/030 - Raining

The forecast called for rain again all day so I knew I wouldn’t get a chance to take out the h4n. Decided to go sit on the (covered) porch for awhile this morning to make a few recordings. Probably a complex din of sounds to discern for my first go, but you have to start somewhere. Picked up a dump truck (far) and passing train (very far) so pretty impressed with the h4n in that regard.

Later in the day we were post-holiday cleaning and Emi (3) decided to dismantle the flower centerpiece. There were a handful of plastic globes in there that I thought sounded cool when bunched together and rattled.

Light compression to level them a bit and bring the volume up.

/029 - Shifting

My family was supposed to visit for a small after-holiday brunch, but had to cancel last minute due to illness so we found ourselves with a whole day and no plans. Used the opportunity to organize and downsize some of the boxes and places that have been sitting since we moved in (a year ago…). Wanted to get outside with the h4n pro, but got rained out. Maybe tomorrow.

Made some softly floating/shifting drones this morning with guitar > el cap > cranes > wedge. A little bit stuck in the rut of looping volume swells, but when it sounds so lovely it’s kind of hard to stop.

/028 - Cousins

The Electra recorder is full of character. I’m not sure it can do anything else, though it’s very possible that the old tapes that came with it are a contributing factor. It also has very low headroom so I needed to bring the input way down to avoid crazy feedback. Sounds rather nice with a little crunch, I think.

Played a generative sequence with dunes (internal audio and midi out to Digitone) and recorded simultaneously on the h4n pro and Electra. No post processing other than adjusting the levels to get them in the same range.

A little spider came to visit while I was editing,

/027 - More

Left: Emily and I found some interesting shapes at the hardware store today.

Right: It followed me home, promise! Grabbed (the tiniest, cutest) tape machine from a man on Craigslist today. He told me that his grandfather got it for him on Christmas when he was 8 — in 1967. It’s overall in really good condition, came with the original box/packaging, manual, microphone, and a few reels. Took it apart and used contact cleaner and got it working though the sound is still a bit iffy. Might be the tapes, but need to test more.

Here’s a long drone that I made this morning with guitar > MLR > Wedge > h4n pro.

/026 - Still

The holidays are “over” but it’s still busy. Recorded a couple quick things to test features and get used to the h4n. Pretty intuitive so far. A little hiss in the preamps, but seems like it won’t be too hard to eq out. I didn’t play around with that tonight. Ordered a windscreen and shock mount to be here this weekend so I’m going to try to find some time to take it out for a go.

Here’s some sounds: guitar > mini > compass > wedge > h4n

/025 - Gratitude

Time and time again my family shows me that they understand me, and that they listen. Their gifts are wonderful, almost as wonderful as they are. Feeling so very thankful. Really looking forward to getting outside with the h4n.

Top left: The note reads “I asked Emily what she wanted to get you for Christmas. She said “a bell with a rainbow string.”” She is really the sweetest. :)

Bottom right: Ash and I made sure Emi got some new sound toys too. She was absolutely jamming on the harmonica all day!

/024 - Eve

Christmas eve with a 3 year old - busy day! Had to work half the day and then to dinner with my wife’s family. Hope everyone is warm and safe.

Left: There’s not a lot of air movement in my office so I use a small desk fan. Today it decided it was done so I rigged up a (temporary?) replacement out of my parts drawer.

Right: Had to go to a meeting at the hospital and was greeted with this as I turned the corner in the parking garage.

/023 - Ritual

Stopped at the park again today, on the way to and the way back from work. It was cold and quiet this morning, warm and quiet in the afternoon.

/022 - Lightness

Found a few quiet moments today even though the house was turned into a full-blown cookie factory. Started work on designing an enclosure for DIY norns. Got the desk cleaned back off (ahhh) and made some nice sounds. Guitar > cranes > alesis wedge.

Only 1.5 more days until holiday break!

/021 - Overload

Rewired the desk tonight. For the past few weeks I’ve been enjoying a pretty empty workspace, just bringing out what I feel like using and then putting it away when done. It’s been great for focus. Played around with a lot tonight and nothing really worked out. Too much on the desk. More is not more.

/020 - DIY

Did errands and played with Emily all day today. Was a great bit of relief after a crazy week at work, even if we didn’t really sit still. Got inspired to build my norns kit tonight after reading another lines user reporting “It took 15 minutes and it worked first time!” Same! Always a great feeling when a project fires right up. Now I have to design an enclosure…

/019 - Night Bells

Another long day at work. 2 deadlines complete! (That’s what they always say) Typically I would have just gone straight to bed, but I didn’t have a chance to do anything creative all day so I pushed myself to play around for a bit. Knowing I have to make a post is weird sometimes — like I’m just making it up. Well, I suppose that’s what creativity is, no? Anyway -- I played some of my bell samples with Timber/Norns > Avalanche Run > Shoebox. For a minute there, I lost myself. Goodnight.

