Sunday, December 22, 2024

Cardboard Bates Motel

A busy first hlaf of the day, building props for the 'Fear Of The Thing Itself' and 'Norman Bates' videos. Making the Bates Motel was most fun, using cardboard and a glue gun, and few plans. It's more of an imaginary dream version of the Bates Motel rather than a copy; there are merely some similarities:

I made this without much of a plan about where the model will be used in the video, though I imagine it would be in the chorus.

The 'Fear Of The Thing Itself' models were made with a basic storyboard planned. By 3pm I felt so tired I almost fell asleep, and didn't feel like moving until this evening! I've made a basic set, and fixed the broken tripod with the ever-useful Polymorph. A few test scenes looked very good, but the felt model was very hard to control, he kept falling over and was nearly impossible to move or hold firmly to any degree. The scene is also very limited in view, the room is note much bigger than what is visible:

Which, funnily enough, was the case for the 1960s Psycho house, which mostly had a front and left side and nothing else.

Saturday, December 21, 2024

The Dusty Mirror 2025 Finalised

Listened to The Dusty Mirror again last night and decided that it will do. Most all of the vocals have been re-recorded, plus new guitars for 'Cherries' and a better, one handed, solo for 'The Arm'. The biggest difference was the balancing, less bass and generally clearer, and volume of -10dB LUFS or so. Due the the vocals (and better vocal balance) in particular, it is a leap above the 2020 version.

I've spent the day filing it, the album data, the sheet music, creating the wav tracks, and all of these many jobs. I added lyrics to the 'Warm Comfy Sofa' video, and it wasn't difficult. I'll do this in future rather than record separate lyric reading videos. The workload per album is huge now, mainly due to the more thorough filing, and more work on promotion, things like videos rather than contacting anyone, or performing, though I've started to do these things too.

Yet, hardly anyone listens to my music, or at least too few to love it as I do; and as I do other's music. Some do listen, undoubtedly. I thought last night that I'm more like William Blake then Beethoven, an obscure English eccentric - but no! We are all unique, and my personality dives from the morose Songs of Experience, to the eager Songs of Innocence, to the joy of existence and lust for our precious life. How lucky we are to be alive!

I've started this evening to make a model for a video to 'Fear Of The Thing Itself'. Five songs need videos and I want to make comprehensive videos for each, though this is a stretch because I must do them all alone. Filming when alone is very difficult and time consuming, the basics of lighting, framing, and photography are so difficult when you are the actor.

This first video, however, uses models in the manner of the old 'House Of Glass' video.

Perhaps nobody in the world could make an album like this, of this quality, playing all of the instruments, using software of their own design, then make a full suite of videos for each track, also using software of their own design, with sets made themselves etc. Sigh - but this is because I must, and, of course, want to.

Onwards we charge. Life is short.

Friday, December 20, 2024

Dusty Mirror Remaster v100

More work on 'Except For The Hatred' today. I've spent weeks and months on this track over the years! Today, I've re-recorded one small vocal part to make it fit better, and tweaked the reverb a bit. In recnet days, most of the work and attention has been on 'Fingers Of Evil' and 'Cherries', although the changes have generally been slight balancing issues rather than anything substantial.

I started work on Nov 20th and today I think the first draft is complete. It's probably taken 2 weeks longer than it should due to my ear problems, and other disruptions.

Everything is difficult at the moment, with little feeling of progress of success on any front. I'm making better things than ever, can sing and play, and paint, better than ever, but there is always more progress to be made and I'm keen to practice performance skills yet more. Software updates have reached something of a peak in that almost everything I've made with commercial potential is on sale (although older games like Bool and Firefly, or even Arcangel, are not on sale). I must balance long term legacy projects with what is new and exciting. I have so much to do, so much fire to do, and must do as much as I can while I can, and while my skills are hot.

Eleven days of the year remain.

Onwards we must charge, pushing our rock harder, faster, with more joy.

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Back To Dusty

More work today on The Dusty Mirror. I'm keen to get it finished, but the project seems to go on forever, partly due to so many other jobs interfering, and Christmas, and my birthday (and SFXEngine, and framing up the painting for the Grosvenor Open) taking up vital days.

Today I recorded some new guitars for 'Cherries'. It had fake synth guitars before, which were okay, but not a patch on the real thing. The climax here demands an epic feeling. This was (trumpets!) my first guitar part which used more than one string! This appears to be a song about perversions and fetishes, but it was always about food, and about how when young we like sweet things, and grow to like bitter and complex tastes such as olives and rocket and dark green vegetables, which are considered horrible by a child's palette.

After that, a dash around some shops for important Christmas shopping, then more work on SFXEngine, and spending about an hour contributing to a government consultation about AI and copyright. Tonight, another draft of the album and small production changes; really tiny things. I've made the harpsichord louder at the start of the 'Norman Bates' solo, removed the distortion on the vocals for the second chorus of 'Except For The Hatred', and a few other very small tweaks.

I'm aware that all time spent on this steals time from a future project. I must strive to optimise every minute of my life. Onwards we charge.

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

SFXEngine v2.00 Launch

The launch day for SFXEngine v2.00. This was a lot more work than expected, as all of the new graphics needed to be created, at least 4 images for each product (the program, demo, 12 items of DLC, and 16 future items). The new graphics do look much better though:

I also had time to re-record some vocals for 'Except For The Hatred'. I don't like the idea of a copy-and-paste song, where vocal recordings are the same for two choruses for example, because the context is different for each repetition; and because it is easy. The best solution is the most difficult. Brilliance results from doing what is difficult, showing toughness, doing and showing hard work... but the old version of the song used the same line each time, and to change too much would change the original essence of the song. There are no fixed rules. Some songs may benefit from being copy-and-paste. A few of Sparks' Beethoven songs were copy-and-paste; and who can criticise their lifetime of mastery?

