Life is a losing game.

Sad news about Amy Winehouse, proof that fame, fortune and whatver else she had does not bring happiness....also that drugs are going to kill you who ever you are.

I love the Back in Black albumn, and yes I'll be listening to it again a few times over the next few days. There really is not one bad song on there, and that voice...amazing.

For me this is my favourite of her own songs...I managed to find a youtube of her demo version, just her and a guitar, no production, no fx...just a twangy guitar and voice like treacle dipped in honey oozing emotion at her lost love.


"That all right?......." yeah...thats perfect.

RIP Amy Jade Winehouse.


Ahthankyew

Why so complicated?

As much as I love computers, I have to after all, there is no doubt they seem to be capable of draining the very life out of you when it comes to doing what should be relativly simple tasks.

I took some video footage of our ex pats Jam session last night (which was a huge amount of fun despite my reservations about doing guitar duties alone) and I have about 40 mins of footage I want to put on our We Jammin facebook group.

simple enough eh!!

No...

40 mins is too much for FB, 20 min limits. You have to cut it.....ahhhhhhh thats easy.


No.

Downloaded some software which claimed to be video cutting software for youtube and other sites....
ok it works...but it takes fucking hours to load the 40 min movie.. this one
Free Video Cutter is simple to get hold of, install and apparently operate...but at the time of writing, over an hour after setting it to just load the video, so I can then cut it, its still at 36/60 creating video Thumbs...huh...

So I left it running in the back ground and downloaded something called Kates free video cutter, and yes it at least loads the video, but actually cutting it up into 15 min sections takes.....15 mins....per section.

I mean, come on...........its possible to slide forward and back though a video player why the hell is it needed to play in real time to the point you want to cut then process that??

Anyway, after 15 mins, I did eventually have a 15 min mpg file to upload to facebook.
Thats easy enough.

No.

FB's video upload is a farce.....it seems to up load in small 50Kbyte chunks then a pause as it does something then next chunk...so 15 mins woth of video is apparently going to take 1h20min to upload...OMG.

So simple tasks....totally fucked up by technology thats supposed to make our lifes easy.

Oh the Irony.



Edit...after taking ages to upload...it hangs
and FB has this to say

Your account is currently unavailable due to a site issue. We expect this to be resolved shortly. Please try again in a few minutes.


bloody computers.


Ahthankyew

Good and bad buys

I mentioned before that I bought a really cool 5 way ABCDE swtich for my amps at home, but I also bought a smaller A/B switch a few weeks ago to use for my "gigging" board. I don't gig of course, I'm no where near ready for that, but I do go to my regular jam sessions both with students and more recently with adult collegues and members of Breda ex pats, and unplugging my gear and lugging it around is a pain, as indeed is restoring it all when I get home.

So I've been slowly putting together another pedal board. I have one for "home" use which basically is to allow me to use my VL4 system so my Hybrids can switch easily between pedals/amps etc. I like my G-Dec amp and various amp modding software for home stuff.

This however is my "gigging" board that I plan to take in future, its self contained, reasonably compact, and tidy. Though pretty cheaply made and with a pish poor practice amp system that I normally bypass. The A/B channels for example are not seperate, you can plug into any and get an output from both...hmmm not really a problem though.



As you can see, I have a tuner, an AB swtich, an acoustic simulator a multi effects pedal for standard effect types and the crown in the jewel a Big knobs Tube 808. This bascally lets me do most of the stuff I can do at home on any amp I want to plug it into, all be it with some fiddling on site, where at home I just select presets on my G-Dec or Garageband style software. (I love plugging this into my Fender Champ though, that 808 is mega)
The reason for the AB switch is to do with playing acoustic bits on my hybrids, they really need to go through seperate acoustic channels when in proper acoustic mode,(as opposed to an electric going into the acoustic simulator) and I want to send them to my Zoom A2 multi pedal to give deeper sounding acoustic sounds into a PA. rather than into the electric channels amp.

Gosh this is a long boring technical post innit...anyway...after my delight with my custom made switch pedal last week. I'm mega pissed with my shop bought switch, basically it bleeds signal to the unselected channel, which if amplified creates a distorted electrified echo to your clean acoustic sounds...in other words crap.
I returned one of these already and was really pissed to find the replacement has the exact same fault, so I guess its shoddy manufacturing.

I'm going to send it back for a refund and get my custom switch maker to make me a simple A/B and do it right.

As you can tell by the rant I'm pissed off about this, I hate buying goods from reputable places only to find out they are crap. So this is a warning to anyone else who might be tempted...don't buy an Electro Harmonix Nano Switchblade A/B switch.






















Ahthankyew

Play time :D

Still a few mistakes, and I think my timing is off on a few places, but I am really pleased with this effort, 100% improv off the cuff as I was testing a really cool new footswitch I had made special for me, which lets me hook up my radio transmitter to 5 output lines, so I can have all my different amps and fx pedals all hooked up. I just need to hit the switch for the output path I want. I can play acoustic, electric and bass just by plugging in my wireless bug and messing about with my choice of signal to the recording system, in this case, Digitech Jamman then into my mixer for use by GarageBand.

It works brilliantly and silently, you just can't hear when I switch from the G-Dec->Jamman to an A2->VL4->Jamman and back. Really pleased, this means I can keep my amps and pedals set up the way I like them and don't have to reroute wires whenever I want to play a different set up.

Also has the advantage that I can keep the Gdec backing track thats playing and change fx without losing the track.

Posting this so I can look back on it in a year or so and comment on how bad I am/was/

Mind you there is one downside to all this pedal magic, having to unplug it all when we go to jam nights and then restore it when we get back....but I think I'll travel lighter to future jams, just a guitar and a multifx pedal.

Ahthankyew

Schools out for summer!!!

Nearly..

Today is our last working day, though we pretty much finished up on Tuesday, I have had a few minor things to finish and a short meeting to do in Rotterdam this afternoon, then its time for the summer hols...weeee I love this part of academia, long relaxing breaks where we..will...do...some.....work...to....get...ready...for...next year...hmmm
something wrong there. I'm sure we will fit in some holidays :D

I started a new set of Jam sessions a couple of weeks ago, with members of the Breda ex Pats society and musical work collegues and its proving to be very very successful, everyone is enjoying themselves and some really good music is starting to come out of it.

