New authors, some free time

Well, I struggled through Sheri S. Tepper's Grass wishing, all the while, that she had smoked some before starting. Still, I got to the end - but I won't be ordering any more of her work. David Brin, on the other hand, has begun well and I'm already much more intrigued than with dear flat, slightly sweet Sheri. See what I did there? Well, I wrote in cliche for a start. Next I'll be saying someone 'smashed it'.

Where was I?

Here, as always. Listening to some Nitin Sawhney, drinking beer and contemplating doing a module review. My Euro adapter thing arrived - so all those weird bits of gear with euro adapters can sit in it as if they were really in Europe, as opposed to this grim and angry little island obsessed with self-harm. Oops, I go all Brexit Crazy whenever I visit my mum. It's Sunday you see.

I think I have a few days free coming up. Should have thought about the video for those guys in Birmingham but haven't. Will wing it and see how it goes.

Don's new song is rather good. My modular sequences work well so it'll be interesting to see what Dean adds. I had an idea for a melody but left it off to give them more space. And I still really like the vocoder one, more so than 'Memory Foam' which is the one song out of everything we've done that never clicked. It'll doubtless be the one that earns us our immortality and hysterical devotion of old people who are missing Last of the Summer Whine.

But I digress.

Right, beer and modular noodles. Or beer and the little stand-alone setup. Decisions...

Monday. Strange. Almost fell into the online discussion thing with a rabid Brexiteer. I managed to get out before I wasted too much time by asking a simple question: which leaver minds have most inspired you?
Turns out to have been a clever move on my part as the answer included David Davis, James Dyson, Tony Benn and Margaret Thatcher. I kid you not. There was obviously nowhere sane for me to go after that.

Last night I solved the first of my problems for writing a time travel novel: I worked out how time and space really co-exist. Turns out Einstein was quite wrong, the silly old duffer. Anyway, it allows me to fit my skeleton plot around something so I'll start fleshing out the characters in my head. I'm starting with a couple of Time Ladies, an evil assassin and a Jeeves and Wooster-style pair of heroes, all of which I hope will develop personalities of their own once I start writing. I even have a title that I like, already!

I finished the first third of the David Brin and it's ... OK. I've started the next chunk but it's not really doing it for me. Still, of the people reading my novel, I've had only a handful of lightweight comments so I guess my writing isn't captivating anyone either. Maybe I'll keep music and writing to myself in future. Family meal type thing today. Mum still sounding a bit off so it may be fun. Can't fecking wait.

Studio B takes shape. Bought grey import Zoom R24 from a dodgy place called tobydeals.co.uk (a Hong Kong company in disguise). Octatrack not really fitting in there like I hoped it would. I've spent so long trying to make that thing fit somewhere haven't I? Time to put it in a box for a while.

Cold drags on

Yeah, it does. I wake up each morning with my eyes full of the gunk my body is expelling, I cough up a few green jellyfish and my head rings like the inside of a belfry. But as the day progresses I feel OK, weak and listless but OK, and then in the evening I start coughing again. Rinse and repeat.

Still getting slugs in the house. Gonna have to go around everywhere there are holes into the gap beneath the floorboards and seal them all. Not today though. Still writing, feel I'm perhaps 10,000 words from the end. I thought of a clever shift too, a fitting ending for my long-suffering female lead character who never got enough good lines and basically got shit upon throughout every novel she's appeared in. I'm very happy with this one, as I may have said before. Will need to start thinking about how to get a cover done, how to represent a mountain-sized tree presiding over the Elysian Fields, a Heavenly courtyard, a magical river and rainbow bridge without it all seeming a bit cliche. Getting the scale to look right is going to be paramount. Aiming for a 75,000 word paperback even those with no attention spans can get through so a pretty cover is essential.

Have not done owt with the 2 review modules I have. Well, I've played with them (good, fortunately) but not written a word. Barely going into the studio at all, except to do a few recordings for ANT. All I do is sit around being weedy and writing novel. Oh well.

Wednesday, may have spent too long writing but the winning post is drawing me. A lot of what I've written is unrefined but gets from A to B. Almost at the end but forcing myself to stop.

Wow, it's been some time since I started this entry!

Yeah, still done pretty much nothing in studio. Starting to tidy and clear out the other half as much as possible and maybe make a little setup in there of small boxes. I even ordered a Zoom R24 to serve as mixer and to record anything worth recording, loops and shit.

Mum has been wonky again. The usual: refusing to drink, getting kidney infection, raving down phone. Can see it's gonna be a long winter.

