Category: Uncategorized

save Ferrous

So, Landscape Ferrous.

(Landscape’s photo, not mine.)

The first thing is, it’s not an eBow. Those use a pickup and electromagnet to create feedback to encourage and extend vibration — like pushing a child on a swing when they reach the apex, to keep them swinging further and longer.

Ferrous doesn’t have any sensors; it’s just 6 small magnets on a rotating disk. So it’s like pushing the kid at timed intervals. If the timing matches the kid’s motion (or is 1/2 the speed, or 1/3, 1/4, etc.) it will boost it, otherwise it will dampen it.

So you can’t hold it over strings and then play a melody on the frets normally. But you can hold it over a bunch of strings, tines, etc. and tune in different resonant vibration modes, and that’s what it’s all about. You can control the speed with a dial, a button, an inconveniently placed touch sensor (in most cases it’s going to be face-down above strings… hmm) or a CV input.

So it works best when you have a lot of vibration modes available in a small space and the subjects are eager to resonate freely — e.g. lots of open strings in a small space, like on our bowed psaltery, or lots of available harmonics in multiple pitches, such as a kalimba or acoustic guitar (with its relatively longer strings). It’d probably be fantastic with an autoharp, a hammered dulcimer, or a piano.

It’s kind of boring when there’s less to work with, as on a mountain dulcimer, steel tongue drum, or bass guitar. You can get sine waves and maybe simple chords, but not a whole panoply of potential frequencies to sweep through… and they tend to be fairly quiet too.

Holding it at the right distance is a bit tricky. You want it as close as possible without colliding — but it’s got magnets that want to pull toward the metallic object(s) you’re working with, and a vibrating string/tine needs a lot more space than an inert one. You also don’t want to hold it near an electromagnetic pickup unless you just want to hear the hum.

There’s a weird thing it does with the kalimba (and a lesser extent, other instruments) where if the frequency isn’t just right, it’ll still excite the thing but bend the pitch. So the low C tine on the kalimba might be happy to play Bb or D — and if you hit C dead on, the whole thing rattles like mad. It takes some finesse!

But what’s even better is that experimenting with this had me dusting off my old lap steel guitar. I bought a used Rogue Jersey Lightning several years ago out of curiosity, knowing that some other ambient musicians used them on occasion, but I found it was awkward to work with given my setup at the time. So it’s been sitting idle. But now, since I have things ready for a bass guitar or kalimba with minimal fuss, the lap steel is also no trouble. With reverb and other processing it is extremely suitable, so it’s going to join my stable of occasionally-used instruments.

There’s been some buzz about the new Waldorf Microwave 1 plugin, because it’s extremely similar to the original hardware. I gave it a spin, and though I do like some of the lo-fi sounds it produces I really don’t find its UI much fun to work with. And I don’t need another software synth…

But it did get me thinking about wavetables again. I used to be really into them for a while, first with Serum (and sometimes Massive), then Disting bridging the way to SynthTech E352/E370. Shapeshifter, despite using wavetables, got me a bit away from that because I saw its tables as a secondary feature, and of course more recently I moved to RYK Algo instead.

So I fired up some older plugins. Vital is awfully good for a free synth, and its spectral morph and distortion parameters offer some cool stuff. But I reinstalled Serum and found inspiration there, despite it not being much like Microwave at all. Whatever works!

can’t stop

I dropped a few items off that Bandcamp wishlist, but then added more. It’s up to 19 new ones just from the last couple of weeks. Not all neofolk and related though, there’s some very electronic stuff (e.g. Grischa Lichtenberger, Oren Ambarchi, and others). It’s going to be difficult picking a subset of the 37 total albums on that list for the next Bandcamp Friday.

