Made a vid today. Lo-fi rendered for Youtube, should do better quality sometime.
http://youtu.be/bOfBHeGh6Q4
Thursday, 30 August 2012
Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Not bad day, new review keyboard sussed out I think, a little bug-chasing in Cirklon and discussion about screen layouts. Managed to generate a MIDI overflow recording the output of the review synth, perhaps its a few bugs of its own as I managed to crash it.
Played with Octatrack, new project, seems my simple process of grabbing classical music and giving it a hard time with plocks is going to continue yielding great material.
Played with Octatrack, new project, seems my simple process of grabbing classical music and giving it a hard time with plocks is going to continue yielding great material.
Monday, 27 August 2012
A great night playing with Cirklon beta. Should be available soon and I think the last main feature will prove well worth the wait. Even as it is now it's a wickedly good addition and I'm finding lots and lots of ways it'll be handy, not just the obvious. Bring it on Fill!
Hah, Bad Sugar, at last a new sitcom I like the look of!
Oh and....
...it seems the arctic ice is disappearing faster than ever and lots of companies are going to profit from it big style. Sometimes I think I live in a broken and warped version of reality.
Hah, Bad Sugar, at last a new sitcom I like the look of!
Oh and....
...it seems the arctic ice is disappearing faster than ever and lots of companies are going to profit from it big style. Sometimes I think I live in a broken and warped version of reality.
Sunday, 26 August 2012
Shamania was a great party and the gig went well.
Cirklon behaved wonderfully, I still seem to be having to work too hard to make Octatrack slot in easily. Actually missing the Korg ESX for its simplicity and tweakability where all the Octatrack can do is play back long, complete tracks. Can't emphasise enough how important it is being able to name tracks, scenes and so on: I can tell what Cirklon is going to do at any point but Octatrack, hardly ever.
People with laptops have it sooooo easy. And it's so much less backache!
Here's my post to Elektron users about the continuing musing about "should I stick with the Octatrack or sell it". I have to be honest, if there were something else that let me do the synced static tracks then I'd be seriously into swapping. Why do I keep fighting the laptop route? Seems so self-destructive sometimes. I am still sticking with Octatrack though, but I have yet to find a role it fills neatly and comfortably with no awkward bits sticking out and poking me in the eye.
I'm an old dog can't deny. Having had my Octatrack for a long time I finally did my first gig with it at the weekend. There's good and bad stuff still, for me, the good being that you can prepare entire tracks ready to kick off in sync with loops, live sequences, MIDI-synced arpeggios etc. That worked nicely, all the long tracks triggered from Cirklon, starting scenes and tempo also. The bad is always its inscrutability, little multi-function buttons and lack of easily-accessed info. For example, I had 20+ songs ready to go, each with about 12-16 scenes. Although I try to be fairly consistent in the usage of tracks and scenes, in the heat of a gig I have no idea what any scene is really going to do until I select it. Sometimes the result isn't what I would have wanted at that point.
The lack of any kind of naming/visibility means, for me, I have to restrict what I do, try to make it consistent and never deviate from whatever formula I decide on. The trouble is I constantly change my mind about how to use it, what goes on each track, what the scene progression should be because each track is different and has different needs.
I guess in giving us an instrument with great power, we also get the great responsibility to bend it to our will. Sometimes that's just too much for me. So Octatrack is occasionally brilliant and wonderful but to be honest I think I found it more pleasurable and natural using my old combination of sequencer/korg electribe, even though I could not do the structured/prepared/mixed tracks that way. We're all different though and it could be what I want to do isn't what Elektron had in mind.
Cirklon behaved wonderfully, I still seem to be having to work too hard to make Octatrack slot in easily. Actually missing the Korg ESX for its simplicity and tweakability where all the Octatrack can do is play back long, complete tracks. Can't emphasise enough how important it is being able to name tracks, scenes and so on: I can tell what Cirklon is going to do at any point but Octatrack, hardly ever.
People with laptops have it sooooo easy. And it's so much less backache!
Here's my post to Elektron users about the continuing musing about "should I stick with the Octatrack or sell it". I have to be honest, if there were something else that let me do the synced static tracks then I'd be seriously into swapping. Why do I keep fighting the laptop route? Seems so self-destructive sometimes. I am still sticking with Octatrack though, but I have yet to find a role it fills neatly and comfortably with no awkward bits sticking out and poking me in the eye.
