Wednesday 30 April 2014

Bit of a tech update

So my Pedalboard...is lovely despite a little running repair that was needed last week when a hinge rivet popped. But I need to make a few small changes to it to get a bit more flexibility out of its use at home as well as for live work (I sound like a real musician now don't I...wish I played like it).

Mainly its to help my solo looping, one of the issues with it is that I can't sing and play and loop and record only the playing, which is something you need to do, I have the ability to switch off the mic and not loop the vocals but the down side is that I then don't get the vocals coming out the speakers...not ideal... so I needed something to let me switch of the vocals in the loop but then send it to  another channel..

Since I was taking my source audio from the looper that was kind of a dead end, so a small re-arrangement is needed, the output needs to go to a mixer...I do have one but its a big one and I wanted something I could hide in the case.....
So here it is.

Small enough to fit in my case (more weight :() and just enough channels to handle the output from the looper, then a split signal from the mic which will also go to the looper but splitting it should mean when I mute it on the looper it still comes out to the mixer, leaving 2 channels spare for my other synth which I hope to use simultaneously but as atmosphere so not usually for looping..well that's the plan

I'll be setting it up this week and also resetting my wah pedal since its stuck in switch mode.
Some new patch cables to tidy things up will be a nice touch but not too essential just now.
Lastly I plan to add a new and mega power unit to it, the last one I fitted was too light and died a quick death so am saving up for a new heavy duty kit..


Oh and I need to invest in a barrow....to haul the beast around :)

Ahthankyew

Monday 28 April 2014

False economy

Another 20 euros spent, on top of the 40 euros last month.....I'm talking about my old bike, its kinda falling apart these days, but I can't really bring myself to get rid of it.

I had to get a quite big repair done last month when I got an elastic holding strap caught in the gears and totally buggered it up.

But when I collected t, it had a few spokes loose......hmm that was the 2nd time I have been to that repair shop and on collecting have discovered a few spokes loose.....hmmmmm, saying nothing at this point, of course the spokes broke and I needed to get them replaced...but I went to a different place down at the station, they charge a bit more but are 100% reliable.

My old bike has almost certainly cost me more in repairs than it did to buy, or indeed replace, but its my old bike and I can't imagine having another...so I'll hang on to it for now, even if its a false economy.

At least with the spring heading into summer in a wonderful way, I can cycle to work a few times and save the expense of the car.....not such false economy after all.


Ahthankyew

Monday 14 April 2014

Look, there really are no gods...deal with it.

Its no secret I'm an Atheist, despite being raised in a nominally catholic family and going to the mandatory catholic schools, I realised in my teens that religion was piffle and walked away from it with no regrets whatsoever.

As I've gotton older I've come into contact more and more with like minded people but also many serious religious people, most of whom I don't talk about their faith with....what would be the point?

Social media though exposes you to a much wider range of viewpoints other than your own, it also gives people a degree of courage to speak up in support of their beliefs...anonymity can hide a lot of cowardice and stupidity

More and more I am seeing the rise of religion taking an active stand in FB, Twitter, Youtube and other places...arguing their pretty incredibly stances, 6000yo earth, geocentrism, prophets and apostles, sins wiped clean for small fees and so on and on and on.

I try, I really do try not to get into arguments with these people, I mean what is the point?
They are trolling, but the problem is that if you don't stand up to something that you know is wrong, you're allowing it to happen, and exposing someone else to it.... and so the madness spreads.

Religion is wrong, frankly it is the real evil in the world today, All of them, even things you might not consider religion, where faith in something is used to place your moral superiority on a pedestal for all to see, are evil.

There are no gods, there is no supernatural realm, our place on earth and our position in the universe might seem hard to understand and it probably has no real meaning beyond continuation of our species but accepting, or rather proving that fact with the simplest of empirical observation, gives an understanding of the world that god botherers simply don't want to accept.

We're a fucked up aggressive species of naked apes doing our very best to fuck over each other in an effort to live as long as possible, fucking up as many lives as we can in the process so we don't get fucked before we die.

If we could actually step back and see that we and not our gods are doing this...we might actually fix the world and our own attitude to it.

There are no gods....life really could be better without them...if you simple stop believing in nonsense and deal with fixing the reality so we can leave a better place when we die....end of.





Ahthankyew

Sunday 6 April 2014

having a tidy up

As much as I want to do some guitar playing and coding....in that order, the attic is in dire need of a clean up...I amass junk like no one I know...if its not been getting used these last 3 years, then it isn't needed, (guitars and toys aside) time to throw it out without hesitation.

2 big bangs full of old papers and crap from past lives ready to kick out.

2nd cold has fortunately not been as bad as the 1st, got some decent cough meds and lemsip style things from the local Kruidvat (bit like boots) and have been ok.

Our hopes to play at a wedding gig in August took a dive when the bride and groom decided we were too expensive at the extreme cost of, you supply the PA.....so we were a bit disheartened among the Gadgeteers this week, until I decided, to get us a gig.

If all goes to plan we will be playing a show case gig of our set to friends ,family and if we're lucky local pub bookers who may want to take us on for some proper paying gigs... We're never going to get out of the rehearsal rooms despite our marked improvement if we don't actually get up and risk a few bad gigs till we polish our act.

So mark your diaries... May 31st..subject to the venue not getting booked for a paid event. The mighty Gadgeteers will be doing their thing


https://www.facebook.com/events/237312999804481/
Ahthankyew