TechDiff

Depends what I'm doing really. Sometimes just recording, sometimes effects, sometimes more. At the moment, I've got things set up pretty fun. Beatstep Chan 1 is sending pitch & gate to modular. Chan 2 is setup for hz/V & S-trig to MS20. Top row of drum pads is sent as MIDI to some 808 style drum synths I made in Reaktor. Bottom row is used both as extra triggers for modular, and MIDI to more Reaktor drums. I'm using the Beatstep as the main clock source. Clock out to drive modular sequencers (would also use to sync Echophon but it fluctuates too much) and clock over MIDI to sync Reaktor. As well as drum synths, Reaktor is also running some live sampler/loopers so I can either sample something from the modular and mash it about, or load some breaks or whatever. I've been making some additional glitchy effect things, which I'd hoped to play with the Beatstep pads & knobs when in 'Control Mode'. It works ok, but the Beatstep knobs feel proper shitty for twiddling because of the notching. Tried using an old Maschine controller cos the encoders are pretty nice, but it's a big bit of kit for such a small task. Should look for something more suitable I guess. Yes. Also checking facebook, plus waiting for Beatstep firmware updates.

I seem to get a new bug every time I turn mine on. Regular occurrences are: Complete MIDI crash. If using as main sequencer/clock source, turning it off/on resolves. If using as MIDI to CV converter from DAW to synth, it crashes my entire system and I have to reboot everything. Double triggering when manually playing drum pads. Fortunately I'm not much of a finger drummer. Timing issues when using drum pads for MIDI. Sometimes triggers are late, sometimes missed completely. Roller/Looper remains a complete POS, even after most recent FW update. Unresponsive encoders. They do not always show correct values when touched. The 'Wait to Load Pattern' which was a big part of the new FW is poo. Next pattern is loaded only after the 1st step of the previous! Means you end up with 1 step of the old pattern.... The saving workflow is also kinda lame. Makes it all too easy to accidentally save the wrong stuff into a channel's pattern slots. Say you're working on Sequencer 2, and want to save something you'd done on Sequencer 1. Pressing 'Sequencer 1' + 'Save' + Slot number will instead save the contents of sequencer 2 into 1. The sequencer seems to be only correctly selected on button release. I guess this is to allow you to copy from one sequencer to the other, but meh... I find it causes more harm than good, especially since (as far as I know) there is no 'undo'. There are a few other things that bug me too, maybe more personal stuff though. All that said, I hold hope that some of this will be addressed with updates. Should also say that I still have a lot of fun working with it. It's fast to use, reasonably intuitive, and is a super useful bit of gear. I'd no way use it live atm because of the MIDI issues, but again, hopes for updates. It really would be a cracking bit of kit once they get the bugs fixed

Here is some of it.. Not usually set up on my desk like that, but every so often it's nice to do. Have picked up a couple other modules since this pic. Not visible is dead laptop henge, and the place where MIDI controllers go to die.

It's a decent enough bit of kit. Built quality is pretty solid, aside from the micro USB connection which is just waiting to break. Minijack outputs are not as positive as I'd like, you don't really get a wicked *clunk* when plugging something in. It'd also be nice if output labels had been printed on top, rather than just on the back. Ground loop issues. Basically unavoidable if you're trying to power it over USB. You do get a weird splitter thingy so you can use an additional power supply which solves the problem. Just annoyed me a bit since the problem is so likely to happen, they could've provided a power supply. Once it's up and running it's good fun, does what you'd expect it to. There are a few things which I'm hoping will be fixed with firmware updates.. Changing clock divisions or sequencer direction completely looses any sync and you have to restart, really annoying. The looper roller thing is junk, would be more useful if it had quantized options. The other thing which could do with a fix, afaik there's no way to control LED brightness. In a dark room, all panel labels are completely unreadable for me, so much glare!! Less of a problem as you get familiar with it I guess. The MIDI control center software is kinda crap. I mean, it serves its purpose but is ugly and really slow to use. Most stuff you want access to is in one long menu.. scrollscrollscrollscrollscrollscrollscroll....... Still gripes aside, it's done everything I've wanted from it so far. Used as MIDI to CV converter from host to synths, worked fine. Used as clock source and MIDI controller for laptop, sending sequences to synths over CV at the same time, worked fine too. Selectable clock types for the clock output is very cool. It's decent value for what it is, most things that annoyed me are probably fixable in firmware updates & HW is decent build quality... except the micro USB which is going to be where it will break.

The Daxophone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb23PNogJ0M

Took a trip up a tall building, spent the evening sat on the roof taking pics. Yarp, cheesy cheesy pics.

