Biinbi and some grandparenting

 Perhaps due to increased focus, I did a new track today, not quite developed as far as it can go, but pleased with it as a thing. Tomorrow William arrives and goes back Thursday. 

https://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/ck-biinbi-99

Friday now, yesterday's walk was great - Tony struggling a bit and I think it's down to his very heavy backpack. He thought I'd been secretly training and it was true I felt very good on the way up. Later my feet and ankles started to hurt but that often happens on a sharp descent these days. Today I plan to have a pleasant afternoon maybe working more on the track I started on Monday or going back to my beloved Osmose. Is it too early to call it beloved?

Where was I? Friday the old 505 died - a burning smell too so dunno if that's one for Tony or not.
Well, Saturday Tim and I did Coolarty - and it was. Sunday I went to RK with our Janet and farted like a bastard in bed (apparently). Monday I did an ambient thing I called Chuffy Finknotl putting the Osmose through the Night Sky then into the Cosmos. Celestial stuff eh? Currently listening to a Field Lines Cartographer gig recording and thinking how much like one of my Friday afternoons it is, so I guess there's hope for the younger generation after all ;) ALso on Monday Roland were in touch about the new 505 and payment - spooky!!! I tentatively suggested I might like another, thinking that I dunno about repairing the old one but I could flog it if I do get it fixed. 
Tomorrow my new spotlights are due so I'll replace that neon tube finally. Tim and I may go to pub,

Back to the Lakes, Osmose Update, Switcher Pedal

 Fun couple of days. Finally got back to the Lakes for a good walk - Tuesday was supposed to be the only decent day but actually Wednesday, as I type, is pretty lovely. Missed walking with Izzy and Broc yesterday but Pat and Janet seemed to do OK without me so good for them to bond a bit, hopefully. My feet a bit sore today but otherwise I'm fine. 

I deleted that Jim Kirkwood stuff - skimmed a few more and it was just all too much. I chuckled through a Mark Shreeve interview in which he declared his disdain for music written about pixies. At the time I wondered if he meant me but it certainly applies to Jim's entire output, as far as I can tell. I should have stopped writing about Hobbits and moles and remade Rubycon instead, heh. Seriously, I wonder what that version of Marke would have made of the first Redshift album? 

Wednesday I updated the Osmose and the silent patch (Choir Additive) now works - nice too. There's also a tool for backing up and restoring user presets, so I now have a copy of the hundred plus I've compiled. The thing is sounding and playing great - tomorrow the switcher pedal arrives so I can seamlessly route the Osmose to either the DD-20 or Cosmos. That way one looper won't pollute the other as things get dense and crazy enough. Listening through the Field Lines Cartographer album I got again and it's growing on me a bit. Dismissed af first because it was a bit like those days when I first got the DD-20 and had stuff decaying forever in it. Which I then realised I still do to an extent so should love it more. All that echoey, loopy mulch tha could be quite engaging if he made it more musical but I should listen to more albums as the one I bought might be a lesser work, god knows I've released plenty of those myself! ;) Sold more albums so bought some stuff from Cosmonauttransfer which was really good and someone else, Phantasmasomething, which was not great - very annoying vocoder all the way through. Got more recommendations too which I'm working through - Hypnotica (seems good) and Portland Vows (not listened properly yet). Pascal's releasing tracks in large numbers, all individual rather than albums. 

Hahahaa... when that magic shortbread kicks in five hours after you took it and after you'd given up on it. So instead of when in the studio playing Osmose, it's watching telly with Pat and wondering if she's noticed. Challenge set!

Right, it's Saturday and I'm hoping to sneak in a Friday afternoon-type sesh. Spent most of yesterday driving for a one hour Vivaldi concert by four girls, one of whom was pretty good. There were botanical gardens too, basically rusting Victorian greenhouses full of dead or dying plants. I'll end this important entry with some photos then get myself going. Next week I hope to order the Zoom camera but only if I can get the lighting sorted - will ask Tim for ideas as I plan to replace the horrible strip light with something better and he's far more into such things than I.