I had a plan. I was going to wait for the Landscape Ferrous to arrive and see how it worked with various instruments and objects, and maybe feature it in every track on the next album. But I got too inspired, and last night I recorded a “solo” on the Elmyra 2 as well as a very nice evolving drone that’ll be the basis of another track. Nice problem to have I guess 🙂

I never mentioned how the third pair of glasses (Zenni “square” frames with 1.61 purple eyeQLenz) turned out. The answer: mostly great. They eliminate the problems I had with the rimless ones (distracting posts in my FOV that my eyes kept trying to focus on, earpieces pinching my head, possible weirdness with the focal zones). From my eyes, the color tint is only noticeable in light reflected from behind, which is a little odd at first but not too distracting. I had no trouble adapting to them very quickly. They also do a great job cutting the sun’s glare without a darkening effect, noticeable color distortion or loss of contrast — maybe that’s the anti-IR? Anyway, in a lot of ways these may be my favorite glasses ever.

From outside, they can look a bit odd. Reddish-purple to pinkish, or blue, blue-gray or blue-green depending on relative angles of reflected/refracted light and your line of sight. I think there’s a bug in the pixel shader’s lighting algorithm 😉

released: Rust Song

The new album is now up on Bandcamp. Free or pay-what-you-want as always.

Notes are here. Enjoy!

If I wanted to make some general statements about it… well. I just followed my ears and this is where things went. There were really only a couple of things I intentionally was trying out.

One was a technique used on both “Bloom Out” and “Rust Song”: the rapid sequencing of notes into a physical modeling synth in order to turn its relatively pluck- or mallet-like sounds into a continuous blur, a drone with texture. Somebody had asked about using Rings for drones on the ModWiggler forum and this was something I ran into and wanted to use a bit more.

The other was simply, playing the Elmyra 2. It invites — at least to me — a certain style of playing, not purely drones, and not just tuning in four notes and sitting on those. But a combination of drone and melody, taking advantage of its distorted nature and its slightly weird delay effect. Again, a cousin to how I did things on the Lyra-8, but it’s more of a refined thing. Easier to control in a sense but also sonically a little more wild.

Something else I found myself doing without realizing until I was done: I used a lot of very simple straight rhythmic pulses — driven by LFOs or a delay or a looping sound, or in one case, the beat frequency interference between oscillators — and then trailing them from one track into the next more than once. Echoes of Pulse Code I guess, or a subconscious reaction to reading Dilla Time and doing the opposite of that? 😉

Another thing that happened without planning it was making drum parts and then obliterating them. The track “Bloom Out” had this insistent “sub thump” part that overwhelmed the rest, and after some initial dynamic tweaks I found myself wondering how the piece would sound without it. It wasn’t too difficult to isolate and restrict it to a nearly subliminal background pulse that slipped right in with the complex texture of the layered Anyma V part. The other instance was the short track “Metric” which had a lopsided beat, cymbal splashes and some other material from the EP-133. I didn’t think it worked at all, and was going to reject the track entirely until I decided to let Velvet Machine blend it into a sonic smoothie. I found that, combined with the initial glitchy synth pulse, it was suddenly something pretty interesting. (This is not the first time I rescued a track by melting it down with massive reverb, but usually I use the juice as a single part or a transition rather than keeping it all. Granted it’s a very short track.)

Between that, and using Brusfri noise reduction in place of EQ to tame an overly oppressive drone in “Intro”, I’m kind of wanting to experiment more with this. A different kind of “subtractive synthesis” eh? Record a part, and then remove it from the mix after it’s already done.

…And yes, toward the end of the project I was influenced by Heilung. I’m not out to imitate anyone, I didn’t suddenly go Viking (*) or bring in lots more drumming or add some chants, but the growly and whispery vocal stylings of one Kai Uwe Faust as well as some of the quieter and subtler textures on the album Futha did put a hand on the wheel. One of many hands, and some of those others were non-musical thoughts and feelings that wormed their way into my music. It’s always like this. It’s not like I did anything new to me texture-wise. (I did actually consider grabbing a mic and recording some non-verbal vocal stuff for further processing… but again, that’s an idea I’ve had before, and may still do someday.)

