ouch,...but yeah...but ouch

The new board needs a few more things but it is functional, so I took it to band practice...it was BRILLIANT!! up and running in a minute :D Exactly what it was intended to do.. I was delighted with its functionality.

It is also FUCKING HEAVY AS A WHITE DWARF STAR!!

And I am literally aching in my shoulders from trying to pick it up..I mean trying, there was a lot of dragging and sliding but not a lot of actual picking up... I was at least able to put it on to a small trolly 3 inches high.....yeah....

No need for Gyms, just book a couple of rehearsals and load the car.

After an amazing semi controlled slide to get it down the stairs it has now taken up residence in the living room until such times as I have doubled my muscle mass and can bench press 200kg and stand any chance of getting it back up stairs on my own.


Ahthankyew

Portable....pedal board or gym

I am going to build up some muscles hauling this around..

My new pedal board is an absolute monster.  Its a custom made box, as I could not find anything big enough on the market to hold the RC-300 and GR-55 side by side..also I can now put my Voice Live2 in the system, which was not really possible due to floor space and cable issues.  But thanks to the equally custom made loop switch I can use it and the VLTouch I've been using.
It all looks a bit overkill but really its just due to the size of the 3 main pedals which are fooking huuuge. ;)

If anyone's interested its actually quite simple...My main guitar tones are produced by the Adrenalinn III , the little blue/black box on the left. Which among other tricks is a drum machine and rhythmic arpegiator, but mainly its an Amp/FX sim unit that lets me do everything from nice clean tones to monster metal screams...It is incidentally also hooked up to another slightly large thing, a MIDI FCB 1010 control board, not pictured above, but here below, but I can use it without.

That is supplemented and occasionally replaced when playing by the GR-55 Guitar synth, big blue thing, bottom right, which is ...a synth..so it can do mega loads of instruments and fx, like strings and keyboards, and most importantly bass which I play from time to time in one of my bands when we don' t have a bass player.. also oboes', flutes..its a great machine.

It also can do guitar fx and sounds, and I like to use it in combination with the ADIII for contrast and boost..

One other major thing it can do is set up alternate tunings...so if I want an Eb acoustic guitar for the intro to Nobody's Wife..press a button and done...press another and I have the Eb overdriven Gibson Les Paul into a Marshal stack for the power chords...
Press another and I have  a standard tuning 12 string acoustic for Like I do's intro (with a hint of strings and a choir behind it). Afterwards, switching back to a telecaster in drop D for a Rolling Stones number...and I never have to change guitars or retune...its amazing!

These 2 pedals are the main tone systems..so on the face of it I don't have as many pedals as most people do..and indeed my other guitar board has 6 pedals in it...and does not come close to ths number of variations and abilities. Its just the physical size of these puppies that make them a pain.

I play my Patrick Eggle Berlin (Margaret)into this system, as it has a midi pickup to control/trigger  the synth..

I have added an older FX pedal to the mix, just  because I could, there was space.. The Digitech FX Factory wah pedal  has been added to the mix, with a foot controller pedal, but mainly for 1 particular sound, it does an awesome Rotary speaker fx, which the ADIII does not quite match. I don't know if I will use this much, but for now I'll see if its worth keeping on the board.
Ok so that's guitars;

----------------------------------

Vocally, I need a lot of help with my vocals, so I have on this board 2 main toys. both of which need signals from guitars to generate harmonies, tuning or FX, which is why they are on the board.

The 1st is the TC Helicon Voice synth, which is there mainly to do Vocoder fx, for Daft Punk numbers and other things.... Most of the time its in simple bypass mode, and the mic goes to either the Voice Live 2 EE seen here, (the big blue box top right) or via the loop switch to a Voice Live Touch on my mic stand. I like the VLT for looping and changing harmonies on the fly, but the VL2 is in fact the more powerful bit of kit, I just need to learn use it better, which now its on the deck I can do.

Anyway..the VL units give tone and auto correction as well as echo, delay chorus, etc  and harmony fx.. which are great.

Then we come to the RC-300 looper, which the guitar, synth and vocal signals are all sent to which I can mix a little, which allows me to loop them at will. the output from the RC's main output goes to the PA or Amp, usually PA... The sub output goes to a small transmitter under the plinth which sends the sound simultaneously to my in ear monitors.. That lets me hear what I play, which is surprisingly hard to do in a band when everyone is playing...

