/170 - Visitors

Ashley got a window feeder for her birthay a few years ago — the kind with a one-way mirror so the birds can’t see you as the fly inside to grab the seed. She and Emi put it in the window this afternoon and we immediately had a lot of traffic around the window as the birds (and others) tried to figure out what it was and how to get into it. I ended up having to move it to another window because the squirrels figured out that they could use the planter crook as a springboard to raid the feeder. On the other side there’s nothing to assist them but I assume they will figure it out eventually anyway.

I’ve never seen an Oriole before, so was pretty happy I happened to walk by when it was there and that it hung around long enough for me to run and get the camera.

/169 - Rhythms

Did a bit of a dive into the recent trove of Arab Strap demos/bootlegs/misc recently and so I couldn’t possibly not play with old drum machine sounds this morning. Saw them mention the Korg Rhythm 55 and soon thereafter I had all the samples and loops from this old (same year I was born) treasure. Threw them into fouplay and it was perfect. Time to write some rambling love songs.

(not my image, let me know and I can take it down)

/168 - Axo Drones

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Something reminded me of Stars of the Lid this morning, so I listened to the classic Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid while doing dishes, laundry, etc. Inspired by that and the upcoming drone day, tonight I pulled out my axoloti drone synth, ran it through Timeparty, and spaced out for awhile. The axo patch is a simple 3 oscillator setup, each with it’s own tuning and amp lfo, global filter and reverb. I patched it up as a test when I finished the hardware (what’s not simple is the 2 subpatches in the top left which handle all the encoder switching and screen controls) and liked it so much that I never changed it. I’m out of the habit of patching Axo, but I should get back into it. It’s usually a lot of fun and some great sounds come out of it.

Nice end to a long day of working in the garden. (though we didn’t get as much done as we had hoped to and it’s supposed to rain all week…)

/167 - Daddy Daughter Day

Emi and I had a fun day playing around. Ash recently got herself and Emi little scooters, so she and I went cruising in the sunshine. Came home and made a giant block castle. Day in the life, very lucky indeed.

/166 - Birthday

Happiest birthday to my lovely wife Ashley! I used the cnc machine to draw her a card (covid quarantine improv style) and got up super early to make her a lemon loaf. I literally never bake and was very happy and surprised it turned out so well. Emi and I are really lucky to have such a wonderful person in our life. ♥

/165 - Multi Multi

Typically a looper/slicer, MLR also makes a wonderful (6 tap) delay…

/164 - It's a Jungle In Here

Really hope the weather this weekend is as nice as they’re saying so we can get the garden planted — it’s getting pretty crazy down there.

/163 - Samples

Seems as though both collab project are going to happen. Same premise with different groups of people — everyone record a bunch of samples (of anything) to share, then everyone makes a track with that sample pool as the only source material — effected/mangled however we want. I have done a few of these before and it’s always so interesting to hear how different each track ends up given they start from the same seeds.

Played around with the weird and wonderful conform as a first go. I don’t use a lot of percussion, but when I do I always gravitate towards clicks and pops. Conform is like a step sequencer without any meaningful control, which results in lot of happy accidents. Fun!

/162 - Test Fits

Pulled the desk apart today to try out some of the setups I sketched yesterday. Seems like norns/grid <> Digitone could go a long way. Did some routing tests which were good, but didn’t result in any sharable clips. Hopefully soon. ;)

Otherwise, we had a low-key Mother’s Day. Took a walk, watched some movies, and played some games with Emily. Hope Ash enjoyed it, and that she knows how much she means to us. We love you!

/161 - Scheming

Sketched out a few ideas for a small, self-contained performance setup. No surprises that norns and grid are central in each one.

/160 - Surprise!

Emi and I made Ash a surprise Mother’s Day card today, then promptly told mom because she was so excited about it. She then asked me for a surprise card too, so I gladly obliged. She’s such a funny sweetheart.

/159 - The Hours Pass

Stuck inside, looking out the window.

/158 - Housebound

Not feeling very inspired to be creative these days. Not a lot of extra time between family and work, and being inside (or outside, but very close to home) all day is making me feel a little flat. Gotta shake things up. I’ve reached out to a few people to see if that want to collab but no firm plans yet. Hope it works out.

Here’s a little electro-raga I recorded — one sequencer and one synth captured in one take. It’s different but I like how it’s the lead, the drone, and the percussion all at once.

/157 - Film Walking

Stared at my film cameras for awhile today. The labs are closed due to the pandemic, but I’d still really like to get back out shooting soon. It’s also been a really long time since I did a city walk — I am always so much more engaged in shooting in that environment. So many interesting things to see.

/156 - In Circles

Midi > Midi > Midi.

Alf driving ipad synths, with midilfos app driving alf tempo and direction. It’s lovely when things work together.

/155 - Green

Our yard has some drainage issues so all the recent rain has left us super soggy with grass that’s starting to go out of control. Hopefully this week will dry things up and we can keep working on the yard and the garden. At least it’s pretty in the meantime.

/154 - Random

Building weird layers with the midialf driving s80. Random sequence + Osc delays + delay effects.

I dunno. Not my usual, but I was patching around and this random sort of nice thing came out.

/153 - Critters

We took a very soggy walk this afternoon and found lots of visitors in the yard and nearby creek. Captions by Emi from top left to bottom right:

“I think they’re probably talking about something important.”

“When he wakes up he will get to see this pretty flower.” (He was definitely alive, just being very still)

“I know he’s hiding his treasure around here somewhere.”

“I brought you these stickers!” ♥♥♥

/152 - Green and Submarine

Dreary day, but it was warm and full of life. The constant calls of birds and other small animals filled the air.

/151 - RTFM

Ok fine. (It’s actually really helpful now that I know my way around in here…)

Have to admit that I haven’t been feeling very creative lately, so trying to keep doing/learning at least. The world is a weird place right now, and there’s no telling if/when it will go back to “normal.” I’m typically a pretty introverted person, but this blog and our forced isolation have made me realize how far away I am a lot of the time and it sort of feels like something is missing. When I look out and hear what others say about their work and their process, there’s a consistent sentiment in how much creativity comes from working/being with other people. Might be a good time for me to try to find ways to engage, even if that’s still very limited right now.