Mixed Feelings

Yeah, as I packed away the Easel ready to return it, I was actually sad. It shows that it has made an impression with me and my quest to find a fully-working one must continue. I did a fairly in-depth write-up of the issues with the keyboard and even knocked up a video, which may help them understand why it begins to fail after being on for a while, at least here.
During the time I've had it, I considered lots of ways in which I could work around it, maybe replacing the keyboard with a MIDI module and then run some external MIDI - but the main reason I like it is because it is a complete instrument in itself. That's what I want, not some infinitely expandable amorphous thing. So I have a lead on a company who will build one and with a spec that's up for discussion too. I won't be able to comment here though as an NDA is involved.

Can't fault shop for their willingness to see me happy but wish I could have got a working one and spent the hols recording with it with Tim. As it is, made a start on video for the West Midlands guys. Tim filming, me talking shite. Quite hard doing something in a 10 min chunk, usually I'd not think about time.

In the meantime, I'm feeling like I need to treat myself to something and the Endorphin Shuttle System keeps coming to the fore.
Baby came, my back was sore but is getting better. Done novel stuff, relaxed with Iron Fist on Netflix (a cross between The Champions and Kung Fu). Have drunk. Currently listening to ELO at Wembley while drinking absinthe.

Very happy with these!

Heh

An old thing comes back

A frustrating and painful weekend. My vaguely aching groin and lower back pain burst into a full-blown painfest Friday morning as I took Jasper out. No idea why but it's Sunday morning now and I'm still getting sharp pains and dull aches combined. Pat reckons I have a lumpy bollock too, how marvellous. If still like this, I'll be trying to get past the 08:00 phone lottery they run at our surgery.

The replacement Buchla keyboard arrived and I fitted it, along with the CVGT1 module.

Spent Friday afternoon and a good chunk of yesterday putting it through its paces, boosted by lager and weed to dull the pain.

Thoughts:

Keyboard felt better at first, definitely more responsive to light touches. Even triggerered once without being touched.

Unfortunately the keys that used to stop responding (those around note 18) becomes unresponsive here too. New keyboard so what on earth gives? That particular F just seems destined to be a problem and it makes me wonder if there's something special about its voltage or ability to generate a trigger that is inherent in the circuitry. Made a complete list of the keys that always work and those that always start to fail. I don't think it's something I can solve, which rather annoyingly means I'll be going back to square one and trying to source one that works reliably. I dearly hope such a thing exists.

Another thought, helped by the CVGT1: It becomes a completely different synth with a normal envelope drafted in. Actually changes its character so much it becomes a bit ordinary, like an out-of-tune regular synth. Hmmm. On the other hand, adding an LFO from the Tonestar and having it modulate the wavefolding and AM amount simultaneously, a wonderful thing and somehow far superior to the handling of the Aux card.
BTW I'd been puzzling over something on the aux card for ages, thought it me being an idiot. It turns out that it doesn't always accept the physical position of its switches. Most notably the one saying that CV input comes from the banana jack. It seems to take 'pressure' as default until you flip it away from its correct position then back. Mad.

Ultimately, I haven't been able to do as much this weekend as I wanted. Can't visit my mum today cos of back, did a Buchla video explaining the issues, had some shortbread to ease the pain (which helped spawn a novel chapter I'd been struggling to start)

Docs this afternoon. It was agony this morning after feeling like it was getting better last night. Very frustrating. Baby coming tomorrow too for a couple of days, gonna be tough.

Christmas is looming, like a fat old priest smelling of sweat and tobacco.
oh tidings of great teeth-gritting

New week, poo, squeak

Well boys and girls, always save all your receipts. That's my wisdom for this week. Our new loo seat is splitting, which I noticed while shitting. Actually I noticed while peeing but that would have spoilt my wonderful rhyme. Spose it could have been: as I stand heroically to pee, a split in our new loo seat I see. Doesn't flow either, which is a disappointment when pee is involved. Anyway, I digress.

Am finally getting a new keyboard for the Easel tomorrow. Will be interesting to see if it behaves the same way, whether there are new ranges of keys that regularly fail, whether all is now well. I'm still considering the value of the aux card and may ask whether they'll take it back so I can purchase 3 eurorack modules instead (GTCV1 x 2 and A-141-2 or similar, probably a multi too) and make up a better 'aux card' myself.
Received some modules for review in a neat little Roland case - really love the case. I want one even though it is very expensive. It'd sit nicely and neatly behind the Easel.

