Spring : Rebirth & Resurrection

Part of my Bedroom Studio.....i miss having a dedicated home studio 'room'....a luxury i probably won't enjoy until i realize my place in this world.

my newest addition to my studio

Sampling Synthesis is so much fun and the essence of freedom within sound design....my line up of sampling devices includes the Boss RC-20XL Loop Station pedal, Roland MC-909 Synth/Sampling & midi workstation & the Roland CDX-1 DiscLab Digital Multi-track/Sampling Workstation......
And now a new addition, the Korg Micro-Sampler !!!! a 3 octave keyboard/Digital Sampler created unlike any other sampling device on the market today or yesteryear.
I am not going to reiterate all the details that are on the korg website, i am just going to say that within minutes i had sampled some drum sounds and a guitar feedback drone sound and was triggering each looped sound with the keyboard.....instead of having a matrix of rubber pads, this device has the keyboard, and samples and/or Loops can be assigned to individual keys for triggering.
Since my Roland CDX-1 disc lab's sampler section is basically the Roland Sp-808 sampler with 8 rubber velocity sensitive trigger pads, i found this Korg unit to be
something completely different.
It is also designed for performance situations, which is ideal for me, since i record my improvisational performance of prepared sample material....sequencing the loops and sounds on the fly.
For now, i will hide from the winter cold and get to know where the korg micro sampler fits into my bedroom studio, and may post an update in the future.

FUZZ

i don't know what it is about the FUZZ effect that i can't get enough of, personally i own around 20 different FX boxes, mostly overdrives, distortions and pure FUZZ.
-electroharmonix big muff pi(russian '90s model)
-electroharmonix double muff
-mxr blue box (octave/fuzz/distortion)
-danelectro FrenchToast(octave fuzz)
-danelectro Peach Fuzz

i generally use overdrives and distortion pedals along with FUZZ's like:
-danelectro 'ocd' DRiVE
-danelectro metal
-boss sd-1 super OD
-boss ds-1 distortion

And like most tone freaks i also chain some wah into the mix;
-dunlop gcb95 crybaby wah
-electroharmonix Q-tron envelope filter
-EH stereo polyphase (LFO & envelope controlled phaser)
-digitech wah modeller
-Boss VF-1 (24 bit digital multi-FX_)

some people swear that you need to place your wah before the fuzz, but i have found that placing the wah after the fuzz is how i roll.

todays blog is just a time waster for me, a personally inventory of sorts i guess, either way, i can go on and on about the FUZZ, and it opens up a floodgate of ideas, "how to maximize the fuzz"
enough is enough,
ttyl

Pedal Effects and then some.....

FX are the reason that i pick up and plug in my electric guitar on a daily basis....and i appreciate both analogue and digital Effects processing...
Personally I own and use:
-Boss VF-1 :24 bit digital Studio multi-FX processor
-Boss RC-20 LoopStation
-Boss DS-1 distortion
-ElectroHarmonix: Q-tron Envelope controlled Filter, Stereo PolyPhase, Big Muff-Pi(russian version)
-Digitech Rp-50 digital modelling processor
-MXR BlueBox (octave Fuzz)
-Danelectro CoolCat's : FUZZ, DRiVE & Metal
-Dunlop CryBaby Wah
-behringer EX-3100 Stereo Sound Enhancer/exciter
-DBX 163x compressor/limiter
-DBX 463x noise gate
-ART TubeMP(tube preAmp box)
-ART tube compressor & preAmp

....now you may think; this guy has all he should ever need to satisfy his urge to find the perfect tone?
Ah, no, this is just the begining, well, not exactly, i have been messing with this stuff for a long time, this is just the collection that i have not sold for one reason or another....this is my collection after i decided to not sell my things when i need money to survive.
It is also the result of having a steady job....my six year anniversary of employment was this past august, and my collection of gear really shows it!
i also employ sound synthesis into my world of FX....for that i use a Roland MC-909 synth/sampler & a Roland MKS-7 SuperQuartet(analogue rackmount synth'85), i plan to buy a midi guitar synth converter box so i can play the synth gear with my guitar strings.
very soon this will be a reality.
There is a Roland GK midi box for sale at a local pawn shop for $150, perhaps this fridays paycheque will enable that purchase.
In the meantime, i will try and concentrate on the pedal FX, and rackmount multiFX.
I plan to upload photo's and sound bytes to make my experiments with these pedals helpful to other aspiring pedal heads.
until next time....
see ya!

no more holidays

....there is no graphic image to represent how the idea of 'no more holidays' makes me feel right now.
i would really like to take a year off work, a year to let the murky water that is my brain, settle, and maybe i could see clearly for at least a moment, and redirect my energy, so at least i could feel something other than 'blah' about my life.
i really don't understand what other people do that is so different than me.
i don't abuse my body with drugs and alcohol, i don't eat bad food....i exercise...but still i can count on one hand the number of times i have actually felt happy, and/or content about myself....
....Before i moved out of the building at 12 king street in waterloo, i could escape with the help of my music machines.....but now in the one bedroom apartment, i have to compromise and only set up some of the machines at one time, and even still, when things are set up and powered up, i don't have enough room to actually leave things like that....so it's a constant pain in my ass....i spend more time setting things up and tearing them down, then actually capturing musical ideas....

