more on the moog,
it was designed after Bob Moog left the moog company in'77, designed by herbert deutsch who had worked with mr moog back in the 60's on the 1st moogs,
bob moog died recently, herbert deutsch is very much alive, he teaches for hofstra university, and i tracked down his email address...
i sent him a hello, with a link to last week's improvisation (featuring the moog),
i sent it on saturday and on monday he emailed back...
"thanks for the improv and the red wine. The opus sounds nice. might be a bit better shape than my old one. Keep up the improvs. I don't think they are "a little bit stupid".
Herb Deutsch"
in that improvisation i was sipping wine (rose as it goes) and midway through (around 10 minutes in i think) i accidentally stopped the recording with my foot, i fixed it but i was kind of muttering about being "a little bit stupid"...
this has kept me a little bit lifted off the ground for a couple of days...
not only did this man who designed my moog, reply to my email, but he watched the 20 minute improvisation as well...
x
other moog related news being that the string section, which it was sold to me as being not working, has life...
i've known of a kind of life it has for a week now but i found other life, in a different form, and it sounds fantastic...
this has just come through leaving the beast on all the time... it's gradually finding itself... i did open her up the other day and clean her a bit and that might have done something... who knows? anyway,
this happens when all the outputs are turned off, it shouldn't be making sound, but it's bleeding through, and it's exactly the sound i want to work, it's just not going through the right amplification bits...
when it works (which it will), there is a circuit which looks out for really high resonance and switches something off, to avoid distortion...
this ghost in the machine sound doesn't have the turning off circuit, so it distorts like nobody's business and this is how i found it...
yesterday i recorded a brief improvisation with the ghost sound, turned up a whole load... turned up some more once in the computer, running it through noise reduction twice to scare off the hiss that came with it...
i love it...
i think i'll put it on my myspace, but maybe the out there version of my myspace...
i'll let you know if it goes up, it's worth hearing at least once...
on listening to it it occurred to me that it was like an invocation...
i've called it invocation to a long dead god and i'm thinking of something like the god that the prehumans invoked, before homo-sapian, some early homo erectus...
maybe they could make a sound that pleased this god, or could call it... but with our evolution into homo-sapian out throats and mouths evolved to such an extent that we could no longer make the sound and the god fell away...
that's the god i'm invoking with this tune x
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
circuit boards
so i found a service manual for my moog on the net...
i've been playing around and trying to work out exactly what's wrong with it, then going to the "circuit description" which explains what goes where, then going to the functional block diagram which has a general pattern of all 3 circuit boards...
trying to work out exactly where the fault is...
and i think i'm narrowing it down...
of course once i've worked out a couple of likely suspects i'll need to get myself a multi-meter type fella and open her up... (again)
i opened her up a little on tuesday night, after i'd recorded the improvisation, but could see nothing obviously wrong... although to be fair i didn't see the top of the control circuit board, just the other 2, so there could be something visibly wrong with that once i get to see it...
the whole thing needs a clean anyway, lots of the switches are a little dicky, particularly the continuous ones...
it's very exciting...
x
i've been playing around and trying to work out exactly what's wrong with it, then going to the "circuit description" which explains what goes where, then going to the functional block diagram which has a general pattern of all 3 circuit boards...
trying to work out exactly where the fault is...
and i think i'm narrowing it down...
of course once i've worked out a couple of likely suspects i'll need to get myself a multi-meter type fella and open her up... (again)
i opened her up a little on tuesday night, after i'd recorded the improvisation, but could see nothing obviously wrong... although to be fair i didn't see the top of the control circuit board, just the other 2, so there could be something visibly wrong with that once i get to see it...
the whole thing needs a clean anyway, lots of the switches are a little dicky, particularly the continuous ones...
it's very exciting...
x
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Yr3wk23 moog, rhodes, voice
recorded soon after midnight on tuesday night, but taking this long to get up there partly to give last weeks improvisation with jair-rohm a bit of time...
with the moog that i'd got earlier on that day...
a whole lot of spinning around going on x
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Yr3wk22 rhodes, NORD synth & electric upright bass
recorded on saturday with JR on electric upright bass, the last we'll see of this particular NORD rack 1 synth,
but fear not the moog is here, i got it this afternoon, wearing my moog T-shirt, carrying the Can record that was part of the deal...
