Gig, noodles and jollies

Been getting ready for gig and having a ball working on a very minimal rig. Gig, rig, big, yes been playing today, making up new stuff. Tim been working on video, hopefully getting website updated so we can sell tapes. Yes, Gogogox is done, mastered brilliantly by Mick, uploaded to bandcamp already in waiting.

Pat's birthday, very pissed off with Interflora and their droopy tulips. Looked lovely on the website, made me think of Amsterdam but the reality was rubbish.

Travelling light(ish) as I don't know what to expect in terms of space/soundchecks. Sure it'll be fine though, last noodle today, if owt like yesterday we'll just do more new stuff. :)

I agreed to do Awakenings too, March 12th. Would have been a Headshock but Tim can't commit due to other half's holiday plans. I'll try to blag his video though. Thought Binar too but did one of those last year and they like to keep things fresh, which is fine. Haven't decided what sort of set to play but have some ideas.

Right, News Quiz then time to fire up the studio, test whether we can record it, headphone monitoring etc. Don't think tape on sale yet but soon.

I think we may have accidentally published.....

Wow!

If anything the music we did today was better than ever. How on Earth? I am quite drunk, Pat is staying over with the baby, excellent day. How Tim does some of the things he does, an endless source of fascination. Gig sorted IMHO.

Gonna watch some TV shite now and gear garlic bread.

New album mastered and off for production... on cassette!

Well, after all, when I released music on cassette people listened. It can't hurt to try the idea again. Will do it on bandcamp too and probably not mention to the EM lot, they won't understand. ;)

Mick did the mastering, and in record time. I sorta hassled him to and feel bad about that since he has stuff going on. Listening through now he's done a superb job, hearing an increase in punch and clarity, a real brash and up-front job totally suiting the material. I must get a cassette deck so I can hear it how we intend! Not accepting his 'don't pay me' shit either.

Another day with baby, he was a bit upset today so took a long time to go off. In other news, I buried Bob the rabbit in his favourite spot. I'll miss the little fellow but there was no denying that tumour no matter how we wanted to.

Sent off a review today, not a long one but it was fairly complex and hard to do. A new version of the software arrived about an hour after I sent it in. Back to hardware for the rest of the day although it's software inside.

The Emu Morpheus arrived. I'd forgotten what an odd thing it is, much stranger than the Proteus 2000 in some respects and a pain to program in a way. But it responds to poly aftertouch, something the P2K doesn't, and I spent a while setting up a few patches from scratch to try it out. I think it might be really good for that, at least once I remembered the 'pressure depth' parameter which needs to be set as well as the amount in the mod matrix. I faffed around a while, thinking I'd discovered a bug in Cirklon (poly AT seemed only to be passed through when on ch1) but in the end I hadn't. I did think of a new Cirklon feature though, something to better enable me to control multiple modules from multiple keyboards. I'm sure Colin will be delighted!

Here's an early idea of the cover, not the final. Tim is bloody good at this! Indeed, where would I be without talented mates?!

Still 2016

Yep, no fooling me. I just spent time cleaning a rabbit's bits - poor sod can't look after himself too well cos of his crappy teeth and every now and again we need to turn him over and set to. Things we do!

So today I progressed the review I've been writing, one of the more complicated but also powerful jobbies so I hope to do it justice. Took way too long for me to grasp it all though, getting old. It's made harder cos I want to drop it and play my new keyboard, a CME xkey37 which has polyphonic aftertouch. Even though you don't get a lot of key travel, it's remarkably playable and I've connected it to the last available Cirklon input, routed to the Blofeld as default.

The Blofeld - possibly the best-sounding synth Waldorf ever made. Too strong? After playing it the last few days I sorta think so, setting the wave position or LFO speed via each key is awesome and my patches already sound better as I incorporate poly at into them.

I think I sold the ESX-1 (a guy was very keen, just waiting for the cash to come through) and agreed to swap my Electribe 2 for an Emu Morpheus. The Morpheus was a bit more than I planned to spend on one but they don't come up very often and a swap is a fairly painless way to do it. Also agreed swap of my KS-4 for a KS-Rack, with my old buddy Picko. Didn't even know he had one, just got to sort the where and whens. Probably not in time for gig at month end.

Hope to get new album done by then - that is released on cassette, the bandcamp can be later. Tim has a great cover in progress and Mick is doing the mastering so all good.

