Where to go from here?

 It's the question I've been asking myself since being exposed to a real studio and skilled professionals who played sober, unstoned and note-perfectly whenever called upon to do so. Should I be drawn back into the DAW world in order to raise my game or is there some other way? Does it really matter if I enjoy pootling about as I always have? Half-way houses include things like the Zoom mixer that records all its inputs, all of which eventually takes me back to a screen and mixing and producing. Or maybe I do it that way and only go back and work on the jams that have promise, which yesterday's didn't (now I give them the sober Saturday play). Still not unhappy though because I was working again and the air conditioner made it possible. Using the TT-606 as master clock is probably only a short-term thing though, will probably put Octatrack back or some other simple clock source. Or maybe that's where the DAW belongs... 

Yeah went back to OT. Now looking at a mixer solution that will incorporate multitrack recording and therefore replace the current Behringer mixer and the Zoom R24. 

Decided on a Zoom L6Max. Even if it doesn't prove my ultimate solution to rule them all, it'll do nicely as a small recordable mixer for live and I'll initially use it in place of the R24 and main Behringer mixer in that room. It wIll free a load of space and give me the power to record as and when I want, even using it as a muti-channel input to the laptop with my Live setup. The R24 can move into the other room and be a mixer/recorder for the small corner setup maybe.

Probably more important though is how much my process changes or indeed can change. A lot of my improv stuff could already be done to Logic and refined yet I rarely do. Gonna have to think a lot about the gains and costs - and even if I want to work more sober/unstoned just to produce music with supposedly fewer obvious flaws and generally better production values. I mean, who am I doing this for?

A quality Monday combining MIDICake Arp with Wavestate. Sending all tracks to global track then splitting each part by velocity of key range proving most excellent. 

Tuesday I tried the Zoom - wow it's tiny! And does indeed seem to do its job and all outputs available to Ableton - so I may not even need its own recording but do selections on Live as multitracker. We'll see how it goes.

My tree still looking good

Did quick test of recording direct to card and then to Ableton with the Zoom as audio interface - good in that mode I can easily choose which inputs to use for recording. Haven't tested yet whether the L6Max records muted tracks. Would seem silly but who knows?

I think the L6 Max is gonna work out very well. I dithered before buying but it has freed so much space in the studio it's worth it just for that. Felt a bit rought today though so didn't do more than a few tests. Got poor Becca's cold, so I have. 

Real World

 Wow what a place
OK, wish I'd not brought the MPC.It's not fast enough for this kind of thing but fortunately I did bring the Octatrack. No room for the DFAM and Grrind yet but will take one of them in today and squeeze it in somehow. Will search for a few decent sounds in the MPC and get tracks ready to play. 

Tuesday now, just today and tomorrow to go. Yesterday I sorted my Easel Command deal, which made me happy. I also played grand piano on a track (very simply) and squelchy synth on a reggae track as well as some weirdness to Andy's track (which I got lucky recording since I cocked up the monitoring and did it without hearing). Overdubs and tidying/arranging today. The girl Becca is incredible - not just as s singer/song writer but as a pianist. Predict she'll go far. 

Thursday and I'm home - drove back last night in the fractionally cooler air and made good time cos roads were quiet, probably due to England match. Lots to process but I'll come back to that. Meanwhile, the last of the photos

OK, up early on Friday morning. Yesterday I installed the air cond and hopefully secured the window fitting - may need a pipe extension yet, we'll see. Does seem to really do its job, so hoping for a proper test this afternoon.

Back to RW and I woke with some thoughts. 

