We’ve had cool autumn-ish weather this winter for the most part — a couple of days of snow that didn’t stick for long, a few freezing nights with chilly days, but generally more rain and gray than snow and ice. This weekend it’s going to make up for lost time, with a high temperature of 4F on Monday… and yet 3 inches of snow forecast for Sunday, which is unusual when it’s that bitterly cold.
Let me amend my gear resolution a bit to also include cheap fun toys. I bought a MØffenzeef MØdular Shtick!, a little USB-powered noisemaker that just does some kind of random drone or noise when you press a button, for about the price of a pizza. I liked a lot of the sounds I was hearing in a demo, and the idea of just seeing what it’ll do and working from the result seems like a good time.
I’ve recorded three tracks toward the next album already — but I think I’m going to use just the beginning of the third as an intro to something else. I’m also abandoning the original idea I had for the album and will just go with the flow as usual.
Mostly I have been continuing with small experiments. I think I’m going to write up some notes on Phonolyth Cascade first, since I happened to start digging into it to get a better feel. It’s a delay/reverb with 24 allpass diffuser stages and an overall delay/feedback/EQ loop, letting you create a wide variety of effects ranging from retro springy/BBD delays to lush endless ambient reverbs to metallic boxy nightmare reverbs and distorted dubby delays. But it’s not particularly intuitive.
It’s just one of many gems in the collection that deserves a closer look.
While I like my modular case, especially with my spouse’s pyrography on the side lending it charm, the ergonomics leave a little to be desired. The top row is more of a reach than it should be, given that I need some space in front of the case for the 0-Ctrl/Pod and a little desk space. Some smart cookie suggested putting something under it to tilt it at a bit of an angle, and I thought “yes, I should try that.”
I finally tried it with some of the stands I had used for other purposes. None of them were ideal for various reasons — not stable enough, minimal area of contact with the case, too much space required behind the case, and so on. But as a proof of concept, yes, tilting the case forward does help a lot with the reach issue.
The suggestion mentioned speaker isolation pads, some of which offer a 5 or 10 degree tilt. Which got me thinking about various vibration-isolating feet/blocks, dense foam wedges… aha. I happened to find a set of yoga wedges that comes as a pair of 8 degree and a pair of 16 degree angles, which can be combined for a 24 degree tilt, and the dimensions almost perfectly fit the base of my case. It might be absolutely ideal.