Tinkling the white plastics

Well, ivories would be soooo wrong. And anyway, we need it all for chinese fertility medicine, right? No, I have no idea either. I spent a lovely afternoon just playing, been ages since I did that. Very, very enjoyable even though I'm rusty as hell. I may, possibly, have concentrated on the machines too much, or even to the exclusion of all else. Or noodling on monosynths, which is usually as much about knobbing than keying. Will never be a concert pianist but I sure do like the piano. Will never be Peter Bardens, but I'm partial to a bit of organ too. :)

This evening I ordered a couple of albums, more Popol Vuh and a Moebius on vinyl. Well, why not? I feel in my love for the music of Cluster and Roedelius I've neglected poor Moebius and feel guilty I'm appreciating him now he's dead. Still better late than never eh?

I listened to an album today that I'd been indifferent to when I first got it. I'd tell you what it was but I can't remember, sorta dark ambient plodding technoish stuff. Not selling it am I? Hold on, I'll go look and write it down. See what a service I perform... it's....Porter Ricks : Biokinetics.

Hey, it's Friday and I/m slightly drunk it has to be said. Tim and I got an hour's of music today, gonna put on the CD when we go to bed later. We being Pat and I, not Tim and I heheh. Not explaining myself well. Some really cool music happened,

Possible Mutable Instruments Clouds sighting for next week :)
Yes, in fact I ordered one despite promising myself to hold off on the euro for a while. Now I'm skint again. Idiot!

Tim has a lovely Analog Keys. I predict great things from it and him. And us.

Another session with Tim today. Then curry. Pat really is incredibly tolerant, she even volunteered to drive him back later so we can drink all day. In other news, some twat nicked the milk off our doorstep this morning, a first.

Sorry, thought I'd taken some interesting photos but perhaps not. Tim took some yesterday so perhaps they'll turn up later.

Still Boiling

Sadly I'm not referring to the weather but to the fact we're in the 3rd week of boiling water here. United Utilities not exactly crowning themselves in glory in the efficiency or information stakes.

Liminal Entity is very nearly finished, or at least it's nearly a complete thing you can read all the way through. I have a number of points I can go over and get properly right before turning over to readers. This time I'll make sure it does get read before I publish! It's around 68,000 words which isn't a bad length, I think.

Real proud of Tim who got a prize in a Glasgow art competition and the judge bought the painting. Looks like a cracker too, must make him happier after that shitty BBC farce. Must get him to complete the album cover and put out Electronic Meditation. Trouble is I found a track yesterday I think might fit well on it, maybe a replacement for one of the 'aimless' ones.

Today I'll be writing but as it's my day off it's my own stuff, not reviews. Only one of those currently on the cards and plenty of time to complete it, actually almost done. Giving them chance to squash a few bugs.

Spent the evening bailing out water after blocked drains and instant downpour combine to flood many homes where I live. We escaped - just - but the drains will get blocked again unless people take action. That means preventing gravel from floating from your drive and into the road, that means thinking about the water table when concreting your drive, that means a bit of - dare I say it - social responsibility. Yes, humping wheelie bins full of water can bring out the grumpy old man.

Today I believe our Dawn is giving birth. I have to stay sober in case I need to go hold the baby or take vital supplies. Hey ho. Update: birth happened, I'm officially a 'gramps'. Today I can drink beer again :)

Work and precious little sunshine

August is summer's last chance but I'm not holding out too many hopes for anything different. After last year's glorious summer we're back to intermittent rain, cloud, muggy warmth alternating with chills. I suppose it is helping me get work done but isn't doing much for my spirit.

Was pleasantly surprised to be asked to contribute another Bollywood track and did so, knocking one out in an afternoon that the lib liked. I do enjoy those though, Bollywood has lots of scope for dramatic, melodramatic, melancholy and mayhem, all with extra cheese. Right up my alley basically. It also let me do lots of manual playing amongst the loops. Having done that I'm back to reviewing mode, one cool thing one I'm not quite so impressed with. Battling bugs in both, but that seems to be the way these days. Two OS updates for the cool thing, one for the not-so-cool thing. Sorry for being vague but best I keep these rambling notes as no-spoilers.