February and Bandcamp Friday

 Should I put out the THC album or wait until Paul can do it on Sunday?
Listening to over 1Gb of Jim Kirkwood, which was a free download. Not familiar with his music so probably unfair to judge after a few mins - but I'm gonna anyway. I think he sounds a bit like I might have if I stuck to my style of the late 80s or early 90s but refined my arrangements, didn't use weed and avoided other musicians to make it richer. So far I like it a lot, although some is very dense and over-orchestrated. Yeah, needs more space. OK revising opinions - some of it is unlistenable and he does that solo noodly vibrato synth we all used to back in the day but don't anymore. Oh well, 1Gb to free up I think. Will try more of it before I decide as anyone who makes that much has to have something worth hearing.

Friday tomorrow and I'm fancying more Osmose rather than my usual dice roll. 

https://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/dt6-kratko116-2

Finally back to walking this week. Saw John on Monday, hopefully Tim Wednesday, Tony Thursday, what larks! Today (Tuesday) I sorted that second file of Osmose firmware update but it still didn't fix my additive engine. I also managed to wipe all my user presets, which is slightly annoying but not unexpected. I have, however, found an online repository of Eagan Matrix patches, and have loaded a dozen or so to try. There needs to be an Osmose-specific place though as many don't scale right, which I guess is a good place for me to start digging deeper into the matrix myself. Howard has started and produced an electric piano so I'd like to get going also. 

Tim found a really evocative photo he took in the park of me and Jasper, really poignant. 

Wednesday we went to the pub, it were grand. 

Sober Saturday Deletion, Endless Music Excretion

 Yeah, yesterday's noodles were an indication I was more than moderately drunk - one of the difficulties of coping without weed. I think I should chuck that manky shortbread too, not doing anyone any good. Anyway, deleted the shite I made yesterday, hope to do better today with Tim. I should probably not have done the dice thing and concentrated on S3 as it was newly setup and ready to go. My bad, as I think someone illiterate might say. 

 No Tim yesterday, he's got a cold, Tony Allgood tells me he's got covid and is really rough so may be a while before we catch up - very curious how he gets on with the Waldorf Iridium keyboard. Anyway, I rolled a '2' and added some MS20/Synthi to Friday's lame efforts, did a wholly ambient mix and now listening. It's better, but then my taste seems to run to ambient more often than not now, making it a weird decision to buy that RD9. The 404 fitting nicely into S2, processing and optionally sampling the output from the MS20/Night Sky and Synthi. The Behringer line mixer probably overkill for the job but it works so will leave for now. 

Sunday, went to mum's to solve her virus problem, fingers crossed it'll stay sorted. She in a tetchy mood, perhaps due to nurse telling her oxygen won't help - must have taken something for her to get in touch. Back tomorrow taking her to docs for another blood test. 

United Utils came to send their machine down to hack tree roots - had to go out so will check with Rachael/Danny later to see what they said. Pat's birthday. 

Can't decide whether to work on novel today or play the Osmose, may have to flip a coin as there are no two-sided die, heh.

Monday took mum for blood test, she was really struggling after the short walk from doctor's door to the car, gasping for breath, gulping for it more like. Later I planned to do some music but ended up tidying the pile of CDRs in the studio to free up that metal shelf for the Odyssey and storage space for currently unused stuff. Found some interesting music to explore including quite a lot of Binar/STDM - jams and unreleased tracks. First one I picked to listen to sounds excellent so there's a few hours of exploration required. Update: lots and lots of good stuff, some of which is released I now realise but a great deal isn't. Of the released stuff, I think there may have been tweaks and overdubs but these are the raw jams. Actually the raw jams might be a bit better than the released versions as they aren't quite so packed with samples and cleverness. 

It's been a good week musically and it's only Thursday. I did a cheery thing in D that has a tune I keep whistling, so a good sign. Then Tim and I knocked up 'Rupert' which was a full on Krautrocky guitary thing that we both did decent mixes of. The perfect mix is still to be done, as always, but all good. I might do something later. Installed Pat's video doorbell which I suspect will be a PITA but we'll see. Proper answer is still to fix that blind that I broke and sellotaped up again. 

