SFXEngine v2.00 Work

A massive amount of recoding today. SFXEngine started as a branch from Prometheus, but the latter has had 150 updates since, and many major changes over the years. Many of the innovations weren't reflected in SFXEngine. There's never been a file format change to SFXEngine, but 5 in Prometheus, each a major feature upgrade.

Now I've added the best Prometheus improvements. The double pointers, variable sample rate, and optional interpolation on a per-sample basis is one feature. Another is dynamic 'floatutility' and 'longutility' variables. Each plugin needs extra variables, some more than others. The reverbs, for example, need to keep track of delays and cycle various sine waves. In early Prometheus, and in SFXEngine until now, these were a fixed quantity of 64-per effect. The new reverbs, however may need more because now the core frequency affects all of the internal delays which used to be constant; and yet the other engines use very few. The sample players only need 1, so it's massively wasteful to have these large (empty) arrays on every engine. 12 engines per program and 12 per environment add up to large memory drain in a project of 100s of sounds.

Years ago I made these variables dynamic in Prometheus, so each effect must specify how many floats and longs it needs and the program reserves these as needed, very much like the effect buffers. Today I decided to add these to SFXEngine too. This is big coding step.

The problem with a lot of this coding is that both programs are hugely complex. It's hard to hold the whole thing in your head at once, so every change and alteration must be meticulously inspected and checked, mostly for silly accidental errors. Knowing what every change does to everything is nigh on impossible. For the most part I'm duplicating Prometheus code and hoping it will slot in. I've already found one SFXEngine bug which I'd fixed in Prometheus years ago.

There's a great advantage to working on two similar programs for this reason. Every time I upgrade SFXEngine I discover improvements to make to Prometheus, and vice versa. There's something about two that makes this error correction and enhancement property optimal. I can quite understand why DNA is a double helix, not a single line, and not a triple.

In addition to these changes, every plugin needs editing and recompiling; another meticulous and exhausting job. I've made a start on the sample players, the reverbs, and the delay effects. Those are the most complex. I have 66 to work on this week.

Meanwhile, the world is watching the American presidential election. The polls are extremely close, but I think that they are wrong and that Kamala Harris will win decisively.

The Candle Burns, 12 Fold, SFXEngine v2.00

A couple of days work on The Candle Burns, which I've played live many times since its premiere in 2019. This took a few takes, but it's mostly a piano-based piece of work, with a huge and overly complex finale, a jangle of notes in odd timing, overly romantic and not at all to time. I'm already shuddering at needing to transcribe it.

Then, yesterday, an outline of a new piece which we've not performed; Lilac 12 Fold Dodecahedron. I found this very difficult. The words are all about softness and, specifically, roundness, so the music generally follows suit. What is difficult, is coming up with new melodies and keys each time.

Today I've charged into the major SFXEngine upgrade, which will take all week. It's now running with only two test engines and no load or save capability, but the core frequency can be changed. The next step is all-new sample engines, then all-new engines, then the new load and save conversion, and finally tweaks and testing.

Filing, Castle Park Drop

A quieter day yesterday. IU filed some of the Flatspace (and Future Pool and Future Snooker music), with music codes. I also worked out the structure for a new album, and sketched a new song for it, but it will need careful consideration. At the moment it's structured into three groups of four songs. The songs a recently penned, but mostly lyrics only. I now start with lyrics, then add music.

Today, a trip to Castle Park Arts Centre to deliver the paintings for the exhibition. My last exhibition there was 2021; I mainly miss them because it's down to luck if I should see the call-out on social media. I've accidentally missed the Castle Park Open, the Stockport Open, and the Three Counties Open for this reason, and I enter Bickerton and the Grosvenor because of their email call for entries.

It was a lovely trip. We briefly met the nice artist, and always reliable and well organised - which for me (and Deb!) are the highest of compliments - Ann Bonner there. We wandered around a few shops.

Once home, I completed my monthly backups, then sprayed an old frame black, it was brown before. Black on brown works quite well; black paint should have a medium or dark coloured ground to work best, blood red works well as a primer. This is for the Scarecrow painting. Then fitted a new plug to an extension lead, the old one disintegrated!

I need to complete The Candle Burns music, and a few other Fall in Green tracks, but I keep avoiding it. Life is too short for this. I must charge into it, then will upgrade SFXEngine.

