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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.