Have sent copies of novel to about a dozen people. A single comment back so far. I must really be working the magic.

At least the cold is pretty much gone. A last few coughs and my ear is still bunged up and whistling like a bastard, otherwise OK.

Fascinating PRS this time - not tapering off yet and all my top earning tracks are the new age and melodic ones I did quite early (and which always do well in Japan and New Zealand for some reason).

Some theremin, some simplification, the Octatrack pushed aside once again

I know, I know. It's weird because on Monday I did four Octatrack patterns that sounded great and I was planning to do more. Tuesday came and I tried to make the same patterns sound good again - and failed. Whatever Scene thing I did, I couldn't replicate and I got fed up and took it out of the system to show my annoyance. It made me think of further simplifications.
Today (Wednesday), I recorded a theremin part for the new song - the one I did the awful key messing in but which has become this brilliant thing because of Don's bass line and Dean's lyrics. Anyway, Dean made my theremin playing sound better than it was, the hero! May try some of my Night of the Demon samples on it.

Cold persisting. Tried some Albus oil which seemed to clear my nose a bit. Fed up that the only exercise I'm doing it coughing. Was gonna visit Paul but didn't really want to pass it on. What a crock.

Cold still fucking persisting. It's Saturday and I'm meant to be going out to see Mick's band play in Preston. Dunno if I will though.
Novel going well at the moment, largely because I've solved all the problems I had with it and just have a few scenes to write that shouldn't be too difficult. The ending has matured somewhat and I'll jot it down fully soon. In back-combing, I'm going through the fantasy short story that slots in rather well. I don't mind cranking up the Harry Harrison for that as it fits in. All the parts that seemed faffy or complex I've edited out. Anything laboured or drowning in adjectives has gone. I'm happy.

Nic Roeg died. So I wanna watch this again:

Jeez it's Monday and I'm still not great. Cracking on with novel is helping keep my mind occupied though, reaching the fun end stages where I've sketched out the start of the three last strands I'm going to run, ready to pick up on any as the mood takes me. Have formulated the Rules for Godly War, lifted a bunch of stuff from the I Ching and even managed to weave in some Brexiteer levels of stupidity. In another week I should have my first draft, which is a lot better than previous first drafts because this time I back-combed a number of times to get everything lined up. Still some editing to do, some chapter quotes to position, some other minor tweaks but essentially it's nearly there. I have one scene I'm not 100% sure which way it will go yet but that will just happen out of momentum (and a bag of smoke).

Started a new track in which Don sent me an mp3 and I overdubbed a sequence and melody. Could probably have done it better if both my ears were working but no guarantees.

Did a 2019 calendar too. Didn't have such great pix this year though.

Not well but stuff ticking along

Pat's been really ill with a bad chest infection. On antibiotics now and slowly recovering but not there yet. I have a bad cold but resisting getting more. Seemed to go downhill after dropping mum off at private health place yesterday.

Got through the next, hopefully last, roadblock in After Life. I knew the ending but not quite how I was getting to launch into it but now it's clicked into place. Might even be able to tie it up in just another 20,000 words or less (hopefully). Depends how many ends I ultimately want to tie up. Very happy with fantasy section, even though I still have that battle to write up. I may do it at the same time as the other one and do some fuckery between them, we'll see. Don't want to add too much complication at this stage.

It's a week later and I have done very little but fight this bloody cold. Some nice new concept stuff for ANT - the guys doing their usual creative marvels and me sitting grinning on the sidelines like everyone's favourite village idiot. Been working on After Life, went back to start in order that I fully understand it before writing the next section. Some edits leap out as needed but in general it's working well.

Today I plan to do some studio stuff. Turned down a gear review, asked to do one though as Duncan has been telling me for some time I'd like the Deluge. Has to be better than that other thing I've had a while and still is as mature as a spotty teenager with its hand down its pants.

Another little move-around

I decided to retire the ER-1 for a bit and move the Biscuit to the cue output of the Octatrack. Then I could bring back the TT-606 as it seems so much more suited to individual output processing than the TT-78. Yep, I now have both going into the same mixer, this time using just the single output from the '78, which is somehow right. Maybe it's just how I remember my CR-78 but the single mono drum box idea works well and I think about it in a different way.

Processing OT tracks via the Biscuit is good too. I really should have got Denis to do that mod for me allowing me to bypass the bitcrushing sometimes and just use it as a filter. Good I can record the processed cue output right back again.

Had to move the analogue delay to its own mixer channel also, just so I could EQ it a bit. This turned the Lyra and its long effects chain from stereo to mono, but that's actually a good thing too, tames it slightly.