My general rule is that if two options are similar, so similar that you can't decide which to use, then the choice doesn't matter and either will suffice.

Monday, December 16, 2024

Kitchen Light, Framing, Nokia 105 4G Customisation

A better day today. Charged into the day fitting a new LED light to the kitchen, to replace an ancient under-shelf fluorescent tube. This took an hour or so.

Then, worked on the 'Asleep' frame.

There were a few imperfections. The saddest part was how carefully I treated the soft wood, only to drop one piece onto another accidentally, causing a visible (and unrepairable) dent in the smooth surface of one side. The frame was also made too small. This a consequence of using the still new 45-degree sliding tool to measure the edges. The tolerance for these hand-cut frames is just 1mm. 1mm per edge, makes 2mm for both, but this can grow to 4mm with ease, how these tiny amounts grow. In this case the frame was 4mm too short. It was also annoying in that the moulding was particularly complex and beautiful and special, so I cut down the painting by 4mm to fit.

I also, unusually, framed it all while the frame was gluing; to save time. This thick wood barely needs long for the glue to hold. I know from experience of pulling these apart just how strong the glue is on these grain-edge joints, and these are stapled too.

Finally, I decided to customise my new phone, a Nokia 105 4G (2023), to replace my old beloved friend of the Nokia 106 type RM-962. Almost every change the new phone is worse, from the hard-to-press buttons, the slow everything, the many stupid menus that aren't needed, and system bugs (like the 'Abc' capitalisation not working, like renaming profiles not renaming them in the shortcut options), to the slowness of texting, long pauses to press each letter. Bah!

However, I can customise it. In memory of my long-term 106, I've sampled the Nokia 106 sounds in 24-bit and added high quality versions to the new phone (in 16-bit, mono, 44100hz, wav format). The new one didn't have a 'quiet' single-tone for texts, so I've added that. All of the old sounds sounded better, the new ones are brash and distorted, and are too loud even on the lowest setting.

I've also customised the wallpaper, which (after some experiments) is 124x160 pixels, and png format works fine. It's a pity that I can't use my old Nokia 106 background (I guess a hardware rip would be needed), but perhaps it would be silly to use that anyway.

Sunday, December 15, 2024

The Slowness of the Modern World

I've been forced to update my mobile phone as the '2G' and '3G' mobile phone networks are being phased out. Last time I upgraded my phone it took an hour or two to set it up and copy over the contacts. Contacts were a simple matter of name and number, to be copied to the SIM Card, then to the new phone.

Now it will take me several days to do the same job. Each contact now has lots of details (even custom ringtones and profiles) and the size of the data means that most of this must be entered manually. The phone itself is hugely slow compared to the 10-year old one. Not slow in processing power, but in poor interface. Every click demands another menu or confirmation, and text entry is slower. Doing anything now takes 50% longer. Something like this, two or three 8-hour days of full time admin, happens with every 'upgrade' for no benefit other than slower and less efficient communication. Utterly frustrating.

Well, today I've start work on 'upgrading' my 320-or-so contacts. I can, now, copy these to my computer and edit them in Google Contacts, but this too is precarious. It's slow itself (long pauses just to edit each record), but also threatens to 'sync' with my main Google contacts, when I must keep these separate.

I'll do the best I can.

Slowly onwards I must move.

Admin, Trips, Boxes of Delights

How quickly the days are flying, so little seems to be done, but such are social and performance days.

On the 13th, recorded some new harmony vocals for The Arm, recorded at lower pitch to a slowed-down backing track, these give a nicer, and stranger, sound. This was the first recording with the new Rode NT1 (for other re-recordings, I'll use the NT3 as I have with the other vocals, but backing vocals should actually benefit from the slight timbre differences of a different mic). A new phone arrived, but I didn't have time to set it up. I found time top update my art catalogue spreadsheet to include all 1415 artworks.

In the afternoon, a delightful visit to Linda from the old Nantwich art group.

Yesterday dominated by birthday events; a trip to many Sandbach shops, and ending with the first half of Sideways, a quirky 'road movie' I've seen before. The title is poor, it should be called something like 'Love in 50 Vineyards'. We're watching The Box of Delights too, a 1984 series which is being repeated by the BBC. I strongly remember this, and its music in particular, from my childhood and haven't seen it since. Several aspects seem related to things I've made since (the music certainly inspired the music box at the end of The Spiral Staircase), but I expect that most of the narrative elements are a coincidence as The Box of Delights has just about everything fantastical in it, from animal people, to growing/shrinking, time travel, portals, magic and more.

More art filing today! Onwards!

Thursday, December 12, 2024

Exhaustion and Repairs

I feel tired out after a non-stop week, a non-stop year, yet I feel like I'm hardly doing anything or getting anywhere. This month has largely been one of consolidation and organisation; filing.

Today I've posted two Christmas presents away, and wrapped the ones I've prepared. I've fixed a photo frame which had a broken 'tail' stand, and completed a job for mum: adding postcodes to the house address book; a book of distant family and friends (many of which we've met once-per-lifetime, or never at all) mostly used for festive cards - my father excels at this annual ritual.

Then I enhanced the new air fryer. It had dark-grey on black numbers, so I had to make them all lighter. I used vinyl stickers and sliced them into tiny (about 1x5mm) strips, sticking them on with tweezers (after wiping it all with alcohol). I painted numbers, and filled in the knob's 'dot', with white acrylic paint:

I could have bought some white Letraset-style numbers if I wanted a neater job, but this does the job without the £10 fee. The whole machine only cost £17, so £10 for white letters may be extreme!