Music Pack 4 Progress, Future Plans

A busy day, starting with setting up the new Flatspace DLC, creating the store artwork and text etc., then building the data and testing the integration. Then filing the album. The tracks of the FSIIk Music Pack 4 are:

1. Flatspace Nocturne (01:13)
2. Cat Covid (Flatspace Mix) (01:08)
3. Widespace (02:00)
4. Excessive Consumption Has Laxative Effects (Flatspace Version) (00:55)
5. Cycles III Piano Version (02:20)
6. Riding Pi (Flatspace Version) (04:05
) 7. I Robot (Extended Version) (02:33)
8. Lost My Telephone (01:13)
9. Flatspace Cavatina (01:29)
10. Burning Meat Outdoors (Flatspace Version) (00:32)

Amazingly, this is my 85th music release. This total includes singles, re-releases, Flatspace packs like this (3 for Flatspace, 6 for Flatspace IIk), my one audiobook, and the album I've mastered for John Lindley; which is now filed under a new category of 'Mastering'.

More to come. I'd like to create 1000 albums! But my production rates may slow somewhat as now I notate all of the music. I need to do more of that for the older albums.

This afternoon, I wrote a special melody for a friend. Each day I'm writing and recording one or two new pieces of music, as frenetic as Mozart (perhaps I need to write a symphony!). My next jobs are to finish the (as yet untitled) Fall in Green album, then the major SFXEngine update; then a new album and the re-recording of an old one.

Flatspace Music Pack 4 Work

A busy day working on a new music pack for Flatspace IIk; Music Pack 4. It will be for sale like Music Packs 1 to 3 (some smaller packs are free, those which promote albums).

I've put together 10 tracks. Most are edits or alternative versions of existing music, as is the case for the other music packs, but I've also written and performed some new tracks for this. This pack will be exclusive to Flatspace IIk, although I'll probably use some of these tracks in a pack for the first Flatspace game at some point (users can and probably will copy one to the other anyway, I didn't want to restrict that). It's already in my mind to make the packs more different between games than packs 1-3.

New tracks include two new variations of the main Flatspace theme. These are gentle 'live' versions played on piano and mock-acoustic guitar respectively. The piano version is particularly pretty. Both of these were played and improvised in one take, so relatively simple pieces without accompaniment.

I've written two new tracks today and yesterday too. One is called Widespace and began as a series of chords similar to the main theme; A-minor and E-minor, then into F and then C. After a gentle introduction in choirs, some drums appear, which use the sounds from the main theme, and a bluesy bass-line. I played some electric piano over this, and the ending fades back into choirs. The feeling is similar to the song 'The Glass Screen' from A Walk In The Countryside.

The other tune was expanded from a 2020 sketch, a little tune made from a stabby-saw sound that was but one pattern. I expanded it, and made the bass interact with the lead. This is one thing I do now: I make each part recognise the others and react as a community. Before, my layers were blind anti-social robots, often repeating the same thing over and over without care or attention to the other parts. The melody bounces along with its bass, and some drums from the original Flatspace tune 'Cobra'. A small chorus of sorts appears as we shift chords, and the tune repeats in a new instrument, then moves up two keys, and a final snake-like lead appears. I added an arpeggio which sounded like a telephone ring, so I entitled the tune 'Lost My Telephone'. As a break before each chorus I added a little telephone fanfare of ring-modulated waves, to reinforce that theme.

The 'album' so far is about 30 mins long. Quite a lot of admin and final mastering to do, but it should be ready for the end of this year.

Types of Art Active in Britain

There are five types of art active in Britain, all very different.

1. There is academic art; made by art school graduates, exhibited at The Royal Academy and museums and galleries of prestige across the country, and a few relatively numerous London art galleries. This type of art is typically installation, sculpture, multi-media, mixed media.
2. There is commercial art, exhibited by smaller galleries and art shops, including artwork retail chains. This type of art tends to be paintings (typically acrylic) with lower-priced prints. Works are emotionally and thematically sterile, yet pretty; mainstream, like commercial pop music.
3. There is local public art funded and curated by local government or public bodies with government links. One aim here is a display of public engagement with a community, and the focus can be as much on the creator, or creative group, as the consumer. The art is necessarily bland and highly politicised in its primary aim of not offending anyone and avoiding saying anything important or interesting; aside from 'good news' propaganda about how good local arts are, and how brilliant local government is for supporting it.
4. The fourth category is any art made by hobbyists and enthusiasts, which may be exhibited or not, and can cover a wide gamut in styles, themes, etc. The median artist here is a retired old lady and the median subject a landscape or animal, though this category is the largest and most numerous and covers every style and type of art from the brilliant to the mundane.
5. A fifth category is commercial illustration, which can be everything from poster and book cover design, to painted portraits or commissioned designs for special (or even state) occasions. Perhaps historically, this was the primary type of art, first supplanted by photography and now by digital means.

