::Wednesday, February 26, 2003::
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Rising to the challenge
I spent yesterday on a note-making mission. Assembling on paper every sonic ally I have at my disposal. It's laid out. The set list has emerged. I have placed the trust in myself that is required to make this performance a success. It is a risky business, but it's not the last, and if I can just make one person shudder just once, then maybe it's worth it.
I wish Ableton and Native Instruments would work together. I can't use the more reliable, lower latency, cleaner sounding ASIO drivers to run Live and Reaktor together, so I am having to use MME, which I think is being mixed by Windows. Microsoft... the arbitrators.
It's gonna come together at the very very last minute.
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6:39:34 PM :: permalink
Keywords: Smunk
::Tuesday, February 25, 2003::
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Obstacles
I can't seem to get the G on my new trumpet. I think I've got the fingering wrong or it's different on a 'professional' trumpet. Google search should solve that.
The second problem is that all my bloody sequences are really sharp - as in out of tune with the sharpest I can tune the trumpet... Except it's not all the time, so I guess maybe when the trumpet's warmed up the notes are a slightly different pitch or something.
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4:38:42 PM :: permalink
Keywords: Smunk
::Monday, February 24, 2003::
㉢
Incidentally, Smunk will be performing with a broken heart. Love is cruel and incomprehensible.
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4:58:50 PM :: permalink
Keywords: Smunk
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Fame!
Smunk @ The Verge is Club Pick Number 4 this week in The Guide! (from Saturday's Guardian) Someone has invented a genre called "LO-NRG" to describe the style of the evening. It's all a bit suspect, since no Smunk recordings exist as yet, and this is a debut performance. So does this mean the venue will be filled with earnest-looking late 20s cool but clean rich people? Will this demographic approve of the mashy brash beat hotch-potch semi-scapes, not songs but not not songs with which they will timidly be presented? Will anybody dance? Should anybody dance? Will people leave? And will there be a Smunk album review in tomorrow's Metro?
I have purchased a new trumpet, and very nice it is too! I have also invested in a Soundcraft Notepad mixer and yet another USB soundcard. I have configured said soundcard in a way that shouldn't work, but for some reason it does work. So the problem of using my laptop's noisy internal for half of the sound has been dealt with. FX sends are a godsend. I'm bringing out my old SU-10 mini sampler paddy thing for some extra audio-scope. I hope I've still got enough money for one of those old women's trolley bags...
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4:49:45 PM :: permalink
Keywords: Smunk
::Wednesday, February 19, 2003::
㊮
I'm finally moving today! Due to a fantastic miscalculation of funds required to move house, I have realised I can afford a new trumpet! And a new USB Sound Card!! I had a serious fidelity crisis last week over the use of my laptop's on board sound card as Ableton Live's output, because I put together some sparse mouse-on-marsy beats and they sounded phat from the U-8, but weak from the laptop. I'm gonna sell the U-8 (click here for details) if anyone's interested. It just doesn't work properly with Windows 2000. I also have a Wami Box that I want to get rid of (also a Windows 2000 issue.
Just over 1 week till I play...
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12:55:05 PM :: permalink
Keywords: Life
::Monday, February 17, 2003::
㊉
Due to psychological stresses inflicted by housemate landlady and delay in moving house, Smunk has had a few days of non-production, at just the time when lots of production was needed. This may result in a performance of lower standard than was expected. Although it could also mean there is more emphasis on improvisation, which could go really well. But it could be shit.
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10:26:17 AM :: permalink
Keywords: Life
::Thursday, February 06, 2003::
㊗
On Being Creative
"When the creative process seems too hard" went into Google and out came this article! Certainly hit the spot.
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9:15:31 PM :: permalink
Keywords: Life
::Wednesday, February 05, 2003::
㊀
Slow Progress
Semi-productive evening last night. The most useful thing was the process of transcribing the main parts of each of the 7 tunes I have started. For Bb Trumpet. It's slightly annoying that I seem to have a different key for every single track - zero to six #'s and one with four b's. So as far as keeping the trumpet fingering simple, as I intended, I have to settle into a different mode for every track. Should be quite cool when the key changes though.
I also did my first sequence-cross-over - noises in between, the sustain peddle proving its worth, the notation helping whilst I fill the gaps generated by loading in each new Ableton Live Set.
I don't have a car. How am I gonna get all my shit to the gig?!
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2:00:55 PM :: permalink
Keywords: Smunk
::Monday, February 03, 2003::
㊪
Yaaaay!
That's a music yay. I've managed to hit the technique in my mind that's been eluding me all these years, that will be the compromise that allows me to fill the gaps that I used to let other people fill. Chords. I've been stuck on the romantic notion of always creating harmony through interweaving multiple instruments, rather than, say, guitar chords. A fugue approach. Only problem is, I haven't got that many instruments, and I certainly can't play them all well enough! So, for this gig, as a starting point, I use the keys or the guitar, which I consider a compromise, but I know it's the fertile fertile compromise that I've been waiting for! Facilitating prolificity in the short term and therefore untold sophistication in the long term. I think. Smexcitement.
Oh, hey, I saw the February listings on the wall of the verge on Saturday. They have, incomprehensively to me, spelt my pseudonym "Snunk". Will I never be in a band with a name that people can fucking spell right?! It's SMOKE-FUNK, GEDDIT?
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2:21:06 PM :: permalink
Keywords: Smunk
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