The Odyssey, despite Korg's cockup, sounds great. I'd still maybe have wanted the keyboard version had I known of the issue but no great worries. The PPC on the module is shit too, total waste of time.

Sunday, difficult visit with mum. In the evening went and hung around a fire, found a large, fat frog on the pavement as we walked home. Popped it in the garden near the pond. Pat went to bed, her cold finally taking over. I polished off the fantasy section of my novel, although there's a battle or two to write when I'm in the mood.

ANT stuff sounding awesome. The question of what to do next follows naturally on. I think it's bedtime.

Dopey stoner online.. buys Odyssey, realises Korg cocked up (again)

Yesterday I felt like tackling a small anomaly in the novel so I had a wee smoke. The novel kink was quickly ironed out but then... the next thing I knew I'd ordered a whiteface Odyssey module, because the idea had occurred a while back and I never dealt with it.

The following morning I was pondering what I'd done and noticed that I'd paid £50 more than I should have. So I cancelled - Signal Sounds are pretty good to deal with BTW, you can mess them about and they're still lovely. Now, however, instead of ordering the cheaper one I saw, I'm thinking I could save even more money by not buying it. Tim's real Ody is here and I don't play that, so it may not be essential after all..

Just got contacted by the British Library Sound Archive, requesting some of my music. Apparently they have some of my stuff already but want more. Something to play to cockroaches after the apocalypse or something.

Ahem. The Ody saga continues.
A pal sold me a s/h Ody whiteface and it arrived yesterday. Today I tried it out and discovered why everyone is discounting them so heavily. Korg cocked up. Again.
1) Korg implemented a bodged means of setting single triggering active which, perhaps due to their leaving the LFO reset behaviour of the original, means you can either play legato or have the LFO work but not both. Using their prescribed patching technique (which presumably nobody tested) means the LFO only works when all keys are released. Shame no review looked at this as closely as, say, the Behringer Model D.
2) this one has a noisy slider. Bugger. The quality of all sliders feels poor to me, can't see them lasting long. As I was planning on getting the LFO reset fixed I guess that needs looking at too...
3) Despite my misgivings it sounds really nice. Having all 3 filter options is fab, my fave being the 3rd but all sound good. HPF doesn't seem to do a load over much of its travel, must compare with Tim's.

Summary - Korg could have done much better. The sliders feel cheap and the MIDI is half-arsed. I doubt I'll ever use the PPC as it requires a huge amount of pressure. I suspect Behringer will do the job with more thought, as they did with the Model D. Weird/sad to admit that but Korg seem to have blown their original "we're a big company doing analogue again" vibe. I guess I never forgave them for the Minilogue/Monologue digital envelopes.

Friday coming, hope to indulge myself in music and writing. Almost finished the Marbles review, just need to make it slightly shorter - as usual I've gone on a bit. So much to say though and what to trim?

The Benjolin arrived, or was it the Banjolin? Anyway, it's pretty cool but I spent most of the day on the Ody, which sounds great. Oh and the TT-78 arrived and that really rocks.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpZi9gbh8tB/

Curry Satisfaction

Yeah, I got the curry desires which weren't satisfied last weekend in Sheffield. Finally sorted them this evening - but it was a strange encounter with my only openly Brexiteer friend. We simply didn't discuss it or I think it would have been like when religion comes up with a certain other friend. Jeez. Very weird.

I can't help wondering if that's going to be the way of it in future though. Epic self-harm is brought about by misinformation and belligerence. Instead of dealing with it, sorting out the details and ramifications, we don't discuss it at all.

The curry was nice though. It's Monday morning and I've just bid it a fond farewell. Trying to get in the mood to go to the gym but the mood eludes me.
Things to do this week: fix Les's studio problem, check mum's OK, see John for tea and cake, get some shrooms, tackle at least one of the trees in the garden, do the Marbles review, start the Medusa review (assuming firmware update comes).

The last photo from a session we did just off the motorway. I say 'we' but I didn't participate. There's probably a link somewhere from Divkid's Youtube page.

I didn't talk about Synthfest did I? Well, in short, it was fab. I got to play a Grandmother and realise I don't need one. I would probably have bought an Odyssey desktop but they didn't bring any. I was left with a desire for a GR-1. Saw Dean's band and they were fab, hung out with some cool people and talked until my voice was a croak.

I realise that's not much of a summary. Oh, it was weird driving Kim's left hand automatic there and back but not excessively so. I probably grumbled about the traffic cos that's what I do.