Gordon's Progress

Yeah, well I recall seeing a review of The Wall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wall) that read "Roger Waters had a headache and called it art."

So I figured I could probably make a three minute piece out of my bunged-up nose.

I decided against calling "The Nasal Zone." :-)

Things I learned today:

From my trip to the local small recording studio.

1. It's a different kind of intensity to playing in front of an audience, but kind of fun too.

2. When you suggest to the engineer that he mike up your practice amp, and he decides to take a direct feed instead, don't just assume he knows what he is doing and let him get on with it.

3. When you tell him the reverb is coming from the amp, so he says he'll add some reverb in post-production, don't just assume you'll like the way it will work out.

4. When the engineer says there's a bit of hiss, don't just assume this is negligible amounts.

5. When you tell him that you can remove hiss afterwards by sampling a silent portion in Amadeus II, don't just assume that he will therefore leave a nice silent portion at the start or end of each track for you to sample. (And don't bother to look for silent bits in the middle of tracks - the excessive reverb will take care of those for you!)

Weird thing is, when he was playing back bits of the recording in the studio, it sounded really good!

6. Forty minutes of studio time equates to about ten minutes of recording.

7. Public playing is just like public speaking - talk slower and leave longer pauses than you imagine necessary, you tend to go faster than you think - it's the adrenaline, I imagine.

8. Soundproofed, acoustically neutral rooms are a great place to play.

9. Apparently I [i]can[/i] hit notes. Engineer guy and I agreed on which was the good take of In The Potting Shed.

So, lots of fun and a worthwhile experience. Bit of a shame I didn't come away with anything fit for public consumption, but hey ho.

From my Halloween party gig.

1. Just because you spent twenty five minutes setting up sound, lighting, costume, don't expect anyone to go out of their way to make sure you actually have time to perform. After all, it's not like they're paying for your services.

On the positive side, while the little ones were elsewhere I had a lovely time warming up in the company of a venerable couple who were most taken by the theremin, and my ability to play it. Apparently I am far better than modern "music". (You could hear the quotes. I figure they meant pop music.)

Kind of came to an interesting end when some of the younger party-goers came in. Theremins are far too interesting when you're five. I'm thinking that before the next time I'll invest in a portable shark-infested moat.

And after everyone had gone, I played Happy Birthday to an audience of one - the Birthday girl. She was utterly enthralled.

Made it all worthwhile. :-)

[i]And after everyone had gone, I played Happy Birthday to an audience of one - the Birthday girl. She was utterly enthralled. [/i]

i dont want to sound [b]ghey[/b], but that's really sweet.

You know, it's OK to commune with your inner bunny-wabbit once in a while.

(And for any cold-hearted souls who would still bah-humbug the scene, may I add: six foot skeleton, three foot witch.)

Just remembered: I did add some non-theremin value to the party: Lasso d'amores are good for taking your spooky sound effects with you whilst trick-or-treating, and a mike and echo box will improve any ghost story. :-)

I had an amusing conversation with Birthday girl's mum afterwards. She expressed some surprise at the size of my instrument. Apparently my previous description, which had included mention of antennae and a mime of playing, had somehow managed to convey the notion of "stylophone." It was about then that I recalled that mum was a fully qualified hairdresser.

I'm tired, but I want to note down one or two more tiny steps in my progress. Probably I shall return to some of them in more detail at a later date, but here's the brief version for now.

As noted elsewhere I bought Purcell's Cold Genius from iTunes store. Actually two versions - a straight rendition by Hervé Niquet & Le Concert Spirituel, and a reinterpretation by Attrition. As promised, again elsewhere - I can't be bothered to link at the moment - by omhoge, this is an easy piece to play. An accessible introduction to classical playing.

Well, I say that, but what I mean is I'm having fun going "pom pom pom pom pom pom pom [i]slide[/i] pom pom pom pom pom pom [i]slide[/i] pom pom pom pom pom pom [i]slide[/i]..." and thinking it's a neat bass line, and imagining long slow sheets of icy high notes over the top of it.

