HELLO WORLD!
This is a personal project. An online blog/journal/notebook for me, R. YATES. I am a hobbyist creative. This webpage is an example of something that I wanted to do, and will serve as a link to other sites where referenced work is stored. Thanks for looking.
End of line.
Recieved a recommendation for 'Reaper', as a DAW worth looking at for linux. Just reading their approach to selling software is quite refreshing. Not only do they offer a generous 60 day free trial; but the full software is only $60. Having 2 months to assess a new package is great, particularly when so many of us live hectic lifestyles.
Decided to change the palette of this page (again). I like turquoise, always have. I think the fairly dark 008080 and slightly darker 006666, serve as a nice back drop to black and white text. Now the weather is becoming milder I want to get the camera out again. I am lucky enough to have great countryside, in the area I live. So don't have to travel far to get amongst nature. I need to charge the battery in my IR GF1.
In the UK we seem to have gone from the depths of winter to mid-spring in the space of two weeks. Last year we had talked about growing vegetables this spring. So we have started work today on digging out a section of lawn and turning the soil. We are lucky here. The soil is fairly rich. There is some clay, but not so much as it gets water logged. In the interests of reducing waste, we are only planning on growing what we are going to use. So it might not be particularly exciting or exotic, but I think potatoes will be going in first; followed by carrots and cauliflower. It was nice to spend some time outside today. Although the temperature was around 10 degrees C, it was warm in the sun. The birdsong has been particularly noticable too, so I will try and get out to do some field recording in the next few weeks.
The refurbished Korg Microkey2 25 keys MIDI keyboard arrived yesterday. I would have been happy to buy one second hand, but couldn't spot one on eBay. However there was a music retailer selling a 'refurbished' (i.e. customer return). I don't know why some people are so insistant that items have to be in a factory sealed box. The Korg was as new, all the parts present. It didn't even look like it had been unwrapped, and was around 25% cheaper than a sealed one. Earlier this week I installed a minimal 'Ubuntu MATE', on my laptop, with the view of adding the 'studio tools' which basically lets you add elements of the full 'Ubuntu Studio'. It was fine, but was offensive to my minimalist sensibilities, with so many apps. So I put 'Debian' with the 'Cinnamon' desktop back on. I really, really like Cinnamon. It feels almost as lightweight as XFCE and MATE, but is just a bit more up to date. It looks nicer and responds well. Anyway, I got the Korg talking to 'Yoshimi' which is a really nice synth program. I did this via ALSA, and it was fairly straightforward. Great! (I thought), until I tried to get it talking to 'Ardour'. I know linux is not the first (or second) choice for music production, but I am hopeful that I can sort this out. MIDI is new to me, and I just need to get my head around it. It seems that 'Jack' and associated software is the way forward, but I think a visit to 'LinuxMusicians' on Reddit might be in order.
I think I am a bit OCD, as I can't seem to stop fiddling with the layout of this page. Much was the same when I built my first website almost 20 years ago. I always wanted this to be a single page site. I think if the momentum continues, I might consider an 'archive' page to move the previous content to. Anyway I decided to make it lean, with little content; relying more on links.
I have used fineliners for over a year now. With the Staedtler pigment liners and UniPin fine line being my go to. As most of my work is isometric I wondered whether there was mileage in investing in a metal tip technical pen. New the choices are Staedtler or Rotring, but in the interests of reusing I went to eBay. I found a Staedtler Marsmatic 700 in a 0.25 sized tip, for a reasonable price. Unfortunately the listing was somewhat inaccurate, and the 'unused' description didn't marry up with the 'chewed end' and 'non-functional' item I actually received. No drama, I got a refund. What was interesting though, seems to be the difference in tip size with fine liners. 0.05 to 0.2 are generally my tips of choice, but the metal 0.25 tip appears to be closer to the 0.05 tip of the UniPin. These technical pens are not cheap new. Best prices online are around £30 GBP for the Marsmatic. So getting the tip size wrong could prove to be costly. There must be something online about these differences, but I am yet to find it.