Really wish I'd had time to prepare a song for everyone to work on. I think that'd have made a big difference to how comfortable I felt amongst all those people who could play so well. I also think that for the kind of music being worked on, I needed to try and fit in with stuff not covered well already. My grooves were a bit pointless given how good the two drummers were and there's no denying the MPC is just too slow to use in that environment, its synths just not interesting-sounding in comparison to the magic Otso was able to summon whenever needed. The Octatrack was OK but, again, I was making up patterns from scratch and as everyone was basically ready to do a take all the time, the fact I only heard my patterns for the first time when I faded them up during recording was too seat of the pants, even for me. Some things worked, others didn't. Having the Trigon-6 saved me from being completely unable to play owt and I guess a few synths of my own plus weird shit like the Soma Pipe or other distinctive instruments/FX would have given me more scope Even something I knew well like the MS20 would have been a godsend. Anyway, I muddled through and learned a heck of a lot about how these things work. If I were invited again (by no means certain), I'd do it very differently. Oh, and working with headphones, doing my own mix of every performer (including myself) totally blew my mind and took several days to even get close to hearing properly. With my back to the Protools display I had no idea of my levels compared to everyone else so had to work basically deaf and blind. So yeah, I don't think I represented myself too well, especially as I couldn't hear the Octatrack loops at all until given a MIDI start command, which only happened as we were about to start recording. No idea what everyone thought of me but they probably put me down as a bumbling amateur, which is how I felt sometimes. Fortunately they were really nice, kind and supportive cos they're lovely people. I confess I'd like to do at least one more so I could bring something to the table - sadly all the Margaret stuff in the lead-up, plus the bloody house renovations totally screwed me. Oh well. 

 

End of brain dump :)

Woke this morning with Becca's soft piano tune going round my head. No idea what I'll do musically today except it'll be in the cool part of the studio. Oh and PRS was down so any gear treats I get to console myself will be minor - an FX pedal or something (maybe the Soma Warp or Strymon Timeline MX). And since everyone plays for 15 mins at a trot without changing, would definitely take the RC-505 looper so that I don't go insane trying to match that. :)

July, July and much to do

 Yeah this month continues the renovations to the hallway - please god let it end soon. Also have Real World coming up in a week. Still had almost no studio time and unlikely to get much (if any) so I'll be winging it. 

Thursday was a walk in Swaledale, plus an offer on mum's house that we accepted. Gonna need to clear it out soon, which will be a pain and I wish we'd done it sooner. Seems some confusion on the location of the deeds which were, we'd assumed, in the safe that Jan & Lisa emptied but maybe not.

Encountered two lovely naked girls while on our walk, which is all too rare in my opinion. Had a nice pint in Muker and drove home to find my Friday had been given away for the convenience of our workshy workman. I practised my resigned grin but couldn't get it good enough to deploy. 

Friday and our "workman" can't make the promised 8 am but aims to be here at 9. We'll see. My day looking grim. Will try and make a Friday out of tomorrow but I bet something gets in the way. 

Disappointed to learn the Zoom L6Max is locked into 48kHz and the MPCs are locked to 44.1. Means I can't do the thing Matt is doing with his SSL and route specific outputs to it for hands-on control. Will have to investigate which mixers may be suitable - but I want one with recording too. The Tascam one looks good but it's large and much more expensive than the Zoom. Maybe I wait for someone to spot the obvious gap in the market...

Contacted KMR about the Easel Command they offered but noticed I'd missed my month quote deadline - waiting for David and distracted by house/Margaret so it'll probably cost me more. Oh well. Moved studio about in preparation for air cond, which I may have mentioned already.

Saturday's jam/record sesh produced nothing great (again) but it was still nice to be able to do something. I'll go to Real World and fit in as best I can, Maybe the "what nonsense" track could be developed somewhat or some of my old loops based on the Wavestate. The Grind is proving less than 100% reliable - keeps needing to be powered off and on as it goes silent for no apparent reason. Wondering if I should substitute it for something else, although not sure what. 

Painter starting tomorrow and hopefully not doing full days. Pat taking Marg to Blackpool for cancer chat. 

Well, the painter was sound (he's not coming tomorrow so studio time possible) but the cancer diagnosis was as feared. I got a short studio sesh but no ideas so just listened through a few projects and will continue tomorrow just looking for anything that might be worked on. 

Tuesday and after a morning doing some gardening, I'm sneaking in a pseudo-Friday afternoon. Let's see how that goes and if I come up with owt - decided not to worry either way. Finally remembered to listen to the new ANT album and have to admit it's good, really good. It's been through so many iterations now, each with a bit less of me present, and it's very close to becoming an I Monster album instead. Anyway, I like it and am glad to be in it at all. I wonder what we'll do with it?

