September rolls along

 Bilbo's birthday tomorrow. Yesterday Tim and I went up Pendle but no luck with the wee shrooms yet. Consoled ourselves with a beer on the way back - which was so nice I suspect we'll do it again while the weather lasts. We also need to do a good mix of the rather magical track/tracks (could be several) from the weekend. 

Nowt useful from Check-A-Trade for getting our drain repaired and I still haven't built the front door flood defence, mainly because I can't find what I'm looking for in terms of material. I'm rubbish. Anyway, it's Tuesday and Pat's had a bad few days with cystitis; this morning I'm going to test the latest 'pitch version' of the Cosmos firmware. After Superbooth I'm aware of the improved (unfucked) version of the Buchla Easel but trying not to fixate on it. There's no doubt that clearing away a ton of unused Eurorack would make it a worthwhile option and I should possibly admit that new MS20 isn't getting used and that I have probably done everything worthwhile I'm ever going to on the MS20. Unless I get some of my desired mods implemented...

Friday now and it's been a good week, Brexit repercussions notwithstanding. I've been pottering with the novel, quite enjoying what I've got so far. I realise I'm probably the person who will most enjoy it anyway so I'm making the most of it. I notice I'm writing longer sentences and explaining a few things and expanding on a few things this time so perhaps that will help the herd to wade through it, but I'm not going to count on it. Tim and I had a good sesh, with Tim doing the definitive mix of the track from last week. Was it last week? The recent past, how's that? We did something new and on the looper too, which is pleasantly different. Today I will roll the dice - assuming I can tear myself away from my story.

My mum rang this morning and told me to fill up with petrol as they're running out. I thanked her for voting Leave and helping make this all possible. This won't end well. 

We went to t'pub. 

Quality Saturday Sesh

 Perhaps Tim's bass guitar and the gently rotting shortbread made it magical but for whatever reason 'Meare' is a fab piece of music. Must either eat or chuck that - forgot to offload some onto the man, doh!

Sunday morning is here. I copy and pasted my 'workflow' thing into an SOS forum question wondering what the fuck I was talking about in my 500 word back page gush. Only time for the briefest of edits (e.g. to remove the 'Jesus don't look at the modular' bit). 

Monday came and went without much incident. Some more testing of the Cosmos, a walk but not a lot done otherwise - fab day! Tuesday and I got the first test artwork for the CD - was not keen on the text layout and the fact the album title had changed (!) - reminds me of the time when Clive/Cleve tweaked one of my cassette titles and I only knew it when he sent me the finished, released thing. Oh well, hopefully we'll reach agreement - if I compromise and go with the naff title I'll use mine on the bandcamp version. Darn but that would confuse people :(

Thursday morning... Pix from yesterday's walk:

Taking Pat & Margaret to Blackpool Illuminations tonight. Today I should try and get the track for Sequences and continue looking for a plumber/builder to sort the drain thing. Two have responded so far and don't fancy having a go. Great. 

Friday tomorrow. I shall drink beer and try, once again, to pick a track for the Sequences compilation. I think I was going to opt for Dichasia but might do a new mix. Or not. 

It's official, I'm stupid

 By which I mean that jamming with Dave Spow and wanting to immediately hear what we'd done was something I thought of yonks ago but never did owt about. Anyway, hearing the Zoom (by connecting it to spare inputs on the audio i/f) in situ is handy as it cements how it should sound in my mind. 

Recorded a pretty sweet track with Tim, lotsa DFAM in it. 

Monday, I tested some Cirklon updates that I'd been needing - mostly relating to the (longer) Ck patterns that I'm using quite a lot now. Also a tweak to the Soma Cosmos, plus I tried the BlackBox v1.9 but got stuck on one screen and regressed. I was hopeful for some of the extra MIDI control for pads but the tiny text and pointless knob graphics just don't work for me on such a small screen. It has a master EQ and more parameters on the delay, neither of which are vital to me. I was interested in the granular changes but not enough to bother. Just confirms that my use of the BB is very different to most. A bug meant the Back button wasn't working properly and I found myself stuck on this page.

Oh yes, it has LFOs too but, again, don't need 'em. 

Tuesday I had a go at setting up mum's new laptop. Knew it was gonna be some weird chinese thing but didn't guess it'd come with Windows 10 Pro (subtly different to Home). It was also set up for the USA, including some stupid time zone. Thought I'd fettled most of it but mum was still ending up on websites wanting payment in dollars. Arse. Hopefully I needn't return again before Sunday. Guy did our gutters - replaced with new, wider ones, just got to see if the alternate downspout is better or worse.

Wednesday, having a Vaughan Williams morning; heard some on the radio the other day and mistook it for Elgar so time to bone up. Last night I worked on novel a bit, think I worked out a few useful things. Had beers in the sun with Tim and Tony. Drunk and non-functional in the evening. 

Friday again. Cooler so will try and do something for the Sequences compilation. Wanted to use a Headshock track but most are probably too challenging for the audience. Will see though - takes a while to listen through everything and if I start doing alternate versions would get really confusing. Actually the track I'm playing now (HypoChil) sounds pretty suitable.

We didn't walk this week so here are some shots from last week...