Ardnamurchan

 Yeah, a week up here with Tony taking pix and hanging out. Will need a week to recover methinks. Weather has been pretty good - some really nice days and some more foggy/misty. Full set of pix here but some included for convenience. It's the Cyclical Fest on Saturday - a 'live' performance as we drive back south. 

Yeah, been there and done that. Totally failed to go to the lovely oak forest as it was fecking miles away and also failed to get to the brewery that was quite close. Took some nice pix but I think it'll take a week to recover from the daily dose of being stoned, drinking whisky and sitting around listening to shit music on Radio 6. It used to be good but not any more. Feeling somewhat listless. The Cyclical Festival happened and my simple thing to one camera worked out alright, I think. 

This was my abandoned first go (you'll probably work out why - music was slightly better, maybe)

Right, it's Monday and I should transfer the sea and stream recordings I made (OK ocean and stream) into a few places that might want to use them. Time's passing though so I might end up doing nothing. The S-4 is still buggered and seems like they're all away somewhere so won't be issuing another hotfix anytime soon. Can't decide whether to trust it to save/load correctly but will likely just leave it alone. 

How to hear it all?

 I've noticed, lately, I've made quite a few recordings .The video thing was part of it and also getting properly used to my refurbished setup 3, which is working so well now it feels like my second favourite after setup 1. Anyway, I've ended up with all these things I have to listen to and choose which are usable, if any. I have four versions of 'Arelle" for example, and the last thing I want to do it pick and choose bits from all and combine - has to be one inspired take or nothing. When am I gonna get time to listen, compare and choose? Well, no hurry I guess. Arelle 2 went off to Pablo and the various other bits, plus the first recordings with the Behringer Grind, can sit in a folder and I'll get to them as and when. I was thinking that setup 3 would have benefited from some drum loops but it didn't tempt me to get out the Electribe Sampler sitting right there. I should sell it and a few other unused items, such as that other Odyssey and some of the Eventide stompboxes. 

Today (Monday) I updated Synthtribe and received the S-4 update but too late to install. Seems they fixed lots and lots of stuff plus added that vital thing I wanted - to extend a recording with silence to whatever length. Very excited to try it tomorrow and maybe get my review done quite soon. I also tried the user algorithm function of the Opsix for the first time - could only remember the manual roughly so was some trial and error. Seems everything can modulate everything else to varying degrees AND you can route any or all operators to the output. Needless to say I made some horrendous noises. I do like editing it still though, which is hopeful. It froze on me but didn't hang, was able to change patches anyway. Also tried playing some piano using Super-6 keyboard and was still not much impressed with its velocity output consistency. Kinda glad I didn't get the poly AT upgrade as I suspect that will be equally starved of resources and will also guess values. This is why so many early synths had a separate processor for keyboard scanning and the faster processors of modern ones aren't always the best replacement if they're also doing lots of other shit. Oh well. 

Not a bad day even if I didn't get a lot of studio time. Pat doing horse things and happy though so worth it. Tuesday we had Otis and he behaved very well. Tony came and we talked about our plans for next week. Didn't do anything with the S-4 but seems quite a few users are having problems with projects not loading. Pondering whether to leave it a while or try out so I can complete the review. 

Wednesday, woke to the grim but not unexpected news of Trump's domination of Amerika. No point worrying about any climate targets, genocides or loss of unspoilt wildernesses; I guess  it's best just to shut my mind to it all, stop looking at Twatter and concentrate on hiding and getting drunk.  

Thursday, made a chilli, redid the track from yesterday which I think is better. Oddly, the next on the memory stick (another Yrkoon) goes well with it, certainly the first 6 mins. Could be a themed album about decay and desolution. Folks love that shit. Or do they? Well, they must, they keep voting for fucking Hitler!

Yeah, still avoiding the news. Pat trailed round loads of places this afternoon with her broken (water damaged) iphone; she completely ignored my advice to go to the place I liked. Indeed, I stopped telling her after a few times since it just didn't seem to be going in. I don't know if she dismisses whatever I say out of habit or some other reason but I do worry sometimes. 

Friday I redid that track, added another short one and a butchered version of "another yrkoon basically" but gave it a cleverer title. Voila. https://wilyepeyote.bandcamp.com/album/tipping-point

Think the cat got the pigeon today :(

Some Days Alone

 And properly alone, no dog, so it made life a totally different experience. Recorded more videos, one of which would have been the one I could use for the online festival thing EXCEPT I left it on 'arsecam' throughout. Musically it held together better than Arelle2, its replacement which I did direct to camera, no livestreaming so just one camera angle. File is 6Gb though which is rather large to send to Pablo. Anyway, two good days and it's Friday again! However, gotta go and take my mother to a blood test so the afternoon start may be delayed slightly. Hey ho. 

Good sesh with Tim yesterday. Off to see Dean in Lancaster tonight, doing his ERC thing. 

Earl's guitar arrived, looks completely new so will treat with respect and try to learn a bit. Fortunately Tim can play it for me if necessary. Oh yes, and this portly amphibian was waiting for me when I did my weekly drain check. Looking good for winter!

Well, I didn't get to Lancaster. Got round the corner and the passenger-side headlight flickered a couple of times and went off. Slightly odd for it to happen now and I ended up feeling rather morose for the rest of the night, especially when I realised I'd left it a bit late to make other arrangements. Watched random telly then sloped off to bed. Next week is, as far as I can tell, blank. 

Did an online jam type thing

 Yeah baby! Made progress by moving out the RD8 and moving in the Virus. I reckon the DRM and DFAM are quite sufficient for my percussive needs, at least for now. Wish I could remember that the bloody camera defaults to microphone on.