I've updated Argus and Frameculator, so some fixes there too, and neatened up 'Two Parents Of A Child'. The sine waves 'fizz' a little. This appears to be a consequence of all sine waves which fade rapidly, even my MODX does this (though some older analogue synths didn't; not even sure if the SY-85 did, and pretty sure the Ensoniq ESQ-1 didn't). Well, the solution is to add a low-pass-filter, but that (as you expect) makes the low notes louder than the high ones, so a scalar amplitude modulator is needed too. It's done now, and this song sounds smoother than ever before.

So little seems to have been finished since my manic Sunday. I have my frame to saw and make, and still the Fall in Green vocals to add. I checked my bank account with horror; 2025, as the phrase goes, can only get better.

I must keep battling, pushing to complete the projects in plan. I need 12 music videos for The Dusty Mirror; to complete the mastering; to complete the Fall in Green album, and single of My Tambourine Man; to complete the frame for 'She Was Always Asleep As School'. Plus several Christmas duties. Time off is for me a relatively recent phenomenon. Before I met Deb, Christmas was another day, yet with annoying national closures (not that I ever cried 'humbug'). Now I must stop for a few days each December, which affects productivity, and yet doesn't exactly refresh.

Well, the battle goes on. Let us charge again with new vigour and joy.

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Asleep Frame, Congleton Events

A good, though exhausting, day yesterday. Started the day by preparing a length of wood for the 'Asleep' frame. This involved sanding, staining red, then repeated coats of black such that some red still shone through; then masking and spraying gold. Today I've updated my framing software, Frameculator, to v1.05 to accommodate some slight changes to the way I cut the frame.

At 2pm, it was time for John's album launch, apparently the last ever community event at The Saw Mill:

It was brilliant. The evening was exhausting, preparing for today's performance in Congleton Library. I wish I had the time and means to do more live events. A few more hours in each day would be useful.

I had a clearly spam/fraud message about my art. Whenever I post a painting online, I get 1 or 2 messages offering to buy it, all of these are fraudsters, 100%, perhaps 1000 or 2000 over the last decade or so. The social media companies do nothing, to such an extent that I'm considered remiss if I fail to reply.

So much still to do. I must cut the frame, and work on The Dusty Mirror remaster, Much of October and November were intense with production work on the Fall in Green album, and Dusty. This month (which includes Christmas, more social occasions, and end of year filing) will mostly be admin, trying to catch up and consolidate. Finding time to do anything seems to be nigh on impossible. I've not slept a full night all month and barely have time to even pause for a break. As is the case today. Onwards.

Monday, December 09, 2024

Art Talks, Art Admin

A manic day yesterday, preparing art for listing with a new gallery. I wanted to record some new art talk videos, my first in 5 years. I had three paintings to talk about. First, removing and unpacking all of the paintings, and setting up the camera on tripod, the mic and sound recording. Then my essential, and some notes on the paintings themselves.

Then recording each video. The easel collapsed; one of the vertical sliders has broken due to material fatigue, so I had to use tape temporarily. All of this was completed by 12:30. Then transferring the videos to computer, converting the format using FFMpeg, and creating the graphics. Each video has many stills, at very least the title and some intro images. Then aligning the audio from the external Zoom recorder (for some reason I still haven't worked out, the Zoom recorder audio always needs contracting by 99.951818% to match the film!)

Then editing, converting the final videos, and uploading; then taking down the studio set up. At 17:00 I realised that I needed more still photos of the art, so I grabbed a tripod and took the paintings downstairs to hang them and pose:

And take some extra images. Finally, repairing the easel with polymorph (it looks very ugly, but it now works again). By 19:15 the day was done.

One result of the new gallery is that I find I need to change the way I price and list my work. I have a spreadsheet of my 1400 artworks, created to calculate the price given the time taken, the commission of the gallery, VAT if needed etc., and an adjustment for 'quality'. These values were fed into my website, and became a core price-per-work. Generally prices went up over time, partly because I paint faster over time, and even to keep prices the same the price-per-day must increase, but also there are factors like inflation, and gallery inflation. It's become more expensive (and with higher commissions) to show art.

Over time, the spreadsheet has grew to include more data, and more works than paintings. I file my CD cover art as digital artworks, for example, but I don't really need to calculate prices for digital works, and there are other creative projects that aren't artworks for sale but need an artwork-like storage area; like a poster or logo design, or the music stand I've made for my MODX. Gradually, all of these have been added to the spreadsheet.

The prices can vary so much per venue that it's a losing battle to try and list an average guess at a price on my website, so now each venue will show prices instead. It's also likely that some of my prices will double or quadruple in 2025. So what was a price list has evolved into a catalogue instead.

I feel overwhelmed, but am working efficiently. Tomorrow is the launch of John Lindley's new album, and on Wednesday a small performance of Christmas songs at Congleton Library. I'd hoped to have finished the Fall in Green album and The Dusty Mirror by now, but it may drag on until January. Onwards I must charge with yet more intensity.

Friday, December 06, 2024

Falling Apart Video, Sleep, Ears

Two extremely busy days, exhausting, darting between jobs. I started yesterday by filming for the Falling Apart Again video. One principle is to always try new things to some extent, but not to be too complex with those. New things can start simple and grow, evolve. For this video I had the idea of notes (rectangles, like piano keys) falling away, and those act as a mask for a video of a somewhat ragged self.

The filming took about 40 minutes, but the video longer. It's easy to do the complex part of making notes appear per-keypress. The hard part is all of the tweaking of levels, glow, and look. This was done today. The filmed aspect looked too good, too crisp, so I made it pixelated, broken into 4x4 squares. I think this will suffice.

Most of yesterday was a list of Christmas related, rather than work related jobs.

Today was a lot of admin. My 'Sleep' painting has happily made it into the Grosvenor Open, although (typically!) it is the only painting that isn't framed, so I must make a frame for it. I've had a submission request from Galleria Balmain's new website, and news from the Society for Art of Imagination.