I'm heading off to Leeds next Saturday (15th) for Modular Meets The Elektrons. Should be a hoot, picking up Paul on the way. Let's hope there aren't lots of tempting modules on sale...

Recorded more Headshock material, now featuring Tim sequencing stuff with his P3. Sequencing a Minimoog and JP6 means some pretty cool new tunes although when we'll get the album out I have no idea. Tempted not to spend much (modules are calling) and do another CDR but that feels a bit limp. Still, WTF.

Annoyingly, the backlight has died on Cirklon #002. So it's a torch on the job until I see Colin next or go visit Tony to get my ESX-1 with its super-duper new main encoder. Arse.

Synth DIY & random thoughts of no consequence

I almost wrote 'thoughtage' there but I'm glad I didn't. :)

Synth DIY was so similar to previous ones I had to keep asking myself what year it was. OK, in previous years I wasn't rudely awakened with a fire alarm. Got to play with Paul's synths, looked at a Beatstep Pro or three, enjoyed playing with Synthis real and cloned and really admired the ARP 2600 clone. Other than that, spent a lot more money than I wanted to, smoked more of my weed than I wanted to, missed several days I could've worked on my novel... I know, I know, I must force myself to go out into the world now and again. Didn't bother asking for Cirklon updates, no point.

Today, with no review work in and no desire to write any music, I spent quite a while cramming samples into . Discovered another bug too, related to sliced sample playback. Made lots of loops at 11k and a fair few samples at 22k, all working well. Down to 60 seconds free though. 

Tomorrow I hope to get some stuff done in the garden and perhaps a day without rain... yes, I'm becoming an old man. Maybe I should agree to do more gigs!

Playing with Deep Dream

Isn't everyone?

Me and Pat

Well, I never said I wasn't easily amused, did I?

Completed review today, started to get ready for guys coming tomorrow. Will be lots of curry and beer consumed and I'll probably be skint. Sold the Volca Sample to get cash for weed (sad or what?) but also cos I have a new streamlined idea in which the Volca is superfluous, well close enough.

Sadly the Volca seems to have an issue with its speaker, not sure what as I never used it. Will refund the guy if necessary and get Tony to look at.

Have to decide whether to do more Binar gigs. Having listened through it really is rather good stuff, which is why I do it of course. Andy plays beautifully and if we did more we'd get even slicker, although slick isn't what I'm really aiming for. There's enough for an album and hardly any bloopers to worry about, a few level tweaks and that one sequence where I tried two keys at once... So can I be arsed? Dunno, I know I should push myself to do more, but less is also appealing.

Funny, turns out I don't have anything to say in this as I can't really do review spoilers. Hopefully lots to say next week after Synth DIY and also potentially some new Headshock recording.

The usual post-gig breakdown

Well well, the Binar gig went off well, well. Andy played a blinder as usual and I don't think I made any horrendous cockups, which is good considering how we had barely spoken let alone practised beforehand. Very hot on stage, I was dripping. And dripping is no way to handle an iPad - even if you are only triggering samples! Used the input level on the Electribe to control sample level, worked well.

I probably gave myself too many plates to juggle but all in all, didn't have many crashes. A few too-loud drum parts here and there, which leads me to the conclusion that having drums totally separate and with controllable volumes makes way more sense than a separate kit in each pattern, all its levels pre-mixed. If they're right, great, if you have to tweak each one, a nightmare. Especially as part selection on the Electribe isn't as fast as the old ESX. Seriously, if anything causes me to flog it it'll be this annoyance. However there's lots of good stuff to celebrate with it.

