Live at Ferret II and general shenanigans

 On Monday Pat was driving south to pick up Benji so I popped to Matt's and picked up the Prodigy. Later I listened to Matt's magnum opus and I have to say it's pretty awesome. Made me wish (briefly) for a nose-full of ket. I also did some simple multisamples for the Wavestate - using the BlackBox's autusample function driving the Model D. Resulted in some very solid samples, improved when I remembered to set them to mono rather than waste keygroup space. At some point I'll have a sampling day and get a lot of basic synth stuff to use. 

Well, we got together before the gig and Tim was seriously drained and probably ill. So we pottered around inconsequentially as I tried to get my head around the various patterns. Later, by myself I made some Octatrack stuff in case he didn't make the gig. Anyway... we played, not as good a turnout this time and somewhat more chaos than before. I realised that trying to prepare anything was foolish on my part - shoulda just brought the SH-101 and noodled along with whatever was thrown at me. ;) Have sent Tim the recording (missed first minute) and should apologise for all the bum notes I played. I think I'll retire the Minilogue XD from live work as, although it sounds good, the keyboard is piss poor to play on. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it, heh. Parts of the gig were pretty good and the last one, Doobie, was a solid ending. Looking forward to hearing the recording. Tried headphones and comparing to the room but really difficult. Contemplating doing a solo set so I'm more in control, think Tim may have been better without me there floundering around trying to work out what song we were on and how that related to my silly bit of paper. We should do two solo sets next time so I can do some flowery sequencing and ambient shit, which I sorta like even though it's hardly ideal for a pub. 

Sussed the amp scaling thing today in the Wavestate - stupidly I didn't realise you should first crank the keytrack to 100% as that's how the parameters on the next page take effect. I also think I just worked out the Mod Processors. Reading through the manual I see the missing piece - once you set up a mod processor you then have to select it as a mod source! Fairly sure this is it and I was trying it but not properly. We'll see tomorrow. 

And yes, it worked first time exactly as I wanted it to. Just shows how old and slow I'm becoming. Recorded a few things, still frustrated by that reverb blanket that means I have to compromise each layer but I'm getting by. Saturday is here and rather pleasant. Listened to Tim's mastered gig recording and it's all rather splendid, just a few mins in the middle where it felt directionless. Which ain't bad. 

Sunday, raining. I have a beta thing to write up though so will do it today.  

Monday, raining and windy. Woke feeling a little nauseous, not sure if I'm coming down with something. Must pop to John's today and drop off that synth (Matt has the other - oddly still haven't managed to get one of his spare Waves for John). It's bloody August. 

Tuesday and Wednesday I cooked, successfully, and enjoyed it. Still following easy recipe type instructions and those little pot things but better than my usual egg and chips or spagbol. Saw John on Wednesday and had our usual jolly chat and whatnot. Dropped off the second VCX as Matt has nabbed the first, without parting with any of his Waves. Oh well, I really wanted to leave one with John as I think he's gonna end up spending cash on one, which is daft if Matt has 4 of the feckers leaning against the wall. Tomorrow we were gonna walk but Tony's van has a problem and my car is in for a service. Studio time then. Will put the MS20 back in its place and maybe have the S-4 linked up in that corner too processing stuff from the Synthi, MS20 and modular. Not heard from David about the Easel review, hope it was OK and my butchering didn't break it. 

Didn't walk on Thursday as my car in for service and Tony's had a weird light on and went in too. Recorded some Wavestate driven by the MIDICake Arp. 

Friday was my usual nonsense, perhaps less stunk and droned than usual due to Hughue's 90th that evening. Sadly Daniel and Rachael didn't make it. Anyway, recorded this bit of fun, which used the S-4 back in its old wacky tape recorder role. I've resigned myself to it never moving on, being properly stable or trustworthy but still able to do things other loopers cannot. 

Saturday was a good one. Basil. Some Machinedrum, Monomachine and my general additions on 101 and Prodigy. Tim took a pic for the "Mike Metlay" challenge, for reasons I remembered when drunk. Sunday today, must take some apples for our Janet. May do some garden stuff too. 