Its still at an embyonic state at the moment and a lot of fun to see people with all very different muscical tastes getting together to find a common purpose, but it really is starting to work. Last nights session saw us attempt several songs from scratch which many had never even heard of before, blues, rock, jazz and pop...it was bloody awesome. Going to be a regular thing from now on, hopefully we can settle into a core group of people with a set of standard songs and play the odd small gigs. Carnegie hall perhaps?






Ahthankyew

Nice...very different

Now that the annual end of year marking frenzy is out the way I got some time to sit down and play with my new toys.

I'm liking the fretlight a lot, though it does not really compare in terms of quality with my other guitars, thats not what it was bought for. Its a decent enough guitar, though I did have to file down a sharp spot on a fret when I ran my hands up and down it, the strings are coming off 1st thing tomorrow, whats on there is like barbed wire without the spikes, a new set of Ernie Balls should make a big difference.

But it does make a decent sound and the light system is really cool. I stuck up the full fretboard notes of Gm and was really pleased at the range it let me play with...still have to memorise all the different keys and placements but it was an eyeopener for me, especially the lower ranges.

Its funny, the ad blurb goes on about how much easier it is to watch the lights than bob your head back and forward on screen but I am so used to that I actually find it a little hard to follow a tab without reading...but not to worry, new things always take time to grasp.

The supplied software though...hmmm not so great, and I was not pleased to see they were trying to charge more for song arrangments and so on, that really is something they should do for free to support their kit.

But not to worry, I bought a "1 time expense", copy of Guitar pro 6 for Fretlight which lets me use my pretty vast tab collection with it, now I can be certain of not missing a note and no more money needs to be sent off.

Also has the advantage I can see other areas of playing occuring and electronically modify them to overdub stuff like rythm, lead and bass, even some keyboards all on my guitar....well thats the plan.

Customs did make a big error, the supplier has never heard of this kind of problem before, so I'm going to photo copy everything and send it off to Customs for a nice fat rebate.


Ahthankyew

Bloody customs cock ups

Not quite sure whats happened but customs appears to have majorly cocked up and charged me a small fortune in tax on the assumption my fretlight cost 816euros, which it most certainly did not, not even half that. They also seem to think it came from the US rather than Norway and hit me with a bill for 203 euros...nearly 3 times what it should be. I had no option but to pay it, and now I will call them up and complain so I can get a refund.

Silly bureacrats.

Ahthankyew

My Last One..

For a while at least...Well its kinda a guitar, but more of a teaching aid. I want to improve my fretboard range, but have lots of problems visualing the scales in different keys, so have invested in a Fretlight guitar



Its a cool tool, which you hook up to your computer and it lights up the frets you need to press for chords, scales and so on, it can even walk you through lots of songs so you can get accurate notes from most types of Guitar Pro tabs of which there are many.

I use tabs a lot and as the Fretlight ad blubs points out, having the lights on the fretboard stops you bobbin your head up and down between tabs and fretboard and you can be more certain with your placement..only think it does not help with is finger selection.

Its also a fairly competent guitar but really I want it for its teaching abilities, I've gotton quite good at my tone and feel, over a few limited keys and even my rythm has improved, but checking out the whole board so you can move all over to get the right notes in the key is something I need to work on.

What I didn't cotton on to when I ordered it from a company in Norway is that Norway is not part of the EU, though it is part of the common market. But it got stuck in customs for a while...finally released today so I can expect it in the next day or 2.


Anway...that's it...there will be no more guitars, unless one gets sold.



Ahthankyew

Mid Life Crisis

I really need to go buy a porche, after all its compact, reasonably practical and does provide some tangible functions.

Guitars, and various other musical toys....not so much!!

Though having said that, last night we had a jam at the Mezz which found me enjoying my mid life crisis with various other mid life crises sufferers, and it was bloody awesome, even Bina joined in with a few toots on her noise horn? Musically we got into the groove and had the most fantastic time.

But during a bit of a clear up of the play room today, I have all my guitars out on display...and ermm, there's rather a lot, even I am starting to realise I can't honestly say, they all do different things and keep a straight face.

I am a bit obsessive when it comes to my hobbies, and 25 or so guitars proves that; my playing is certainly improving, of that there is no doubt and I am enjoying myself immensely when I twang the strings. Its even evident that I'm starting to hold my own with musicians who are much more accomplished than me, but, I clearly need to stop buying guitars..I did promise myself I'd buy a blueshawk if one came up at a reasonable price, but I think I need to shed a few others before I do that.

To complete my one man band obsession I've bought a cheapo drum machine and some percussion stuff...I can't see me taking up drumming as a hobby though, but we'll see if I can lay down a few tracks soemtime soon. Such a pity that my singing is genuinely terrible, no amount of software or hardware is going to improve my crappy voice, unless I decide to be robot man and autotune the life out of my out of tune wailing.

If I have to part with them all, then at least I can narrow down to 2 the ones I'd keep, Lucille of course...what a guitar..and Gracie, my Ovation VXT, so versatile...the Dark Fire and GS60 are going to be close behind, and the Strats nd Frankie...........hmmm I simply can't choose.. I do have 3 or 4 lesser axes,so maybe I should just sell them and focus on a core of ...20 or so?? :D

GAS...probably the most expensive obsession around...but then again..when you go to a jam and start contibuting meaningful noises with everyone else....its all worth it.

Ahthankyew

more, not for music lovers.

I'm not over the moon about posting this, but I will, as a 1st try at something different and it was a first try, despite having a cool Digitech Jam-man loop pedal for over 2 years now, I really haven't used it much beyond playing back pre-sampled loops or recording a backing track, not using it to its full potential at all.

So I decided, after watching KT Tunstalls amazing solo version of Black Horse and the Cherry Tree using a loop, to dig it out and give it a bit of respect...Its a fairly simple thing to use but I didn't quite get it right and found myself looking down at my feet at times working out just when to hit the right pedal.

This was recorded in real time onto garage band, through my mixer, and I just wanted to see how it would come out...I messed up the play out though as I was looking at my pedal to try to see how to set the stop on next loop option, which it turned out I cant do while playing, and lost the thread of what I was playing...

Also at the start I messed up the overdub so it takes me a whle to get into the groove to add the staccato chords I wanted to layer into it..you can even hear me pushign pedals like mad and getting nothing back, since I had left the mike on.