(*) After finishing the album I did grab a tagelharpa sample instrument for Kontakt, but it’s a really limited instrument… I might heavily process it and use it for exactly one drone ever. Or feed it into Beads, or something where I can stomp a pedal to artificially sustain it via reverb etc. Hmm.

Overall I felt quite inspired during this time, with most of it happening in two bursts of creation. At the same time, I also feel particularly disinterested in new gear now. I know that’s a little weird to say so soon after getting the Elmyra, and a nOb Control (more about that later) and with some pre-ordered stuff (*) finally on the way, but I feel like this mood is going to stick a while. What I have now may have some redundancies, some gear that doesn’t get used very often, etc. but it all works out fine. So I’m not making any changes!

(*) I have a tracking number for the Landscape Ferrous, the rotating magnetic thingy, and I kind of suspect it’s going to be visiting the next album a lot… so, weird strings and kalimba and tongue drum incoming!

Looking at that gear usage, I gotta admit weird things with no particular explanation stand out:

  • Almost no VCV Rack, but plenty of Bitwig Grid.
  • More Rings than I’ve used in a while and plenty of RYK Algo, but less Spectraphon and Odessa and no Akemie’s Castle at all.
  • Even more Velvet Machine than usual but almost no Raum, and generally more reverbs than delays this time when I’d been trending the other way.

It’s all good though, and this just makes me want to get Castle and Raum into the next thing.

Re: the nOb Control. It’s kind of natural to use — point the mouse at a knob on the screen, then turn a real knob, and it “just works”… except when it doesn’t. UIs are invariably designed for mice but they all have their own quirks. The two switches on the nOb are meant to cover most cases but some UIs work better than others. Also I kept finding myself trying to mouse away while still trying to use the knob, so it takes a little practice. And I have to remember to use it in the first place and not just go with the mouse like I have for decades now. But when I let the right set of muscle memory take over, it does delivers a super smooth, tactile experience that allows nice fine control.

All that being said, its price is higher than it once was when I first heard of it, and it’s in a weird space between “luxury toy” and useful tool. So jury’s still kind of out on whether it was worthwhile.

it’s that time again

…the time when I’ve finished recording the material for another album and am going to start in with mastering next.

This one doesn’t even have a name yet, it’s just “next up” or “TEST_notforrelease.” I do have a couple of thoughts about the name, but I’m going to sleep on it and do some pre-mastering test listens.

I’ve been particularly inspired lately, not just from the excitement of discovering new music I like a lot, but just generally feeling more driven to create. I started this one probably on July 13 or 14, recorded 5 in the week from the end of July to beginning of August, and four more in the last 4 days.

While I make music I keep forgetting that the Nob Control is even there, and mostly not using it. It has come in handy a couple of times for fine-tuning some settings, but I think I’m just so use to mousing everything (unless I have a fader or pedal assigned to it) that it doesn’t occur to me to give it a literal whirl.

For our 20th anniversary we wanted to take a special vacation, just for us rather than making the long drive to visit our families. (With my parents in town we don’t need to go to the Atlanta area anymore, at least.) We had some general ideas for it for quite a while, started to plan out specifics, rethought some things, then when looking at specific dates adjusted the plan again. Now it’s going to be an October trip with a couple days in the Gatlinburg area, a couple in Myrtle Beach, and a day in Chattanooga plus the drive time between them… with an aquarium visit at every destination. While Appalachian tourism in autumn is definitely a thing, the beach hotel is decidedly off-season and cheap. And though it’s been a long time since I’ve gone swimming and even longer since it was in salt water on a beach, I’m looking forward to that hotel hot tub too.

the rest of the story…

I was just saying, I make the music that I want to hear. But I do like a lot of different kinds of music, and I can’t make them all. I’m not an entire taiko ensemble, I don’t have a lovely female singing voice (or much of any singing voice at all), I can’t play the hammered dulcimer, I’m not a virtuoso bassist, I’ve never been happy with the techno I’ve done (I don’t think I’m perfectionist enough for that, heh). I’m happy making one overall kind of music, thanks.