Also under the plinth is a wireless receiver which takes a signal from my wireless bug attached to a non midi guitar, (or if the battery is flat I can just plug in..but I hate cables) so I can use my normal guitars as well without the synth. :D I pick which system with a little A/B switch on the top right to maintain a signal to the vocal units.

At the moment the cabling is mish mash and untidy and I have to put a better power system under the plinth to power it all..but that's will be done next week, and all will be ready for the rehearsals for the run up to Birthday and Christmas Gigs...

I have to sell a guitar to pay for all this though... :( but I think it will be more than worth it in the end, tidy cable free floors are a joy to behold.





Ahthankyew

Off Limits to students

I can't really stop students finding this, after all it is a blog, but really its not going to be that much interest to those I know as students, aside from moaning about work load,  and marking, there's not much work related stuff. Its quite a personal blog I post for a range of different reasons...

I've become more and more concerned about my private blog being available to students who decide to do a bit of a google..moreso since googling my name brings this up as no1 answer...the price of fame.

But I don't really want to close down this blog as it gives me something to look back on and review life events and good and bad times...which we all have...though I find posting them for everyone to read strangely cathartic..
So unless someone actually abuses the info I put on here, I will take it on the chin and keep posoting.

If your looking for some help with coding issues....check the links on the right...

If you want to know why I was grumpy in class....then I might post here ;)


otherwise...get back to work..and research the physics of Pang...you'll regret it later if  you don't



Ahthankyew

Margaret is resting and recovering well after her surgery

I did my first ever bit of guitar surgery tonight, mainly to stop myself going mad from Marking..
I permanently fitted my Roland GK-3 Split MIDI pickup to Margaret, my favourite Guitar (Patrick Eggle Berlin).

The previous stick on version was prone to slippage and occasional problems on the 2nd string due to poor adjustment....So I got out the 'gulp' drill and made a couple of scary pilot holes....of course one was ever so slightly off...But I managed to correct it.

So Margaret now has her pick up properly fitted and properly spaced/adjusted and sounding much better.

She still needs a proper set up though, she buzzes a little high up the neck and intonation is a little bit off...Will take her to Dijkmans when I get paid for a bit of love...she's earned it.

Still no vids, too busy marking and getting lectures ready..but I have been messing about with a famous Jacques Brel song everyone knows.. I dunno if I can get the "passion" needed into a torch song but its a  nice song and I think my arrangement is fairly solid apart from 1 key change spot....next week hopefully I'll be back to video and recording mode.

Its Zwarte Piet season here in the Netherlands...a bizarre time when the dutch don't quite seem to get why people can be offended by the sight of a white man in blackface....no matter how I put it, or what I say, it just turns into a brick wall defence of we're not racist...which I never suggested...but the depiction of Zwarte Peit is deeply uncomfortable....for many.

oh well...I'll let the rants on Facebook go for now.....better get to bed... early class tomorrow.



Ahthankyew

I hate marking and I have guitars to sell.

Still not quite done, but I have gamelab tomorrow so hopefully I can finish it then still a bunch of PR1's and a shed load of AGT5's....oh well.

No guitar playing this week, aside from some normal practice  but a realisation has occurred ...I need to sell some of the guitars... yes folks its time to face up to the fact that my GAS has resulted in far too many guitars, and a collection of bills means its time to sort it out. 

Someone is interested in Sarge, my SG so if he makes me a decent offer I will take it...I will also put a few of the others up for offers.... I don't want to sell, I really don't, I love them all,  but I have settled down to play just 3 or 4 guitars now, and the rest are basically not being used...its time to face up to things....the collection needs thinning. Its fine to have  a few vanity guitars, but I really don't need so many. I will try to thin it down and cash them in over the next year or 2, ebay is too costly but I will try to sell locally.

The massive gas bill, 3800euros has been sorted and reduced to normal but its still adjusted to a 670 euro bill due to excessive use of electricity...I can guess what that is, I tend to leave all my gadgets on all the time, but still a bad practice.. its still a big bill though so time to cash in the assests I have and get into a reasonable cash flow.

sigh....