My new Rode NT1 mic has arrived and I've tested it. It seems to work. It is rather light and cheap feeling. The packaging, the cable, the cradle, so much seemed to be top quality for the cheap £135 (I seem to remember this mic costing £400). It's amazing they can make anything for this price. It weighs less than my still wonderful (20-year old) NT3 (which cost £300 or more). Time will tell which mic is better.

I've had my blocked ear vacuumed, and I can now hear - yay! Though I now need to repeat the procedure for the other ear. About half a mug(!) of oily goop was extracted.

I feel I've done so little. Onwards I must push.

Wednesday, December 04, 2024

Red Cow, Soap, Sofa

A very nice evening at the Red Cow last night; so little has changed since we were last there, but it was a nice to reconnect with the ever-lovely Natalie and Steve. We never seem to have time to talk to everyone, in this case hardly anyone else. The performances were dominated by Nigel and his friends, as we have come to expect, I think he performed 8 songs vs. the 2 that everyone else was allocated. He's a first class performer but I don't really like his music or style, so this aspect of these nights can be a drain.

June Holland's rendition of 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' was stunning, vocals as good as Mariah Carey, but with greater star quality. June's recordings do not do her live performances justice. So much in art is personality and presence; not content, or so much skill. Those who lack this star qualtiy, this 'X Factor', often try to force their work on an audience and wonder why they get so little in return, despite producing pleasant, high quality work. These people will never become stars, but many can eke out a miserable living. Of course, many with the star quality don't make it; but for great success it is essential. The Beatles, above all other factors, above skill and imagination, intelligence and hunger, were successful because of their personality.

I didn't realise it was a 'festive' event, so performed 'Norman Bates' and 'The Arm', rather than anything Christmassy. I rather enjoyed it all and relished the fun aspect of everything. Deb performed a new poem 'Abacus Overload'. She is a natural performer.

Today, a slow day. The day started with a 90 minute Windows update, then a trip to the shops with Deborah. When home I made this soap dish from stainless steel. Soap often melts into a watery mess, so this rack should keep things cleaner.

After than, upholstering my 'Warm Comfy Sofa' model with needle and thread, and updating Argus on Steam.

I'm frustrated with slowness, not moving forwards enough. I must push harder and set more explicit goals.

Tuesday, December 03, 2024

Video Sculptures, Red Cow Practice

Today, made the start of a new video for Falling Apart Again. Found a small bug in Argus, so fixed that to update it to v1.45.

Then modelled a 'Warm Comfy Sofa', and a Richard Dadd for other videos. Tonight Deb and I will perform at The Red Cow open mic event, so I've created a few sounds for it and practiced a little.

Monday, December 02, 2024

FIG Vocals, NT1

Hardly a thing done today. Woke late, and tweaked some BlueSky elements; following those who have followed me etcetera. Deb arrived at 13:30 to record the vocals to 'Mr Tambourine Man' and 'Crumpsy Madpash'. We then went to some shops for Christmas browsing and a few errands.

It's been one of my worst years for money but I've decided to buy a Rode NT1 mic; apparently the world's most popular large diaphragm condenser mic. Until now I've used the (actually more expensive) NT3, which is wonderful, actually, and has a similar spec to the NT1, but it can't easily be isolated or shock-proofed, and casual knocks occur frequently.

Tonight I've printed words and music for a Red Cow performance tomorrow, a first live music event in many months.

My main immediate job is to work on music videos for Dusty. These are easy to make in Argus if I make a certain type of animated video. More complex videos, such as those which involve myself, take a few days, and many songs here ideally need that sort of video.

My hearing remains poor. I still can't hear well enough to mix anything, or enjoy music. The latter saddens me most.

Sunday, December 01, 2024

The Dusty Way

Backup day today, and more work on The Dusty Mirror.

Completed the artwork yesterday. I tend to make art for an 8-page CD booklet, and did this for the 2020 release, even though I didn't have any CDs made; so effectively my artwork updating is filing it in my current way. At some point since 2020 I updated my digital standards to 635dpi, that is 3000x3000 square without bleed, because 3000x3000 is the standard for music artwork now. I did that for all pages, but as of today I'll create a 3000x3000 pixel cover, but use 600dpi (2834px) for the pages, as scaling to the 300dpi standard will be better.

This was the first draft cover, and unused (I've probably said that here in the past and posted it before!):

I'll include it in the booklet now. My mixing efforts are frustrated by my continued deafness. I'm uncertain about vocal levels. Many songs I listen to seem to have louder vocals than mine. I guess that anything will be acceptable, providing the vocals aren't as quiet as Def Leppard's on Hysteria!

I'm tired and slow. I need to charge forwards more, get this album done, get the Fall in Green album done and start something new.

Onwards I crawl through the harsh desert of life. Rock, come. Let us roll towards the next bend. Let us see what lies there.

Thursday, November 28, 2024

Mixing Tips

Final balancing work on the album, though I can't proof it, or even listen to it properly, as I still can't hear properly, and may not be able to for some weeks.

The biggest tips I can give for audio balancing or mastering are:
1. High pass filter (bass-cut) almost everything to some extent, because a natural mix will tend towards pink noise (far too much bass) and we want to turn it white. Apart from this I almost never boost or EQ anything, unless I want a special effect to that end.
2. Use ears and judgement to mix all mid range frequencies: the vocals, piano, guitars, all main instruments that form the melody. This is based on a feeling of balance, a feeling; but for bass levels (and probably high frequencies too) use a spectrograph/tools to balance. The difference between 50% lower or higher bass is huge in a mix, but it's hard to hear this because ears aren't sensitive enough to volume levels at these frequencies.

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Except For The Hatred and Falling Apart Vocals, IndieSFX Music

More vocal recording today, new vocals for Except For The Hatred. I naturally sang the higher notes here without the falsetto present in the 2020 version, my voice is that much stronger, though there's still room for growth here. I rather liked the falsetto sound though, so will use that as before.

