September is here

 And we started industriously with the final move of stuff from mum's, visit to solicitor and then I trimmed the spiky hedge near the garage. Got the idea to do a frog album under the name Smokyfrog since I never really did use that and there are some lovely frogs to inspire. We'll see if it happens. Gong Unconvention II in Glasto in November, really should go to that. Will see if Tony fancies it. 

Feel as much like sleeping as going into studio today. Played Atrium. saved setup 1 again as MIDI with SQ1 doing some chuggy sequencing timbral FX turning chords quite sweet. Next there was a cute melody one in slot 2 where I had only the very bottom end of the sustain slider turning the LFO manic, which sent all kinds of other things into flurries too. Quite a creative patch, should probably save it. 

Wednesday, did my good deed of the day by taking Margaret to clinic. Afternoon was a quick update of RND - still doesn't seem to respond to the CC9 on channel 1 for setting a scale and so on but does respond to the individual level controls and reverb. Using it via USB on the MPC which also powers it and sync seems fine that way. Pressed the button quite a few times and wasn't impressed once. Guess you need to be in the mood. Played with Atrium a bit, saved my patches after testing the MIDI one still plays as it did. Must explore MIDI clock sync on that sometime. Was going to try the online thing as I've agreed to do another MR online performance but it was too complicated in the Light Studio so will try in the main room tomorrow, or Friday. Thinking my 5 Atrium saved patches could actually be just 5 starting points with different scales in them. Noticed the MPC has pages for all the CCs but instead of having them as numbers they're all the default ancient MIDI spec names that absolutely nobody uses. May get my default song to set them up better one day. Did at least update my template for a RND access to each channel. 

 Thursday and I was up very early dunno why.Strange dream about being at the top of monumental brick staircase and it being too steep to attempt. Weird huh? Tested online performance thing and it was OK as far as I can tell. Seemed easier than I remembered once I re-enabled all the cameras and audio input. Haven't yet worked out how to download the videos I made to check audio properly. Pat took Margaret to eye clinic and ended up upset with her again. Margaret says random nonsense and Pat can't seem to stop herself from rising to it emotionally. Tried to tell her she was doing great and gently correcting her is the only way but not to get so stressed about it, treat it like a care situation, like if you were working in a care home. I dunno what she expects me to say but keep getting wound up is not sustainable and Margaret is not going to improve. Sigh. EMOM tonight. Wonder if I'll go. Just want a peaceful life but seems a long way away sometimes. 

Had a minor breakthrough with Liminal Entity. After (successfully) testing the OBS online thing I sat and worked on the chapter I'd been stalled on (18). By adding an extra layer and a hint of what's ultimately to come, the chapter gets more gravitas and inner logic. It changes a few things and sets up furher changes but I'd been planning that anyway. Just shows what even a small bag of smoke can do really.

Later, Margaret rang. Another fall. Went round and she seems OK but we can never really relax now wondering if the next one is the big one. Hmmm, she had to go to hospital after all. Well to wait on the ambulance for hours until she was admitted to wait in a corridor. Evventually they discharged her due to no beds and no chance to scan her until Monday. 

Saturday Tim and I noodled a bit, only a bit though. Sunday it rained in the morning. Then Jan & 1 went up Beacon Fell, which was lovely. Booked hotel for the Unconvention - got it wrong first time (2 months out). 

Oh yes, Bernard Szajner died. Was hard to respond online as it was reported by Narc Jerkins, who (of course)  included a plug for one of this albums. Had some nice exchanges with Bernard a few years back as he was looking for gigs and interest in some new music. Sadly he wasn't so interested in talking about his earlier, wonderful work being a proper artiste and all. 

On Monday I played with the Atrium. Tried some clocking of LFO, Delay and Contour and made some groovy wee grooves. At one point had an acid squelch from it, and still find the three band pass filters can be too subtle in many cases. I think I'd like to hear a big swooshy string pad through them but yet to manage owt like that. Still madly addictive. We had Margaret here for a few hours - somewhere different to sleep. 