In short, it takes too long to get going, and the solo ends very poorly...but..that said, the sound that my Lucille makes here in 3 different tone settings is ....hmmm yummy..I have to work on this a bit more when I have finished all my marking and have some dedicated time to spend on this...but here it is..

DON'T listen if you do actually enjoy music..this may scar you for life. If you want to see a loop pedal being used correctly, click on the video below.

Ahthankyew

Mojo has returned

Had a great night of poker, blew everyone away with several huge hands that left me far and away the overall winner.

For once, pretty much every hand was a potential winner, though in my determination to be cautious I dumped quite a few lowish hands only to discover they would have won with straights and trios. Ah well. I won enough, felt good to win again.


Ahthankyew

struck down in my prime.

I'm not well.

The day before Kens last jam session and 2 days before I have to oversee student presentations I have been hit with debilitating man flu....

you can send flowers and candy to the usual address.

Hopefully the last of the UK Lemsips will keep me going till my dirty fighting anti virus genes do their thing...or is that dirty old jeans I can never remember.

must go gotta clean up the snot I just sneezed all over my keyboard.



Ahthankyew

What a great night

Myself and 2 collegues, Ken on Bass/guitar and Robbie on drums/bass, had a grown up jam session last night at the Mezz...IT WAS AWESOME.

For the 1st time I can honestly say I felt comfortable and in control of what I was playing, even if I lost the key a few times it was really cool.
I took Gracie, my Ovation VXT and my Fender G-Dec amp so I could play her as acoustic and lead as needed and it worked brilliantly.

Less is definitely more and playing to my strengths of feel and tone rather than speed and rythymn really paid off. We totally rocked at times sounding really brilliant. Even if we often had no clue what we were playing, it just sounded great.

Sadly Ken, who is a very accomplished and supportive musician, who shouted out chord changes as needed, helped with keys and covered up my mistakes with his excellent bass, is leaving us for Abu Dhabi next month, so there's going to be few chances to repeat this awesome night. But we're going to try again next week.

Can't wait!!




Ahthankyew

Home recording........maybe

After discovering the joys of Garage band on my Mac Mini, I have rearranged my gear a bit to make more use of it, and finally have found a cool use for my Berhinger Mixer, (another of my impulse, that looks shiny what does it do, buys) I now have my PC, Mac, guitars effects and mics all hook up and in theory at least I can create music, the only probelem being drums, but I have lots of drum tracks for that.
A quick test with a couple of tracks has shown it to be fairly easy, though requiring practice. So I've given myself 3 tasks..to practice my skills and make use of my gear.

Decent versions of
Placebo Pure Morning, which I almost have apart from that annoying clean riff.
Trace Bundy's version of Sweet Child O Mine...there's a reason for that..its awesome
Fleetwood Macs Jigsaw Puzzle Blues. I can just about play it and with a backing track it should be possible.



Once I get the school year over with prep work not withstanding, I intend to steel myself to this and see how well it works out...I will post progress reports here..again not likely to appeal to music lovers, but fun all the same.

There..I've said it, now I just have to do it....gulp.

Ahthankyew

Almost done

This is my last week of the year for teaching, I have 3 classes to go, then a flurry of mad marking activity before....HOLIDAYS.

I've had a busy year, aside from the 3rd block (when I had nothing to do) and it’s been great, better of course than last year (let’s be honest last year could not have been much worse)

As a fully fledged academic I now look forward to 6 or 7 weeks of downtime, where I won't actually be down...rather I plan to formalise some of my lesson, as I tend to rehash them as I go...It’s time for some more detailed work to be done during the summer to make sure I don't have to re-do things at the last minute, something I have been guilty of this year due to a lack of summer break as such last year.


Going to be an interesting year next year... It looks more and more likely it'll just be me and Bina at home. Jodie is considering going to the UK to do A levels rather than take higher education in Holland. I have very mixed feelings about this, Jodies progress here has been remarkable, she's turned around so much from the horrible child I talked about on this blog before she came over.
Yes part of it is maturity, but a lot also has to do with the environment she's been exposed to and the school we sent her to. I would like that to continue but after an absurd amount of dilly dallying and indecision her dad finally said he would let her stay with him if she wanted. So she's been pondering her options.

I have resisted giving Jodie any opinion on this, other than stressing the importance of making the right decision for her future, rather than taking a perceived easy route. A levels are not easy, and I worry that the break in her education will do more harm than good. But it’s important that she make the choice, and even if I don't agree I will support that.

But on the plus side, not forking out nearly €900 for her schooling and travel every month will mean some welcome financial benefits that Bina and I can certainly work out how to use. I can see a few more nice evenings out on the horizon....maybe a guitar or 2 ;)

Interesting times....but 1st up, Holidays, Bina's favourite subject, after targetting Greece and a few other places, a short tour of middle Europe by car is the current plan....should be fun.

oh wait I better get all that marking done 1st.



Ahthankyew

Brian's Face

I don't think I have laughed quite so much in ages...Many of my students started a thread on the school forum to create images using a couple of stock pics of me on the net.

The results are here, there are too many to list them on this blog, and they are still coming, but I'll add a few...



Some of the best ones.














There's loads more, and still coming so I'll add them to facebook.

This ones an animated GIF image, so FB does not really show it...

edit....shame, neither does this blog, it only really works on the school forum, and its quite a funny animation.

Ahthankyew

Its a girl!

As they all are of course.
71bs according to the customs sheet, delivered by the TNT courier guy this afternoon, after 8 days of labourious travel.

Guitar and new owner are reported to be overjoyed at the new addition to the family.

The exhausted owner was heard to say, "I can't wait to hear her make her 1st sounds, just as soon as she's had time to recover from the trip and get used to the weather here and tuned up and ready"

He added, "We're all very exited."

The new addition has been named Titch due to its small stature and is in no way intended as an insult to short guitars anywhere.




Ahthankyew

Expectant fathers == new guitar owner...same thing?

I always love delivery days, its that combination of expectancy and worry I like and I think todays the day...though since TNT/Dutch post is the midwife, delivery may be a little less than predictable. But according to the USPS tracking site.