/018 - Wavering

Recorded a little on the Webcor this morning. Guitar > Avalanche Run > Webcor, then fed the recording back into norns for transfer. All modulation is coming from the tape. Woah. Right image is the unit’s Magic Eye. Hypnotizing to watch it trace the input levels as you play…

/017 - Treasure

Well that escalated quickly.

As I mentioned, I wanted to find a means to play a few old (60’s) tapes that were correspondence between my wife’s grandmother and her family back in Japan. I sent an email two ads on Craigslist and both got back to me, so I went for it. $45 for everything (except the guitar) in the first picture. The Sony in the top left works, but runs slow. The speakers had some foam that disintegrated so I’m sure that the insides are full of it. Top center is an old record player. Powers up but has an issue with the drive so it jams after about 5 seconds. Passing that project on to someone else. The two tape units in the center don’t do anything when plugged in, but are both full of tubes so maybe there’s a guitar amp conversion project there for me some day. The Webcor unit (also tube) plays and records, and came with that wonderful old mic! Plugged my guitar in and that sounded great too. Looking forward to spending some more time with this.

/016 - Beginning and End

Stopped by the park again on what is becoming my Monday morning routine. Lots of birds overhead who went quiet as soon as I got the recorder out. Was trying to be be in the moment with the sounds of the lake and wind but it was very cold so it didn’t last. Worked a very long day and then got home to a house that was already sleeping, but there were two nice treats waiting for me. The last parts for my diy norns arrived — this will be a great project over holiday break. Then when I went into the office I found a beautiful picture from Emily and got a huge smile on my face. I really really don’t like the days when I have to leave before she gets up and don’t get home after she’s gone to bed. Thankfully they don’t happen too often.

/015 - Sundaze

Rainy and cold today with bouts of snow, but nothing stuck. Too bad. Not a lot of downtime. Too bad. Traveled to attend my niece’s birthday party — Emily had a great time running around with everyone and it was a nice to see the family. Conveniently, there was another old reel to reel available right nearby so of course I had to snap that up before we could head back. Stopped off to see a neighborhood full of Christmas lights on our way home and Emily was unimpressed. haha

/014 - More Tape

Morning drone tape experiments — guitar > avalanche run > MLR on norns. 6 tracks split between 2 buffers. Playing over that a bit with a Hohner Pianet soundfont running on the ipad. Recorded out to cassette and then back into norns. Getting the levels set is still challenging, but the tape quality definitely comes through. I do need to open it back up to adjust the speed because playing back with the recording was definitely out of tune.

/013 - Running

I have the great luxury of spending all day with my daughter every Friday. My wife’s work schedule changed and my job is very flexible, so now I work 10 hour days (from home) M-Th with Friday off. AMAZING. Anyway, Emi and I did a lot of running today. Got some errands done, then went for lunch and to the “The Music Store” (Guitar Center) so she can bang around on the drums. She had her first gig (haha) and it was a lot of fun. Got her some drum sticks and a soprano recorder. Having a kid is a great excuse to pick up more weird instruments.

Saw some decaying signs and snapped pics. I miss shooting in the city and need to plan a time to go wander around with my camera soon.

We also went to pick up a reel to reel player I found for almost nothing on Craigslist. The day we brought the cassette recorder home from my wife’s grandmas’s house, we also brought home a few reels of very old (60s?) voice recordings. Seems that instead of writing letters back home, she and her family in Japan would record themselves describing their current events and mail the tapes back and forth. The machine works, but runs slow. Needs a belt checking and a deep cleaning. Had some old foam disintegrate so I’m sure the insides are a mess. More on this soon.

/012 - Tape on Tape

Fixed! Once I repaired the broken switch, it just needed a new belt, slight motor adjustment, and a good cleaning. Glad I kept poking around in there. I didn’t have any blank cassettes and was very surprised to find that they had a pack at the corner Walgreens. Crazy high school flashback opening it up — I probably made a thousand mix tapes back then.

Made a quick test recording of piano > norns running compass > cassette, and then played the recording back into norns to record to tape. The ins and outs on the Realistic are all mono and I messed up my adapters somewhere because I got piano and reverb, but no compass. Oh well.

We also had a very pretty sunrise this morning, here’s some not pictures of it:

/011 - Timber

When I first used Ableton, I was absolutely blown away with the fact that I could play samples as synths. Being able to transpose, add envelopes, and edit loop points on the fly was like uncovering an entire new world of possibilities. Timber by Markeats is like reconnecting with an old friend who still has ideas to share. Here’s the tail of a (much) longer recording I made this morning with a wurlitzer sample.