Time for another Kenton box

 The little nest of nastiness that is my thru area in Setup 4 was causing me grief over the weekend and I realised it's high time I bought another Thru12 from Kenton to sort all that once and for all. So I ordered one from Juno, using one of their 'generate a discount' online jobbies. Knocked £6 off which is better than nowt. Pat's car battery seemingly buggered, wondering if I put it away and failed to turn off lights - it's a really old battery though so getting it replaced. Also decided to drive to the thing on Wednesday as paying over £100 for a taxi is insane. Pretty sure we could take train but would mean leaving Broc much longer alone. Tim's battery also flat so it's a battery kinda day. Which reminds me, I need some AAAs.

Talked to United Utils today, finally someone who does work, or hopefully will. The council had passed it on then lost interest, the waste water part of UU too, so I basically rang the general engineering part then sent them the report thingummy. Fingers crossed. Guy mentioned having a machine that gnashes through roots then seals up to prevent a repeat incursion. Could mean the hideous leylandii doesn't need to be removed, not that I care about that particularly. So that was my Monday. Should get an hour or two Osmose playing though if lucky.

Did a small reorg - put the 404 with the Synthi/MS20/Euro in place of the 505. The 505 (via Phil's old mixer) now handles the Osmose and Blofeld so I can do proper synced arrangements of the tunes I am trying to play. The RD9 can go live in Setup3 along with other generally groovy things, Cirklon and so on. Thinking of ways that might be rationalised around just the Spirit mixer, leaving the other Behringer to S2. Don't need a BB with that really as I can use the 404 to do similar things. Probably need fewer analogue monosynths for S3 but have ideas about that too. All good. Replaced battery on Pat's car but she still looking permanently glum. Hopefully this Lion King trip tomorrow will help a bit. The Thru12 arrived for S4 and plumbed in.  

Thursday was a good day - finally got round to tweaking setup 3, still using two mixers but rationalised it by moving out the V-Synth and shunting around the analogues to make way for a general work area. It may not be perfect but it feels like an improvement. Time will tell. 

Friday tomorrow, should be a hoot. May go back to my 4-sided dice as I think everything is now groovy for all 4 setups. Oh, did I mention we went to see Lion King yesterday? Well, we did and it was actually rather impressive. Crammed in though, the Palace Theatre was like Ryan Air on a steep cliff or something. 

Haken Editor and Super 6 MPE

 Well, I intend to try the MPE mode anyway, haven't yet. Tried the Haken editor on my old Mac but it's no use unless I update my OSX, which I have no intention of doing. Did get it working a bit better on laptop but I'm going to need to draft in a second monitor if I'm to use it for any length of time. First I need to read a bit of the basics and also the thing about my Osmose firmware (Load Update File 2). Thing is I don't want to spend too long solving computery problems when I can just sit and play. One day I'll make some of my own instruments on it but probably not for a while and won't be as good as experienced designers. Putting my hopes in Howard. 

Sorted out how to do the RD9 prefs at last, wanted to be able to set various values per pattern and the song loop mode. 

Well, the Super 6 MPE works - after a fashion. Feels a bit steppy though, probably due to 7-bit controllers - but the vibrato is nice. However you have to keep re-enabling MPE for every patch, which is a drag and using the mod matrix on the Soup still sucks. OK if I stay in Manual mode I guess but I think I preferred regular Poly AT and the Blofeld as my external synth, so that's how I'll keep it. Actually the results were better when I turned off the dynamics control and not so bad at its half setting - but having the Soup there next to the Osmose still felt wrong somehow, you start becoming aware of the Soup's shitty keyboard and sluggish sliders for a start. Anyway, putting things back as they were today (Friday) so I can get stuck into a Friday sesh. Was gonna go out with Pat and the dog but she didn't leave until after 10:00 and I like to get an early start for my afternoon's music. 

Continuing to worth through Eagan Matrix videos and not finding the difficulties expected. Have seen some people say that it's impossible but it really isn't, especially if you're used to a synth like the Synthi with a pin matrix. The use of formulae instead of pins of different resistances makes sense to me and the idea that all sounds are intimately bound up with the available controllers also seems spot on. Must sort that extra screen.

Friday was a good one. 

I should add that it's Saturday morning and I haven't listened through yet so the usual caveats apply. Went to see Broc do his agility last night - freezing cold and mayhem of dogs, especially silly collies, but good fun and Broc had a ball. Today might get to see Tim's eBay guitar fx box, a Behringer version of the Pod IIRC. 