Friday, A Guy Called Gerald, some Multisample bollocks & Crinkle Crags

 I found a great resource for multisamples someone had prepared for the Deluge - great because whoever it was has a similar taste to me in terms of what you need to sequence with. I prepared almost 2Gb of them in SampleBuilder while Pat was watching the footie - should have guessed it would handle the note B referred to as H (weird but some companies do that) so wasted my time removing them all. The biggest mistake, however, was in not bulk-converting them all to mono. I guess I've wasted almost 1Gb as the majority of these, despite being from synths like the Odyssey, ARP2600 and Minimoog, they have been recorded in stereo. Duh! Oh well, if I ever start running out of space I can always reclaim it. They're also a bit lower level than I'd use but we'll see how they sound when I import them before starting my Friday sesh. As the Wavestate doesn't really have synthesis - unless you count transitioning between different waves as synthesis - then a good stock of usable multisamples will be invaluable. 

Gig tonight at the Conti. Seems like it starts at 7 and ends just before midnight so may drain my Friday stamina. ;)

Good gig, not as packed as expected but a nice night. Pat came for us heroically but was plagued overnight with cystisis and suffered during the day. Consequently Tim and I didn't do our thing but hopefully can Monday or Tuesday. I spent more time with Wavestate and KSP. In the evening I trimmed some of those complex keygroups, deleting as many as I could and getting the RAM requirements down to less than 30Mb. Some of the worst were my percussion collections which had loads of samples, I hadn't really looked. Just shows my idea of that 4Gb gave a very false impression - one I'd have mentioned in a review if I'd been doing one. Always the way with sample-based instruments, in my experience. You always spend way too long faffing, editing, organising and generally wishing you'd got a pure synth instead. Still, I'll know in future and will make my own multisamples with far fewer chunks. 

Sunday and I think the review is pretty much done, bar that last run-through. I did drop most of the history stuff though and it's still on the high side of my expected wordcount. 

Review sent in yesterday (Tuesday), I maybe trimmed too much but made wordcount. Will see what David says. Today, Pat still got Cystitis and awaiting wee test results before antiobiotics. She's gone to see Margaret but didn't take her fucking phone so I've no idea if she's OK or not. Driving me crazy at the moment, seems determined to push herself too far. 

I had a shit afternoon with the Wavestate. What started as a simple project (convert all the multisamples to mono and save all that keygroup space). Having done so I clearly renamed some and didn't get all the samples in the right place, wasted several hours making my patches work - and they don't sound as good now, some are out of tune and I've broken about half of the Performances I made. I do wish I'd sent it back right away now and may yet ask Matt if he wants it. Failing that I'm going to leave samples alone for a while and work ith the internal waveforms as all my performances using those exclusively still work fine!

Friday I had half a gummy and did more Wavestating. Made a good patch that uses the two fairlight flute multisamples, one of which has gotten slightly out of tune since I deleted lots of keygroups. Turns out that if you have these two oscillating in two adjacent ws cells, the effect is a rather pleasuing vibrato-tremelo you'd struggle to do any other way. It may be that other features of this "transition synthesis" are also waiting to be discovered. Looking at my jul/2025 folder, I see I did one Easel track and the rest is Wavestate - 16 KSP projects with numerous Performances. Shall I chuck all this work to start again on a MultiPoly? I guess I don't know but will see if Matt still wants a second Wavestate. 

Tim and I had a good sesh on Saturday checking out the tracks he's been doing in the EMX. Some quality stuff and some with space for me to play in. We named a few to give me a starting note and all will be well, I think. We'll have a jam Tuesday afternoon mebbe too

Reading Eddie's book "An ethnic trying to get by". It's really quite excellent and very funny. I'm just over half-way through. Hope to finish it today.. My calves are still killing me after Thursday's yomp to Crinkle Crags. Tony's gonna lose me soon, I fear. 

Accidentally long walk, still bloody hot

 So no idea when Tim and I will do any prep for this gig thingummy. My Minilogue XD has been randomly powering itself off too, possibly due to the heat. Today we walked to Brockoles and back, which Tony had estimated at 6-7 miles but it was actually 12.2. No wonder my bunion is screaming at me. I don't think those trainers helped, nor did going commando on those rough cut-off jeans, old knobbage was rubbed - and not in a good way. Been a long time since it was rubbed in a good way, I feel morosely inclined to point out. Oh well. 