Tuesday and I did a small reorg, not complete yet. I want to put the Casio piano into my Cirklon setup even if it means swapping it with a main synth. So far I moved the V-Synth back to setup 1 so its D-beam is not obstructed. Sys8 is temporarily in setup 3 there because I don't trust the Super-6's velocity, I need another solution but it isn't obvious yet what it is, will try the hub on thursday (walking tomorrow), plus want to test latest Cirklon additions as progress continues apace. Pat gonna be away three days - Fri-Sun so should take full advantage if I can. The ODD-1 will probably arrive. Busy, busy. 

Thursday and no sign of ODD-1. Had lovely walk at Settle yesterday in the sunshine. Now just listening to a lovely album by that Ludowic bloke who plays the trautonium so beautifully 

Today I am cooking that Japenese steak recipe and hopefully spending time with Atrium - hope I didn't upset the designers for asking about the three bandpass filters, trying to understand why they sound so 'meh' - and no, I didn't put it like that. Wrote to Inmusic again about my problem and still no response. Maybe they laid off support in favour of an AI that ignores you instead - cheaper I guess. Well, until the AI raises its fees. 

If all goes well I have a few days to myself starting tomorrow. OK have to sign contract in the morning for mum's house but otherwuse, time to do some music!

Atrium joys continue as Summer draws to a close

 And I still haven't connected a MIDI controller to it, although I plan to try that soon. Similarly I'm not 100% sure which FX processor best suits it but may try the 404 again but making sure I get rid of that granular delay from my base set as the crackly nature of it annoys fairly quickly. HX-One possibly still tbe superior option though so more experiments needed.A single effect probably cleaner and simpler and the HX has some nice distortions that, I noticed, sounded really good when flicking through yesterday. 

Monday and the painter guy is doing the front room - hardly seems 5 mins since it was painted last. Anyway, I didn't get chance to try work through my MPC issues but I think towards the end of the week it's meant to turn rainy so should be an opportunity then. Must get together with Tim too and see how he's doing. Missed my sister this weekend and forgot to remind her Pete was here and I wasn't coming. Seem to recall next weekend is clearing mum's house time so t's all go. Hmm, car service tomorrow. Garden needs my attention. The usual. 

Thursday was great. Realised MPC does record MIDI notes when Octatrack is master so what's the Tonverk doing? Worked on P3/JD banks and pleased with what I have and there are tracks on the MPC for things I can play. All good. Recorded some nice Atrium today - into the SP-404. 

Going to keep filling that 404 as it's absolutely perfect for this role. Saves worrying if Blackbox will have an error with recording.

Friday's here and I'm raring to, well, to have a repeat of yesterday's explorations. Reading a bit more on the Atrium discord channel, seems there's still lots planned and to come. Will try and learn what I can in advance of adding more to it!

Good day, Stuff on MPC and Atrium then Osmose end. 

Bank Holiday weekend winding to a close. We cleared mum's house, apart from garden stuff which we'll get in week. Solicitor to sort also but hopefully nearing the end of all that. Recorded more atrium stuff but need to arrange which I didn't get round to doing. 

All in all, not a very productive August but one or two things of note and lots of sketches and general pottering. Obviously main thing was having Pete here and sorting what we're gonna play at the gig, or if not what exactly then the general idea. 

Still no reply from InMusic after promising to review my video. Sorta disappointing but I should not expect a fix anytime soon, I guess.

A proper photographer would've waited for a sunbeam.

Pete coming, should be preparing for our recording session but messing with the Atrium instead

 Oh, and doing a video for Akai explaining why the MPC clip handling is shite

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5hpjV5jY4gM

And recorded some initial noises learning the Atrium

Pete here tomorrow

Quality Friday. Did not get past Atrium to the MPC Ah well. 

https://wilyepeyote.bandcamp.com/track/atrium-addict

Pete here and set up Tonverk, looking forward to hearing it in action today. Had curry and my guts are quite confused this morning, almost as if they had forgotten what curry was. Good day Saturday, Pete getting great stuff from Tonverk, MPC misbehaving in that it refused to record MIDI notes while synced to MIDI clock. Some odd shit with the KSP as hitting record on that briefly lit the record on the MPC unlike the MPC itself. Will have to work through that in the week but we'll sort the gig either way. It'll be great. On Sunday Pete sampled a few things to increase his TV collection. He didn't need the Behringer bt played it and it sounded great - just what you'd want for those TD sequences. 