Good afternoon messing with new MPC projects, just short simple demos. At least I'll go with a few projects to use as starting points. Did deal for Easel Command - KMR were lovely in cancelling my order.so I could move on it. Also got some garden done but noticed neighbours from one of the houses behind have cleared the brambles etc. behind our garages which is, AFAIK, our land so guess we'll need to talk to them. Painter guy returns tomorrow. 

 

Hot Wednesday waiting around. Such is life at the moment. Social worker come to see Margaret. Well was meant to, didn't show or get in touch to say why. Great. 

Hot Thursday waiting around. Reckon the next entry here will be post Real World. 

And Margaret, too

 As I write this it hasn't happened but I'm optimistic, finally, that it will. She does seem to be recovering what mental capacity she had prior to the heart op and Pat has sorted some social care, anticipating her cancer discussion soon (and any possible treatment). I have still not managed any studio time but we've been assured by the guy working here that he'll be done by early next week. So I won't get the prep time I'd hoped for Real World but I may get some. 

I still have some jobs to do - sealant for the concrete slice we cut, a keysafe for Margaret, some small stones to fill the hole where the concrete broke and a few more minor things. I'm hoping to walk next Thursday and be in the studio on Friday. Funny how being unable to get there really makes you want it. 

My following of the tastes of the guy who buys the Wily stuff on bandcamp is giving some great stuff - getting into the Autumn of Communion, right up my street. I guess today will be listening, reading and old lady-watching. Shame cos last time Tim and I got together produced that cool electribe stuff and I'd like to revisit. Soon, hopefully.

Monday and our 'handyman' didn't show but we took Margaret back to her place for the day, back at teatime. Felt like a decent day and I fired up the MPC, had no promising ideas but was nice to just use it. Actually I should just have played the Osmose. Realised that the MPC's internal synths are so slow and limited I should probably get more MIDI gear attached and just record that. Then I won't need to worry about the shitty snapshot process for tweaks, just record what I want where I want it like the BlackBox. Audio and samples eh? Going to be good having the Octatrack too - recorded some loops off that today into the MPC and it worked well. 

Fuck, it's July!

 

Ducks gone to a better place..

 No, not that better place: Turbury Gardens, the pond there. Our new neighbour volunteers at the place and recommended it. Caught the mother then the chicks, reasonably easily. Margaret still here, still weedy. I'll be looking after her while Pat goes south on Friday. So won't be my usual afternoon sesh, alas. 

Pat didn't go - reasoned that Margaret is really struggling and there's all the hallway mayhem to co-ordinate as well as materials to gather. The whole project has blossomed out of control, it seems to me, with perectly good doors and doorframes replaced with different ones. I won't dare mention doing a proper staircase now since we finally have fixed the ceiling, plus I'm fed up of the house being a building site and being unable to access the studio. Got my MPC downstairs and put 3.9 on it, which has several important updates for the arranger and for drum and keygroup programs. Spotted a bug immediately where the drum program save switches from your name for it to the track name the first time you save. Not sure I can even be bothered to report. Hopefully will get into the studio next week and put it through its paces properly. 

Tuesday went to Windermere with John and Mick. Fabulous.

Saturday is here. No idea when we're getting our house back but hopefully Tim and I can go to the pub later and escape for a while. The hallway job has grown and grown and Margaret is getting stronger but losing her marbles, I think. Pat got up in the night cos she'd been running hot water down the sink for 15 mins for no apparent reason. Fed up of the bathroom stinking of vinegar as she washes her dentures in it, again for reasons we can't work out. I'd really like to play with the MPC and put in some bug reports but I suspect I won't be using the new oscillator feature all that much - but do appreciate the arranger and time sig improvements. 