i popped in to marylebone station to see M (sister in law) who was in town, for the 1st time i heard her answer the phone as MK, that was kooky... she's looking very well...
i might do this weeks improvisation tonight, with the moog, floopy's camera is probably going to norway with floopy later this week so it'd be good to take advantage of it being here...
strange that i've been home for an hour or so and i still haven't played it...
x
Sunday, November 16, 2008
without a synth
all those months ago, the NORD synth arrived from lovely st L...
and now, today, he came round to collect it,
yesterday i had D & JR round, JR playing bass on this weeks improvisation which is now rendering and which is the last improvisation to feature the NORD...
but all is not lost, because the moog will be with me on tuesday (i think), and thus my synth absence will come to an end...
last night i plugged my keyboard into the NORD, and the NORD into the korg D8, (which i used to records last week's improvisation)...
smoked one, and then set about recording the NORD...
dinah was asleep by now and i wanted to get some NORD recorded before it went...
it made me realise just how easy it is to work with the D8, i could roll up pretty much anywhere (with electricity) with my keyboard and the D8 and start recording...
it's a thought...
anyway, off up to D's to pick up my mic...
laters x
and now, today, he came round to collect it,
yesterday i had D & JR round, JR playing bass on this weeks improvisation which is now rendering and which is the last improvisation to feature the NORD...
but all is not lost, because the moog will be with me on tuesday (i think), and thus my synth absence will come to an end...
last night i plugged my keyboard into the NORD, and the NORD into the korg D8, (which i used to records last week's improvisation)...
smoked one, and then set about recording the NORD...
dinah was asleep by now and i wanted to get some NORD recorded before it went...
it made me realise just how easy it is to work with the D8, i could roll up pretty much anywhere (with electricity) with my keyboard and the D8 and start recording...
it's a thought...
anyway, off up to D's to pick up my mic...
laters x
Thursday, November 13, 2008
moog google mars
the moog is mine...
today i saw D and he agreed to the price,
i took in my keyboard case to see whether it would fit the moog and it did, it was really mental cycling in with it,
the moog is currently nestled in that case, waiting for me to come back next thursday to pick it up, whereupon i will be bearing the 1st instalment of money and the Can vinyl which is part of the deal...
i'm so excited, i might not be able to wait until thursday,
and google mars... found it this morning and i love it x
today i saw D and he agreed to the price,
i took in my keyboard case to see whether it would fit the moog and it did, it was really mental cycling in with it,
the moog is currently nestled in that case, waiting for me to come back next thursday to pick it up, whereupon i will be bearing the 1st instalment of money and the Can vinyl which is part of the deal...
i'm so excited, i might not be able to wait until thursday,
and google mars... found it this morning and i love it x
Monday, November 10, 2008
Sunday, November 09, 2008
the other longcats
dinah has recently got hold of a G3 laptop, exactly the same era & style as her imac...
i was plugging the internet into it to make sure it all worked so i typed "longcat" into google...
i'm currently the 5th, 9th & 26th search results...
that's 2 on the 1st page... that's alright...
but just above me was a russian longcat over on livejournal who shares my birthyear...
4th to my 5th...
he intrigues me,
the 4chan longcat meme takes up practically everything else,
when i started being longcat i became aware of the 4chan longcat but didn't pay it much mind, every now and again a 4chan longcatter would turn up and question my existence, but in general i ignored them...
earlier this year there was a demonstration in blackfriars, ostensibly against the scientologists but i think it was more random than just that... a load of people in the guy fawkes masks that were used in the film V for vendetta...
there were a few longcat references floating about in that, this, this & this for example...
also tonight i've found a beautiful longcat image on deviantart:
by pseudo-manitou...
i wonder who came 1st? me or them? probably them, but then i've been longcat since... oh who knows? too late @ night x
i was plugging the internet into it to make sure it all worked so i typed "longcat" into google...
i'm currently the 5th, 9th & 26th search results...
that's 2 on the 1st page... that's alright...
but just above me was a russian longcat over on livejournal who shares my birthyear...
