JUNE, 2011
| Sunday, June 19th, 2011 |
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What a frivolous weekend it's been.
Friday saw the release of TriOsc to much merriment here at HS Towers. It's Sunday afternoon here now - Mortimer has put bunting out and we are enjoying a sunny but windy time by The Pavilion (the Orangery is closed at the moment) where we are enjoying some excellent punch and a fine buffet prepared by Mrs Featherlight. Even Janet has entered into the spirit of things and I swear she may be a little tipsy. God only knows where Mollie has ended up. I do worry for her virtue! But I am loathe to criticise as she has been an absolute brick in compiling the many kind comments posted about about TriOsc in these new-fangled emails, internet forums and social networking places and quoting them on the TriOsc page of our own virtual presence.
Despite the festivities which will (hopefully) see us wearily into the wee hours, it's business as usual as we start on another exciting new Music Lab Machine that's a bit of a departure from the usual fare. We've acquired some equipment from a decommissioned Soviet Union submarine which we're putting to good use here. The panels are somewhat distressed showing signs of wear and rust here and there but we think we can cobble something together which could be interesting. Work in progress. |
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To add to the weekend's satisfaction, Hywel, the plumber, did arrive on Friday and he and his assistant replaced the stuttering tap that has been a problem since it was fitted and became gradually worse.
We now have a magnificent copper mixer tap that is both smooth and silent and can be used without the whole building shaking! You now, I am sure our old tap registered on the Richter scale when it was used. Sufficed to say, Mrs Featherlight is delighted. As am I. |
And on that that note, time for a little drinky, I think, and a few Sobranie as I wind down and take a little sun at last after the weekend's fervour.
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| Friday, June 17th, 2011 |
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The excitement is intense here and poor old Mortimer can barely contain himself. Grumpy old bugger he may be but he does get awfully jolly when a new product is released. Bless!
TriOsc is finished and documented and tested. Just a few final things to check before it's unleashed.
Mind you, it's been a struggle to get it finished today...
Bill, the gardener, engaged a tree surgeon to attend to a wayward Hawthorn tree that needed some serious pruning so we had chainsaws and leaf blowers blasting away here. And to compound it all, when they were done, it was decided to mow the bloody lawns again. What a racket! Looks good, though, and the tree pruning has given us some good logs and kindling for the fires.
However, all's not well with the tradesman taken on to give the place a lick of paint. The scaffolding's up and whilst he's put in an occasional appearance, done a bit of rubbing down and applied some undercoat here and there, he is, by and large, conspicuous by his absence! What is it with workmen these days? I just hope the plumber fulfills his promise to turn up and fit the new tap in the kitchen so that we can be rid of the screaching waterworks! It causes Mrs Featherlight such consternation.
In the meantime, time for a night cap. There's some champagne left over from tonight's supper and I have some excellent roll-ups I prepared earlier today in the cigarette case. Happy times! |
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| Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 |
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Progress is well and truly underway with TriOsc. With concerted effort by Mario who enjoyed a well deserved rest over the weekend, it's pretty much done and working and living and breathing...
And it's sounding FANTASTIC, exceeding even my expectations.
The surprise in all of this has been the 'SERENDIPITY' button (labeled '?'). Pressing that generates a new sound at random. I thought this could be a good idea but had no idea of the sounds it could create, sounds with control settings even the most hardened and experienced synthesist would never dream of setting! The result is truly astonishing - the simple click of a button can generate dense clusters of abstract tonalities which evoke the sounds of an EMS VCS3 but would take forever to create (if you had the imagination to create it) on that old classic. It is so inspirational. I can't imagine what the early pioneers of electronic music would have made of this - it would be (to paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke) indistinguishable from magic!
It has certainly had me in raptures this evening. And this is before you even begin to explore the multi effects!
My snifter is all but gone so it's time for bed I think...
But it is SO tempting just to click that button again and see what sonic delight it comes up with!
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| Friday, June 10th, 2011 |
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A week of mixed fortunes.
On the one hand, work progresses very well on the new MLM and I can give a sneak preview here...