Finally, work on Falling Apart Again.

The album is nearly done in this stage, but needs further mixing which is hampered by my deafness. I must wait.

In other news, I've deleted the music sales part from IndieSFX. I licenced one or two tracks a decade or more ago, but nothing since those Share-It days and now this sort of electronic music is easily done by machine, or by a myriad of cheap or free composers. The market for this is as dead as that for paper piano rolls. The music I wrote for it remains pretty good, and the majority of tracks were never licenced or used by anyone at all. I could publish or use it elsewhere. 'Shadows' was/is indeed part of The Flatspace Soundtrack, and the Oldfield 1 tunes represent a unique source of inspiration.

Monday, November 25, 2024

FOTI, Angels, Fingers, I'm Falling Apart

More work on The Dusty Mirror remaster today, as over the past few days. FOTI took a lot of time, then new vocals for The Arm (such fun!), and a few small and slight changes to the two most creative and interesting tracks; The Escape Angels and The Fingers Of Evil.

A slow day today, much of which was spent on programming. When layering the FOTI vocals I had the need to slightly delay a sample by a few millisecs. I can do this by inserting a delay engine, but thought that I could build in a simple count-down pause before any sample plays, saving memory and hardly making any difference to execution speed. I added this today to the monotone sample players and the code is almost as fast and efficient as without the feature.

I also have some random sample engines, 'Randy' engines', which have an internal delay for a random delay. This is an buffer-based delay so that any custom volume envelope is also delayed correctly, but over the years I've hardly ever used the delay, and I hardly ever use a volume envelope on these engines. I'm not sure if I've ever used an envelope AND a delay, so I've modified the delay to a count-down instead, thus saving the memory needed for a true delay.

This took until about 4pm.

One problem track is 'I'm Falling Apart Again'. It is/was a free-form piano song, but a little too free; the timing was all over the place, with too many notes and half-measures here and there. This isn't too bad per-se, but it makes singing to it a nightmare, there's no way to know when the chord is due to change. It's a really simple song with very few chords, so I've played the backing alone and will use that to create a new version.

Struggle

No day is easy. Every day you must battle something, struggle with something, strive towards something. The mark of a worthwhile day is overcoming difficulty to move one tiny step forwards.

Saturday, November 23, 2024

Fear Of The Thing Take...

Sigh, a long and hard, non-stop day of hacking away at the rock face of music today. The most complex track on The Dusty Mirror is Fear Of The Thing Itself, a song I'd already recorded years before. Today I revisited it and started to note and re-record all of the vocal layers.

Many lines have one vocal, sometimes at one octave, sometimes at a octave higher. Some lines have 3 or 4 layers, and some sung in certain ways. When singing in my normal voice of today the results are much more musical and similar than the old vocals, but more conventional as a result. There was a certain Tolkien Dwarf-like chant to many of the vocals, which I like. They aren't tuneful but that very fact makes them work in a nice way. To sing them like this I'd have to do an impression of myself from years ago - but there's no need; I'll keep many of the old vocals, and add a few new when needed to make a unique duet with a person now gone, the me from 4 and a half years ago.

There are so many layers here that the recording process is time consuming and exhausting even when I know what I need to record. I have 56 individual wav files, some in stereo. Many need lining up multiple times.

My left ear is still horribly blocked. I'm as deaf there as an ear with ear-plugs, or underwater, so very muffled that I can't recall what the real world should sound like. My voice is resonant and deep and strange there. It's annoying. I must continue with my ear-oils and make prayerful offerings to Apollo, Asclepius, Hygieia!

Onwards we forge. How quickly the days fly. How precious each hour is.

Friday, November 22, 2024

New Dusty Mirror Vocals

New vocals and production work on a new Dusty Mirror remaster yesterday and today. There is a stark improvement in the vocals, which is my key reason for updating the album, though other aspects like balancing and limiting, backing vocal grouping, and vocal ducking and clarity, have also improved substantially since 2020.

The vocals of the first version are/were adequate for several key tracks, like Since You Kicked Me Out, Except For The Hatred, Norman Bates, but even there the new versions are a clear step up in musicality and consistency; as well as taking me hardly any time or effort by comparison. Vocals on some of the old tracks were poor or strange or inconsistent. All will benefit from new versions.

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Singing and Dust, Scores, Philosophical Notes

I distinctly remember recording the vocals for The Dusty Mirror, my first great attack at a vocal album - I can't count The Modern Game, that was an experiment in every sense - and still an incomplete one which I may return to, one day, for the 4th time. Warm Comfy Sofa took so many takes to record back then, all bad. Now I listened again and prepared a new backing track. The vocal guide melody was an octave too high; a common mistake of that ancient era, that era a mere 4 years ago.

I re-sang the vocals and in a first take it was simply right, about 10 times better than the best take from those days! At long last I can sing! Though I know that skill levels are always a gradient; I can sing better, I can sing worse, but now the results are on another league to those of 2020. Would that this be true in 2028!

These old songs were often pitched poorly, perhaps good for my untrained and weak voice, but too low now. I also, experimentally, sang Two Parents Of A Child, but find the song more natural an octave higher. In my mind and heart though, it is in the lower pitch.

It's been a slower day generally. I completed the scores to the new Fall in Green album, though I haven't scored the two tracks that need vocals (and need finishing - I don't want to score until it is complete). I also wrote a few philosophical words on the nature of life, life forms that is. Philosophy and inward thinking is something people with too much time and too much solitude do; but sometimes, wisdom or something interesting can appear from such endeavours.

I've made a plan, outline, for a new album of new songs, and will mull these over. Money is a constant worry but art is a constant goal. That itself is a good title for a song.

Onwards we charge!

