We went to an inspiring poetry reading last night in Crewe library, and heard new poet Lenni Sanders who had a captivating performance style, and imaginative output and use of language. Afterwards we drank champagne infused with Pixley Berries blackcurrant cordial, which was exquisite, and watched No-Man's Land, the Harold Pinter play, on television via YouTube. Only a fez and quilted smoking jacket could have made the night more perfect. Maybe I could wear them to future poetry nights!
We may have a Fall in Green gig at Crewe Library in the coming months.
Reprogrammed all of my reverb plugins today. The bug in them wasn't serious, but, given a long silence, could have pushed some floating point values beyond their limits. My reverbs are:
Oxyverb: a plain (6-channel) reverb with Left/Right stereo delay. The delay has a degree of softness which can be adjusted. Nitroverb: like Oxyverb but the delay has feedback. This can create immense space, it's the one used on the original Flatspace theme. Hydroverb: Like Oxyverb but includes a band pass filter rather than low pass on the reverb tail. Gives a lighter sound. Simple Reverb: A quick, plain, monophonic reverb. This is very fast to process and useful for things like snare drums or special effects or instruments that could use a smoothed out sort of sound. Kryptoverb: Like Oxyverb, but is monophonic. You can specify how much information from each channel is selected for the mix. Ironverb: A very tinny, plate-style reverb with a band pass filter. Good for robotic speech effects.
I also have Oxyverb II, Nitroverb II, and Hydroverb II, which have 6-channel delays. All reverbs operate in 6-channels anyway, for full 3D sound in each axis; rarely used, but at least I have the functionality. I can produce a 5.1 mix of any of my tracks automatically, if I ever needed one. I really must program in some sort of ambisonic exporter one day. These 'II' plug-ins allow customisation of the shape in each channel. Oxyverb II and Nitroverb II also feature high and low pass filters on the reverb tail.
All of the reverbs use a decay which can extend to infinity if required; so you can 'play' the breathy reverb tail if needed, or fade it to a custom shape as needed. My aim is functionality and efficiency, nothing too complex, too much or too little.
Every parameter of every plug-in I use can be modulated; either using an L.F.O. style modulator, like something simple like a sine wave, although these are just wav files, so any pattern can be used and/or looped if needed. You can also trigger, attach, or detach a modulator inside a sequence, or set a parameter inside a sequence, or fade from one to another. This power means that every act in a song can be really quickly and efficiently automated. Even fundamental operations, like the total song mix volume or song tempo are standard plug-ins, which use the same system and can be modulated in this way.
Next, I must update The Burning Circus and move on. I feel as though the year is wasted on wrestling with Burn of God. The project evokes the spirit of Wings, the Howard Hughes behemoth which gave him so much trouble.
