Splendid Thursday!

And so it was. Sainsbury's sushi, cheery organy tune, some novel progress. All splendid indeed.

Am really getting a new range of interesting sounds now I'm processing the Blofeld with the Biscuit. 

Darn, I started a thing, got one of those very catchy 101 sequences, was about to record it then, for some reason, didn't. Gone now. 

It's Monday, raining. Album cover looking good. I'm wondering whether to chase Tasty Chips about the GR-1 or not. Pat wants me to ring vet and have Jasper checked up but I haven't. 

So that was Monday. Achieved nothing other than a couple of Hydrasynth patches (a sort of vocal-type patch with a slight upwards pitch sweep and a kinda xylophone) and pottered without direction generally. Move the JD-XA back into the studio of light - mostly because getting around it is shit in that dark corner and I'm probably not gonna throw good money away on an overlay. GR-1 supposedly getting its power supply tomorrow then they'll send it. So could be next week. Annoyingly, someone is flogging one for £700. 
Still battling with the novel's big forest battle. I keep stepping back and rubbing a bit out so I can have another crack. It's not there yet and I'm not sure what is missing.

Summertime

Hey ho. A rude ending for blissful isolation.

Got up at 03:30 to see comet but somehow failed to do so. Venus was very bright but either I'm stupid or the few clouds that were about were in the way. I went to the field at the end of the street where the street lights weren't ruining the view but maybe I needed to be higher. Don't think so though - all pix so far have it quite high with an obvious tail. John got a nice photo on Moor Park so I have no idea why I'm not seeing. Possibly my eyes are failing due to lack of sleep. Went back to bed around four but didn't sleep. Heard Jasper start wandering around and wake the wee man at just after five. I guess I got about four hours of sleep before being bounced out of bed at just gone 7 am. 

Picnic today. Just having another listen through LP. It's pretty awesome stuff - even though a large percentage of me got gradually whittled away with each new mix. I guess the shape I initially made is all that's left in some cases. Still pleased and jolly proud though! And I got a few lines sung, which has to be the first time since Oasis. 

Pat off for horse thing early Tuesday until Wednesday evening so that will be a peaceful break - may get some writing done as I've set up all the final bits ready to go. The parts I need to write now should be done in longer contiguous chunks than is possible at the moment.

Blimey, someone just bought my entire digital discography. I think I'll pour some money into the Guardian as they're close to going under. 

Jeez I'm tired. 

Saw comet nicely two nights on a row. It's faint and due to where it is, binoculars are pretty much essential. First night Pat was fast asleep but last night she saw it too.

Tuesdaydaytime, recovered, Pat away. Good day with 0-Coast and its Roland case of supporting modules. The other modular is coming along - that Morpheus module behaving oddly in that second PSU3 case. Makes me wonder whether it was it of the nw1, both of which have had issues in that case. Recorded a very simple track. Realised I did quite a lot of novel. Stuff I hadn't meant to write down  but which probably should be present. It's stretching the end too which, if a reader has been happy to this point, should be what is wanted. 

GR-1 ordered

Well, I thought, why not? I had been waiting for months for KMR Audio to get one for me but apparently they just got ten in and I'm number eleven. Next delivery is meant to be August but I decided to order direct. I mean, what the heck. 

PRS this time seems to include lots of Extreme Road Rescue stuff, plus some Panorama and the usual nutters, autopsies and fishing programs (!). Maybe cos they aren't making new stuff the  payments will keep coming as they show the same shows a lot. 

I'm almost at the end of draft #1 and at 100,000 words I'm happy. The jungle chase is going well and I've been able to delve a bit more into lizard thinking and show the various factions a bit better. Once this is done, I have to go back and write a 'village slaughter' chapter then it'll be time to start the first big comb-through ready for a print of draft #2.

In other news, there is to be vinyl! More when I can say.