THEN, by the time i am in a groove and i lose myself in what i am doing, i look up and it's after 6pm, and i have to think about sleep...because my shit job has me waking up at 2:30AM, and i am at work and punched in by 3:30am.
FML.....
I have been learning the text message shortforms, and FML is my favorite.....if i could get a customized license plate for my bicycle i would like to have 'FML X23'
and that's all i have to say today.

my last week of holiday time from my 'day job' are over, and i must say that last week was the greatest weather so far this summer, despite the humidity....although my dad and i went north a few hours and found the air much less humid, and overall, once in cottage country every aspect of daily life changes.
But now i am back, or 'home'....which means i just worked from 4am - 9am, but that means i woke up at 2:30am, which is always the pits.....and now i am sitting, slightly damp from the light rain outside, drinking a hot coffee, and trying patiently to leech off the 'free' internet at this cafe, long enough to download an episode of an american tv show called 'burn notice', so i can treat myself to at least 45 minutes of new video later today.

Back to work, was to my dismay, worse than i expected....and i harbor rather low expectations when it comes to my workplace.
up until now, i have been content with my work area....but i have taken a holiday, and sure enough, i get back no more than one week later, only to find management has taken a giant step backwards.
what else is new?
FML seems appropriate.

here iam now

I am no longer on the brink of a life change, the change has occured, and i am moving in that new direction.
I handed in my keys last wednesday and so the era of life in uptown waterloo is over officially.
Now i am without internet at home, except for the little phone i bought which has internet browsing, ideal for keeping up to date with email and other social network stuff.
Presently i am sitting in a cafe in waterloo, for the first time i utilized the wifi connectability of my new netbook and proceeded to download a documentary film at blazing speeds up to 750kps !!!

So now i know that i can take advantage of the free wifi in some parts of the cities i live in and near, and even download films.....all for the price of a coffee!!!

And so i become a transient web crawler, and for now i can live with that.

i am very glad i made the decision to buy this netbook, without it, i would be out of luck.

now i just need to find the right cafe that won't mind me moving in for a couple hours at a time while i maintain my music web sites and download movies.
lol....
UPDATE:
Following some web research on wi-fi hotspots around town i now have a list of businesses and public places that have a legal wireless internet connection available.....the verdict isn't in yet though, i don't think i will adapt quickly to life without high speed internet in my apartment....the luxury of movie hunting and quick downloads at home cannot be take for granted....now i am sitting in an uptown waterloo cafe typing blog stuff and downloading the new release "the runaways", a cool looking movie about joan jett and her friends band in the 1970's....i sometimes like movies like this that are about music and based on real people.
i just don't know how i am going to sit here and stay amused for "42minutes" or more while i try and leach this movie via this cafe's wi-fi connection.
I don't even know if these businesses appreciate people downloading 700mb video files....perhaps i am hogging bandwidth....we'll see....there is only one other fellow using the network at this time.
i just wish the darn thing would accelerate any time now, like at the hotel cafe the other day, a movie downloaded via video.google.com at speeds over 730kb/s !!!!!!!!
it only took me 10 minutes to relax while the flick transfered to my computer.

my home studio is looking up, yesterday i set up my Roland mc-909 and my Roland cdx-1 disc-lab, and i re-organized the electric guitar effects & amplifier set-up, so now i can program midi sequences & drum patterns, utilize the sp-808 sampler as well as the newer mc-909 sampler for some really slick backing rhythm tracks to play and layer guitar on top of.
fun wow.

*36minutes remain in my download @the uptown waterloo cafe...if it wasn't a busy place i bet i would be happier to sit here....like the other one at the Huether hotel, where i could sit in a corner of a back room and use the internet from there.
perhaps i should have gone there today....but this place is beside the grocery store....speaking of which....i also have two bags of groceries, one has 4 frozen chicken fried rice side dishes, and one large yogurt....i hope that they don't completely thaw, if so, then it could cost me $5 to sit here and download movies after all....oh, and the two coffee's i will have drank by the time i am finished.