Also I like the libretto a lot. That helps. (Libretto - posh word, meaning lyrics...)

What power art thou, who from below
Hast made me rise unwillingly and slow
From beds of everlasting snow?
See'st thou not how stiff and wondrous old
Far unfit to bear the bitter cold,
I can scarcely move or draw my breath?
Let me, let me freeze again to death.

Also, I've been exploring the etherwave's waveform and brightness knobs - venturing from my safe position of fully clockwise, fully anticlockwise - i.e. soft, flutey and very forgiving of off notes. I'm starting to get into more brassy tones - which give clearer, better differentiated bass notes, and using an echo box to help me keep a steady rhythm for my pom pom poms.

Also I've been having a ton of fun with a 3 o'clock, 12 o'clock setting and higher notes - it has a very vocal quality with twisty little glissandi. I feel like a magician making strange, ornate gestures to evoke voices out of the air.

One other thing - I signed up for a long weekend in Dorset with a bunch of musicians from the White Label stable next February. The intention is that it will result in an improvised album to be released on iTunes. I'm hoping it will provide some experience of group dynamics that I can bring to Hands Off. I'm really looking forward to doing the Sun Ra thing of total immersion in a communal musical environment for a few days.

[i]"I signed up for a long weekend in Dorset with a bunch of musicians from the White Label stable next February."[/i]

Gordon, I am so envious... I'd enjoy doing something like that. Sounds like you will have a great time. Enjoy every minute!

Kevin - I thoroughly intend to!

Here's a link I think you'll like. It's a modular synth like nothing you've ever seen before. Earlier in this thread I was trying to describe how I felt modular synths were designed back-to-front - with the modules in fixed positions and having to move the wires connecting them around. This is one done the right way round...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h-RhyopUmc

I went to the link. Wow! That was cool. Thanks.

... and back to our regular programme.

I finally got around to plugging my etherwave into my iBook, courtesy of the line-level to USB converter that I mentioned ages and ages ago. Worked a lot better that with the Kees. A strong enough signal, and almost completely noise free.

No noticeable delay in the system either. Probably because I was using Amadeus II to do the recording, rather than Garageband with a bunch of realtime effects for good measure.

Of course I didn't get any of the reverb from my practice amp, what with not using it, but a bit of post-processing with the Apple Unit plug-in "Matrix Reverb" (set to the "Cathedral" pre-set and then made a little less wet, for anyone who cares) fixed that very nicely. (Next time I'll try plugging the iBook into the headphone socket of my amp instead - see how well that works - just this moment thought of that.)

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I figured for a first try I'd go for my melodic piece, In The Potting Shed. Despite the almost total absence of hiss I ran A-II's noise removal over it anyway, with no ill-effects.

And then I tried something I thought of a while ago with respect to my intended theremin-synthesiser hook-up. I added a second voice, following the first one exactly, but at a different pitch, using the Apple Unit "Pitch." Having read about tritones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritone) recently, (whilst browsing about King Crimson - apparently Fripp uses them a lot) I went for three even-tempered tones lower for my second voice. It seems to me to fit the mood of the piece very well.

Then I added in the reverb, and sat back and listened.

Three things I noted.

1. I'm concentrating so much on the pitch I'm forgetting about volume. The piece lacks expression.

2. In the second half I'm stopping the vibrato just before the end of a phrase, so the pitch goes a bit wonky.

3. I rushed the very last note. It should have been a bit longer and faded out gradually. Actually I rushed the whole thing a bit.

But you don't have to take my word for it. You can download it here: http://tinyurl.com/y3bgls if you're curious. I would appreciate feedback if you do listen to it. (And I'm thick-skinned - negative criticism doesn't phase me in the slightest, but it's better if coupled with suggestions for improvement.)

Note that clicking on the above link will immediately cause your browser to download a 3.6 meg mp3 and start playing it in iTunes (well, it did that for me when I tested it.)

Also note that, as this is not a finished product, I posted it on YouSendIt (http://yousendit.com), so it will only be available for seven days and 99 more downloads. If you missed it, tough - I'm not reposting.

slower. IMHO