OT went yesterday. Seems odd to lose it but after all the time expended, I doubt I'll ever truly love it. Just this swinging between love and hate with lots of periods of non-use.

No sign of the new review synth, I should probably chase it... done so, were awaiting pix but given up, it's coming tomorrow.

This morning I was awakened at 05:20 by a distressed blackbird. All her babies had been killed by magpies. So frustrating and pointless, I struggled to get back to sleep. Kept hearing her calling, poor thing.

Disappointed in Roland

So I got my answer about the RC-505 looper and it's basically 'that's how it is and we aren't going to fix it'. I honestly think that Roland's engineers work in some kind of vacuum but I think I see now why so many people have given up on them.

To briefly explain, the RC-505 has, in theory, three loop modes: Auto, Free and 'specific number of bars'. In reality it only has two, the first two. The third mode only exists on paper because when you use it, you find there's no way to record just a specific number of bars, you have to count them yourself and manually stop recording - exactly the same as 'Free' in other words. I have tried to appeal but they offer the usual lame excuses such as 'we had no other choice' and 'due to the limitation of the software development'...

If you're going to shift to entirely software/digital, at least employ some engineers who are good at it! Old Roland had such flair, such a sure feel for the right sound and function. I miss them terribly.

Hopefully house roof will be finished today and I can put my studio back as it was. Very ready. Tomorrow the Headshock album is officially launched. I think a small Roland synth is coming for review...

STOP PRESS - thanks so much to Tomas who suggested a workaround to the above RC505 issue. Will try tomorrow and report back all the details - cheers dude!! :)

Organised as ever

So the CDs arrived and look fab. I made the mistake of telling people before organising any simple way to pay, which is sorta typical innit?

Well, I'm working on reviews today. Two are almost done, well one is practically done and the other still a bit rough. I'm listening to Debussy and playing with Bob the rabbit, so a bit rough is probably how it'll stay. What I really want to do is work on the novel and sort some of the confusing threads gathered untidily around the end...

Finland trip all booked, room in Helsinki for two nights, train to Nurmes and back to Airport. Top deck too so hope to have a good view of the countryside. Gonna be skint, actually I'm practically skint now and I think Finland is an expensive place. Must have a thought what gear to take. The A4, iPad, some keyboard for it, maybe the looper... will all be my usual 'make it up' - hope that suits. Venue looks posh and serious so I think I'll need some big kick drums. :)

A day doing ordinary things

OK, I myself now question the use of 'ordinary' when it comes to breaking an asbestos garage into small chunks, bagging it and taking it to a secure disposal facility. Good manly work though, allowing me plenty of chances to kick, strike and generally batter. Managed to dispose of the entire roof, the walls are still standing, to be tackled tomorrow. Found a non-gypsy type happy to take the garage door away, although he'll have to cut it in half.

They started preparing to take the roof off the house too. I did as much protective covering in the attic as possible. Fingers crossed I'm not going to regret this!

I did no work yet today. This evening I plan to but really my head is still full of novel and the final ten or so chapters that are kinda crucial and still sketchy in places. Not that I mind sketchy sometimes for pace and distraction, but not right now when it needs to start satisfying on a deeper level. Darn but I could work on it forever.

CD to go off for reproduction just as soon as I get the invoice print from Dawn. Get a bloody printer boy!

That's a picture I took yesterday in Hurst Green. I find I rather like it, the clear water showing the rocks underneath while also reflecting the trees and sunlight. Amazing what you can do with a little phone and the right light.

Seems like the Odyssey deal is fizzling out due to some tosser winning but not wanting. So may be some time as it could require putting back into eBay.