The Easel Command really doesn't ship with enough patch leads so immediately ordered more. Will probably not get lengths right but such is life. Ordered a couple of those little bar things too cos they're so cute and you don't have to reach over them. I also ordered a Keystep 37 mk2 so I can dedicate it to the Easel. I like the idea I can set it as portamento amount and assign a couple of other useful things to its encoders too, as well as the aftertouch sending to the pressure jacks. I know I can do this from the MPC but I like the idea it's stand-alone. Maybe frivolous, we'll see.
Still to hear from Buchla about my reverb issue. Or back from Source about my vactrol query (I have the answer now but thought they'd respond). Good news is it still sounds amazing. With no internal reverb to rely on, I connected to my Eventide Space - what a good idea. I tried the PitchFactor fairly soon after for its delay but immediately missed some of the Space ambience. Got some decent results from its spring reverb today..
The Arturia Keystep 37-ii arrived and was an instant hit. It does what I wanted - i.e. it runs off the MPC power and syncs to it but I've set it up to send nothing to the MPC and just connected to the Easel via 5-pin MIDI. First thing I did was set its 4 encoders to send CCs that are relevant to the Easel - portamento, modulation and so on, all on ch1. Now I can arpeggiate, sequence and just play as I wanted keeping the KSP separate for general MPC control. Indeed, so good does that little setup feel that I may shunt it 90 degrees and (maybe) move the book case to the other room. There is, I think, just room next to the door. Still no response from Source or Buchla about the reverb, which is a shame.
Listening through the Mozart string quartets and really loving them. As I probably wrote here, I was finding the Beethoven ones quite difficult even though I return to them from time to time. The Schubert ones are lovely and easy and light but these are just that bit more. Some I even recognise, from the days when Radio 3 used to play such things.
This afternoon (Tuesday) I will continue testing the Keystep but already just pressing its Mutate button a few times and swapping to different patterns etc. gives me a lot of scope for improv. It recorded synced straight away to the MPC, no issues, too. And now that MIDI note length thing inexplicably sorts the audio clip length bug I feel more positive in general about what I can do with the MPC now. Shame there are quite a few operations in the Keystep that expect you to hit stop. Who the fuck thought that was progress?
Ian Boddy had a good idea about my Mac setup, suggesting a MacMini Pro but instead of an audio interface getting something like an SSL BigSix and piping everything into that rather than my ADAT interface. It'd work and still be cheaper than the solution Andy went for. Doesn't seem like my old displays will work though. Tony suggested an RME which has ADAT inputs but seems not to cater for monitoring as my Focusrite does. Arse. Computer looking around £3k so spending another half that on a mixer as audio interface seems extravagent - may try this MOTU initially as it's here.
The studio is looking really cluttered atm. Must spend a day tidying and generally making it a better environment - or I'm gonna fall over something and make an expensive mess.
"You can of course also record other data than notes, such as Pitch Bend, Modulation, Gate, and Spice automation." says the Keystep manual but that seems the definitive list rather than "such as" which implies more. Tried adding some CCs from its own encoders but zilch,
Keystep first hang. Fucker. Will need to work harder to find out its weak spots. Already pissed off about its bizarre save procedure that doesn't (seem to) let you save the whole project without booting a computer. So you have to remember the patterns you edit or want to save and do each manually. WTF?
Thursday and my appointment got cancelled in favour of one in Garstang on Saturday morning. The ODD-1 guy was asking about getting his unit back and I'm fighting the urge to buy it given how the UI drove me a bit crazy. There'a a new update to try though so I should at least do that. Wrote to Source asking what I should do about my wonky reverb since nobody replied yet.
I realised that my old obsession of making sure everything could be synced feels out of date now as I'm thinking, certainly for some more ambient pieces that I want to make, I'd like to work more tapestyle without bars or clicks at all. Any sequences that arise can have their own thing going on but do not really need to be locked to some master tempo, ditto delays and everything else to be done manually. Now does that mean not having a sequencer as master clock somewhere? My Setup #2 could be a good place to start for that.
Second half of choc much more potent than first. So they're inconsistent, darn. Sweeties win then. Good sesh with Odd-1, looper from scratch into synth then played and all the while tweaked until it sounded ace. Probably choc helping here.
Did this https://wilyepeyote.bandcamp.com/track/apricot-reverie (then deleted)
Friday tomorrow and in good mood for making music after today's fun. Using the little ambient setup has been a lot of fun. I wonder if I can get my OT screen replaced?
Booted Logic and put a few things into the recent tracks to make a bigger thing. Used Cric and ODD-1 again. Was thinking about my visit to Carr Wood this morning.
https://wilyepeyote.bandcamp.com/album/whats-left
Got instructions for Tony on how to fix the reverb - obvious design error that I wonder relates to my slightly older US model? Anyway, he can sort and it'll be nice to see him. My nose is gonna get lopped in a couple of weeks - not doing the big hole first go in case it's not cancerous but if the biopsy shows it is they may need to go in again to root out the tendrils. Great. TIm and I noodled yesterday and I occasionally hit record to try and capture the good bits. Following recent tradition the good bits stopped immediately. Don't know if there's anything I can do about that but it does feel a bit pointless even trying.
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