It's a three oscillator sound generator using samples from vintage valve sine and triangle wave test generators which allow all sorts of dense clusters of wonderfully crusty old sci-fi drones and bleeps and sweeps to be created as well as some lusciously smooth pads, bowel moving sub basses and ethereal leadlines. Mario, as always, has been a scripting stalwart but has taken a well-deserved weekend away.
TriOsc is due for release next week so excitement is running high here at HS Towers!
On the other hand...
We were supposed to have workmen in the week before last to give the outside a lick of paint but they didn't turn up, the feckless bastards. The damned plumber as well.
This week, they did, however, and spent the week just lolling around doing bugger all...
Mortimer and I confronted them but had the usual raft of excuses ... it seems they were missing some vital sprocket wrench (or something) with which to erect the scaffolding and 'the guv'nor' had gone off in search of one. It took him days to locate one and then it was the wrong size. In the meantime, Mrs Featherlight has been supplying them with endless (too many) cups of Glengettie and biscuits, Janet's been going bonkers as they muddied up the entrance hall in search of our 'facilities' and Mollie's gone missing for an hour or so on a few occasions only to return later looking a little dishevelled - I can't think what she's been up to but I hope she's not been liberal with her favours and these indolent fellows.
I am told that work will now begin in earnest next week. But who can say?! My main concern is getting the MLM out. Time to wind down with a Bailie Nicol Jarvine blended malt and a Stones green ginger in the cinema with the original 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers' I think. |
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| Wednesday, June 1st, 2011 |
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How's a chap supposed to get any work done, for goodness sake?
It's heads down in the lab here as we build the next Music Laboratory Machine but today, Bill the gardener decided it was time to trim the lawns ... right outside where we were working. What a bloody racket!!
It seems he recruited two fellas from the village to assist him (apparently they lost a bet with him in the pub the other night!)... |
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And between them and Bill on the new motorised lawnmower I bought for him recently, it was quite deafening - I couldn't hear myself think!
Naturally, I closed the windows and even resorted to headphones but it was no use.
So I removed my lab coat and retired to the library, availed myself of a snifter and started to draw up some ideas for a new MLM. I'd only gone so far when Mortimer came in to tell me that Brigadier Cholmondley-Bassett had arrived unannounced.
He's a bugger for that - just turning up out of the blue - and I do wish he'd telephone to advise me of his visits. But it's hard to turn him away as he's an old school pal so what can I do? Mortimer showed him into the library where he took temporary residence in my favourite chair by the fire and lit a cigar. |
As it happens, it was good to chat with the daft old sod. I'm off to Malta in August for a spot of R & R and to attend a wedding and I invited him along - there's plenty of room in the farmhouse that's been rented - but he told me he's not keen because he's prone to heat rash and the mozzies gorge on him apparently. Personally, I think he's just scared of flying after his RAF chum, Jolyon, took him up in an old Lancaster and tried a few aerial acrobatics! Shame really because it could have been a wheeze. That said, he is apparently off the sauce and now only drinks herbal tea so it could have been a bit dull.
Anyway, after a bit of chat, he made his apologies and left. Bill and his reprobate associates had finished on the lawns but by now it was too late to really get back into any serious calibration...
And then Mrs Featherlight announced dinner, a sumptuous cut of venison in a redcurrant gravy with some roast vegetables. I was rather hoping Mollie would join us but apparently she had a liasion with some young wastrel in the village this evening.
So, a bit a waste of a day all in all. I doubt tomorrow will be much better as some tradesmen are arriving to erect scaffolding so that work can be done on painting the turrets here at HS Towers. I don't know why they can't just use ladders but another example of modern Health & Safety gone mad I suppose. I am also expecting the plumber to arrive tomorrow to attend to the somewhat Gothic plumbing here which has started shrieking and shaking the whole building whenever Mrs Featherlight uses the taps in the kitchen! Janet is not pleased at the prospect of workmen traipsing around in their muddy footwear and has been making her disgruntlement known ... repeatedly.
It's not easy being me sometimes!
But it's good to relax with a large jug of wholesome Belgian Trappist beer and wind down with the very excellent 'Quatermass And The Pit' on in the background ... the very lovely Barbara Shelley is just having her visions of the Martian creatures.
Tomorrow is another day and in fairness to Bill, the lawns do look splendid.
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