Taking the laptop back to PC World tomorrow. Expect a battle since they were such twats fobbing me off with HP. Having gone through it with them they now tell me to go back to where I had my warranty and get a rebuild. Wonder if that'll fix it, got zillions of crashes tonight working in a review. It really doesn't like Open Office. :(

Bob the rabbit sat eating and happy now after his ordeal. If he not looking better in a day though he's off to the vet, even though he hates going. Sigh..

It's 2016

I never really got the hang of 2015 so I really want to try and sink some Maker Hooks into this worm and ride it rather than eventually realise it has passed. I'd like to publish 'Liminal Entity' and ideally polish 'From Beer...' but the latter seems like a major job when ideally I'd start on something new.

I have not made significant progress on any review. I had told myself 'today' but a mate is visiting so there's a good excuse to put it off again. I have at least made lots of cool sequences, going back to my old P3/KS4 combination and adding the Analog Four for genuine analogue bass and other stuff. The A4 is proving to be a far more interesting proposition once you introduce potent sequencing to the equation. Getting some really good results from it. Here's one of several new sketches, the sort of material I'll use for the gig at the end of the month.

https://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/borderlands

May sell the Electribe 2. I'm just not getting the sounds I want from it and now I have the Sampler full of my own sounds, it feels superfluous. Slightly frustrating Korg limited the Sampler in terms of filters and memory but such is life.

I ordered an Erbe Verb. I did get an offer to swap my Elements module for one but in the end decided to keep Elements as something different to sequence. Its 'easter egg' mode swayed me actually.

Still haven't replaced my mobile phone. Fancy getting a new camera, something very small and portable since that was the role the phone mostly had. Here's the very last pic on my phone card, not sure if I'll get my numbers off the fecker though... :(

not a great shot but hey, I'll miss that phone.

Year ends

An elf served me in the local spar today, telling me 'it's christmas eve'. So I guess it must be. For some reason I'm a day out this week, perhaps due to the many Headshock sessions that have blurred my mind and pickled my liver. Darn pleasant week actually but may lay off the beer today.

Of the various people who have said they'll read my novel, one has confessed to starting it. Pat has forced herself to read a couple of chapters and already declares 'doesn't seem as shit as the last two novels so far'. High praise indeed. :)

Received two ribbons for my Eventide pedals that have been doing the flickering screen thing. Very kindly sent from the States and then on to me for free, very impressive service from those guys and HHB. Merry Wossisname is what I say. If the Pitchfactor now working reliably again I will sell it if poss or swap for another Time Factor.

Oh well, some beta testing to do, should have been a posh sequencer to review over the hols but it never arrived despite being supposed to come Monday. Arse. A few other things to review so I should be kept busy enough but a chap's supposed to have fun too.

Here's a rather lovely shot of Jasper wondering if we're going to walk through the water or turn around. Bloody useless South Ribble Council totally unable to grasp the idea that you sort an area's flooding problems before doing new paths. Idiots everywhere. Which reminds me - PC World... the HP laptop I bought with Windows 10 on it, turns out it isn't really Windows 10 compatible so the fecker is crashing quite regularly, BSOD and screen driver issues. When I asked PC World about this they said I should sort it myself with HP and Microsoft. Hilariously, their tagline for emails is:

Never leaving a customer to fend for themselves.

As I said, idiots everywhere.

I just hope Virgin Cable doesn't turn out to be shit too. So far everyone I've spoken to about it since ordering and cancelling BT has told me about their problems and poor service. Sigh...

Place Setter

I'm not sure I've posted anything since getting this new laptop. Slimline HP jobby, more expensive than I'd typically go for but still less than half price of the Mac it obviously aspires to be. Fortunately the old one still works in case I get some pages where there are passwords coded I have no idea about (like the bloody BT one).

Broadband continues to suck monkey balls. In theory some dude called Ashid was monitoring my response for 24 hours so perhaps he'll be in touch as he did promise to do *something*. If it doesn't improve I'll be ditching BT after many, many years.

The good news is that my video helped Korg see the fault I've been describing and a fix is promised for the next update. I'm glad I stuck with it and slightly amazed nobody else encountered the same issue. It seems unlikely I'm the only person to use external sync.

Had a good visit with Paul the other night, marvelled at his modular without coveting, which is good. Got my CS30 back from Tony on Thursday, knobs apparently never touched, which rather explains the state they were in when they arrived. They do feel a lot better now. Have had some interest in the Elements module I want to sell. Will stick to my original plan of making the euro into a processor more than a synth.

Some gear pix