Detailed Results:

Out of Foreign Customs, May 31, 2011, 12:29 am, NETHERLANDS
Into Foreign Customs, May 23, 2011, 9:47 am, NETHERLANDS
Arrived Abroad, May 23, 2011, 9:46 am, NETHERLANDS
International Dispatch, May 17, 2011, 4:23 pm, ISC LOS ANGELES CA (USPS)
Arrival
Processed through Sort Facility, May 16, 2011, 2:50 pm, SANTA ANA, CA 92799
Acceptance, May 16, 2011, 12:00 pm, SANTA ANA, CA 92711


Titch is on the way...probably today.....maybe tomorrow.
Which only begs the question of how much duty are they going to hit me with, actual cost or list price based...gulp.
Damm I just realised guitars are exactly like kids..bloody expensive.

Ahthankyew

Forms forms forms and more forms

Tich is stuck in customs, the seller didn't put a value on the shipping form so Dutch customs have sent me a form to fill out, not too complex but of course its going to hold things up.
ah well.


Ahthankyew

Small is beautiful

of course, Bina is quite small...;)

But this is even smaller..

Meet Titch, a 0 body (ie small parlour) 12 fret guitar made by Recording King and designed by Eric Shoenberg, who's a player and builder of pre war finger style guitars which are not as common as they used to be.

He gets companies to produce these designs to his very high standards and puts his name on them. They are quite rare, and often very pricy, but Recording King seem to have worked out a way to keep his standards high but the prices low.
This one is unusual for a 12 fretter becuase it has a cut away, an unheard of concept in prewar styles, but it adds a lot to its playability and this made this design quite special.
As explained in this video

They sold out pretty much as soon as they were released making them quite hard to find, but I located one in the US and haggled the price down to something I could afford.
Now I just have to wait for the Customs people to deliver it to TNT, never a fun thing cos you don't know if they will charge duty based on list price or actual price, important in this case as there's quite a difference.

Why am I still buying guitars when I said I was done....ermmm yeah well....its a good point.

Neither my Breedlove or my Ovation really work as fingerpickers, they have big bodies and thin necks to provide amazing tone, and fast chord changes and while they can do fingerpicking (especially the Breedlove which in my opinion is a great all rounder), you need a smaller tighter feel and a wider neck to do sweet hammers and pull offs without rasping on other strings which is why I've bought this.

This really is the last....apart from a Gibson Blueshawk, when one comes up I can afford (no really...and it will replace my Wesley)

From this point on, its a one in one out policy now, I have no more room. In fact the Ovation Elite may be going soon, I am going to have it set up properly, its always buzzed a littel bit, and if I don't feel it offers me something different than my Breedlove its going on ebay.


Any day now. Postman should be knocking. I chose not to buy a case with this one, normally I do, for security when shipping, especially from the states, but due to being strapped for cash and frankly having no where to put cases, I opted out...so its just in cardboard and packing....I hope it makes it ok.






Ahthankyew

Stubborn and old!

I think I'm starting to qualify for that title. I've been trying to get some work related coding done over the last few weeks and failing at every attempt to make it work...on my laptop..worked fine on my PC but laptop refused, and I could not find the problem.
Not such a big deal you may think, but I had to show this code at work to my students..on my laptop. So the frustration levels were growing..Several very late nights, lack of sleep and stress levels rising. Just like the old days.

In the end, it was a simple idiotic thing, a missing pair of "" around a line of text that caused the copy routine moving some lib files to move to the working directory failed.

Arrghhh I should have see that, I really should, 10 years ago, 5 even, I would have seen it..I think I must accept, there are grey hairs on my head, lines on my face, and I keep forgetting what I am doing, which just makes coding such a hard...something!!!

The stubborness comes from not giving up on the problem, cos I refused to be beaten, but also in not asking for some help..in the end it was a casual passing remark by a student that reminded me about the quotes...if I'd asked him 1st I would have fixed it ages ago...but I was sure I could fix it..

I can't I'm human, and worse, I'm an old human, my mistakes are becomeing more and more common and I am not as good as I was......time to get myself an eager sidekick to keep me on .....what was I talking about???




Ahthankyew

Damn

My old friend and collegue Lee Cawley sent me a message today that took my breath away.
His wife Mandy, passed away after the most incredibly brave fight against cancer I have ever heard of.

I knew it was coming, in fact the last few months it seemed to be ever more likely as Lee reported lots of hospital visits, but after what I think is about 10 years of fighting, undergoing major surgery, drugs, chemo, drug trials, every damn thing, the cancer eventually won.

I wish I had some way to express how sad I feel about this, I remember the shock when Lee told me when she was 1st diagnosed and have kept up to date with her progress year after year, heartened by news of improvments and saddened by the many setbacks.
There was never really any doubt her cancer was terminal, they just didn't get it in time, but to fight for so long, and still not win is heartbreaking for all concerned.

There are the times when I wish I was religious, cos if nothing else if gives you something to say, I don't have the right words just now. I am just incredibly sad for Lee who shared that fight with her all those years.

A brave lady, Mandy Cawley, RIP, you earned it. Keep Strong Lee.



Ahthankyew

Not intended for music lovers

But I bet it won't stop mum listening...it is just a work in progress using some of the gadgets and software I have aquired...don't blame me if you have nightmares after hearing this.

anyway...even though mum likes this (well she would) this is only here as a reference, I hope to improve my recording techniques and my singing over the next couple of weeks, and will do another version of this to compare....I hate the idea of people being able to hear such dross, but its all part of the process to help compare.
The voice for sure needs more PC, and maybe dropped down a tone in post production. Also I have to get my singing rythm in time with my guitar rythm, I stumbled over a lot of bits. Overall though I give it a 4/10....lets see if it improves with time and practice.

And to demonstrate a little how post production can improve...here's the same track after a bit of messing......still crap but...not as crappy as before. The surprising addition of a harmonica has me ....surprised...some kind of frequence thing I assume, but not unwelcome really.

Ahthankyew

ahhhhh wrong key

There is a reason I was sounding terrible (aside from the fact I do actually sound terrible) I was playing guitar just outside my vocal range...capo to the rescue to change the guitar pitch to suit, and voila it sounds reasonable. It actually sounds reasonable..bloody hell.

I even managed to get through a whole song which I have saved for posterity....and let the girls listen to it...they liked it :D

Not brave enough yet to post on here but with a bit more practice and tweeking of the "make him sound good" buttons I will post something soon.