Slightly annoyed today to hear KMR Audio didn't sell all the GR-1s they had and got back in touch asking if I wanted the one someone turned down. Told them they were too late but I now have to wait and it has inevitably cost me more. Bloody faff.

Got a tiny bit of novel done today, will try and do some tomorrow before wee man arrives and everything is put on hold until sometime Monday. Tinkered with the 0-Coast again and got a bit side-tracked moving modules around (again). Will I ever get a Eurorack setup I like? Some days it feels attainable, most days it feels like I'm wasting more and more time on a dead end. 

Wasted a little while arguing with a Corbyn fanatic who would rather never be in power than compromise. All the while the world goes to shit and the Tories grin like the proverbial foxes before shitty wire brushes. Why oh why can the right get together to win but the left can't even agree amongst itself? I think we all know. 

You'll laugh but...

... almost every time I think I'm getting somewhere with Elektron stuff, I hit against something that makes me 'wtf'. On this occasion I think it might be a bug (one experienced user seemed not to think so but wasn't sure). It's about the CH.LEN parameter which is supposed to set the number of steps before a pattern moves to the next in a chain. Seems straightforward although the manual is somewhat vague. The parm is set in every pattern but it was only added after the 'INF' bodge years ago, which was Elektron's way of not resetting tracks of uneven length. Naturally, since Colin and I thought about this issue years before, I could have suggested a better way. But I digress. The parameter doesn't work. It's supposed to override the pattern's master length when a pattern chain is active - but that ain't happening. 

I raised a ticket but presumably this is nothing new. I'd have thought people used pattern chaining as there's no song mode, no way of making structure except this way. We'll see...

Today I picked up car after MOT/Service/Some repairs - ouch! And two tyres will need replacing in the not-too-distant. 

Saturday morning now. Looking back it's not been a bad week - I have three characters battling their way through a forest and I have started a couple of possible tunes, one in each studio. The DPO/0-Coast swap went well from my point of view - just waiting to hear it arrived safely in Switzerland. Making more sense of the modular end now, oddly enough. Just dropping one complex module I didn't get on with seems to have borne fruit. 

Wee man coming next week. As usual staying for just a bit too long to be a pleasure. So I'll have to park the novel and music for a while, but see what I can do in the early part of next week. 

PRS has produced another good payout. Kinda ridiculous really but it means I don't feel bad about the extravagance of the GR-1 or even the Microcosm should I get the nod that's available. Richard Pinhas recently got one and, as always, I mentally fight not to substitute Dick Penis as his name. Bought one of his downloads actually since I haven't bought any since Heldon days. Have yet to hear anything that comes close to Heldon's Stand By album though.

Looks like I didn't take any pix this week. Sorry. There's this though.

Nothing back from Elektron about their non-functional Ch.Len parameter.

 

MSB & LSB - ongoing Elektron shifts and u-turns.

Sometimes the little things are enough. Of course we're talking yet another reassessment of how to work with my Elektron gear. With the new firmware for the Digitone (a 'fix' update of which was released just as I was about to complain about the one I just installed), I'm now able to do those lovely slidey legato basslines which sound very nice indeed. The mono LFO feature is useful too as is the overall probability setting. So happy am I with it that I'm considering having it as the master clock (if the word 'master' is still permitted - I think a decision is pending). The advantages are that the Digitone can remember tempo per pattern, which I've always wanted AND it can sequence the Minilogue xd without my needing to make manual notes of the program used. Yes, Elektron finally realised that bank select involves CC0 and CC32. Works well too.

I agreed with someone in Switzerland to swap his 0-Coast for my DPO. I only got the DPO as I hoped it would give me the sound of the 0-Coast in a racked format (it didn't and I never really warmed to it) so hopefully a good deal. Guy seems genuine and has had good comms.

Friday I did another recording of the 'Crypto' track but still didn't really nail it. If anything, made it more complicated but the dubby bass actually detracted. Might take the stems and arrange in Logic, we'll see. I was getting farther and farther away from the solo part I hit on initially too - that may now be lost due to my foolish and amateur way of working. 

