Sunday and an odd day. Took Margaret to the hospital - she only told me it was a different one (Chorley not Preston) when we were en route! As I wasn't visiting my mum I was torn between noodling in the studio and writing - writing won. Maybe because I wrote sober and unstoned, my hero got badly bitten and is now in a coma. So we'll be heading into uncharted territories now. Been listening to Vangelis all day, have just popped on some Black Dog for a change.
Next week I think I have chores to do - more garden stuff and need to give some thought to the front door flood defences. No walk, I think, as Tony is dog-sitting, so will have to resist slobbing all week and not going for a long walk.
Tuesday afternoon I wasted an hour and a half on my Cirklon setup. Realised I hadn't powered it up for quite a while and made myself tackle it. Somehow I screwed the DRM-1, or at least did something so it would no longer respond to notes or trigger from its trigger buttons. The MS20 corner isn't inspiring me either, mostly because of the Eurorack box I think - it just sits there like some malignant dwarf ready to kill any ideas or creativity. I will need to have a good think about what to do and whether I even need that setup at all. Time to strip back to something as straightforward and appealing as my Digitone/BB and Octatrack/BB setups.
Decided to wallow in nostalgia and ordered some Ron Berry downloads from his (rather odd) website. No idea what happens after Paypal takes my cash though - if he replies to my email I shall extol the virtues of Bandcamp. I guess if he's died in the meantime, he won't be sending me the userid/password(s) necessary. Oh well...
Got the downloads from Ron - one old and one new. Nice to be in touch again. Today I worked out, I think, why I use my Cirklon setup less than the other two - it's because when I use the other two I almost entirely ignore them until I want to bang in a simple groove or sequencer. It's all about interacting with whatever instruments are there and recording. Cirklon demands more attention and therefore the whole process falters. I'm hoping the little move-around I progressed a bit this morning will help, giving me a Cirklon area where Cirklon isn't so important - until needed. I will also look at throwing out a few instruments too, the old ones I've had in the system for ages (e.g. Proteus 2000) and unplugging the Minimoog CV/Gate and just playing the thing. Might even go down to one mixer, if I can arrange the effects and looper I want. Same desk as my Digitone setup so it should support the Eventide Time Factor, Space and another DD-20. Thinking out loud here.
Friday tomorrow but could be another hot one.
Sussed it! The issue with the Cirklon setup was so obvious I failed to see it. Namely, that it is the only setup with two mixers. Not only is the routing more complicated, sometimes confusing; the fact I have two sets of instruments going at once slows me down. I more enjoy using a few versatile, tweakable instruments than a mountain of options. Not sure I can ever go back to loads.
I know what's wrong with this one and will sort tomorrow.
https://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/titesoar
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