FIred up the MPC for a while on Monday until it got too hot. On Tuesday it was hotter and I finally ordered an air conditioner - sadly the one I wanted wasn't available until early July. Otdered a window kit that will suit velux - the room's smaller and has a door so will be easier to cool. May have to move stuff around, perhaps even reduce some of what's there. Sorta stuck with the speaker position due to shape of room. Actually, the speakers could be at the door end and I could be at the center, back looking/listening in that direction. Might even be scope for a graphic wall /projector behind at some point depending on space. 

Tomorrow guy coming to tackle drains. Will try and persuade him to also replace pipe between drain and bathroom.

Thursday it's John's last thursday tea. Said I'll try and attend but Pat pulled face as she's planned food for the week. I sometimes wonder why we have a freezer full of stuff but get fresh in daily for meals. What's the freezer stuff for?

Now rhen. Another Friday gone to shit. Almost literally since I spent a good portion of it digging out the drain. Neighbour's mate cut the concrete, connected the pipe and laid concrete. I dug out the shitty ground, bashed and removed the old piping. Back now a bit sore but the job's done - just hope he got it at some kind of angle - wish I'd got my spirit level on the job actually but anyway not many degrees to play with. May need to invest in a pump :)

I'm really getting withdrawal symptoms from music. Depressing. Work dude managed just a single door today so hope he pulls his finger out tomorrow. Just want it all done but there's skirting, floor and random woodwork to do. Better not take many more days... Saturday I promised to watch Margaret while Pat goes into town. Good for her to have a break. Doc came today to look at Marg - she's actually better than she's been all along so perhaps there's hope after all. 

June - but shall I change my tune?

Friday's thing had some good moments, especially those featuring the Opsix, but the parts that don't work so well involve the DRM-1. It sounds great but I've just lost of feel for groove and wonder, now, why I included it. I will do a remix/rework deleting the DRM clips and adding more ambience. I may yet keep the DFAM bits as they have a certain something. 

We're getting ready for a few things next week, not least Margaret's long-awaited op and the installation of solar panels. I cleared part of the side of the house and will ditch my bike this weekend. I let it rot really, as Pat is also doing with hers. Would be great to ditch that bike house actually or move it. 

Saw Rich Hall tonight, pretty funny. His comedy appealed more than his comedy songs but all very enjoyable. Raining heavily and I went out in sandals and my new cardi. Yeah, sharp as a button. 

Monday, scaffolding up. Margaret through her op. Cirklon's bloody battery low again. According to this blog I last replaced it on Dec 31 2021 so 4.5 years. Solar Panels come tomorrow. 

Panel install started. Was reminded it's just a month before Real World so I should think about what to take, what contribution I might make. Jim mentioned Porty's Head, Massive a-Tick  and others as a reference so I could look for my albums. I'll probably take the Octatrack and MPC (supported by KSP) with possibly the DFAM and a pedal or two for hands-on fun/looping. Was contemplating the Fuzzbillion pedal but gonna hold off. Real shame I don't seem to be able to source an Easel Command in time. Octatrack can replace a mixer. Just need to prepare a few things and hopefully will be able to sync up to Jim's Cirklon and add stuff to whatever's happening. May put the little Alesis mixer in the car just in case I need more flexibility.

Friday was pretty good, started a few sketches and I probably won't need all that many, just have to keep working the MPC really and putting material in. Still waiting to see what's happening with Margaret, hospital not really providing much info. Pat has gone in on the bus due to the problems parking. 

Saturday, fun jams with Tim, minimal. Sunday, walks with dogs, saw Margaret (still expecting op on her clot but she's looking better). Tomorrow guy doing work in the hallway so no studio for me. Must get car lights done before MOT. Have started re-reading the Vorrh.

A simple graphical editor makes life so much easier. I wonder if one will ever come to Cirklon?

My little rig for Real World. Well, not the Sys8. The Octatrack is basically my "comfort gear"

oh yes, a duck and three ducklings turned up today

I didn't use this album cover, or rather sobered up and deleted. Still plan to though. Not sure if this Friday scuppered as Margaret discharged from hospital too early and here. Preston are bloody rubbish. Didn't even tell us, just cleared her out of her bed. Pat livid. 

Off to see Mick and John tomorrow. 

And it was lovely. Duckies still doing OK too. Yay.