Good day (Saturday) some jams and whams and whatnot

Sunday came and not a great deal happened. As the clocks have gone back it's darker sooner (bloody silly if you ask me) and it's also wet and cold. Didn't do any studio stuff but contemplating moving the Memotron from setup 3 and slotting either the 404 or the GR-1. I have a feeling that the GR-1 would be quite a nice thing to stick into the S4 as the V-Synth is maybe not best served by that. I pre-ordered a Behringer Grind - all part of my long-term plan to ditch another modular case as the Plaits could be sold along with its supporting modules. The Grind has MIDI but they cocked up and forgot to give it a 1/4" output. At some point I may look at replacing the System 8 with an UB-XA - assuming it's fast and simple enough. There are things I should sell just to clear out the decks a bit. Have accumulated too much lately and I know the things I really, really like. 

Next week I should have a couple of days properly by myself - Pat taking Broc with her when she goes to Dawn's. Curry will be had and hopefully I'll get my video done. No Tim though as he's gonna be in Scotland working. Still not 100% sure I'll play on the Cirklon setup but suppose I should. 

Colin reminded me of the USB Host port...

So I have an easy route to poly AT already done and dusted, now to try and program some Opsix patches to make use of it. A project for the next few days methinks. 

Pat being away is gonna give me the opportunity to have some fun and make that video. No dog means I needn't leave the studio except to go for a pee or get more beer. Yay!!

Opsix progress

 Some anyway. The app is a bit crashy but if you're careful and import one bank at a time then send to the synth after each merge, it works. Colin managed to find a great resource - loads of banks, including the PPG sound used by the KLF that I was looking for. It didn't convert perfectly but I should be able to tweak it. So many banks I'll never play most of them but I've noted a few I want to audition. Great thing is whatever I stick in there can soon be made into useful noises. Setup 3 is pretty darn solid now. Ordered another HX One. I mean, why not?

Discovered that most of the DX7 banks are full of very similar material, surprise surprise. Am already making more interesting sounds though so no matter really. I added the HX One to that setup and it works beautifully instead of the rather lacklustre Opsix FX. Thought I was getting a day to myself this week but turns out it's gonna be next week, which is cutting it rather fine for the Nov 10th deadline for that video. Will start woking on something to film anyway and I guess it'll feature the S-4. Contemplating swapping out the RD-8 as the DRM-1 is really more interesting for percussion especially as the DFAM is in there too. We'll see. 

Pat's been in a miffed state for a couple of days now, hopefully not for too much longer. Tried to find out what's eating her but she won't tell yet. She went to bed early so I'm watching a program about David Bowie's early years. Must do something about that video but I do need a better general atmos in the house. Finished that sci-fi I was reading (Firefall) but can't say it really engaged me. Started another that's simpler and better, something about Reality and it has Merlin in it, yeah, I know. I closed the Twitter tab on my browser and gonna leave it a while as it's really depressing me at the moment. 

Happier house today. Nice walk this morning and chat. In the afternoon I pottered in the studio, not really getting brilliant results yet but I think I may make some progress tomorrow. Really miss the P3. Cirklon is so slow in comparison and I miss the fast interface, knobs and simplicity - but most of all I miss playlists. And Ck patterns are really, really inferior to recording into an RC-505. The S-4 isn't a replacement for that... yet. 

 

Bloody hell - Aurora over the house!

 Yeah, quite amazed by the colour, intensity and duration. Had a ball gawping up and snapping.

I should probably have boosted the saturation so it looked a bit more like how it really was. Anyway. 

I won an award, which doesn't happen too often these days. Makes me think I should edit this slightly as some start and ends are a bit rough. Maybe that's good though, who knows?

Yay! Setup 3 reorg still progressing, made another slight change today. Unfortunately I started recording (yet another attempt at 'zain') and within minutes Broc alerted me to a visitor - Bucky had come. pat had arranged it but forgot to write on calendar and, of course, she was with the horse. So switched off studio and gave up again. Later, took Broc a nice walk in the sun and did the grass, well not all of it - the long stuff near the conservatory is always full of frogs and I left a fair bit of that,plus the patio for them to hang out in. Frustrating day but at least got that done. Did a few refinements to the S-4 review in the light of ongoing experience. Now gonna sit a bit.

October, Synthfest and a birthday treat

 Yes, the start of October means Synthfest - and this time I actually fancied treating myself to something so looked at quite a lot of gear. Consequently I missed quite a few people I'd normally chat to - but was a good show, I think. The  SOS lunch was nice, managed to play the polybrute, Muse, Nina thing, Minifreak, Mantis and a selection of the new Korgs. Surprisingly it was one of those I went for - an Opsix complete with (non aftertouch) keyboard. I managed to spend some time towards the end seeing how easy it was to edit and was won over, especially with a discount. Mr Buggins got a Wavestate but his came without a power supply so he's yet to report on it. I'm very impressed with my purchase so far though, it does things my other gear does not - even the Digitone can't cover the ground it can. 

Saw John for birthday beers. Went home drunk and left his gift on the bus (or in the pub). He forgot to get off at the right stop and had to walk back from the point he noticed. A good afternoon was had!

It's raining. Again. 

Mac fixed - needed new BIOS battery. Cleaned internals while doing it. Phew!
Opsix hung several times. Receiving notes and CCs while its sequence running, changing patches, something about a randomised patch it also didn't like. All required power off and on. Not good.

Nice walk with Broc

An excellent day - have now programmed (or tweaked into being usable) over 40 Opsix patches. Hope the hanging isn't going to be a thing. Tomorrow is Friday. Recorded a fab thing last week...