Summer's almost passed

 It was a sunny Sunday today and I realised I've obviously been busy - no blog entries. Not even a thought of writing one. Now I'm waiting for Pat to go in the bath so I can watch an episode of the Dark and have a few mins to spare.

Anyway, I'm about half way through draft #2. I'm now around the 98,000 word mark, which means I've deleted around 7,000 unnecessary words. I realise the first half needed it more but I expect to maintain the trend, getting rid of really long chunks of dialogue and pointless asides. Well, some of them. 

In the week Tony and I walked up Parlick Fairsnape Fells, saw tons more grouse and pheasant hopping around innocently and took photos of clouds. I realised I needed a new thin waterproof coat so got one on Saturday. 

Oh, I revised the White, Grey and Sky Blue album and put it on my main bandcamp site. I could keep revising it forever as I keep exploring the GR-1. The second half had more work this time. A DJ/Video artist friend wanted some music to set to film so I sent a few, including the Scottish Suite, which is my personal favourite for a while. Anyone who happens to read this blog can get a free download by dropping me a line. 

2020 has been a brilliant year for clouds. I've made a few, of course.
Gonna start making cider soon. Should've today but laziness overruled the urge.

More arse problems and draft #2 begun

 Jasper's had a bad time this last few days (and a bad time one day last week when I was away all morning). He basically wanders around the house trying to take a shit. This morning there was blood in his poo. Been trying to get through to vet all morning, permanently engaged. 

I started draft #2 with a clear command to myself: simplify. This draft will be about reducing faff, trimming all those excess adjectives, pointless bolted-on clauses and inane observations that don't forward the plot. Well, that's the theory. Nothing will get left just cos it amused me at the time. Gosh, such resolution. 

Tuesday and Jasper still struggling, still having accidents. Spending my day watching him, sitting with him, wiping his arse. Vet tomorrow evening. The pills we got yesterday not really making an apparent difference. 

Today I got to about chapter eight being very ruthless, trimming large unnecessary chunks, adding a small amount where it was obviously necessary. Some of the detail and explanation stuff might find its way back in, or not. Story comes first. In the afternoon I recorded a few short GR-1 pieces to hopefully replace some of the voice bits I'll delete. I would love to get some lovely choral and soprano voices to turn into drones, will search tomorrow. Pat away Thursday night so I can spend two long, full days getting things in shape.

Thursday, up to chapter 11 and instead of walking the hills on this clear sunny day I'm inside keeping an eye on an elderly pooch. Three lots of pills, cooked chicken to eat and very bad guts mean I couldn't go and leave him. I remember what happened last week. Had bad guts of my own, maybe in sympathy. Pat off tonight and weather meant to turn tomorrow, so may get lots of work done. 

Made it to Saturday night. Haven't drunk as much today so got a revision of my granular thing done. 

https://wilyepeyote.bandcamp.com/album/white-grey-skyblue

Novel up to chapter 19 which is pretty good going. I've chopped a lot. Possibly more should still go but we'll see. Good to be ruthless but need to keep being it. Splitting into chapters is helping. 

Jasper seems better. Sadly he vomited most of his tea up so I hope most pills got where they were meant to. 

 

Finished draft #1, yay!

 A bit of a milestone reached, one I'd hoped to reach this weekend with Pat away. I finally have a complete tale, start to end. OK, barring a 'village slaughter' chapter and a brief battle scene against impossible odds, the whole thing runs from start to end just as I wanted it. OK I changed some aspects of the ending because the characters had gone in different directions. It sets up a second book though, which may or may not be a foolish thing to do. Will see what I think when I go through it for the print draft. Work to do before I go back to the start is tidy those two scenes and go back over the last two chapters and add some description, backgrounds, general scene setting. Not hard just takes a bit of conventional effort. 

Feeling good! It is over 105,000 words though. Aiming to get the paperback in at less that 400 pages! May consider 10pt.

Friday again. I did the smaller scenes easily enough and my 'dragon rampage' chapter has been running through my mind for days. I might just have a bit of fun with it - get stoned and just write it like the old days. It won't really matter as it's a throwaway - a means of setting a few ideas in place and enjoying the carnage. 

Today feels cool enough to go into the studio. I've been listening to the GR-1 pieces and fancy doing a few more to give me a wider choice. I like the 'guitar drone' so much I want to see if I can do some complimentary pieces. Many of the speech ones could be dropped - or I'll try the ultra-slow scanning technique to see if they're more interesting at glacial pace. And I really must try out Hydrasynth 1.5 in more depth. For some reason, it's one of those synths I start playing with, end up spending most of the time tweaking patches or defining macros, or comparing patches - resulting in no music and a vague sense of frustration. As with the Oberheim Xpander many moons ago, I think the UI is not for me.