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Asylum Escape Dream, Square Spoon Scoring

A somewhat sleepless night. I dreamt of going to some sort of event with Chris, we sat next to each other. Later, the event moved, so we had to get into Chris' car and follow it. It seemed to stop in some low sand dunes with harsh grass, like a beach area of sorts. I walked with Chris into the dunes among the scattered attendees who had dispersed. I discovered Noel Edmonds there; he was secretly gazing into a crystal ball, a transparent orb, shortly before burying it in the sand. I wanted to tell him that a transparent orb is no use, that scrying depends on random occlusions in a real crystal.

The scene shifted and I found myself in a dormitory in an asylum. I think Sabine was in another bed there, and she wanted my help on some technical matter. I offered to help if she would help me escape this prison, and she agreed. After advising her, I fixed up some wooden object with bolts which I'd been working on as part of my escape; a part of my bed. I realised that it was 5am and that the time to escape was running out, so I opened up the window and jumped a great height from it. I landed on some triangle rooves of terracotta, then leapt to lower rooves and into the snowy garden, then ran away, to bushes, trees, and a beach beyond which was something like the earlier one. I found myself indoors, in some sort of conference area, a large business gathering. Annie was there, and I asked her to help me escape, I needed a disguise or other form of practical help. She said yes. I can't remember much else, apart from that I felt that help would be given, that my escape may succeed.

I woke late to a good day of working on the sheet music for the new Fall in Green album. I score the music in all new albums now, and aim to score one old for each new one. 14 of the 15 tracks are now scored. Some tunes have many parts, so not everything is scored as it can be, but I try to at least have a piano version which contains important musical bits of audible parts, and make more expansive options if possible.

Monday, November 18, 2024

Mixing, Cause and Effect, Scoring

A slower day, yet the day has flown. I woke at 9:30 and didn't want to get up due to a million sighs. Perhaps suicide is the answer I thought, as Tom Baker also once thought, to the pointlessness and poverty of my doomed existence - but no! We are to die anyway, so that is no answer. All existence is equally doomed, and yet equally valid. We must do our best to extend our life.

Borges writes about infinity a lot; of course there can be no infinity in the real world. I read that if each effect is the result of a cause, then that cause must also have a cause, and so on forever, which proves that the universe is impossible. My refutation of this argument is that causes and effects are human perceptions built from our evolutionary need to make predictions. There is no actual cause of anything in the real universe; it merely is. Our belief in a 'cause' is a probable, and personally validated, prediction based on our life experience, nothing more. If we move our eyes up a tree, a branch may appear, so we may predict a branch every so often, but that doesn't mean the trunk has caused the branch - it's merely there as part of the tree.

I eased my body up.

There are often times when things have been done, dangerous times of relaxation, when in actually a job is never done. I started by adding the vocals to the last track we've recorded, The River Where You Used To Swim. I'm still too deaf to mix anything, which is annoying, but life is never perfect. Each day is to precious to doom away.

I got to work on Mr Tambourine Man, the sequence for another Fall in Green track, but this one destined to be a single release not on any album. Then started work on transcribing the sheet music for the new album. This wasn't on my list of jobs, but it needs doing, so I began, and made good progress. A few tracks are already transcribed well, notably 'Sunchild' and 'Sky Robes Of Celeste', and a few have well scored versions for live performance, though these have changed now I've recorded them.

So, today I scored We Used To Store Sunlight, The (very beautiful) River Where You Used To Swim, and Kingfisher's Handcup. These are all rather time consuming, and involve importing the MIDI sequence to Prometheus, then exporting a neater version to Sekaiju, then neatening it all up yet more, then importing that into MuseScore.

Sunday, November 17, 2024

More Square Spoons, Production Work

Three jobs today. first, updated indiesfx.co.uk with the new SFXEngine logo, Bluesky links, and a few other small things. Then making the spoon even more square!

Then, work on yesterday's vocal recordings. Adding these to the tracks involves noise gating, then compression, then editing into sections, and inserting at the right time. A few tracks needed special edits due to mistakes or retakes, just the odd word. All tracks generally have one full take and that's all; we don't record lots of takes (or even two!), but some little mistakes can happen like stutters or misspoken words. Given the tongue-twisting complexity of the words in these it's a testament to Deborah's brilliance as performer that there aren't more retakes. Generally, I say 'go' and everything is done perfectly first time in the right voice and perfect timing.

Adding the words can take time because of the timing, which is quite exact, yet it's not like a pop song where it is 'obvious' where the vocals need to be. The mixing is fairly easy for me now, but hampered at the moment due to my deafness in one ear. This means I simply can't mix at the moment, but I can do this workman-like job of inserting the words and work on the details later.

Today I added words to 'The Cabinet of Dr Eckelmann', 'Kingfisher's Handcup', 'Lilac 12 Fold Dodecahedron', 'We Used to Store Sunlight', 'I Slip Into French Like Tolstoy', and 'The Candle Burns'. Sunlight and Candle are typical Fall in Green fayre of piano, strings and beautiful melodic romance. I like all equally, and strive for that. Kingfisher and Tolstoy show the influence of Björk.

Saturday, November 16, 2024

Square Spoons, Ty Pawb, and Vocal Recording

Two very full days, I'm feeling overwhelmed and need to pause. The tracks for the new Fall in Green album are now finalised, there will be 15, though 8 lack vocals as yet. I bought a spoon with the aim of making a square one. Here are the stages of sawing, sanding and carving:

It's not square enough, so I'll do more work on it. Then, a trip to the Ty Pawb Open 2024 opening event. The artwork was great, imaginative and skilled. There were one or two boring landscapes; a portrait, no matter how conventionally done, is always more interesting; but generally, the artwork had huge variety in styles and themes. There were no trending themes or media, it was a wide gamut of media and of theme, but all works skilled and professional looking.