Ahthankyew

I'm a hit

Well here's 2 things I am incredibly proud of today

1st I am now a no.1 recording artist. My version of Tower of Song got to no.1 in the  Soundclick.com charts blues...cover... fat blokes nearing 50.. section.

I think that's pretty good even if it only needs 5-10 listens to get there...I have a screen shot to prove it and I'm happy as fuck about it.

The other thing I am incredibly proud of is the new music room I set up at work for students (and staff) to play in. It was a fair bit of hassle and I donated some of my own kit to get it going but the result has been amazing. IGAD and IMEM students have been streaming in to try it out and slowly students are forming small groups and jamming away...as intended. It was so cool to watch this grow and the comments back from students have been incredibly uplifting.

Can't wait to hear the 1st performances from them. I'm hoping to arrange a couple of showcase nights each year so they can get up in front of people and perform. Job Done!








Ahthankyew

Getting a bit better

Tried to make this a bit darker....singing as usual is a bit off at times but overall am pleased with this effort


Ahthankyew

Guitar day

Nice thing about holidays, I had time to play guitar, and managed to knock out a passable version of one of my favourite BB King songs, though more in the style of Damon Fowlers version of the song.. Since I can't do key changes on a looper :D


a few mistakes but nice groove. We've been trying to do this in the band for a long time but that groove is hard to hit..


Ahthankyew

Holidays are great

Am on Autumn holiday this week, a chance to sleep in , catch up with work and do nothing....

though I have been in the office both days so far trying to download the SDK for the PS4 which has taken ages...
Finally I have it on my laptop and can install it, but won't be able to use it till I ....yup get back to the office.

oh well I do like the new office and at least no "having" to be there makes if feel less worklike.

in other news, just got a massive bill from the power company for nearly 4K..fuuuuuuuuckkkkk

Its a mistake of course..not quite sure how but it is....will get it sorted tomorrow.



Ahthankyew

No longer single

Just a blip

:D

happy..



Ahthankyew

I'm a mess

Fucking hate insomnia....6am and I have an 11am lecture....with almost certainly no hot water to have a decent wake up shower due to the boiler not being especially willing to work.

this just sucks big cheesy balls.


I've prepped my lecture and updated it while I struggle to sleep, and am going to set my alarm to 10 and hope I get to sleep and wake up in time to go deliver it.



Ahthankyew

Not quite the musical genius I thought

I was going to work on Abbas SOS this weekend, I've been practicing it for a few weeks and think I've got the right sound and tempo for it, but not quite worked out a decent way to loop it..so was practicing some live playing/singing. It wasn't right but it was coming..

Events this week though have left me identifying too much with the lyrics ...that and the cold cracking my now sexy husky but totally useless for singing voice.. I'll leave it a few weeks.

Will just focus on practicing some band stuff, we were getting close to a cracking version of Man with the child in his eyes last week, I will try to get those chords in my fingers, the timing needs a singer though.

I also have to look forward to some nice cold showers as my flaming boiler has decided to give and sends an error to the display every time now, where a reset would fix it, now it refuses to reset...I think it just needs a service and bleeding out the air but its apparently no longer covered by the people who used to do it, so time to sort out a contract.




Ahthankyew

dammit cold, bugger off

Aside from the gut wrenching pain of a break up, which is occupying my mind,  my insomnia is being seriously fuelled by the snotty cold from hell, with accompanying raw chest...I am so exhausted from lack of sleep and hacking cough, but here I am at 4.07am trying to keep myself amused and away from endless repeats of Graham Norton on The Comedy Channel.

I've looked at a few student projects who have asked for help, and have a few more I'll do tomorrow but I don't want to do any coding and have my mind racing for no good reason

Lucky I don't have class till the afternoon, and my colleagues will cover for me in game lab if I can't make it in at 9...which at this point seems pretty unlikely.

Beechams are helping though...It'd be full on man flu without them I fear.

oh well lets go see who's on Grahams sofa and try to drop off.



Ahthankyew

Single again...bugger

Well, what can you do...it seems fate or whatever cosmic entity responsible for kicking me squarely in the nuts at the point of extreme happiness has struck again.