Ah thanks dude. So they're all ISO 200, The F stop is somewhere betweem 3.5 and 5 depending, and shutter was between 1/10 and 1/30, again depending. Honestly though, i think these are the first pics I ever got at night time, that I actually like at all. Sheer fluke! I think also, it was as easy an environment as you're likely to get. So much ambient light, from the neon tunes and screens everywhere, and water to reflect it all. Not to mention that for those 5 pics, there are another 40 or so which are blurry, grainy, under exposed and so on.

Went for a nice rainy evening walk round Shibuya yesterday. Both me and my camera got soaked, ah well..

9 inch chilli peppers Red hot Nails New order on the block Pet shop corpse Cannibal boys Faith evens no more Snoop Tiger Snoop Panther Snoop Snow leopard Snoop OSX Bon Jon Bogie Smallie bigs

Dont know if I would bother myself... They do sound really good, if you like that sound. But the PE1000 is really limited, surprisingly thin sounding, and really not very versatile at all. Was fortunate to have loan of one for a while, and it was nice to play, but I never really got much out of it that I would have considered using in a track. I would also imagine a midi retrofit might be a massive ballache, might be wrong of course, but just thinking since there is one osc per key it might make things tricky. Still you can do all kinds of crazy things with the tuning on those things, again as a result of the 1 osc per key. Personally, there are several polysynths I would rather have over the PE1000

Ugh.. shitty FB quality, accidentally deleted the original.

Place is Grindleford in Derbyshire. There's a nice cafe in what used to be the train station, serves massive breakfasts and pints of tea. Photo was taken in the woods surrounding the cafe. Mine is an old Nikon D70s. Bought it second hand a couple years ago. I do really like it, even though it's not great. Would love something better but just cant afford it. Not sure if buying second hand is a good idea or not, I got a decent enough camera for not a whole lot of money, problem is that the sensor seems to be on it's last legs, really sad =( Fucking love this one! I tried taking some pics of waterfalls before and it's really hard. Well impressive!

One I took yesterday, quite like it..

One part of my heart screams YES!! but another part says no.. The original score was so excellent, matches perfectly with the visual element of the film. No doubt that this new thing will not have the same aesthetic.. it'll be all CGI and not Models and painted backgrounds, so I just think the combo wouldn't work as well. I think Hecq would do a decent job =D

awww, I love hecq, his stuff isn't for everyone, but then again who's is? can't please everyone all the time :) his newest thing from ad Noiseam Enceladius is think its called, fucking mint, some great stuff on there. I think his strength is his versatility, can make all sorts of different stuff. I think most people know him for the more ambient stuff, which is really very good, but I think it's awesome that he chose to branch out and explore other directions, rather than limiting himself to try and stay safe. Lots of respect for that. the spheres of fury link is for the remix I did for the EP collab thingy he and Jay did. glad someone liked it though. in case you're interested.. Putting the final touches on an album of that sort of stuff, kinda dark IDM stuff.. should be out on Ad Noiseam end of the summer ish... Provided I can stop being such a fussy dick and put a full stop on it all :) also.. Ewww video! hate seing videos of myself, pulling dumb faces and squinting at my screen because I still haven't gotten around to getting some new glasses :/

chillin... watching a film

Terra-forming. Realistic androids/bio-engineering. Dark, cold space. Suspense and practically unimaginable aliens. None of that blue-cat-people-want-to-save-the-forest shit. yeah. Big budget sci fi can get pretty ugly... it's this annoying toss up with the genre, more convincing the effects, the worse the story becomes. I'm sure it's a perfect negative correlation. It's understandable I guess, when a studio is fronting a huge amount of money they'll want something that most people can at least tolerate. None the less though, there are some really fantastic low/no budget sci fi fils around, some of my all time favourites. I hope that Promethius doesn't turn out like a SFX overdose with a thread bare story line attempting to justify the whole shit storm, chances are it probably will. But if nothing else, at least it'll be something cool to look at.

Just spat coffee all over the screen!

David Browie the Brolling Stones Caustic Windbro Also.. Bitchie Hawtin Bitchard D James Lionel Bitchy

Jennifer Bropez Brotney Spears Brodonna Justin Brober The Bronus Brothers (bro bros?) Bjrork (meh) B.R.O. (LFO) Bronolith Brog Pocket Pfff runnin out of ideas :/

Laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my face!