Sleep Scan, Hudson Frame

A 25 hour day - joy! I can fill one more hour. I started by photographing the Sleep and 'Castle for the King of Death' paintings. This is a complex, physical job. I need to assemble a heavy wood base plate, the lights with 6 bulbs, two power extensions, and the wooden legs; then two tripods with aluminium rails, and fit the camera lens and plates; then calibrate the camera and align all materials. The process took almost all morning, including digital montage and taking everything down again and filing it away. The final image still looks poor compared to the actual painting, but this is always the way.

I keep thinking how to make it faster. I could do with money for more electrical wire to integrate the 6 lights. At the moment only 4 are integrated with 2 needing fitting each time. I could leave all 6 bulbs fitted, though they would be liable to get dusty. Setting up the tripods and rails takes time too, and the calibration. Ideally, these legs would be, or could be, fitted at exact right angles to the heavy wooden bed.

In the afternoon, work on the Rachel Hudson frame. It would be intolerably boring to simply frame this; it must look like a total artwork. I started by roughing up various areas of the frame with a wire brush, to make it look bruised and injured, then painting in the raw parts with dark wood stain. Then red stain to splatter it in various places. The results were remarkably pretty, perhaps even prettier and ironically smoother than before I'd started, as the sharp corner joints were now hidden.

Then, I rusted some nails with hot salt water and hydrogen peroxide. This fizzes iron into rusty iron in seconds. I tore some pink organza material and placed it around the edge, then nailed it into place. The organza was purchased for the 'Except For The Hatred' painting, and and nail rusting was a trick from the Hanged Rolf Harris painting.

Then I decided to write some text onto the frame. I had thought about adding more of the 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' rhyme, but I also thought that I needed to add something about Rachel herself, so I simply added her name and dates of birth and death as a tribute. I experimented with how best to do this. I wanted a scratched look, and initially thought of simply scribing the letters as I did with the 'Financial Circumstances' frame - I took a look at that to see how it looked. I decided to do a test, and got out my old (and much in need of replacing) soldering iron and burned some letters into some similarly stained wood. These looked much better. I'd used pyrography for the old Janet Frame picture. I also liked the idea that pyrography was included, yet more gamut to the methods employed, along with oil painting, woodwork, cloth and rusty nail chemistry!

Finally, the painting was framed with some Perspex. I've used 2 of 3 Perspex panes I have. Sigh, I'm running out of supplies and have no money for more. I need to sell more. Cutting the Perspex was as horrid as ever. Unless I can find a tiny circular saw (one which doesn't get hot) I must simply cope with the danger and exertion of a craft knife.

So, a full day complete. I need to file and photograph this in its frame, then I'm ready to enter the competition. Deb and I quickly visited the new Crewe Art Space yesterday, perhaps this would be a good venue to show this in some sort of presentation. My original local art space was The Cubby Hole. Many of my early exhibitions were held there, and Carol was so supportive and helpful.

Hudson and Sappho Frame, Sound Packs, Theresienstadt Painting

A long day yesterday, starting with cutting and assembling the Rachel Hudson frame. It was tricky, the wood was consistently not level. it was the first frame of its type to use my Frameculator software and the aluminium measuring tool. Both of those things worked well, but the wood itself was warped and would not lie flat. The corners are, as such imperfect, but they are sufficient. The colour of brown layered with neutral blue looks rather nice. The worst aspect is that I had to trim the painting by 2mm to make it fit; but the recess is smaller than on the similarly framed paintings of Cromwell and Gynocrats.

Then I spent many hours completing a first draft of the new sound packs. There is more to do on these and I can't do more until the major SFXEngine update, which I'll work on in November.

Today, deframing Cromwell and framing Song of Sappho:

I've heard that all three of my paintings have been accepted into the Castle Park Open this year, which is wonderful news. I've also prepared the other two works with labels, mirror plates, wrapping etc. and prepared the painting for Ty Pawb. I'll enter Theresienstadt into the Grosvenor. For me, 'Self Inspection At Theresienstadt (after Fritta)' is one of my best works, and a painting of its time on many levels. Trouble in the middle east aside, it has universal values. Life is a concentration camp, of sorts, but one we must endure, but then thrive within.