4th to my 5th...
he intrigues me,
the 4chan longcat meme takes up practically everything else,
when i started being longcat i became aware of the 4chan longcat but didn't pay it much mind, every now and again a 4chan longcatter would turn up and question my existence, but in general i ignored them...
earlier this year there was a demonstration in blackfriars, ostensibly against the scientologists but i think it was more random than just that... a load of people in the guy fawkes masks that were used in the film V for vendetta...
there were a few longcat references floating about in that, this, this & this for example...
also tonight i've found a beautiful longcat image on deviantart:
by pseudo-manitou...
i wonder who came 1st? me or them? probably them, but then i've been longcat since... oh who knows? too late @ night x
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
barack the builder
can we fix it?
Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther could stand.
Martin Luther stood so Obama could run.
Obama ran so our children could fly.
Rosa Parks sat so Martin L King could walk...
Martin walked so Obama could run...
Obama ran so all children can fly!
2 slightly different texts from 2 different black women i know, both who have a child... Nippy 1st @ 9:44am, then Josiah @ 12:59pm,
watched his speech just now, and it was good, although the bob the builder motif was a little distracting,
and it's true that an awful lot of hope is generated by this election,
and it has already become that much easier to see grace, or R as prime minister (josiah's & nippy's children), just because of the colour of barack obama's skin,
a huge change even just for that reason,
but i'm cautious, i remember tony blair getting to power and the hope that that represented for change, hope that was dashed in the end...
what can one man do against the way the world is?
but don't get me wrong i'm full of hope.... it's a great day x
Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther could stand.
Martin Luther stood so Obama could run.
Obama ran so our children could fly.
Rosa Parks sat so Martin L King could walk...
Martin walked so Obama could run...
Obama ran so all children can fly!
2 slightly different texts from 2 different black women i know, both who have a child... Nippy 1st @ 9:44am, then Josiah @ 12:59pm,
watched his speech just now, and it was good, although the bob the builder motif was a little distracting,
and it's true that an awful lot of hope is generated by this election,
and it has already become that much easier to see grace, or R as prime minister (josiah's & nippy's children), just because of the colour of barack obama's skin,
a huge change even just for that reason,
but i'm cautious, i remember tony blair getting to power and the hope that that represented for change, hope that was dashed in the end...
what can one man do against the way the world is?
but don't get me wrong i'm full of hope.... it's a great day x
still up
and i'm still here a couple of hours later, it is looking good for obama, so hard to go to bed...
175, 76,
that's what the BBC projects, ohio has been called for obama by fox news, but the BBC is more cautious, but the people in the washington BBC studio are talking as though with ohio goes mccain's last hope...
will i go to bed soon? or will i wait for the 270 mark?
x
175, 76,
that's what the BBC projects, ohio has been called for obama by fox news, but the BBC is more cautious, but the people in the washington BBC studio are talking as though with ohio goes mccain's last hope...
will i go to bed soon? or will i wait for the 270 mark?
x
obama please
palpable excitement about the US election for once...
probably going to bed soon, and i don't really know whether the results on the BBC's website are real or not,
projected... kentucky to mccain, vermont to obama, 8, 3,
this map gradually turning grey as polls close in the east of america... but it'll be 12 hours or so before any real news emerges and another 12 hours before it's sure...
that's what i gather...
popped round to see L today with the harmonium and got to show her & S my primordial palindrome film, S used to be a director for the BBC 20 odd years ago and he had a couple of interesting things to say... L also echoed what spski has always said about my films place being more in galleries than cinemas...
interesting improvisation with L which could turn long term...
going to wait for one more coloured state on the map before i go to bed i think x
probably going to bed soon, and i don't really know whether the results on the BBC's website are real or not,
projected... kentucky to mccain, vermont to obama, 8, 3,
this map gradually turning grey as polls close in the east of america... but it'll be 12 hours or so before any real news emerges and another 12 hours before it's sure...
that's what i gather...
popped round to see L today with the harmonium and got to show her & S my primordial palindrome film, S used to be a director for the BBC 20 odd years ago and he had a couple of interesting things to say... L also echoed what spski has always said about my films place being more in galleries than cinemas...
interesting improvisation with L which could turn long term...
going to wait for one more coloured state on the map before i go to bed i think x
Monday, November 03, 2008
Sunday, November 02, 2008
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