After finally realizing there was something to look forward to in the future, I now discover its a lie. Amazingly it really wasn't my fault this time, or the result of growing apart or any of those other things I can pinpoint that caused the end of past relationships.. I had to end it when the basic trust of the relationship was smashed apart.

ho hum, better get used to a life time of utter disappointment and Lord of the Rings marathons.

Oh and I have another cold, which has kept me up all night....life certainly can suck sometimes.

Mum, please don't bother me with this...its done, I am fine, I will get over this but I really don't want to talk about this for some considerable time.

Ahthankyew

Oh go on then,

I suppose I should post something, its been quite a while, but that's only due to being quite busy in the 1st few weeks uni with students. Lots of time sucking issues prepping classes and adapting to the new premises.

I am enjoying the new offices though, the space is nice and the programmers office has an air of calm around it which we never really had at Pakhuis.
My new Sony room is taking shape too, though I am short some monitors...but no worries we're expecting great things to happen here soon ;)

This years batch of 1st years are proving to be a lot of fun, as always a few are like rabbits in headlights with no idea what they are doing but they are starting to ask questions and not expecting knowledge to suddenly be poured into their brains.

I have an exciting though a little time sucking project to handle which has proven to be much more interesting than I originally thought.

As regular reader(s) will know I have an interest in string noise makers, and our Dean is aware of that shocking affliction.
She asked me to take charge of a room at the IGAD wing which is our dedicated music room. Its an expansion of our piano and guitar play area at Pakhuis.  Its a fair sized room plenty of space for people to come in, pick up a guitar or twiddle on the keys, on their own.....

But I wanted to make it a bit more, with more students in the building, we are now also in the same building as our sister faculty IMEM, there's a chance for those of a musical bent to get together and play, perhaps forming some cool new groups..

But its pretty hard to play as a band in an office area....unless of course you have a JamHub, like I do :D

It will allow a group to play in the room with only the singers causing any major noise issues...
I plan to put a JamHub in there, with the fantastic help and support of the people at JamHub who are helping us get the kit together.

I also got donations of instruments and other gear from various sources, especially students.
Budgets are stretched though so we need to source kit as cheap as possible, which certainly makes the project a challenge

But it looks like we're going to get there...I will document the progress, and hopefully get the room up and running after our Autumn holidays...stay tuned who knows we might see an IGAD/IMEM band in Hollands Got Talent soon as a result ;)




Ahthankyew

We're at code milky green.

oh man...I am sick, but still functioning...have been having mad cold sweats all night that stopped me sleeping till 5am, and now still have the sweats, I've showered and changed twice already today..and may need to do so again soon.

I got some cheap office furniture from one of my students yesterday who had been sick all week, so I couldn't collect it till he said he was better, but I am guessing I've picked up whatever horrible pathogen he's had and its just starting to get going.

Aside from a mild headache and the sweats though, I'm still functioning so have been working at home today and doing a bit of clearing up in the house.. Brenda now has a little work space with a desk in the spare room. I'll put a small PC in there for her soon.

Since I need to use the office a bit more for freelance and possible educational work I've cleared it up and added some of the aforementioned furniture to better store books and things and use the space better.

Return to work has been fun, aside from the usual meetings...the new office space is taking shape, my new dev lab for PS3/PS4/Vita dev is going to be epic when I've got it all kitted out it will make IGAD look the business.

I've also found a masters I am willing to do...note that...willing, generally I am 10000% against being made to do a masters in order to prove some notion of academic qualification for teaching but as this one only involved me doing what I normally do..ie write a game...I am going to see if they will let me do it. I'm waiting to hear back.  I still don't want to do it, but if it means I can prove what I do is enough to get me their silly bit of paper I will try it.




Ahthankyew

Admin woes

I was supposed to be going to Cologne, next week for a conference but it seems no one bothered to tell the admin people at work so no travel plans or hotels have been booked, much less tickets for the conference...I am very annoyed about that, as its an important conference where much networking will be done and I can try out industry on an idea have to commercialize some of our Gamelab products and make more use of our Sony dev kits...grrr

Work starts again on Monday, hopefully the admin people will recover this, but frankly I doubt it, which is not the most pleasant way to start a new school year...

oh well

I have some prep work to get done I suppose so I can do that rather than make important deals....I really despair sometimes at the lack of recognition for my industry links and abilities.