And I'm still in love with the Atrium. Wanna keep playing it. 

Alt fault Atrium Incoming. Oh yes, and ideas are more important than coding (!)

 Yeah, a somewhat radical (and quick) decision given how much I've enjoyed playing with Alt - but one of those small, crappy knobs starting to fail already robbed me of confidence in it, plus there's the on/off envelope thing that will always grate. Rather than get a refund, which Signal were happy to do, I decided to try an Atrium instead. Not quite the same in terms of drone/arpeggiation style, filtering or just simplicity of patching and interaction - but with its own moving, grooving thing going on, assuming I can live with the sparkly lights in my darkness. May need to put it in the brighter half of the studio just because of that. Anyway, that's what I went with and, in theory, it's coming tomorrow. You may think me bonkers and, right now, I couldn't disagree. Time will tell how nutty I am and whether I can master the thing before Pete arrives on Friday!

Did a fault report for the MPC about the bloody annoying way long audio clips are handled. If they ask for a video I have a few on the phone ready. 

Aye, Colin is now in love with an AI code writer, and has declared that coding is now irrelevant but ideas rule. Golly! So I should expect a revision of the Cirklon history, presumably written by an AI too. Won't hold my breath though. 

Oh yes, Colin asked his AI friend to create an image of me looking happy to have playlists in Cirklon. Then added "when stoned". Hoho. 

Wednesday was a great day with Atrium, feeling my way around and cocking up a save of a very cool thing (did record it though). It's a real instrument, feels that way already. RND turned up but didn't immediately sync to MIDI clock.Duncan advised analogue clock and that is working - not so easy getting good loops on MPC as it is on BB though. 

Insta

Hopefully a full-fledged sesh tomorrow. The stuff I've grabbed from RND already useful and once I bring in Atrium, reckon that'll do as my gear for gig.

 

Glasgow here we come, MPC crashes are back and Alt has a fault

 Well, that's Tuesday and today's still Sunday. I spent a wee while today loading up some of the new P3/MPC songs for further work. Good results by keeping the track count low, building stuff into my base DRM kit then adding suitable effects and learning to work around the bug where you don't see anything visible on a long-playing audio clip which is running its full length before ending. 

Got the Real World rough mixes to listen to. Listened through a fair percentage of them.

Went to Glasgow and it were grand. Train was late so got compensation. Drank whisky picked at random, dunno whose instincts got the best but all tasted nice. Took a photo that only caught half the bar but you can see just how many bottles we had to choose from....

Took Izzy back, had a walk with Jan up Jeffrey. On Thursday Rob came and worked on kitchen. He's back tomorrow morning with plumber to finish. May get a Friday as it's supposed to be cooler. As expected the car service light came on. Not sure how many weeks since MOT but it always happens - gonna take it elsewhere for the service to see if cheaper. Didn't hear back from Pascal so he may be upset I missed his call Sunday. Was meant to be Pete here this weekend but we're really not ready and the guest room is still full of shit. 

RND is coming although no actual shipping date given, just that they received it. Fancy doing a gig with just that and Octatrack, making shit up against whatever it generates. Then again fancying doing a gig and being bothered to leave the house are so often very different things.

A good friday. Did a new MPC track with some interesting shit going on. In Cm so usable when Pete comes. Will do some work in Logic tomorrow I think, beef it up since I was hearing with the rather good Zoom compressor on. 

This arrived. And was well received.

One of the Alt's small filter knobs is crackling. Not a good sign. And I don't think there are any others around to replace it with. Bugger. Oh and since 3.9.1 the MPC has definitely been less stable. Yesterday's thing sounded good but as recorded into Zoom with compressor on, is actually very quiet so I'll maybe need to leave that off. Live and learn.How I wish that were true.

 Weather seems to be cooling off at last. Very welcome, had best night's sleep in ages last night. 