Hopefully next week we'll be walking again. Got my axe now, which is apparently to stop you when slipping down a hill, so that's something I didn't know. Tony had a long cold and the tops are lovely and frosty, which must be frustrating for him. I've coped by lots of playing. ;) Am out of weed though :(

Continuing the osmosis and gradually learning the RD9

Yeah, playing with different pedals in slot 2 and noting a few odd errors with 5-pin MIDI. Not that they bother me too much but I would like to get the arpeggiator working in tight sync at least. Next thing to try is recording into Cirklon and looking at the data, seeing if it plays back correctly. 

So far with the RD9 I've had good results patching out drums into the Oto Biscuit, high-pass filtering the high hats so they're almost as sweet at the 808's. The note repeat works well, jumping directly to a step in pattern change and the fills process is OK - not sussed the 'intro' part yet and the manual doesn't mention it at all. The knobs are loosening up a bit but the colour still stupid (dark grey with red indicators). All the probability, polyphony and randomness tried out and gonna be handy. Final shame is that I can't use the compressor on some voices, the filter on a different set. 

Weather been awful so no walk this week. Tim and I recorded a rather good track on Monday though.

Started recording a thing today (Thursday) that has potential. P3 sequencing a shed-load of JD-XA and some played Osmose / Cosmos. Recorded some RD9 drums to fit with it, sounding nice, and I have a good basis for something tomorrow. How splendid! The Osmose cover arrived from Ann's Tweed and it's great, just the job. Sussed copying bars in the RD9 but it's more long-winded than it should be. Also lost high hats completely and had to power off, so that's not ideal. Fortunately they returned but will have to keep eye on that. 

The sparrows are back, which is lovely to behold. They can't have gone to Egypt after all but I do wonder where was nicer and why it's now not. Hopefully we'll walk this week, it's looking good, not so rainy, if cold. Worked on the novel a bit last night, still not quite content to call it the end of draft #1. I suppose I'm putting off starting the big haul through again doing the proper tidying up. I read the first Richard Osman novel and he was thanking everyone for their help and assistance, telling him what was wrong in early drafts, making him work a bit harder on it. That's an issue I've always struggled with - never been quite able to get anyone interested in helping out, presumably because the quality really isn't high enough for anyone to bother, or maybe it's my complete lack of involvement in Pointless. I'm reading the second one now, which is much better, or it is so far. Very easy to read, the complication is there but not really hiding and the bits I'm meant to think about, or see coming, are laid out properly. I don't know that I'll ever be able to achieve that, too lazy and self-indulgent I suspect.

Added a track to the end of this. Not perfect but then none of them are and they're free.

Have done some nice music lately, in my humble opinion, and felt inspired to paint again after watching a Sky Arts program about Rothko. Did I write that in my blog already? This week my resolution is to not have quite so many pleasant afternoon whiskies while in the studio. Oh, I think I've learned the RD9 now, although the song mode appears to work differently to how the manual says. Fortunately I'm not interested in that, just wanted to do it for completeness' sake. Is that apostrophe right? It doesn't look like it. Oh, I didn't bother going to see Wolfgang Flur at the Ferret. There aren't many people I would go and see there, the Soapgirls perhaps, or does that just mark me as an old perv? I appear to have written most of that paragraph in the style of Osman's Joyce, which is worrying. Or is it?

Anyway. Did my tax and it hurt. Saying I'm retired now seems stupid as I can't claim for anything, so for next year I'm coming out of retirement, whatever that ultimately means. If only I was Jacob Piss-Fogg and I could just loan myself an income from some dodgy place in Bermuda/Ireland/the Caymans. Still, I'd be a cunt so best not go there. 

On Sunday we had a very pleasant visit from William and Benji as Dawn, Chris and Colin went off to Lytham to do sad family stuff. He was a lot more switched on this time and it makes me hopeful for the future. Broc woke me up at 03:30 but didn't want to go out, not entirely sure what he wanted but I didn't sleep properly afterwards. He repeated the exercise at 8am but I didn't get up this time and Pat found him sleeping in his nest in the library. I guess he was affected by Benji's visit in some doggy way.