I upgraded the Electribe OS just before playing - how mad is that! After reassurances that no data is lost or changed, I went for it. I think having the P3 control the Electribe might be a good idea in future as I can use its mixer. And its note sequencing come to that. A single, changing pattern might cover a whole gig, well probably not but it's a thought. Think either the ESX is coming out for drums though or even the Tanzbar. The Volca Sample I may relegate to home use though, it's just too small and fiddly in the middle of a hot gig. Best stuff of all was the P3/Vermona Perfourmer. Large controls, easy to see what's going on, no menus. Shame it's such a big synth.

The Analog Four is still not fitting in perfectly. Perhaps it would if I concentrated on just that but its obtuse operation still sometimes got in the way. As an example, suppose you wanted to use the audio inputs for a couple of synths - adding a bit of A4 reverb and/or delay. This isn't just a matter of plugging in and setting the panning, levels, effects you want. No, you have to repeat the action for EVERY kit. If you're using a bank that's been around a while and has evolved lots of kits and patterns, you'll inevitably change sequences and totally screw your audio input settings - often with unpleasant results. It's the same if you wanted, as I did, to find a quick source of clock. Was having an issue with MIDI leads, thru and my little blue gate-box. Briefly thought of using the A4 to generate clock but then realised, again, that you'd have to set the clock in EVERY kit. Elektron always give you this level of detail on stuff you don't need but miss out detail when you do need it. So while I agree kit-level overrides could be handy, why not deal with the more basic requirements first? The ones you need in a hurry. Ah, moaning to nobody, makes you feel better. I  start to see why the catholic church is still in business! For its own stuff, the A4 was OK-ish but the sequencer is slow and limited compared to the P3. I may use it again in future but probably only for chord sequencing (no need of that if playing with Andy). The repetitive nature of its sequences does get annoying and although  you can use the synth engine to introduce changes and variation, what I really miss is programmed variation and that means P3. Will be interesting to see what the Beatstep Pro is like for randomness and interaction.

Oh, had a scary moment when the Blofeld powered up with a blank screen! I didn't use it as much as poss because I had run out of thrus and had to play it by selecting a track on the P3 to record. Another reason was the guy playing before us used Mellotron sounds all through his set and that's what I had prepared in the Blo. So I mostly left it alone. Someone selling a thru box on facebook, must give guy a shout...

I think that's my smallest ever live rig. And it can get smaller....

Some pix, doubtless there will be more. Thanks to Phil and Jez (the photo's Phil's).

Now to put it all back in the studio....

Gig prep

Did all my gig prep today, which boiled down to choosing the gear I'm taking, connecting it to the mixer and delay I'm taking, voila!

http://www.awakenings-em.co.uk/

It did creep a bit once I got started, ended up using the mixer's tape input too, but that's still only 10 channels, my simplest setup ever. P3 will be the heart and there are a few patterns in I can work  on, easy to add them as I go. As well as sequencing the Vermona Perfourmer II the Waldorf Blofeld will be connected so I can use the P3's thru to play it, record it if necessary. Synced will be the Electribe 2, Analog Four and Volca Sample, that's the thing I added at the end as I like its directness. The Electribe input is handling the iPad (Samplr) for the weird samples I've accumulated. It occurred to me that if I had the Electribe Sampler instead of the Electribe, I could trim down even more.
Also taking the SH-101. It and the Blofeld are going through the Analog Four inputs/FX and I'll take the little blue box so I can use the sequencer on the 101 if I want to. Guess I could have used the Analog Four but it's a pain in the arse doing the clock as you have to go through every kit (!) in order to set it up. Words fail me sometimes.

If Colin ever did the 101 MIDI thing for me, I could use that instead of the Roland PC keyboard thing I'm using to knock sequences in. So still economies to be made. Had to use the Timefactor, tried BIM but it just doesn't give all the clock divisions I need and it's just a bit too inscrutable.

May not even need to go through things tomorrow although getting the Electribe levels right is probably worth a half hour noodle.

Summer seems to have been and gone with this week's sudden heatwave.

This is what happens when you let people build houses directly next to a nature reserve. I may try and push the idlers at the council again, I may not bother.