August is so often a sad month

 Don't you think? It's the last month of summer and, in theory, one of berries and apples and the nights drawing in. We've already made jam in July though and our apples are looking pretty good, what with all the sunshine. This week's meant to be hot again so hopefully I'll still get some time to think about preparing some material for when Pete comes. Pascal has been in touch and wants to do some collaborating too, so that'll be good. 

It is Monday and I was up early walking the dogs. It's nice cos you then have a better chunk of the day, although Broc was holding his leg and not looking well as we got home, something I've seen once before. Ongoing Margaret saga I won't bother writing here as my blog's been miserable enough lately. 

An excellent day. Tim's P3 driving the JD-XA gave me instant sequences - even sent patch changes that worked so I was pretty much ready to start. I remember starting a few things when I thought the other P3 was wonky. Anyway, now have three starter songs in Cm so the Ideation prep done and to be developed and embellished when Pete here  Added P2K for MPC to sequence then the MPC can do a few bits on top of all the MIDI and audio loop grabs. P3 fixes everything. I can grab the P2K noises for the gig to save taking it if necessary. 

Tuesday felt a bit limp and I trimmed trees until the garden bin was full before having another Alt sesh. For a good while it produced nothing but mulch and I repinned the whole thing a couple of times in search of inspiration. Then, just as I was about to power off, it began producing this sweet and magical melodic flurry. I captured it but it made me realise that it's far less about the connections than it is about making very subtle changes to the movement speeds and depths to stimulate the arpeggiator. Compared to all my other synths, this one stands alone for insisting on the tiniest of changes and listening before doing more - not even the Synthi is this detail-obsessed, although it's the one that comes closest. I did some stuff on the Cric too, just continuing to explore the patch with the envelopes passing on to each other which is still yielding delights. 

Wednesday and I got a short MPC sesh in trying out some new P3 patterns along with the same formula of JD-XA and P2K. I also notice pervasive aftertouch between the KSP and Minilogue XD. For the time being I set the XD's init patch not to respond to it but I need to do a proper analysis of the KSP's output and possibly report it as a fault. I really wish they had made it with a better quality keyboard, as I do the XD itself. Cheap shit plagues us all. 

Quite pleased with that action shot from this morning.

Also quite pleased with Friday afternoon's creation, again using Logic to refine slightly. 

https://wilyepeyote.bandcamp.com/track/three-pins

Doing round robin stuff with Cric, Alt and Synthi, which seemed a darn good idea. 

Cyma Forma Alt ends a patchy July on a high

 Monday is the day it arrives and I've already sent an update request. All this stuff with the envelopes led me to believe the buttons could trigger the new envelope modes - but the manual says no. For some reason only via MIDI and the arpeggiator do the envelopes kick in. Wtf? So while I was asking for stuff, I requested the LFOs change from square to triangle from saw to triangle, like the MS20. Never liked square waves as modulators. Possibly can't do though as the LFOs are analogue.

Tuesday and hopefully I'll get some time to play with Alt. As out chap didn't come last night getting Tim's help to move settee back into front room. Pat has noticed the hall and front room flooring are different so she wants the hallway one replaced... it never ends. It's EMOM tonight and I did briefly consider playing with Alt but as I have yet to properly have a go, that seems a bit silly, even for me.

Nah I decided to stay in after a few beers and a baggie with Tim. I like the Alt very much though. Did this as my first captures. https://wilyepeyote.bandcamp.com/album/alternate-title It's NOT an album.

Today I explored Alt's MIDI, which was less fun than yesterday's bout of just playing it. Setting envelope values will probably work if I use Cirklon's Track Values and maybe sending a chord on channel 4 will work well too, as well as using channel 3 to transpose. Tested the envelope follower and so-called Buchla modes too but limited appeal for me. Tomorrow back to regular playing as that seems more natural.

Thursday was an excellent day with Alt, recording then starting a Logic song with some arranging to do and overdubs. Added a few gongs and big boomers too and will finish tomorrow before I get stoned. I'll have a longish piece of drones and shifting textures of a very particular type. Already have ideas for what I'll add in the three remaining bridging sections. 

Well, I ended the month with this. So I got a couple of decent things in July after all when it seemed like I'd get nothing at all. Used Logic again. 

https://wilyepeyote.bandcamp.com/track/a-long-way-off