I fear it may be too hot for the studio tomorrow. If so I guess I'll work on the review. 

It was hot but I got in a couple of hours then did some review work. Didn't record what I did but it should be OK, I think. May even get similar tomorrow. Review flowing nicely thanks to sweetie. 

Saturday and I did some more Keystep.Wavestate messing. Making progress learning my way around and finally starting to get the modulation system, which is terrible but terribly powerful and hidden, mostly, from my eye. I am starting to assign knobs though, not at performance level given I'm using it multtimbrally although I will explore that eventually. Wavestate has RTZ envelopes, which I discovered just not trying it in mono mode. You can blur notes into each other using wavesequencing though so maybe just needs a different mindset. 

Monday again. Mum not in a great mood yesterday, hitting the morphine quite hard now too. Janet tried to get her to talk to district nurse who popped in but that cause some unpleasantness. This morning I got pretty much my first draft - and it's a bit longer than planned at 5,000 words. With luck I can whittle it down a bit during this week. I got some time in with Wavestate and managed to overwrite a useful performance - really must be more disciplined there and copy things often. I'm still learning stuff though - took ages, for example, to find the reason for some unknown reverb in a patch I'd copied from the presets. I really should set up lots of base programs and wavesequences with my own stuff in so I'm not forever stumbling around in search of things. 

Made a worthwhile discovery that you can make very different sounding waveforms by sticking a load next to each other and having very, very short transitions. More to explore there. I also realised I should have named my own stuff with some kind of easy prefix so I can find it easier. The category thing is a PITA cos it resets every time you do a search rather than remembering your last selection. Stupid. 

Tuesday and I got my first draft finally done - only 1,000 words over what I guessed it should be. Oops. Spent some time renaming my Wavestate performances and setting up a base program featuring a simple wavesequence of my own with a few transitions and mapping the speed of transition to a knob, octaves to another, main volume to the master knob for each layer. Think I did something else too but there's still more to prepare before I can just fire up and go. It will never be a spontaneous thing, I accept that. I also made a few extra FX programs, an alternate ring mod etc. Starting from my own base was slower at first but at least I know what everything does and don't have to go searching for mod routings that baffle me. It does make me wonder if the MultiPoly might have been better but I didn't really look at that in any detail as it's a bit expensive. Reading the MP manual it has far more synthesis options, still has 60 notes of polyphony and features wavesequencing of a sort that would probably be easier and faster to use. No sample RAM and still the same inability to tweak FX though so I dunno. Did notice yesterday how quickly my ears get tired of hearing samples of the WS. They can probably be mulched together and disguised better if not used as 4 separate layers though. Anyhoo, the KSP was being temperamental too, refused to record again so I powered off and on. Next time I'll see if loading a new project then reloading the current one works as I don't really like on/off solutions. Starting to think I should've taken the MPC37 route. 

May walk tomorrow, not heard. Pat and I went to Tockholes in the morning, got a lunch at the cafe there as the pub didn't start food until 12 and we were too early. I decided to withdrawm the S-4 from sale, at least for now. Was listening to some of the things I did in January and realised just the Tape recorder and granular thing still produce effects I like and would want to keep. So I'll keep it at my old version and Torso can do what they like. Maybe one day there will be an Open Source firmware. 

Friday tomorrow and a Guy Called Gerald. Should still get a decent afternoon sesh in. 

Wave-reinstated

OK, it's like this: before I started on Friday I spent a while importing some multisamples - just a part of my regular collection that goes everywhere. Then I faffed around with the new laptop (and a magnifying glass) until I'd made half a dozen effect presets of my own. Then I had a musical stoned bonding session. 

Result: I think the Wavestate is staying. It does a lot of things, interesting things, that mean four parts of it would be more than enough for what I want from it. Have now made a dozen or so performances, getting a bit deeper all the time and making progress in areas that were initially puzzling. 

Saturday today but local field day so roads closed, no music day with Tim. We had a beer and a g&t and a noodle, Jupiter sounding good. 

Worked on Easel review, well I actually just got sucked into playing with it. Again. 

