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