Summer heat continues

Well, it does. 
Setup 1 working sweetly at the moment. I think it has pretty much all my favourite stuff in it. 

Well, Monday was cooler so what do I know? Went to Brinscall and the waterfall was dry, except for a weak trickle. 

Listening to Morton Subotnick's The Wild Bull. Pretty wacky - sounds like one of my very stoned Friday afternoons though, just more frantic. Tuesday I had a brief mess with Wavestate but it didn't inspire so moved into other room, updated my Ableton 12, put MPC in place of S-4 (fed by Cirklon, could work, I think, tried and worked better than Octatrack). Pottered aimlessly with System 8, Wave and Opsix but wasn't really inspired or had any direction. 

Walking tomorrow and Pat off south Thursday. I was gonna go (William's birthday) but having Izzy here means I can't. I therefore plan to do some music, maybe some drones and abstract stuff as the whole sequencer business is feeling like it's getting in my way at the moment. Fed up with sequences and drum grooves, not sure why. Ennui, think I caught it off Tim. Will see if he minds me updating that MPC One to latest firmware, assuming I can find a stand-alone install. 

Good MS20 sesh Thursday. Recorded lots of chunks for arrangement tomorrow as have ideas for overdubs and whatnot. Used S4 as I used to, wished for a way to slew the pitch quantize to scale function. Made some spooky shit to which a few small additions will be groovy. New weed working nicely. BB looping like a tape recorder. 

Friday could be a good one as, unusually, I have a plan. You see, Thursday's MS20 recordings were ace and I was even thinking about things to add in arrangement later, which I will do. The first lot was especially good. 

Very happy with today's work

Hot again, revisiting old Cluster albums

 The early stuff is really great - Cluster 71 and the Konzerte CD from 72/77 - makes me want to explore something more out there and atonal myself. Seems appropriate in this hot weather somehow, or it goes very well with it. Whenever it's cool enough to go back in the studio I'm going to explore music without structure, which essentially means loopers and multitracking and weird Synthi noises and, above all, playing it. Shame nothing seems to be coming of our drone weekend.

Dave Bessell gave me a guide to a Grisey piece, which I will listen to now I'm sufficiently aware of the backstory. I guess my lack of appreciation is why I don't like modern TV talent shows in which the backstory trumps actual performance (e.g. the last series of The Piano). Still, I'll report back when I've put in more effort. 

We went to the secret waterfall today. Water levels a bit low but a nice little wood. Will return.

Someone found the other half of the 1B photo

Friday I recorded something that started well - two decent tracks I think. Name reflects it being the day Benji went back home. 

Saturday was too hot to do owt. Sunday similar. Mum on good form, at least. Hard to think of doing much in the studio when it's like this. Found my long-lost Antarctica CD anyway. Still not heard back from David, suggesting my Easel cuts did too much damage to the readability and the results weren't what he hoped for. Should take it as a sign not to do any more. Got Izzy next week and it seems it'll be hot again so sadly no long walks with the two of them, unless I go very early or in the evening, which I guess is possible.

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.