I also did a bit of sampling - lots of short LPG stuff, some raspy wavefoldy stuff, some pure stuff. For the Wavestate. May as well load it with interesting noises. One downer about the way it handles samples is you have to send the whole lot every time you load any - meaning you have to keep everything you ever want in it available and accessible all the time. A bit stupid, like the blanket reverb and a few other annoyances. Still, what can you do?

At least my theoretical workaround for the Keystep bug does seem valid. Basically, if it doesn't save a Scene successfully, you should save a Chain instead of a pattern for the failing track(s) and then it will save correctly. A chain of just the one pattern you wanted will suffice. You can even go back later and save just the pattern and that seems to save properly too. The thing has all kinds of weird corruptions that happen though and I don't expect those to be ever sorted. Would I dare trust it live? I'd like to...

Review going well after a bitty start. Seem to be getting a shape I like now and it's flowing reasonably well. 

Got an offer for my S-4 - an MPC Key37 - but I think I'll either hold out for cash or keep it in the faint hope it may one day be sourced to a more competent (or less overworked) programmer. Surprised at so little interest, possibly it's due to my over-honest advert. ;)

 

Went mad, bought Wavestate, seem to be coming to end of line with Torso.

Unlike Labout,  Torso announced no rethink on their stupidity and therefore the trashing of Tape (replacing a 6 min looper with a 30 second one!) will not be rolled back or any compromise considered. I'll not decide what to do immediately but I either stick with 1.22 and miss out on macros and the envelope follower, use Beta 12 and put up with the bugs, not least the distortion that happens with overdub sometimes. In both cases probably would not trust the thing live, which is a downer. I could use version 2 and try to find a reason to do so but my heart isn't in it any more and I think the time may have come. 

In other news I bought a Korg Wavestate. It was a kind of snap decision after talking to Matt and reading the manual. The idea was to pair it with the Keystep Pro as a mini jamming and possibly live rig. The Keystep was troublesome today though, hung a few times until I discovered a rogue pattern that I deleted. That kind of thing has happened before but I don't see any more development on it. Will try the program changes with it too as hopefully I can work with weird bank select it does but can't be turned off.

Had a day setting up first performance and corresponding Keystep project Still some stuff to find - e.g. the effect parameters - but selecting presets worked for today. Have not done much with the wave sequencing but will get to it. At least performances take copies of the patches you load so shouldn't be the issue of the original WS pointing to shit that you then change. Fiddlier to get around than the gorgeously logical Opsix but I did expect that. 

https://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/wavestate-1 

Making good progress with Easel review and learning the Wavestate. Seems that annoyance with the FX parameters is genuine and there's no way to see the parameters, just set offsets to whatever they are. Stupid! Otherwise I like it but it does make using FX really hard. 

Ah I see the FX can only be edited in detail from the editor - what a downer for a hardware synth. It's worse cos the editor totally sucks. I mean, it might work on a large screen but it's shit on my two Windows laptops, just won't fit properly without shrinking so I can't read any text. And the FX are right at the bottom so I'll have to find a way to drag the box without the top bar, probably windows geeks know how to do that. Anyway, I'm still struggling to edit some things. Like today I spent almost 30 mins trying to work out what one sequencer lane wouldn't go beyond step 3 even though its length was 7 steps. Gave up in the end. Next time I start something I'll choose an Init wavesequence rather than keep doing edits on whatever it was I started from. Must be something in there I can't see that's hurting. Was tempted to send it back but I still feel it has potential. Laborious though. 

Walking tomorrow. Cautley Spout. 

Friday today. Think it's crunch time for the Wavestate - if I can't find a way to edit those FX parameters I may have to reluctantly send it back. Dan from Korg has been trying to help but doesn't realise how hard it is to use the app on my laptop so will do some screen dumps with little arrowspointing to the areas off-screen where the (only) paramters I need are to be found. I would not have bought it had I known you couldn't edit everything from the hardware. Reviews should have screamed about this. 

Heading towards the solstice & S-4 hurts...

 Yeah, a few days and we'll hit that tipping point, seems to come quicker each year. We have, at least, had plenty of warm, sunny weather this year so no complaints from me. Today's Wednesday and Pat may be home. She's gonna be away next week too but really hope that's it for a while as she'll be totally knackered. I've coped OK by myself, ate lots of curry, drank beer and got stoned. Experimentally trying not to resist today just to see what it's like. I've done a lot of music and the kindest thing I can say is that some of it is "interesting". 