Anyway…

When I got home from work yesterday my wife was watching a live show by the band Heilung. And… oh wow.

Primitive, powerful, ritualistic, shamanic, and yet really well produced, a very full and large sound. Inspiring and stunning. (They say their music is aggressive and powerful and scary but their intention is that the audience goes away from it feeling better. — “heilung” means “healing” after all.) They are not at all shy with the reverb, a bit more subtle with electronics otherwise for the most part. Droney and percussion-punctuated, two things I really like, with throat singing (which I also like and really suits percussion) and some beautiful and/or creepy other vocals. The occasional spoken word bit, which personally isn’t my jam but it works for them. Visually they are a spectacle, one might even say iconic. Incredible costume and makeup work and props you’d expect of a tribe from… well honestly, the world, or at least the northern bits of it for the most part. Yes, their primary influences are Germanic and Scandanavian, but as they say, those people were travelers and explorers, and they are not shy of ancient influences from other continents. And — I doublechecked — they are not white supremacist shitheads, they hold anti-racist values.

Between Heilung, remembering how much I liked Nine Treasures back when I was on Google Play Music, and researching other neo-folk groups with a vaguely similar aesthetic (and vetting their politics) there are now 12 more albums 14 more albums on my Bandcamp wishlist.

Aside from the aforementioned, there’s Nytt Land, VĂ©vaki, Paleowolf, Ochelle Soroki, KallomĂ€ki, and Danheim. Nytt Land is honestly an imitator of Heilung (after previously being sort of “the Wardruna of Siberia”), and VĂ©vaki is like if Heilung were extremely chill and preferred to make pretty music rather than intense ritual. Paleowolf and Danheim are more toward the ambient side, while Ochelle Soroki fuses Russian and Nordic folk (often reminding me a lot of VĂ€rttinĂ€ or Garmarna).

So that brings up groups I’ve already been into: VĂ€rttinĂ€ is a female-led Karelian (Finnish) folk supergroup with multiple releases from 1987 to 2015. I loved the wild time signatures and the sense of fun on the first couple of albums I heard of theirs. I was playing it in my cubicle at work one day when a coworker asked me… “are those singing cats?”

Garmarna is a Swedish folk-rock band that also gets into electronic beats a bit. Excellent singer and lots of hurdy-gurdy, and everything fits well together whether they’re doing kind of a menacing and brooding thing or a trip-hop beat or something more strictly folky.

Corvus Corax is another big group; they started as an attempt to recreate medieval popular/folk music (rather than ecclesiastical or court music) based on scant sources, and kind of grew from there. From the albums I’ve heard they generally tend toward Germanic, Celtic and Norse in flavor but there’s a little of everything, grouping up with a taiko ensemble, members of Blind Guardian and Faith No More, and performed an opera based on the original manuscript of Carmina Burana but not Carl Orff’s composition. They were originally supposed to perform in the first episode of the Game of Thrones TV show but it was rewritten and they were dropped. Anyway, think bombastic big drums and lots of bagpipes/horns, but also some drinking songs and such.

Eluveitie is a Swiss folk metal band, another one that has had dozens of members (including Liv Christine briefly). Gaul is their thing, and one of their albums was entirely in Gaulish aside from a spoken-word intro. I like that album quite a lot but mostly am not into their more regular metal side with Cookie Monster vocals etc., though they do have at least a few good songs.

Faun is a German pagan folk band… which covered some of those aforementioned Gaulish Eluveitie songs but in German. More purely folky but still connected to all of this.

clarity

Got my new glasses. The “medium distance” pair for computer use (and music making) is great, as long as I don’t try to walk around too much with them (and I don’t dare try driving in them).