There have been four such open exhibitions and I've featured in three (I didn't apply for the first!) and I feel doubly honoured at this statistic; the quality here is really high.

Today Deb arrived to record vocals for the new album, and we managed 7 tracks before darting out to a Christmas event, a purchase of some 'Alphabetti Spaghetti', and other essential duties. Social duties tonight with a gamer night, my second and perhaps last of the year. Perhaps tomorrow I can start clear the backlog of jobs. I've barely had a few minutes to myself to think, but I know I have messages to respond to. Sisyphus cannot linger. Onwards we much push our weary selves.

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Rhymin' Simon, Slip Into French, Bluesky

A really nice evening last night at the Paul Simon event in Congleton. Mine was the only original song, though there were a few original poems inspired or connected to Paul's words and life. John handed me a creator's copy of the album, which looks really nice:

I remain hard of hearing, but it's gradually got better each day, my treatment and remedy is hope and trust in my evolutionary biology; that treatment from Beethoven's day. Today I've expanded a few of the Fall in Green tracks. There are 14 on the album now, including an instrumental about the solstice. Most tracks are under 3 minutes, the album 35 or so, and overall it compares with Revolver by The Beatles, so can't be that bad.

One of the possible inclusions was 'Soaked Monet', so I listened to Deb's performance of that from the Wonderland Knutsford concert in 2021. It was spoken only, over sounds of a swimming pool, no music. I set up a string sound and played something, which sounded rather nice, but too long for this poem, and perhaps too solemn. I may work for one last track here, perhaps We Slip Into French Like Tolstoy.

Deb's had a fraught and stressful few days. I hope that we can make it to the Ty Pawb opening tomorrow. I've been looking forward to this for months and now it might be that we can't go.

Oh, one other thing done yesterday was setting up accounts on Bluesky, a Twitter alternative. I will probably only post there from now on, and have updated many Twitter links to point towards Bluesky. I dislike Twitter and I feel that the world has been waiting for a credible alternative for some time.

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

SFXEngine Finalisation, Lilac 12 Fold, Back To The Zoo

Much of yesterday was working on SFXEngine again, though only a small program update. Most of the time was preparing new graphics and organising new DLC.

Today I worked on and completed 'Lilac 12 Fold Dodecahedron' for the next Fall in Green album, a poem about Rudolf Steiner's educational philosophy. The process was difficult as my left ear is blocked, so I'm working partly on instruments but mostly relying on my right ear.

In between I've written and practised a song for tonight's Paul Simon night, a sequel of sorts to 'At The Zoo'. It's musically very simple, using a beat that's a bit like 'Refuge' from Synaesthesia, with a bit of 'Pinball' by Brian Protheroe thrown in. The chords are largely A-minor, E-minor, E-Major, so easy to play on guitar, but I'll use the Microkorg.

Back To The Zoo

Someone said somewhere that it's still happening
at the zoo.
Must be true
Let's go back to the zoo

The jungle drums are clichés
like the plastic desert rocks
Let's buy a toy
A little mannequin of nature

The elephants are matriarchs
The tigers are the oligarchs
The penguins are the populace
The jackals laugh at them but hiss at you
When they see you in the queue
For the zoo

The bats all fly Deliveroo
The chimps have nothing much to do
The butterflies are dolly'd up
The vultures reminisce about the, old days
When they had desert skies of blue
Before the zoo

We should build a prison here
to show the animals that we cage
people too
If they only knew

If they had a choice of home
would the animals choose the zoo?
If you had a choice would you?

Monday, November 11, 2024

SFXEngine Filing, Prometheus v3.51

Well, I made a few changes to SFXEngine first thing, a few relatively small things, mostly concerning fallbacks if the core frequency can't be met upon initialisation, and a test for the success of buffer locking. When testing it in Steam, it seemed to work with no sign of either of yesterday's problems.

I feel that the problems were, like that Taskforce issue, something connected with security or some form of Windows validation because a lock-out is a rare thing. In code, it would be an infinite loop, but that's easy for me to spot and fix, and the only cause here was reactivating the main window after opening the manual. My code pretty much does nothing in that instance, so it seems to be a Windows system issue.

Well, I immediately filed v2.00 for the time being, and will revisit it next month for more testing and new graphics prior to the public release.

After that, I updated Prometheus with a few changes discovered while working on SFXEngine. One was the correct deinitialization of the floatutility and longutility variables on song exit. One was the correct deinitialization of the text file after various text-based imports. One fixed (and improved) the sample and modulator resampling. The only new features were a new cursor skip, which can jump by a fixed proportion of a beat (eg. 1/4) or based on the notes in track 1 (a guide track). This is now a toggle for both settings, so from now I'll use keyboard keys only for toggles or commands, never a cycle - a key should never be pressed many times. This became confusing.

The other feature skipped to the next valid parameter rather than moving though many blank ones, if prev/next were chosen.

Finally, I updated a few plugins for speed vs. size, repating the small code 16 times rather than use a for-next loop.

Today was a generally happy rest day compared to the extremely busy and stressful past 7 days. I now have a couple of days to work on a new song for the Paul Simon night, and some other art things which have been neglected.

My left ear remains annoyingly blocked with wax, though not painfully so as it had been, so perhaps progress is being made.

Onwards we move.

Sunday, November 10, 2024

SFXEngine Battles

A massively long day of solid work on SFXEngine. I ended last night thinking it was 'nearly finished' but have worked solidly all day programming, updating, adding. I found and fixed a few existing bugs; all small, updated the manual and compiled everything for Steam.