I think I've resigned myself to keeping the S-4 at Beta 12 level like some ancient insect in amber and hoping, desperately, for an Open Source future where they put back what was magical about it (to me). The official release doesn't interest me too much as I can no longer work like I have since the start. Tape's reduction from 6 mins per track to 30 seconds has just ruined it for me - and I feel pretty bad about my review now, wish I'd never heard of the damn thing. Not Duncan's fault - he knew I'd love it as it was but neither of us could have predicted that Torso simply couldn't make it work reliably/stably and therefore took a late and unexpected side-road. Communication very poor too, it's like dealing with kids who break up with you by ghosting you. 

Some review work today. Is the plan. Didn't happen.

You know, the more I think about this S-4 thing the more questions I have, such as was this diversion planned from the start? If so, how come Disc only appeared in beta 14(was it?). And if it was planned, what was the point of fixing my record/overdub bug that I reported and which did appear on the fixed list? Now overdub isn't possible and doesn't even appear in the manual as a note option. More and more I suspect this was a panic/rush job to get something out, riding roughshod over testers's views and concerns about loss of functionality. 

I am, so far, resisting public comment but at some point I'll probably apologise to readers of the SOS review for leading them astray. 

Solstice... yesterday I recorded a few hot, sweaty things that turned out OK, I think. 

Most were shorter than usual as I was melting and wanted to get the recording done. 

Monday now. Pat's away again, I dearly hope for the last time in a while. Spent the day tinkering with the Easel review, at least it's started now and I can pick at it when the mood takes me. Was pleasant and sunny but apparently it's getting colder and wetter tomorrow, which will suit my studio excesses. Trying to keep the online moaning about the S-4 to a minimum but it ain't easy. 

Got an early morning call from mum wanting help, rushed to Longridge to find she was exhausted, had been up all night but couldn't trust her legs to go into kitchen for a drink of water. Stayed with her a few hours as she slept. Turns out she'd fallen previous night after falling asleep standing up (again). Tough times. Seemingly better now, hope I dare go out to the EMOM tonight. Haven't done a lot today, dozed a bit and, of course, that's when mum rang to say she was feeling better. Broc been neglected a bit but he's chirpy enough. I wrote a paragraph of review, that's all I could manage. Pat meant to be home tomorrow, hope so. 

Pat delayed by burning cars on the motorway, lots of those these days. I didn't do a lot, started playing with the Opsix but got distracted by incessant crackling from the S-4. No idea why as I haven't changed anything. In the end just switched it off. Will see if they have anything to say next week as promised via email. Last night's EMOM was great - enjoyed every act and it is starting to feel like possible a good grass roots scene evolving. We will play next month. 

Alone Again Times Two

 Yeah, doesn't seem like 5 mins since the last time, although only the one dog to look after this week. Dawn's having an op on her knee and Pat's gone down to help out as she'll be incapacitated. Sunday morning now and I'm contemplating how to use the time, probably should start the Buchla review as I probably know enough to do so. Feel like making music too, which is nice.

The Graham Massey thing was great, a bit like Gong in places and a bit jazzwanky in others, but always interesting. Young chap came up to me and said how much he'd enjoyed our Ferret set, which was very cool to hear. Hope when Tim gets back we can continue in the same vein and get ourselves ready to do more good shit. I recorded something on Friday that's half-decent and started something on Saturday I might progress more today. Should really be looking at putting patterns together for Headshock, just supporting sorta things but interesting ones. May not go and get another week's supply of curry - my system has only just recovered from the last lot. Then again, who knows?

Still struggling to make myself understood on the Torso beta list. The programmy chap asked for a use case that the current changes have scuppered and I gave a simple example of one of mine, to zero response - except from a few other users who got it. It feels, at the moment, like I've wasted my time with this thing and, worse, recommended the magical parts in the SOS review that, as I write this, have been trashed. Starting to suspect they simply don't know how to make their original idea stable enough and are changing direction accordingly. 

Good to remember that HX-One on the floor, even if I forgot it was assigned to the Easel and therefore made a fool of myself going on a wild goose chase after sorting out the unattached reverb spring. I suppose it's possible I swap things round too much. 