I won't be entering any of Simon Cowells make fun of the deluded shows any time soon...but just for me to be able to sing and strum my way through a whole song is bloody great :D

yeahhh.. I feel good!!!!


I knew that I would!

Ahthankyew

Well maybe not THAT easy.

After spending a whole day "singing" yesterday I don't have anything to show for my efforts, apart from a bloody sore jaw...its not used to it... between forgetting the words to my test track (To love Sombody...the Ray Lamontagne version) or getting my co-ordination between guitar and voice wrong I have 100's of takes of a few verses....none of them very good..But I will persevere. I can honestly say its a lot of fun and with a few twiddles it does sound reasonable and improving.

The challenge is to get through a full song without error and see how that sounds.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

I've been using my lovely Ovation VXT to do this, mainly to prevent my voice mic picking up too much guitar sound which can get all out of whack when the pitch correction kicks in.
It is a fantastic guitar on its own, but hooked up to a Zoom A2 using default models for Gibsons and Martin guitars, it provides a fantastic range of really greate tones and sounds. So much better than my Roberts ever did which I always though was good going through the A2.
Also another plus for tie VXT over the Roberts, becuase of its hybrid nature, its much easier to play, with lighter strings and faster neck, the Roberts was not hard to play by any means but its Acoustic strings meant it needed a bit more effort. And you can't beat the fact you can just dial in a monster electic tone on demand for a big bending wail at the right time...should I ever get to that right time...oh well..tomorrow I'll give it another go.





Ahthankyew

This singing lark is easy

got a new mic, and a few accessories to go with it. Its not a big expensive one as mics go, its top of the low end price wise, but better than the standard dynamic mic I was using mainly to record acoustic guitar...It never really had any oomph to record voice.



This one does and urrghh I was right, I really can't sing, dull boring flat and insipid when you hear it back, but its extraordinary what a difference a good mic, a few pitch correction additions, a bit of reverb, some chorus and even a bit of envelope shaping can do.....no I don't really know either, I just pushed the buttons it said would "improve the quality of the sound" but it does make me sound like a modest half decent pub singer...not ready to inflict my warbles on the masses just yet but maybe soon.

the new layout...

Oh and no I have no long term plans to take up singing as a hobby, I am not that cruel, its to improve my basic timing on guitar. One of my biggest issues is a total lack of rythm, and singing along can help with that a lot....I just don't want to have to listen to me raw unprocessed horrible voice when I am practicing..






Ahthankyew

The Mighty Dark Fire Returns.

I'm sure my Mighty Dark Fire is cursed, since its unfortunate accident it has not been out of its case much, though Gibson very kindly sent me the replacment part I need, I don't really posess the tech skill to fit it. So I have been planning to take it to the shop in Northern Holland which Gibson reccoemend, when I have a bit of cash handy....yes I do have insurance cover to pay for it, but I want to be sure I can afford the work just in case.

But...as part of my clearing up, I took the beast out of her case and decided I'd have a go at doing just one of the fixes. namely straightening a bent tuning peg....no problem thinks I, I will use a tube extension on a screwdriver to apply steady pressure.....and indeed it is now nice and straight, but I broke a string doing so.

Now, changing strings on a guitar is not normally a big deal, an occasional chore you get used to. But since I had not changed them since I got her I decided to give her a fresh set rather than find a match for teh single broken one.
Which actually turned out to be quite a task, requiring a download and check on the manual as to how you actually change the strings on a robot tuner guitar.

After a bit of phaffing about though, the strings come off, the new ones go on, and in typical, ain't that a cool party piece fashion the MDF tunes herself up.

I still need to replace that pickup selector switch, but she's looking damn pretty even with the broken one. Hmmm might give her a bit of a wail later.

Oh and I finally worked out why the Dunlop strap locks that came with it do not fit....the "nubs" fitted to the guitar are not actually Dunlop locks..I think the original owner must have sent the wrong strap side bits and hence why they don't fit. I think they are Schaller's.....small detail but annoying as it means I can't blame gibson for my "faulty" straplocks.

Ahthankyew

Another tidy up...

In an effort to make most use of the space, I've been shuffling things around in the play room...I think I've almost got it sussed now.

I want to start doing a bit more recording and even a bit of vocals (arrghhhh) so need to have space to get all my auto pitch correction stuff and sound proofing etc......I can't sing, at all, but I suppose I should make a bit of an effort to try. So long as its just me listening to it I'll be a lot happier but that means I need to have the recording "studio" part of my kit working again which it hasn't been for a while.

Its quite a challenge fitting so many guitars/cases/pedals/amps, mixers and recorders into a small space....but I think I've cracked it. Pics to follow

edit...hmmm cracked the space issue but rather a lot of nasty hum going into the tube amps....need to try to isolate that.



Ahthankyew

Some Music

Well I say music, just me trying to perfect the piece I messed up during my performance video at the end of the Acoustic Guitar week in France

Hope you enjoy it mum ;)..The rest of you...sorry :( I can't stop it auto playing. Just hit pause and your suffering will end...edit...fixed it...you have to press play to be tortured.

Ahthankyew

It Burns IT BURNS

I thought I would try a tiny dab of piri piri sauce on a cheeseburger....hmmmmm tasty.

Oh dear god the pain...my mouth is still very raw on the right side from the surgery and as soon as the slightest hint of the sauce touched it I could feel the heat...but being a sucker for hot spicy food I thought I'd go through the pain barrier......until the pain barrier turned out to be a solid concrete wall covered in chillie...

Water, Milk, ice, nothing eased it...lucky for me though I still have a bit of lidocane left from when I was having radiotherapy to numb my mouth. It worked.

Now I am scanning google to see which has the shorter half life...lidocane or piri piri sauce, cos if it wears off before the piri piri I'll be screaming again.

ohhhhhhhhh I really hate that I can't eat chillies any more.


Ahthankyew
Ahthankyew

IE9 or just blogger messing up

Yesterday was the day of non working computers, mainly becuase my main PC took it upon itself to update Windows 7 with a service pack and also update IE to version 9. I tend to automatically accept updates and with hindsight....

