Turns out this is going to take more rework than I initially thought. I made myself a roadmap and then started taking things apart to test fit in the new enclosure. It will work! Just need to finish the graphics and etch, then I can put it all back together.
It didn’t rain today, but I acted like it did.
Time for this old dual OD250 to get a new house…
Played around with some sounds tonight. It reminded me of summer, sitting outside at dusk, listening to the bugs.
The tadpoles have taken over the pond and the birds have finally found our window box.
Ash and I both installed the Cornell Lab Merlin app and have been trying to id all the different birds we have coming to the feeders in our yard. As much as I love animals I never gave birds that much thought, but between getting the field recorder and having so many around us all the time, I find myself always looking for them these days.
Was finding myself having to do a lot of page flipping on the Digitone during transitions so I programmed a master control layout on the Midi Fighter Twister. Such a great and flexible controller for any/every setup. More compact and way easier to program than the BCR2000 I used to have. Still working out a few kinks, but it’s great having all the time access to these parameters across all the tracks. Bonus points for custom colors to match the Digitone’s track buttons.
Digitone, battery, H4N Pro. What a powerful mobile setup.
The hands-on nature of the Model:Samples has made the Digitone click. I feel like I understand it on a whole other level, even after only a few days with the M:S. Very, very cool. I’m also pretty bad about making “songs” but tonight’s sketch just kind of came together. The performative aspects I can now see in here are incredible — this was all recorded and manipulated live to the zoom.
I also realized that yesterday marked the halfway point of this 365 blog. Not sure how far I thought I would actually get, but definitely didn’t think I would make it here. It has, so far, been one of the most productive (and WEIRD) years I’ve had. Having to post every day can be a slog, but part of the point was to keep me moving and it’s definitely worked. Thanks to anyone reading out there. Hope we all make it through the year safe and sound.
This is very much out of the ordinary for my musical practice! I do so much unquantized/layered/looped that deliberately setting steps and locks is quite the challenge. Luckily for me Elektron has chance and trid conditions to let me feel more at home. Promise I’ll stay on grid next time.
I always find myself noticing interesting designs or textures that are created accidentally, or left as an unintended consequence of another task.
Last weekend I watched a documentary on the birth of Chicago house and thought it would be cool to have a drum machine with a hands-on interface. I listened to minimal techno all week and made it to Wednesday before I ordered the Model:Samples. It arrived today and I only had about an hour with it — seems like it will be very fun once I get my own samples into it and stop accidentally erasing all my sequences. Haha
Had a first go at playing with the collab samples. Pitched and layered and granularized just for fun. In the spirit of experimentation, I’d like to to try arrange things more than just letting things loop and drone, but tonight it just sounds very me. Haha
Emily and I found this web of spiderlings in the process of hatching on her slide. We watched them for quite awhile and it was pretty fascinating. I’ve never seen anything like this close up before. No edits or effects on the video — it was pretty windy.
I got my samples sent away for the first collab project. It’s hard to know what will work in this context, so in the end it just becomes “if it sounds cool then it is cool” and let everyone else work with it how they want. I tried to give a good range of things, am excited to hear how the other tracks turn out. (I wonder what I will do…)
Download the files here.
We took a hike at a nearby park this morning — trying to get there before it got busy, and before it got hot. There weren’t too many people on the trails, and everyone was being friendly and keeping their distance. It was still hot since all the trees blocked the breeze. It was still a nice time and Emily loves romping around the woods, finding bugs and creatures to look at/talk to. Love that about her so much. ♥
We forgot to water the garden last night so I was out there very early today and brought the h4n. Despite living so close to the school and some main intersections (we’re on a dead end street) we’ve always got a yard full of activity. It’s very nice, even if the huge yard can be a lot to take care of. I like to leave it as wild as I can though. ;)
This afternoon Emi and I decided to take her Fisher Price record player (modern version of the classic) apart to see how it works. Emi is always very curious how things work (proud dad) so this was pretty fun for us to do together.
No real surprise that it’s completely digital now (with a gooped chip that probably wouldn’t survive being cleaned so I could bend it) but I was surprised to see the main body of an actual music box mechanism inside. Guess it’s cheaper to buy them this way than design their own crank mechanism? The rainbow wires run up into the arm and the raised parts of the record press buttons underneath to tell it what song to play. Here’s a clip of that poor mechanism being cranked and then limping along until it runs out of steam:
Started thinking about this week’s Junto project tonight and was sketching out graphical ideas of what could constitute “special.” We do a lot of diagrams like this at work — it helps visualize possible design motifs that become a roadmap for the actual design.
Honestly, I spent too much taking drawing them in the computer. There’s a beauty to the quickness of a hand-sketch.
This is inside of my trusty Presonus Firebox. My first interface, bought in 2010 and still working great until today when I smelled a smell and my monitors started screeching. So much of everything I’ve ever recorded has gone through this little box. I’m going to try to fix it, but the pad below the burnt end of the cap looks pretty bad. Can’t hurt to try but even if I can’t bring it back it has served me well and I definitely got my use out of it. I don’t imagine there are many of these around anymore, let alone computers with firewire ports!
The air feels alive tonight.
I have the fortune of having very nice friends who do cool things like send interesting pedals around so all of us can try them out. As such, I get to play with the Tensor for a little while. So far I’m not sure that I like it with live guitar, but have found some interesting sounds with synths, and some lovely textures with recorded loops. The interactivity of the knobs leaves a lot of territory to explore.
Really very nice friends.