The pair for general use… not so much. They’re rimless, and the posts holding the earpieces and central connection/nosepieces on were getting in the way of the included clip-on sunglasses at first (until I did a bit of bending). Those posts are also in my field of view and a little distracting — maybe they wouldn’t be so bad for single-vision glasses but when your focus depends on the part of the lens you’re looking through, and your eyes keep trying to focus on something a centimeter away… uh-oh. Also, the edges of the lenses catch light from above or behind and throw out distracting flares.

I gave them several days but still don’t like them. So I just ordered a replacement, in the same frame style as the computer glasses but silver instead of black frames, and purple EyeQLens (UV, infrared and blue light, with a slight tint that darkens in sunlight, reportedly even a little bit behind car windshields, yet still compatible with clip-on sunglasses if more is needed). And adding this third pair of “fancy” glasses from Zenni still doesn’t total as much as one (supposedly discounted) pair from Crown.

I recently watched a BBC documentary on minimalism (talking mostly about LaMonte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass) which was kind of interesting. The biggest surprise though was that apparently, Terry Riley doesn’t particularly enjoy listening to minimalist music. That seems a bit weird to me.

I did used to have fun making beat-oriented music with odd time signatures and complex rhythms, too twisty for a typical dance floor. But if I’d stuck with it, my music might be right on trend for summer 2024 thanks to Matmos:

(I even had the “super crunched out sounds.” Geez.)

But I found I liked making that kind of music more than listening to it, and that’s why I changed my habits and I make noisy drone/dark ambient music. Honestly I enjoy listening to my own music (*) more than most ambient artists out there. It’s custom-made for me after all.

(*) some of my older stuff does have cringe moments, places where I recognize that my production skills were a bit weak or where I would make different creative decisions today.

I do wonder what Riley listens to though. Maybe he’s a Taylor Swift fan or is really into Babymetal or Little Nas X.

pleased

I’m pretty happy with the Elmyra 2. What I especially like:

  • The character. It’s never clean, always interesting, and has a wide range for how lo-fi, distorted, crackly, noisy, brutal or ghostly you want to make it. The oscillators are a little dirty, the delay very much so (but unique in its sound), the filter options are all fairly clean and normal allowing you to claw back some control, and then the fuzz section is an absolute beast although a couple of the included modifier cards can take it to a less piercing place.
  • Comparing it to the Lyra-8, it feels a lot more intentional and controllable. The CV inputs work like you’d expect instead of basically random garbage; it can be sequenced internally or externally without any trouble, and the four oscillators have enough independence you can combine a drone, a sequence (internal or external) and a couple of manually played voices into a cohesive-sounding whole.
  • Plenty of filter options to choose from.
  • There’s a quantizer which has some microtonal modes including 7EDO and 9EDO, which I find particularly easy to work with.

What I wish was different, or don’t particularly like:

  • The “secret codes” button combos are definitely a compromise. While I appreciate several of the available options, I don’t like having to keep a cheat sheet. I’m planning on making a micro cheat sheet with my label printer to stick onto the front edge of the unit.
  • Speaking of edges, I’m not that fond of the pebbly texture of the 3D-printed panels on the front and back edges. That’s getting pretty picky though.
  • I wish it had dedicated drone switches or knobs, instead of holding down a multi-function button for > 1 second and not having any visual indicator that it’s enabled.
  • Level controls per oscillator would be nice, although one of the “MODP” modes is a lowpass filter and that works pretty well for the job.
  • Individual outputs per oscillator would also be nice. There is only one DAC though, and that’s right before the fuzz stage; everything else on the instrument is digital.
  • Likewise, the audio input only runs through the fuzz, without the benefit of the unique delay section. The most interesting use I’ve found for that is to offset the signal into the fuzz using an LFO or envelope.