Anyway, after choking on the download for hoours tying up all the bandwidth it eventually went into install mode which somehow locked up the PC totally, even somehow causing the bios to reset itself...arrghhh

The SP1 for Windows seems ok, in fact its a little nippier, but 1st impressesions of IE9 are not great...why take a bit of software everyone is familiar with and change everything??? I will never understand that...but after a bit of twiddling I got it more or less set up to something recognisable though the loss of the favourites bar on the left is idiotic.

One odd thing though is I was unable to post to blogger...it just refused to publish. Not sure if its still like that as I am posting on my laptop atm, but will check later and see. If indeed that is caused by IE 9 I will have to try and go back to IE8, I'm not pissing about with software that does not actually do its basic job right.


Ahthankyew

Off the booze for a bit and back to work...for a bit.

A whole week of indulgence in wine and other goodies has taken its toll. I am going to lay off the booze for a bit and give my liver a break.

I have been totally shattered since I came back from France, the long drive won't have helped but the general run down needing a holiday after a holiday feeling is taking a while to shake and I can't help thinking booze has a part to play..so we'll try a couple of we....a week off and see how I feel.

Bina also got back from her break today, pieless I hasten to add, despite my pleadings for her to shove a couple down her knickers to get on the plane...oh well, will have to make our own.

Back to work tomorrow though, for a week, then a weeks holiday :D Oh I love my job.

But am looking forward to getting back in front of my 1st years again after a whole block of non-teaching work, it'll be good to get the juices flowing again.

This block I'm teaching PR4, algorithms and data structures, using Braben and Bell's Elite as a classic example of an alorithm driven game project. Its such a classic game and its absolutly chock full of clever little examples of algorithms to solve problems that they will hopefully learn the importance of using estabished alorithms and data structures as well as developing new ones, without even noticing it as they try to dissect, analyze and emulate one of the greatest games ever.

Also doing Networking HA2 with my 2nd years which will be more challenging as I am not the most informed network programmer around, but I have been doing my research and should be able to explain the basics, which is what we all need to know, in a clear way that will allow those who find it interesting to jump off into more detailed work.



Ahthankyew

Fantastic week, fun, booze, sore fingers and sore toes!

Just back from my really fun week in the South West of France care of The Acoustic Guitarist Holiday

I had a really great week, lots of fun, really fantastic students who all gelled together really well and made the days fly by. Great home cooked food, prepared by Chris and Jenny Trotter (with help from Alice) who run the events and really calm and sensible teaching from Richard Perkins who managed to avoid laughing at some of our worst effots through the week.

Skill levels varied, Mike, Glen and Gunther showed some genuine impressive (ie I was drooling) skills at times which made me wonder why they were there, but even they found some of the work challenging. Paula, Danae, Dave and myself kept them on their toes though (bwhaha)

I was genuinly good fun, helped along by some really fantastic weather and a constant desire to play and play and play...oh and eat...ermm and drink. We did shift a fair amount of booze, my liver will need to go on its own holiday soon I think to recover.

A few lows though, I almost broke my toe dropping a false drawer front on it...that left me hobbling for a few days.(pics below)

I was also pretty crap during my final performance to video piece (a jazzy version of Amazing Grace), I'm sure Richard can edit it to get 20 seconds of decent playing but I have done better, I am going to practice a bit more then post a proper recording on here, but am sure my crap efforts will be on show on Richards link soon

I also got a bit ill on Friday night/Sat morning, not sure why, but was up at 1.30am scrambling around in pitch dark (stubbing my already briused toe) trying to find a big white telephone to call Hugh on...fortunatly I found it just in time..something didn't agree with me, and its better out that in...more than likely waaaay too much free vino. I was fine in the morning, and had a really nice Braised Ham dinner in a service station on the way back, lets hope it stays down...so far so good.

I didn't really take a lot of pics, since they take a lot of pics for the blog anyway, but I have no idea who that fat bastard is wearing my clothes and playing my guitar on most of the pics. But what I did take are posted below.

Overall I feel this was one of the best things I've done, guitar wise it was challenging at times and I didn't really enjoy having to learn masses of strange Gypsy Jazz chords, its not really my thing though the others enjoyed it, but I have been inspired to make more effort to learn them and move forward.

The pieces we were given struck just the right balance of difficulty, though in such a short space of time I didn't really get them all worked out as well as I would want, but will do at home after a good nights sleep and a bum rub (sadly solo...) after the 9 hour drive back.

Working with other guitarists at varying levels was also incredibly good fun, I really need to make more effort to play with others and bounce things off people, that alone was worth it.

I hope to keep in touch with everyone, I have to send a few tabs to people, hopefully going to go back again later in the year for the electric course where I will take Lucille for an outing, and perhaps have a bit more skill to show so that I don't fluff my performance bit.





pretty....the rural setting had lots and lots of lovley insect and birdlife,



My Battered Toe....

And again.....not the best pic but I want to emphisise, hey..that hurt!!!


Can you see it?


just missed

there he is, there were loads of these Gecko like lizards around.



And at last a proper pic.

Getting quite used to the camera now isn't he...



1st up the ladies do their version of Turn the Page with Richard singing.

The rest look on and wait.


Dave gets some backing..



Can you see it?? Yup thats as close as I got to the Eifel Tower...though Paris Traffic seems to be pretty busy for miles outside





There are many many more pics over on Richards blog of the course

And now time for a sausage buttie and a bit of practice.
Ahthankyew

Parteeeeee

After class yesterday we all went to the local micro brewery to sample some of their delights, not being a beer lover I opted for some local whiskey which was really nice after the initial rawness...We all had a few snifters and loosened up. I bought a few bottles of the "scotch" aged in Pinot barrels to take home.

The alcohol theme was continued as we came back for our evening meal (more alcohol) and in true drunken group of guitarists style, we ended up singing (even me a bit) and playing with a few strange dancing efforts to boot. ( I did however thankfuly refrain from any dad dancing and stayed firmly in my chair)

All in all a good night was had.


Today is the last day, with a final "performance" evening tonight, which we'll have to try to stay sober for.


Ahthankyew

Sunny French Villa's

A few pics of our farm accomodation.

Very nice weather is continuing and we even managed to eat out in the sun last night, though as it went down it got quite chilly and we had to use our wood burning stove in the cottage.

today has been a challenging day, doing some strange jazz chords which I am totally unfamiliar and we haved a jazzified version of Amazing Grace to learn for this evening.