I'm an old dog can't deny. Having had my Octatrack for a long time I finally did my first gig with it at the weekend. There's good and bad stuff still, for me, the good being that you can prepare entire tracks ready to kick off in sync with loops, live sequences, MIDI-synced arpeggios etc. That worked nicely, all the long tracks triggered from Cirklon, starting scenes and tempo also. The bad is always its inscrutability, little multi-function buttons and lack of easily-accessed info. For example, I had 20+ songs ready to go, each with about 12-16 scenes. Although I try to be fairly consistent in the usage of tracks and scenes, in the heat of a gig I have no idea what any scene is really going to do until I select it. Sometimes the result isn't what I would have wanted at that point.
The lack of any kind of naming/visibility means, for me, I have to restrict what I do, try to make it consistent and never deviate from whatever formula I decide on. The trouble is I constantly change my mind about how to use it, what goes on each track, what the scene progression should be because each track is different and has different needs.
I guess in giving us an instrument with great power, we also get the great responsibility to bend it to our will. Sometimes that's just too much for me. So Octatrack is occasionally brilliant and wonderful but to be honest I think I found it more pleasurable and natural using my old combination of sequencer/korg electribe, even though I could not do the structured/prepared/mixed tracks that way. We're all different though and it could be what I want to do isn't what Elektron had in mind.
Friday, 24 August 2012
Thursday, 23 August 2012
OK, despite a few small buglets I'm gonna stick with the latest beta for Shamania. Played through a number of songs today and they appear to work fine. Realised I could reorder my set by manually editing the Songs JSON file but, well, life's too short. Am all packed up and ready to head off, probably tomorrow afternoon.
One Sea is doing very well, shows that all I need to do is tell a few people. Oh and have something worth listening to. It encourages me to get the other good stuff finished off and carved into decent-sized chunks. I don't want people to think we're milking it but at the same time, the quality is too good not to release. There's still the gig recording too!
Pete reminded me of the Ideation blog, which has now got more in it.
http://ideationmusic.blogspot.co.uk/
One Sea is doing very well, shows that all I need to do is tell a few people. Oh and have something worth listening to. It encourages me to get the other good stuff finished off and carved into decent-sized chunks. I don't want people to think we're milking it but at the same time, the quality is too good not to release. There's still the gig recording too!
Pete reminded me of the Ideation blog, which has now got more in it.
http://ideationmusic.blogspot.co.uk/
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
Nice, new Cirklon beta to test as soon as window guy comes and does his measuring. Two features I've been waiting for so what the heck if it's almost time to go out and play?
I went through the live stuff in Octatrack last night and rearranged all the drum parts to be more suitable for "old-style chillout". So they're less thumpy now. Well, mostly. Will I still incur the wrath of the Noise Police? Taking Virus not Prodigy as it has built-in delay so less time required to set it up, plus if a disaster with rain etc. I'd rather the virus got wet, it's more easily replaced.
Glow in the dark knobs finally arrived. No slider yet though but the knobs are nice and green and will try them under UV later.
Very groovy trick on the Octatrack: have an entire song set to loop in ping pong mode. Freaks you out after 7 mins when it suddenly goes into reverse. Until you remember doing it, that is. Doesn't seem possible to do it and have it stay in perfect time in reverse but the slight slip is "interesting".
I went through the live stuff in Octatrack last night and rearranged all the drum parts to be more suitable for "old-style chillout". So they're less thumpy now. Well, mostly. Will I still incur the wrath of the Noise Police? Taking Virus not Prodigy as it has built-in delay so less time required to set it up, plus if a disaster with rain etc. I'd rather the virus got wet, it's more easily replaced.
Glow in the dark knobs finally arrived. No slider yet though but the knobs are nice and green and will try them under UV later.
Very groovy trick on the Octatrack: have an entire song set to loop in ping pong mode. Freaks you out after 7 mins when it suddenly goes into reverse. Until you remember doing it, that is. Doesn't seem possible to do it and have it stay in perfect time in reverse but the slight slip is "interesting".
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