If you don't get the musicality on Steinvord tunes is because your mind is totally absorved by the whole conspiracy thing and it's not fully on the music, because it's there. Also, let's see the current artists who have been pushing the drum programming techniques beyond Steinvord that aren't on Rephlex. Yeah that's what I'm waiting to hear.... Hahaha, my god does this forum get funky some times! Ok, so I guess it's all subjective but some artists who I figure have been more "progressive" with drum programming technique Tim Exile, really not his best stuff this album, (genuinely terrible in places) but some pretty awesome drum programming Xanopitcon, far away one of the most underrated producers. Unfortunately tagged with the breakcore brush of ignore. Cant find the right track for Beatwife, one called Ritalin (it think) is fooking awesome, dude is super fucking cool and constantly pushing stuff. I mean fuck, even Venetian Snares or Ricky Devines stuff has moments of sheer "Woah WTF, HOW?!?!?!" in their beat programming and you really don't have to delve far into the breakcore community to find a plethora or people trying all manner of new stuff with hyper beat editing. This isn't a vague insult in the direction of the "IDM demi godz of Watmm" so no need to get all edgy =D I don't for a moment hold any one of these producers in higher regard than AFX or pusher. ESPECIALLY in terms of musicality, as I said that Exile album was more or less terrible, Xanos stuff hasn't got close to the amount of "feeling" as some of Aphex finest moments. All I said was effectively "Drukqs and Go Plastic came out 10 years ago, people took some of those ideas and really ran with them, far beyond a point which Steinvord is reaching imo" And also, Im not in the least obsessed with the whole conspiracy thing, not in the least interested either. Just that I find it humorous that the usual terms of dismissal normally garnered on any other release which might feature a bit of "amen-mashery", are suddenly absent. It's funny, that's all. I didn't think it was either Aphex of Pusher when the tracks first surfaced on myspace, still don't now. Also, I did not, for a moment say that there was no musicality in Steinvord, what I said was.. Meaning... strip away the things which are fairly easy to emulate, techniques and such, and concentrate more on the musical aspects, harmonic interplay, cadence, progression and so on. It doesn't have the same characteristics as either Aphex or Squarepusher. Note that Im not saying "it has no musicality" just that "it has a different sense of musicality" oh, aaaand I also said: Again, not insinuating that there is no inherent musicality in the Steinvord EP. More like in Aphex and pushers stuff, the drums have always been just one part of a far more complicated beast, all the parts interrelating in spectacular ways to create some super awesome hyper wig out. While Steinvord stuff I get the same as I do from a lot of Snares tracks, a melodic foundation with drums playing the lead most of the time. I guess akin to comparing some proper wig out jazz ensemble (EVERYBODY SOLO!!) to a Guitar solo in a rock band or whatever. Anyway, as i said from the start, this is all subjective. I suppose I should have been more clear with that when I stated "pisses all over this" or whatever.. heh "IMO" are more valuable on this forum than anywhere else on the internet! So yeah, genuinely sorry for that =D But I got a sense that you'd misunderstood what I was trying to say so I just wanted to restate and clarify.

I'd disagree with this tbh. Don't get me wrong though, both Aphex and Squarepusher have some fucking incredible programming skills, and no doubt way ahead of the curve 10 years ago. But nowadays I really don't think so. Maybe it's because their music had been so influential to others, or their tricks have been meticulously deconstructed by others, but at least on the techniques front, Ive not heard anything from either of them that could not be done by someone else, on the technical aspect at least. (secretly hoping for some completely mind blowing stuff still to come, somewhat doubtfully) I guess what I mean is, both producers have a powerful arsenal of tricks, more than a whole host of other producers, but no single special ability that no one else in the world also possesses. The one "skill" that they both do have, which no one could hope to acquire, is sounding like Aphex, or sounding like Squarepusher. that's something far more intangible and impossible to accurately deconstruct. That's what leaves me convinced that Steinvord is neither of them, once you strip away the technique from the equation, it does not have that certain something. A hint of "inspired by" but no more. i wouldn't go quite so far, but more or less agree. I don't think it's pretty shit, but not fantastic either. The beat programming is pretty good, but nothing extraordinary. I mentioned before how some passages seems to mimic (or even sample) Go Plastic, but all that really serves to prove is a relatively successful deconstruction of Squarepushers techniques, Definately does not bring anything new to the table. But the impression I have always had with either Aphex of Squarepusher (with the odd couple of exceptions) is that regardless of how complex the beat programming might get, it's always been secondary to the overal dynamic of the piece. Again, not an impression I get from Steinvord. anyway, tbh I get slightly cracked up by people gushing over the beat programming in this EP. It's as though they have been completely ignorant to just how far that stuff has progressed since 10 years ago. There are current artists who frankly, shit all over this, in terms of inventive beat programming and technique at least. But hey, this one is on Rephlex.

There will be blood