Thursday Night Jam

Matt & Pascal came round and we recorded two pieces of approx 30 mins each. I'm just listening through now and it's surprisingly coherent. Not sure I have Pasc loud enough in this quick mix but the good news is that Matt fancies doing some editing, so no need for me to faff. Yay!
I really liked the sound of the Behringer Neutron. It's zappy, it's snappy it's in no way crappy! The delay is great too.
Now, to tidy up the studio, do yet another audio recording of the Minilogue xd click so Korg can pretend they are still looking into it. Some users have suggested it's no longer an issue but I'd rather trust my own ears than theirs.

Sent audio to Korg. Recorded some stuff that's mostly the MN case modular. And lots of DLD, some Clouds, Plaits and Tonestar. Did maybe 4-5 tracks, but the first I should have done sans kick I think. Chilled day! And I did use that distortion module quite a lot, starting to get a feel for it and the many tones it's capable of.

Rainy Saturday morning, listening back, the 4-5 tracks all seem less inspired than I hoped. ;)
Guy wants to re-release more old stuff, suggests Chimera and Deserted Tower so I'll find and listen at some point. Got the wee man coming tomorrow though so won't get anything done until Wednesday at earliest. Just hope Hydrasynth doesn't arrive in the meantime! Actually not sure I really need to review it now.

Oh and finally I have the plot for the new novel. It's not down to every last detail but I do have a complete story from start to finish, which is something new for me. I think I have a good twist, a decent ending, lots of chances for moral ambiguity and character redemption a la Gemmell. It encompasses ideas that date back as far as 'Renamed and Dangerous' which I wrote on the Atari ST IIRC. It is essentially a sequel to the story I only sketched before and can use the ideas I had for that but set them properly in a post apocalyptic scenario full of human stupidity and self-harm.

No reply from Korg about whether they are able to hear the clicks in my audio or, if they can. whether they care. Apparently they previously just dismissed it thus (and without getting back to me of course):

When we tested, TBH we really struggled to hear a problem

I've told them I have my box and if mine is a hardware error let's get it replaced. Just telling me other users don't notice doesn't cut it (see my previous thoughts about human stupidity)

sigh

Tiddly Pom!

Well, had a pleasant day chatting synths with Pete from Sheffield yesterday. Didn't get anything done though so today I leapt into action. Well, I trimmed a tree in the garden and moved modules that I like into the MN case. I guess I was thinking if they do ask me to play that cellar thing I'd have an easy setup ready to play for 30 mins or so. Mostly I'd use the Bloom sequencer and my old favourite the Tonestar along with Plaits. Plenty of control and processing options and I may yet decide to replace Clouds with Morphagene as (I think) they're the same size so an easy drop-in. Those fecking sliding nuts, have I moaned about them today? The DPO wasn't working out in that case anyway and since I've added the Tonestar, I no longer need the envelope I had in there.

This box plus maybe the A4 acting as reverb for it, plus the Soma Pipe for me to do my reverby groany drone with and I'm sorted.

In theory Pascal and Matt are coming around tonight but haven't had confirmation and haven't really prepared the rooms. Update: moved to Thursday (in theory, of course).

Elektron just released a nice Analog Four update giving it different clock divisions at last, plus a MIDI out. Don't need that particularly and still hoping for the 'kit per pattern' but at least they finally got round to adding tempo per pattern. I could now have either the A4 or Digitone as my master rather than the Octatrack, but we'll see. I do plan to make more efforts with the A4 now there's also the Digitone's 'per page randomiser' which might inspire me. I really need to clean out all those shit sounds I've gathered - trouble  is I've added a fair few of mine all over the place too. Oh for a clean slate, but with my projects and sounds! Weirdly, I thought I was on the beta team but perhaps they dropped me without saying. Anyway, not updating right away as hearing bug reports already. Would like to have had chance to find them, especially as they sound quite obvious so far.

Listening to the two CDs Pascal gave me, really digging the ambient one - talented fellow!

Wednesday, was lovely so went out looking for new walk, but didn't find it despite doing my best with Pat's directions. Jasper in odd, exuberant mood. Up early and full of energy, following me around even more than usual. Sleeping now though.

Pat at horse thing so I had curry and noodled on modular, recording a short sketch. Clouds making some reasonable noises so not going to pull it for a while. Played with mice, watched random shit on TV. Enjoying 'Preacher' at the mo on Prime. Someone found some old gig photos, from when I was basically an embryo.

More stuff

Yeah, that. Moreness of stuff. Recording things, some of the Sonic W drones reaching bandcamp, did thing today that might be good, contemplating taking on Cirklon manual maintenance. Started module review but not working hard on it. Gonna do some Octatrack thing with Gaz but a single night better than two from Pat's point of view. Plus he might find me too dull for so long. It's in a barge.
Got new telly. Hate throwing stuff away that should last. Had it repaired once, the old one, what shite as it failed with same error. New one has six year guarantee, that's what swung it. Watching Mr Robot, music in it is good. New dish at Radohnny. Garlic Chilli Blast. I felt the blast this morning. Several times.

Hmmm, that last entry looks suspect. Since then I have replaced the new telly, finished a module review, done more tracks, went to a gig in a gin place in Preston (today, it was fab too, got asked to play which I might). I did volunteer to take on the Cirklon manual - need a build that will allow me to do screen dumps, which Colin is sorting. Have made a start going through update text file and adding some thoughts for features not mentioned there.
Hydra not here yet but shouldn't be too long. Distortion module came and it's really nice, so should be an easy review to write up. I seem to have a few things to do all of a sudden.

Oh, the Path is being reissued so I should mention it here really. I think this is a link. 
Not sure I want to do any more, guess I should listen to some. Meant to be getting Matt and Pascal round for a drone sesh, and some guy coming from Sheffield tomorrow who, I suspect, has mistaken me for the other Paul at Synthfest. Well, one of the other Pauls. He seems a bit normal to want to visit me but asked for an introduction to synths, so I'm happy to oblige.

Yeah, I used different pix on Facebook. Was impressed by Erogenous Tones Structure module which is expensive but puts CV-controlled video in your modular. I know something else happened last week but my brain refuses to cough up the information. Oh, Pascal gave me a CD today so I'm looking forward to some OVNI tomorrow morning with my coffee. Should probably find out what time that guy coming...

Approaching Synthfest

So I might not post this until afterwards.
Spent the afternoon playing the piano, a real tonic after all the modular messing and reorganising.
Thursday became Friday. Did piano loop things with Cirklon, reich really is a fab feature!
https://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/pianoloops-edited

And it's gone. Synthfest that is. Awesome. Played cool new things, talked to lots of folks (including some guy what used to be in the Human League and maybe still is; anyway he has a Cirklon and I was hopefully able to help, although one of his issues seems related to the various knots Colin has tied himself in re: Song mode playback. But I digress. Did an interview with Gaz and talked nonsense, totally contradicting what I'd decided to say 5 seconds earlier when he briefed me with the questions. Heh). Now I have the interesting dilemma which pits performance control against user interface - something to think about there. I might return to this and write up what I mean, but should clear the review I promised first.

Monday I started programming new patches on my V-Synth. This is a good idea for whenever GAS strikes. You can ask yourself how many synths have an architecture so flexible and powerful combine with a user interface so fucking amazing, with innovative performance controllers thrown in too. Just saying.

Just sent away for my first lock-picking set. As you do. A guy at the curry house was showing me the basics and I found it fascinating. Something new to learn.