Then, this evening: disaster! The program freezes for some reason when running in Steam. I can't work out why or how. There are two bugs. First, sometimes the program fails to start at all, there's no sign it's doing anything. Second, the program freezes, much of the time but not always, when opening the manual, which is doubly mystifying and really difficult to test. Perhaps it's memory infringement of some sort; which is the worst kind of bug, there could be literally hundreds of causes. Neither error wasn't present in the old version, and the program seems to work fine when not in Steam. My initial guess was that it's not me, but a security problem, like the old Taskforce lock-out which seemed to be caused by Windows security, and 'magically fixed itself' after a short time.

I'm utterly deflated after a deflating week and year.

My plan for now is to file it as broken. I'm exhausted and I can't afford to spend any more time on this for the moment.

Saturday, November 09, 2024

SFXEngine Progress, Castle Park

Two full days of work on SFXEngine. I found and fixed a couple of bugs, including one that was part of Prometheus too and concerned with not liberating memory structures when a song is cleared. I can't work out why it should have caused SFXEngine to fail. Old structures should still be automatically replaced on the fly, though it is correct that these should be freed when a project is closed.

I've toyed around with a new logo. It's a pain to remake all of the Steam graphics, there are 10 to so images per product and 15 or so products, not including the new sound packs, but Steam's standards have upgraded the resolution so perhaps I'll have to do it one day anyway, and a new major version is a good reason for a new logo and icon. Here it is:

Yesterday evening I went with Linda, Yuri, and my mum, to the Castle Park Open Preview.

A highly eclectic show. Most of the work was a typical country painter's fayre of animals, landscapes, with work from complete beginners to professional artists. Only about 10% of the work was particularly imaginative or 'challenging', but a few works caught my eye. I noted that the prices were probably lower than 15 years ago when I first started exhibiting. It was nice to meet a few artist friends, and to see work by others I knew like Marc Turner and Janice Lazzarich.

I slept badly, with stomach pain and the recurring ear-ache. A productive day today, finalising SFXEngine and creating a new sound pack to be part of the new distribution. I had hoped to finish everything today, but the final filing and completion of the upgrade will extend into tomorrow. More work will be done on this in December. I'll dart to other jobs in the new week.

Thursday, November 07, 2024

Dark Times, Ty Pawb, SFXEngine Updates

An awful day in a year of hard times. My left ear is blocked and in pain, the 'fungus gnats' from my houseplant are buzzing around. I've formed a plan there of buying new compost and gravel and removing all of the soil; a fresh start. It's my worst year financially by some margin with losses in the several thousands, and my income isn't covering the outgoings for the first time in decades.

But, I'm working well artistically, and today dropped off a painting at the wonderful Tŷ Pawb gallery, and tomorrow I attend the Castle Park Open launch where I have three paintings. Artistic painting is becoming a luxury, both the supplies and more-so the time. I must aim for more joyous subjects, as all seem to be about death, murders, or other sorrows! Of course, such subjects are chosen for their emotional power. Perhaps they echo this dark year, but darkness makes the lights stronger. Musically too, I'm working better than ever.

Deborah is my light and the highlight of my year. I wish I could afford to be married immediately.

It's impossible to know whether an action or event is good or bad; we can never be sure. Anything can be good or bad depending on context and scale. For all of us, life is struggling along and then dying; so we must do our best as we struggle. We must take care of our cells. We must take care of our fellows.

After the Wrexham trip I worked on the SFXEngine upgrades and have completed the complex load and save process. Testing aside, the changes could be considered complete, but I will add a little more.

I look forward to next November. I look forward to the November in four years. The Donald Trump victory made me think that our government will face the same fate as the Democrats if they fail to deliver their promised economic growth and fail to stop illegal immigration.

Onwards we roll our Sisyphean rock.

Wednesday, November 06, 2024

SFXEngine Plugins

Well, Donald Trump's victory defied my prediction, but such are polls.

A full day of programming, updating the SFXEngine plugins. The work is taking longer than expected, and is complex and meticulous. All have been updated to a draft level. Next, back to work on the main program. The biggest job is the song loader and importer for new and old formats, and adding some temporary structures. The new version will be much more memory efficient. It will look and work identically to before.

The first job of tomorrow however is a trip to Wrexham to deliver my painting to Tŷ Pawb.

Tuesday, November 05, 2024

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.

Monday, November 04, 2024

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.

Friday, November 01, 2024

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.

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

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.

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

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.

Monday, October 28, 2024

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.

Sunday, October 27, 2024

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.

Saturday, October 26, 2024

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.

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Sound and Civilisation

Sigh! What a hard year it has been. So often I feel that everything I do is unnoticed, unrewarded, and pointless. Yet, this has been how just about every day has felt for 30 years, and clearly some things have made a difference. Perhaps every act, however tiny, makes a difference. We can never really know what will become important and what not. Perhaps everything is just as important, as even trivial things can be necessary steps to important things.

If I were instantly rich, or even able to instantly live without the constant worry about money, I'd live most of my life in the same way, but perhaps not make any more sound effects or sell my software. I may give it away, I may just use it, but this I do only to scrape by. The art; painting, music, writing, I would still do as now.

Today I planed the wood for the two new picture frames, then continued work on the new/future sound effect packs. These are a lot of work because all of the samples used must be recorded by myself from scratch, so I'm having to duplicate many of the sounds. Some of these are already useful.

I many finish a first draft of these packs tomorrow. Then I'll pause the whole thing. My aim was only to plan what to release and how, and this is more than complete. The next step will be the major SFXEngine upgrade, but I must complete the painting jobs and music too. I'm well aware that, should I stop now and die, no soul would notice; yet I'm also aware that many people use my 20 years of sound effects, and many, tens of thousands of people at least, have heard them. Many will use and hear these new sounds in future, even if this achievement is the casual one of the jobbing designer.

We see and use hundreds of things daily, unaware of the people who made these things, yet without those people they would not exist. Does one need acclaim? Not really, sad though it can be to have none. This is the nature of civilisation.

Onwards we roll the rock, towards the warm horizon.