Novel - I sorted out the first of my three significant scenes that remain. The next one (the trial) is running around in my mind and I already know how the final hunt will go, apart from one detail that eludes me but which should just magically happen as I write. Then there's a brief farewell chapter in the lab, an unlikely escape over the glass sea wall, then... a look towards returning to the mainland, battling through a zombie hell in order to do a favour for an ancient lizard. I already have some ideas for the name of the second half of the tale. ;)

Saturday Tim came and we recorded some very cool minimal short-form stuff - a series of tracks adding up to around 50 mins direct to stereo, like real men do. I held off from over-polluting, which is a good sign. A bit drunk again, it has to be said. 

Now there's a big hole...

Arseburgers, faff and admin bollocks

That bloody Irish passport is proving a right bastard. Turns out my own birth certificate was not of the sufficiently lengthy type - so I now have to order another. Doing so is a pain too as the website supposedly has sent me a verification code, but of course it didn't arrive. Note to self: hassle the message forwarding chumps, who will do nothing but bullshit me.

I did a word count on the novel today and discovered it's at the 86,000 word mark - getting quite long considering I have my trial scene, jungle hunt and grand finale still to write. The end is elusively bobbing out of my way even though I've been writing quite regularly. Today I might spend the afternoon in the studio though for a break. (edit: I did, pottering with Hydrasynth but as usual achieved very little except scrolling through patches trying to remember them. I made too many during review period so must have a wipe and go back to some basics with it. Ultimately too much button pushing to be a real pleasure to use although it sounds great).

Weird how as the lockdown eases and my time is eaten away bit by bit, I resent every little chunk lost, never to be regained. It's like the end of school holidays coming not all of a sudden one Monday morning but in dribs and drabs. It feels like I have to go back to school for a few hours, then I lose a whole day, then a few days together. I spose I've gotten to enjoy it too much, miserable, insular bastard that I am!

Hamster coming in 11 days, wee man a few days later, for a long weekend, probably a very long one starting thursday night. Must book car in for its service as light been on for a while now. Bloody computer con so it is. Can't say I've taken to that car, miss my old one, but of course that didn't have four doors...

Hey, I'm moaning a lot aren't I? Not as bad as the Spitfire Audio Westworld competition youtube thing though, where I foolishly said I rather liked the winner. 

Today I entertained the idea of swapping my DPO for an 0-Coast. Good thing - 0-Coast is great and self-contained, the bad is that its in Switzerland and I guess the DPO is worth more. Oh and it'll leave a hole in the modular I never use...

Oh the Irish Passport saga drags on. Turns out I never had the right birth certificate - mine is the brief one and they want another version. Tried ordering but the UK site either isn't sending me the confirmation email or it isn't getting through my forwarding service. What a ballache. Almost wish I'd never bothered as I seriously doubt I want to fly anywhere anytime soon. RIGHT, managed to get the verification email by using a different email address - so the forwarding definitely not working. Arseburgers! Car MOT had expired so booked that and a service, plus Pat's too. 

Weirdly deflated, I'm struggling to start any writing this morning, hope my creative bubble hasn't burst. Got a couple of CDs from Pascal, which are fab but make me feel guilty for not sending him some of my tiny store of weed when he was out. I do admire his work ethic too - track after track of high quality, consistent music. My Scottish Suite seems to have gone down reasonably well, as far as I can measure these things, which is mostly guesswork and delusion. Hey ho.

Time for another coffee methinks. And some chocolate for comfort. It's Wednesday and drizzling a bit. I can imagine anyone who happens across this blog is really inspired by it at the moment. Sorry world, I'll try and cheer up for the next one. 

Probably silly to accumulate yet more desktop debris and leave a hole. PRS in a couple of weeks so if there's a chunk of cash I'll buy something.