I have received a new "other" (i.e.battered unsellable box), Olympus LS-P4 digital recorder. I was looking at the Tascam and Zoom options, but I can't imagine myself investing in shot-gun microphones and other specialised kit bar the deadcat. A few of the Tascam models were appealing (DR-05X and DR-07X), but both apparently suffer with chronic electrical interference issues, which could be problematic in some of the areas I was planning on doing field recordings. The slightly more expensive DR-40X doesn't, but I was put off by the fact that it takes 3 batteries. Which since I will use rechargeables, is frankly a faff. The P4 has the added bonus of a metal casing and being powered by a single AAA cell, which can be charged either in the recorder, or removed and charged externally. Whilst the Sony IC UX560 is a lovely little recorder. It was bought for use at work, exclusively as a voice recorder. For this purpose it is ideal, but it feels surplus to requirements, as the P4 is only fractionally bigger.
Experimented with 'Audacity' for the first time. Seems to be fairly intuitive. The only sound recordings I have so far are a few samples taken today and one from summer 2019, when I bought the Sony IC UX560, which I have uploaded in 'field recordings' below. The sensitivity of the microphones is outstanding for something so small, but I can see why 'voice' recorders are not appropriate for field recording. The recording I did today is harsh, due to the deafening wind noise.
I made a recording when I got the Sony in June 2019 1906151909, which was clearly a light wind day. I'm not sure what species the song birds are, but suspect they are blackbirds.
So far in 2021 I have found inspiration from the following artists:
I have made a list of projects I would like to make some progress on this year:
1) WRITTEN - 'untitled' (in progress)
Skeleton of a writing idea I have had kicking around for a few years. Basic outline is done, and I have a fairly good idea of the direction the story will take. The challenge is to steer the narrative in the right way. There are aspects of the story that inter-weave from both a time and place perspective. This is a long-term project. I am not a writer, and suspect some of my other (short)story ideas will come to fruition first.
2) ILLUSTRATED - 'untitled' (in progress)
Although not intentional, I began drawing some of the characters and scenes from the 'novel' I had begun planning. As I started sketching, it created further ideas for the story. I think I would like to incorporate illustrations in the story. Maybe some sort of homage to the days of books gone by, when in paperback fiction there were often 'plates' to accompany the text.
3) AUDIO - 'Wind-Down Wednesday' (started)
I'm looking at creating some 'soundscape' field recordings. Just 5 minutes of ambient (hopefully peaceful) sounds. I have every Wednesday off work, as part of a compressed hours working pattern. As such this is the ideal opportunity to get out and about and do some recording. Two-fold benefit for me. My job is incredibly stressful and emotionally demanding, with PTSD the usual reason for people quitting. So a weekly timeout where I get to take 5, and also do something creative is a win-win. Also for most people working a 9-5, Wednesday is 'hump' day (the mid-point of the week). So if taking 5 in the office and listening to one of these recordings helps to take a breath, then all good.
4) AUDIO - 'Audio Loops' (unstarted)
I love podcasts. I've been listening for years, and think they are a fantastic platform for drama. As part of my 'creative' drive, and inspired by the backing music on 'TANIS'. I thought it would be a nice challenge to compose a few 30 - 90 second long instrumental loops. I've got a reasonable digital piano and an initial web search suggest that there are some open-source DAWs out there.
5) PHOTOGRAPHY - 'IR City/land/sea/sky-scapes' (unstarted)
I have long had an interest in infra-red monochrome photography. I first experimented with it in around 2002, when I took a series of landscapes, on 35mm infra-red. Last year I picked up a Lumix GF1 which had been sensor converted to 720nm. I coupled this body with the Olympus 9mm fixed f8 body cap lens, and took some images last summer. I loved the results. The lens is an 18mm equivalent, so gives a virtual 'fish-eye' effect, making the IR scapes even more alien looking. I would like to develop this further with a body of work.