Monday did this

Wednesday went for a walk with Tony and, in the evening, watched some old Stargate thing and drank whisky. Slept well and woke feeling like doing some music - can't summon the enthusiasm to start writing review yet - will see if it 's any cooler today. Pat home tomorrow and I've missed her. 

This was Thursday/Friday but I think I forgot to record one of the things I did today or yesterday, erm.

On Saturday I changed a few things around - swapped the 505s, using them as mixer into the Cosmos so two instruments plus recorded performances can be processed by it. Getting great results. Put Super 6 in place of Osmose so I can loop it and the Easel together. Top fun!! Recorded this and I reckon June has already produced better music than May and I'm just two weeks in. 

Pat goes off again tomorrow, intend to get some RK again. And this week I will try and make inroads on the review.

I could take a photo of a fridge full of curry but I've done that before. Meant to do something this afternoon but haven't. Having some wine and will see what the evening holds...

Some (relative) freedom, playing live and going to a gig

 Yeah, that kind of week lies ahead. I have to wait in tomorrow for the non-RoHS compliant part for the Easel and then I'll walk the dogs and go to RK Dining for some vittles. The afternoon will be Tim and I getting our shit together for the thing at the Ferret. I think Wednesday is the free-est day as Thursday is mum's birthday and Lisa is doing a thing, Friday is Penguin Cafe in Kendal. Pat & Marg home on Saturday. As always I'll try and make the best of things. 

Well, the gig was ace. Think Tim did really well considering the time he'd had to prepare with the EMX. Could be worthy of release.

RK Dining was a treat this morning - got three meals and sides then they gave me two more dishes for free as they were left over from a banquet that was cancelled. Yay! I'm gonna be an even fatter bastard. 

Today will test the VCX a bit and continue with the Easel.

Oh yes, Penguin Cafe were wonderful. Woulda some of their own stuff rather than wall to wall PCO but shouldn't moan. Got back just before midnight and dogs were OK, although Benji had peed (didn't see until following morning).
Continuing S-4 testing, or would be if I could still do the thing I've come to rely on doing. Now fighting to retain the functionality that made me buy (and recommend) the thing in the first place, which is hugely frustrating. Fitted new LPG and noticed the reverb not attached by all 4 springs. Then made a fool of myself by thinking there was reverb even when it was set off, forgetting I'd swapped the FX around with the Osmose and that its HX-One was set to reverb. Made notes on the VCX, got the SH-101 and Morpheus back from repair - 101 sounds fab, not had chance to try the Morph yet. Studio feeling somewhat cluttered, Jupiter is back so will move the Sys8 around and park the Wave until the Easel goes (yeah, would love to keep it but just can't justify the outlay). Haven't walked this week, maybe next week but will have to take Broc as I'm alone again. Haven't done any decent music in a while so really want to get something going for this Friday afternoon. Tim away in Bulgaria so Saturday will be free for something, not sure what. Maybe the OT studio and have it sequence the Morphy, see how it holds up. Haven't recorded anything personally in there for a while. Or in setup 2 come to think of it. Cirklon's sequencing the 101 at the moment though and I fancy giving that a go too... decsions! The Graham Massey gig tomorrow too. 

Exploring Live (a bit) then Superbooth!

 Yeah, Live Lite came with the MOTU interface (as well as Performer). I like the simple, clear, scalable interface and the fact I know it already, a little. Did a small experiment today with some audio taken from the BlackBox, just arranging it and playing with effects. Seems it will serve well. Since Cirklon is still where it was 15 years ago, in terms of arrangement anyway, I reckon I've waited long enough and should find alternative ways forward. Tuesday, installed full version of Ableton. May look at some of the packs that come with it but not going to rush into those as there are too many.

Friday was a good un. Updated the Osmose and recorded some stuff with new sounds. Need to do an actual arrangement of it, get the levels up and so on but all good. 

Superbooth was a wonderful week, even if I should maybe do it slightly different in future so I can see more of the gear/people. Getting Colin & co out of the apartment each day was a slow business...

Hmmm since then the Easel has arrived and we're down to do a spot at the local EMOM so I should probably wrap this up and start another blog entry.