Never mind...its been a nice holiday, I feel refreshed and recharged and ready to take this year on with a bit less work (I am dropping 1 class) and a bit more coding work that suits me....

onward and upward.



Ahthankyew

I am a car driving man

And I drive most night and day.

My new car
can't seem to upload pic in explorer on this laptop for some silly reason so the link will have to do for now. It does the same with YouTube, probably a dll screwed up

Its only a Kia Picanto, basic eco model, an A to B runabout, though it does have a cool Pioneer AV system on it. but apparently no rear speakers...I must check, since the back doors have holes/grills for them but fading to the rear shows nothing is attached.

I can connect my Ipad, my phone and even surprisingly watch videos on DVD or on the Ipod...though not while driving. all this and a sat nav which was a bit of a pain to get into English but I managed. :D

I'm a movin' yeah baby.




Ahthankyew

Home and time to prep

ah that was a fun weekend, I've never really done the tourist thing in London before, though I just stopped short of the tourist bus cos they were all bloody expensive, I went around looking at things...pity I didn't take may photos' it was so sunny and bright most of the time I could not see what my camera phone was pointing at so gave up at the Natural History Museum.

 I must say the 30 minute queue was annoying there, especially as I could see some people were being allowed to walk straight past the coiled lines into the main gate with no real explanation of how you achieve that status.

I ended up in Denmark Street a few times of course, I seem to gravitate there, was thrilled to be allowed to play a couple of mega expensive vintage guitars and even a 63 Strat. the year I was bon...it was remarkable...and at 9K ....expensive but not as much as I thought. I won't be buying one though...not till the 1st Album sells 200,000

Saw the new Alan Partridge film when there, very very funny, but 15 quid for a cinema ticket...mehhh

Better start prepping for work next week, even though we have a couple of weeks before the students arrive, our move to the new office will mean a lot of disruption, so best to get it done. I am determined to be better prepped this year so I am not caught out with mountains of work...well that's the plan.

I am off in a bit to go get the new car, last weeks annoyances have all been resolved and I have the RWD papers here so can collect everything

Last nights bus trip was interesting since we went on the ferry this time, 1st time 'I've done that. I didn't realise the late busses used the ferry. Our driver though, was an American straight out of boot camp, quite rude and abrupt who seemed to prefer barking orders to politely asking people to do something. I almost blew when after asking him a polite and helpful question while at customs he barked at me to "get back to your seat".....hmmmmmmm he seemed to miss out "could you", "please" and used "get" rather than "go"....I tend to think the "sir" part is optional but nice.

His "listen up people, I'm not here to babysit you" speech on the ferry was also extremely annoying....Fortunately for him he didn't have much more to say after that so no need to blow my lid.


But I got home around 5 which was pretty good timing.

Mind you I am currently bikeless. I think I left the keys in the bike by mistake when I left but did put a big lock on it too, I suspect the change in routine stopped me from removing the keys....Anyway when I went to the bike, no keys...gaahhh I'll have to take it to the repair shop to have the lock removed, I also need to repair a slow puncture on the font and replace the rear wheel...hmm expense...but I'm not going to replace the bike with the car totally so it needs to be done.


Off for a shower, to wake up and get ready for the day.
Ahthankyew

I'm gonna leave ol London town

Have had a great time in London for the TCE 10th birthday, made loads of new/old contacts and will be following some up when I get home. I'm sure this will pay dividends later.

I have a night and a day left here and need to work out what to do but will probably do a bit of work in my tiny hotel room.

Had a couple of wonderful times in Denmark St, as always, this time came away with a haircut, very mod.not sure I'll keep it quite as it was cut manly since she put wax in which I washed out 1st chance I got...ugg hate products!!

Was privileged to be allowed to play a couple of mega priced guitars, including a 63 strat which I could afford if I can sell a kidney. Ahh I wish I could play well enough to justify such wonderful instruments. Picked up a nice Danelectro '56 Baritone guitar, very cheap..honest guv, it just felt right.

Took Jack with me today where he fell in love with an Ibanez bass, luckily he resisted :D

Going to have a snooze and do a bit of work tonight, been a busy alcohol fuelled weekend and I need to let my liver have a rest.

Long bus trip tomorrow...so will try to enjoy my last hours a little more peacefully.





Ahthankyew