Not much snow here but while it was around we went out and sniffed it.

Well, the keyboard replacement still hasn't showed up. That's another week of waiting for one to try and see if it works better. In the meantime, I started getting the 'sudden bursts of random gates' problem that others have suffered. What a crock of shite.
I've spoken to a few people who tell me why the BEMI version will never work properly and have been in contact with someone who has offered to make one for me - to a much higher standard than BEMI. I can't say much as I'll soon be signing an NDA (after which nothing, obviously) but suffice to say the issues I've battled with should be a thing of the past. I'm assuming the shop I bought it from will honour their refund commitment of course but that should be OK since I've complained pretty much from the start and only didn't return right away because they were supposedly trying to get a resolution. Phew! I ordered the CVGT1 too but that should still be useful. Eventually.

I should probably stop reading Alastair Reynolds. In the one I just started, it seems he's going to deal with art. It's like he's going over all the same themes I have, just from the point of view of an adult and a proper writer rather than someone who stopped progressing in his mid teens.

Easel info I found interesting

The problem with the keyboard is gate trigger is not strong enough and false triggers its a fault on motherboard depending on what version they use.  The bemi and roman clone that are wrong gate voltage and obviously bemi just copies not corrects.

Almost Friday and noodletime. Just had good chat with Easel shop who will still send me a keyboard to try (mixup but I have no worries about them being genuine) over the weekend. If I can get one that works I will stick with this one but if not, they're happy to refund. So we'll see...

Bad back seems to have come back yesterday evening and today. Alcohol to the rescue!

Today there was quite a lot of wheat beer and this

And so it goes...

I had a great idea to break my deadlock with the Easel - a couple of them actually. The first involved a swap for the Kinesthetic controller but using the MIDI input when I wanted regular playing. I did need some assurance the K didn't suffer from the same grounding issues. My other idea stemmed from this; the KMR website shows a base setup (case/LEM208) which you can build on - it claims to have MIDI I/O which is where I thought: why not just add your own MIDI keyboard?
I thought about this overnight and realised that the website's claim is nonsense. It doesn't have MIDI I/O, it just has a couple of sockets awaiting connection to either a controller or MIDI module. I'd got quite excited about the alternate system I was going to put together too, ditching the aliasing mess that is the aux card and getting another complex oscillator. Oh well, back to trying to get a working keyboard, or giving up I guess.

A compilation came out today for which I provided a track, 1 second short of the required time, so doing my usual 'not quite satisfying' thing.

This is it

We've been without our large telly for a week now. I'd like to say I'm starting to respond to my environment and come alive, but actually I'm just watching the laptop more, which is even less stimulating than Netflix.

One of my absolute favourite things is this: I get to a point in a novel where I'm stuck. So I have a creative day, record some nonsense  then, after a pipe and a few hoppy beers, launch into writing. Suddenly I get past the point where I was stuck and magically get inspired to join something up I'd been meaning to for a while. Simple pleasures, I know, but still. A thread sorted that was in danger of dying. 

Still no telly. Sob.

On the other hand

I've gone on quite a lot about the Easel lately, mostly fighting with bits of it or picking faults. But the whole initial analysis thing isn't ever the whole story. This is why reviews used to take me longer and longer. The other half is using it, making music with it, and in this respect, I'm enjoying it  plenty. It has some similarities with the Synthi for pulsing oddness but ca be made to turn melodic and even virtuosic. A second hand one showed up today - older model without the arpeggiator. Made me dig into this one all over again and record some stuff. It fits my palette very well and I only made a couple of cockups (getting hold of wrong slider on both occasions, have swapped a couple of slider caps around) but can live with that. A few shorter patch cables so I could see better would help too. Oops, almost slipping into grumbling again. And I'm keeping this one. Slightly sad that seller didn't contact me  to try and get my keyboard issues resolved but if banana leads ever come may have to ruin one to try.
In short - good session and shows that limitations suit me well in my advancing years.
Programmed 'tuned noise' patch on the KS4 because I missed a particular sound and realised it was from the Micron.
Thought for the day: when Babylon 5 is bad, it's really bad.
In the same way that I always recognise the SH-101, the Minimoog, the Synthi, the Perfourmer, the Juno6, so I recognise the Easel. That is a good thing.
Did this https://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/diesel-aneasel

Oh yeah, Pat went out tonight so I did the Friday afternoon thing in the evening...