Most of the others have gone into Cognac to have a look around, but I prefered to stay and catch up on some work during the down time before practicing my Amazing Grace again.

Bina is off to the UK today so hopefully she will be bringing back a stock of pies on her return (yum yum hint hint)

Off to follow up some student emails...... A Beintot...or something.











Ahthankyew

Hic Strum Hic

The travel down to the "south" of France was of course quite long but fairly uneventful I am happy to say, though I was totally shocked by the cost of the toll roads, I had to take 3 toll roads and in total was charged around 50 euros...one way!! Thats kinda steep, I had loads of change in my pockets expecting it to be 3-4 euro's a time it never occured to me it would be 15,22 and 23 euros....seriously thats absurd.

I've settled into my weeks intensive guitar course/holiday. I'm in a group of 7 "students" mostly my age or older, a few who are better than me and a few not so good so I am able to pair up with the better ones to get a challenge and show off to the not so good ones :D Nah really its quite handy being able to alternate your playing with people of different abilities.
I am sharing a farm cottage with 3 others, making 2 men 2 women (and only 1 shower so no wandering around with my dangly bits out), with another group of 3 in another cottage

The Cottages are really cool and calm, though the bedrooms have wooden floors so they are incredibly noisy. I'm sharing with Gúnter, nice Austro/German chap, who snores...sadly our beds are too far away for me to elbow him or give him a cuddle to persuade him to roll over, which works great for Bina...maybe just as well!

The wine, fresh French country air (we are in the middle of nowhere I have to say the night sky is incredible) and 1st night travel tirednes have so far ensured I've been pretty tired and gone to sleep regardless of the snoring....that may change at the end of the week :D

Richard the tutor keeps a blog of the course activites, and there's a few pics of some strange long haired pasty fat bloke that keep popping up..

The weather is fantastic, wonderful sunshine so its a good job I brought some sun cream, though I did forget a few important things, like a stand for my Breedlove which has now picked up its first scratch from being laid down on the floor..oh well, its only the 1st 1 that hurts.

Playing is improving already, I've found my timing getting better and we're all enjoying playing some reasonably complex tunes properly. My fingers are aching though, and I am also limping after dropping a fake drawer front on my toe this morning..ouch.

Internet and phone connections are a little ropey so I better get this uploaded while I can, and go catch up on some work I need to do while I am away this week.

Missing everyone at home, I think Bina would LOVE this place, you have to come for the sax course, though they do admit its possible a little advanced, they may consider doing a beginners course sometime.



Working hard...



Ahthankyew

Haw he haw he haw!

I am off to France tomorrow for a Guitar Holiday...nope, I never knew such things existed either! Its a weeks intensive guitar tution with a small group of like minded nutters who spend the days twanging strings, drinking wine and drinking wine, there may also be some wine drinking involved.

Its run by a company called Creative Vacences and I am hoping to attend another course later in the year, perhaps even get Bina to go to one of their Sax courses (I said Sax!)

I'm really looking forward to this, at the vast age of 47 I am about to go on my first ever holiday alone......ermmmm....yeah...how does that work? Who's going to make sure I packed my underwear?

Nah its cool, Bina is heading off to the UK next week with Jodie and I don't really want to spend time in England(though it would be lovely to see you mum, I think you get fed up with me after 20mins!!!) so the timing of this is nice.

I've not got any work to do, so there's no problem with me taking a week "off", though I do need to keep in touch via email, there's no need to go to the office so I can head off to France and have fun while doing a bit of lecture prep in the evenings over a class of wine....I love my job!!!!

I should have internet access there, so will post updates if I can. Its a long drive though, 8 hours accoring to the sat nav, so more like 10/11 allowing for stops to eat and stuff.

Since its an acoustic course I'll take my Breedlove AC25/SR+ with me, and also my Ovation VXT for a bit of extra silent late night noodling. Also taking my G-Dec amp and of course my Ipad for Amplitube fun with headphones.

If I have any fingers left at the end of this, and I've been damaging my hands all week in the run up to this, so who knows what is going to happen when I am there, there may be some recordings to come up...watch this space.











Ahthankyew

Breaking nails

I have got pink nail varnish on my thumbnail..I feel like a plonker...but I had to take emergency repair action when the nail on my thumb...which is quite long for guitar playing purposes, snapped almost clean off at the top of my thumb, 3/4's of its width hanging off...this a few days after I cracked another nail further down the nail bed but its stable.

Since I need that nail next week when I am off for a weeks intensive guitar lessons I had to take drastic action...Superglue to hold it down..fortunately there was a nice clean ledge to put the nail back, and, nail varnish on top to support it.

All I could find in this house of women was pink sparkly stuff...well there was a bright red hussy shade..and I am not that kind of boy.

So...for the moment at least I have a pink thumbnail...very fetching, I'm sure the ladies can provide some clear version in due course.

But the glue seems to have worked, we'll have to see if it holds up to full playing on the day..I'll take a thumbpick with me just in case.




Ahthankyew

More Pride

All ready for the Prom....

all grown up now...still 'orrible at times but how things change in 2 years.




Ahthankyew

Pride :)

My Students :D

Ahthankyew

Bug Crushing fun

A simple and frankly obvious thing I tell my students all the time, is not to fixate too much on a bug being something you think it is..It may indeed be something totally different elsewhere causing a problem.

I've had such a bug myself, for quite some time now I've been trying to prevent a random speedup in the control system of my game which caused the main character to fly off screen when exiting rising or falling water. (It'll make sense later when you know the game.)

But try as a might, I could not work out exactly why the damn thing would sometimes fly off wildly at speed losing sync with the control system that keeps the character in a block range for collision checks.

So of course it had to be in the move routines...it had to be....or in the water routines....or in the key press readers, or or or

I hunted and hunted for this bug in all sorts of places, convinced it was something really complex that needed lots of hacking exception code to correct.

Well of course, it wasn't it was in the end blindingly obvious, I was using a flag to change between speeds and the fault was that I was doing it without checking if I was wholely on a block before altering speed, which meant the co-ord position of the character could bounce off a block and never get to check for a valid collision point..result...sometimes it flew of screen unable to detect the edge boundry blocks.