Went for a walk on a hot day. 

More stable GR-1 and Hydrasynth 1.5 - yay!

Still not sure if Pat away this weekend so not getting excited yet. Depends on shutdown. 
GR-1 hasn't crashed much although there are some anomalies with 'pass thru' mode I think.

New Hydrasynth OS includes almost everything I wanted - CCs, envelope triggering etc. plus have added some cool new things like proper drone, distortion effect, another mutant, stepped LFO more like a sequencers. Oh and more filter types. So a big one and very much appreciated. That's my Friday afternoon sorted. 

Well, Friday afternoon was more about the GR-1 again. Not happy with the position of the Hydra and tried it somewhere else, which was worse. Working with Cirklon yesterday felt oddly clunky too, must not have been in the mood. Pat's away and the sun is shining. Probably too hot for studio today but can carry on with the novel stuff I worked on yesterday, getting my big confrontation fight scene out of the way with surprising speed. It might feel anti-climactic though but I now have a clear space for my final chapters and the 'breaking of the fellowship'. 

Am reading 'Children of Hurin' after Don said it was good. Style is still a bit heavy but there is a good story in there, battling to be heard. Lots of male doom throughout, which I may have borrowed for the passing of one of my main characters. Sprung a last minute surprise which should hopefully feel right and consistent. Does to me.

Last night was pizza. Today I expect it's chilli out of a tin. I might be tempted to go to RK again tomorrow.

Almost got a GR-ambient album. I foolishly mailed an early version of it around then, this morning, realised the mistakes in what I thought was almost done. Must have been quite wrecked yesterday.

We aren't included in the Preston lockdown. You can tell by looking at your bins, apparently. Staying in anyway.

Some early ideas for title and cover images. 

GR-1 shipped

Which is good news. Not so good is the barrage of second hand ads I'm seeing, the latest being a GR-1 for £650. Admittedly in that there London. Oh well.

I think I finally found a solution to my snagged-up novel. As usual it involved going back and finding something I mentioned earlier but didn't use yet. It should work well as it allows me to make the next character death more meaningful and vivid. However, in reading some of those early chapters I couldn't help notice a distinct clunkiness of style. So draft #2 will need to tidy that up as a priority. I will take it as a sign that it's improving as it goes. 

Tried a few musical things today but progress hampered by Pat coming home. Her usual dampening field worked its magic and within minutes my ideas had dissipated. Seems to be getting worse. 

Yesterday a walk and some pain from my plantar fasciitis

A good thursday. Did more work on the two Headshock sessions - some trims and overdubs. Also did a bit on the new Cirklon track, including putting the program changes back in. 

Blimey, time has passed again.

Since the GR-1 arrived I haven't thought about blogging. So that shows you the quality of the blogs when I write 'em regularly eh?

Having to listen to some library tracks from 10 years ago to say whether I used any unauthorised samples. They're all from various Kontakt instruments but I've no idea which. Oddly enough I do remember the tracks - much more than the later more generic ones that make more cash.

This was back when I tried to put melodies and stuff in, naive fool! You can check them if you like: 

Go to www.apmmusic.com and in the search field type: IFM-0067 and then IFM-0069.

It's almost a week after I started this blog. Apart from today I spent a lot of the time learning how the granular parameters work. Could almost write a review now - but I suppose I'd have to get into the multitimbral mode and force myself to use the effects. I might write something.
One good thing - there have been two firmware updates since I got mine - the last one seems to have cured the constant crashes and I'll try today's tomorrow (if you see what I mean). 

Vet says Jasper is in great condition after checking his lumps and creaky bits. Has given us some basic pain relief and analgesics to see if it settles him more in an evening. All good.

Off to the foot lady tomorrow. Still waiting to see if Preston goes into Covid lockdown to thwart my weekend of studio debauchery and novel indulgence. Feel to be bursting with ideas again and can see exactly what will happen in the next few novel scenes. My latest approach working.

Finally sent off full birth certificate to get that Irish passport, only a thousand years after having the idea. 

Got food from RK today. Pat tried some but didn't seem keen. I got enough for tomorrow's lunch ;)

I've recorded a lot already with the GR-1. My favourite piece is a short guitar piece from Phil's Repeater which I turned into a drone.