Ok not a blindingly obvious explination but the main point being I need to practice what I preach.... I will of course tell my students that I can be a bit of a dick sometimes...though not as often as they :).

On the upside a long standing and very demoralising bug has finally been crushed...onward.

Ahthankyew

My face is melting

Bina and Jodie, brought back a few jars of Nando's piri piri sauce when she was last over.

We LOVE Nando's but they don't have them here so making our own was an exciting option.

Since my surgery and radiotherapy last year though, I have not really been able to eat anything too hot or spicey, which is upsetting, I was and will always be a Vindaloo and Extra hot Nando's lover, but I am going to have to give my mouth a few years to toughen up before I can indulge again.

So what they brought back was Medium

Medium, ie, a bit hot but not painful.

Its a LIE...Nando's medium cooking sauce is actually molten capsicum in pure form and when added to chicken and cooked results in an experience which is something like sucking on a red hot glowing poker which then turns to lava in your mouth.

Medium.....I used to eat raw chillies, I once had the staff at a resteraunt peer out the door watching me eat a chicken phal (granted with severl gallon sized jugs of ice water), and I used to get Bina's mum to put extra chillies in her curries.

Medium....is now too hot for me, how the mighty have fallen.

sigh



Ahthankyew

Movie nights rock!!

Had the 1st movie night with the new wired system, what a picture! Everything works perfectly on the movie side and I got a fantastic Hi-def DVD image that is totally cinema quality.
The TV output still gives a pink picture from time to time that needs a singal reset to fix (unplug the cable basically) but other than that its 1000% better and I will be junking those wireless links now. I'll try setting up the cable direct into the projector rather than via a repeater to see if it fixes it....assuming the cable is long enough...it seems to be.

Also it was payday yesterday..yeahhh, though that was slightly tempered by the end of month totting up process which showed I'd gone a bit overboard this month on Home Cinema and guitar bits and bobs...going to be a rather austere month next month. No takaways.

Its been fantastic weather all week, but would you belive, we are going to a BBQ later and today the weather is dull and overcast, probably going to rain!
Bahh!

Ahthankyew

Wooooooooohhhh

This


+ This



+This




==
All kinds of awesome


(ps it also gets a lot of "turn that down" requests)

Ahthankyew

Cables == Quality

Cables finally arrived and I got everything hooked up. There were a couple of niggles due to the remote system for the HD switch/splitter using the same IR signals as the TV systems display settings causing great fun as it set up screen modes that netiher display could support!!

But its sorted now...HD quality images now being projected from the DVD player in 720p, using a scart upscaler, and the Freesat box sending direct to the switch.
And with the press of a button (can't use the remote) I can send the images to the projector or the TV in glorious 720p Hi Def.

I do get an occasional "pink" screen on the TV, when going from an HD channel to a standard def channel though, easy fixed by switching channels a few times but still...The coder in me does not like to see an obvious bug, but 99% functional is still pretty good, and the picture quality, with no signal loss or wavy lines is brilliant. I will see if I can shorten the HDMI cable and avoid using an extender, which may be part of the problem, but really its not such a big issue.

Movie nights will be a lot more fun with no microwave interference or image drop at random intervals.

Awesomeness.



Ahthankyew

Card Fraud Resolved

yeaaahhh

Card frauds have been refunded and a new account set up. Only got 1 of the sneeky auto renews refunded though, but the major £2,300+ fraud has all been refunded with the interest charges that went along with it.

Normality can now return.


Ahthankyew

Frustrations...its all a matter of scale

Little bit pissed off that some ebay stuff I ordered to finish off the wiring in the play room have still not arrived. I can probably find a 20m HDMI cable at a store here but it would be expensive...and of course as soon as I buy it, the one on order will turn up...its a bit like getting in the bath when you are expecting a delivery..they always arrive just as you settle in (in fact its a cosmic law..try it if you need your package to arrive quicker, just run a bath)

Its all I need to finish up the media systems and get a big improvement over the current wireless systesm but its going to have to wait till the cables arrive...frustration.


Other frustrations in life are harder to cope with, bad tempered brothers for example, I won't go on about the specifics but it seems both my brothers are now not talking to me. Well I have to say in both cases I really can't be arsed to argue with them, they're being dicks and I'm not interested in saying otherwise just to make them happy. Face book defriending is just a tad on the sad side for a couple of so called adults in their 40's. Very modern though, and I suppse more civilised that storming out of the pub.

When peoples 1st reaction to some percieved offence is anger and insistance on their viewpoint being the only one to be heard then there's something seriously wrong with your reasoning. I have long since given up the desire to go along with things just for a quiet life. I'm happy to listen to and acceptn anyones view point, but I won't be forced to share yours. Get over yourselves. Frustrating.

Other frustrations are on a global scale, the idiocy of governments and politicians is staggering, Libya is now the cause de jour, when similar issues are around in Saudi, Bahrain, Yemen, but choose the easy options why don't you! Frustrating

When is the UN actually going to stop pandering to political heavy weights and try to make the bloody PLANET a safe place for all of us. Too many dictators and too many powerful interest groups taking priority over basic human needs. Frustratung

Comic relief was on in the UK last week, as always showing pictures of terrible suffering in Africa...in the 21st fucking century we still have babies dying of malnutrition!!!! Frustrating.
Lets not even start on the people of Norhern Japan, that particual bit of realisation we are all human and subject to natures whims, has been skillfully wiped away in the news. Frustrating.

And then to round it off, on Facebook recently I've seen a couple of people stating that cancer is curable and its only the governments and drug companies that are stopping easy cures from being made available so they can make money....shiiit...On every level this is nuts...If it were true.....it's too horrible to comment on, and if not....how can people belive such nonsense?? Conspiricy theories are probably the most frustrating, they're like religions, people want to belive in something and refuse to see the simple logic that shows how wrong they are.

Crazy world ...really crazy world..

And I am sat here working on a game project I am dabbling in, trying to get a monkey to create a splash when it enters a rising water level......surreal.
And it wont' work....frustrating.









Ahthankyew

Self imposed exile for 30 mins

Bina and Jodie are watching something called a Gok on Channel 4??

I felt my IQ dwindling the more I stared at it and decided it was best to retreat to the office for 30 mins or so of string twanging.

hmmm I never noticed before that this shirt just does not go with these shoes!!!!


Ahthankyew