But overall, aside from the cheat sheet thing I find this fits my music and preferred style of music-making to a T. I’m not sure yet where I’m physically going to fit it into my setup — I don’t feel it really needs to be patched to anything else, aside maybe from 0-Ctrl or some sequenced gates on occasion, so it could probably go anywhere. It’s definitely not going to replace my Strega or Minibrute 2S, but I might find a way to get it onto the same stand with them.

Teenage Engineering just announced a medieval version of their EP-133. It features a weirdly Gothic segmented LED display, Latin calligraphy, samples of various medieval instruments and foley, and “cocoa scented paeds.” Okay TE, you do you.

I have to admit I haven’t used my EP-133 very much. Obviously it’s more a tool for making beats than for ambient/drone, but I’ve proven that it can be employed for drones, or for resampling stuff in general. It just doesn’t fit with everything else all that well. I keep thinking I should pull it out and get cozy with using it, but there it sits, batteries removed.

I think I like Harris’ choice for VP, Tim Walz. Not a perfect choice but a good one, like Harris, and they seem like they’ve got some momentum behind them. So hopefully they’ll Walz right into the Oval Office this November.

about time

The next album is definitely coming along, at almost 27 minutes of material already. Go, me!

I got a nice raise again, and I’m celebrating by buying myself a neat musical toy (of course). Neutral Labs Elmyra 2, standalone version. It’s inspired by the Lyra 8, but goes way beyond in terms of synthesis options; it’s a semi-modular, 4-voice wavetable synth with some limitations (no individual oscillator outputs) but still a lot of flexibility. Very raw and dirty, with a unique delay that doesn’t sound PT-based but has its own thing going on, and the distortion or Ouch stage can be “hacked” with electronic components or included mini-cards, and it does have an external audio input for its filter/delay/distortion. And a simple sequencer, elevating it further above the Lyra. (Also unlike the Lyra, it’s not made by someone who seems to be supporting Russian war crimes.) I’ve watched several YouTube videos now and I’m impressed and think it’ll fit well with the other stuff. (Where it goes in terms of stands/etc. I’m not sure yet.)

I also am getting new glasses. My distance vision prescription changed a little, but it also changed a year and a half ago and I skipped the update. I priced an option at the place but I’m going for two pairs from Zenni: one “premium progressive” rimless for general usage, and one “mid-range progressive” for computer use (it forgoes distance vision for a slightly larger field for close distances and a much larger field for middle distances); the two pairs cost less than half as much as the in-office option. I’ve been happy with the Zenni glasses I have now, except that the lenses are a little on the small side for progressives, so I got great big huge windowpanes on these.

I do have a bit of diabetic retinopathy. It’s maybe slightly worse than last time, but then, an area of more concern cleared up since last time too. I’m going back in 6 months for another check to make sure it doesn’t get worse, because apparently now there are decent meds that can halt or reverse retinopathy if caught early enough. That’s fair, since this appointment was about 6 months later than it should have been anyway.

I’ve been reading Dilla Time, the biography of hip-hop producer J Dilla. I’m not a fan of his in particular, or hip-hop in general, but I recognize his style in the modern “chill lo-fi beats to study to” sort of thing, some of which is pretty nice. I’m not sure how relevant this is to my music, since sometimes there’s not even rhythm of any kind. I’m getting some interesting bits of Detroit history, a little music tech history, lot of less interesting and slightly infuriating biographical stuff (the guy was really not great toward women generally, not always great to friends and business or creative partners, was apparently egotistical in a quiet sort of way). Still mostly an engaging book.

let’s go

In my last entry I was also going to mention how I’d seen a couple of people mention recently getting the Walrus Slöer and praising it. I’ve been curious about the original Slö for quite some time, and Slöer even more so since it’s stereo and can be downsampled a bit. And having picked up Hypnosis after last Knobcon and making a spot for it (both interface routings and desk space), there’s a natural place for a stereo pedal to go.

On further review though… nah. The software reverbs that I have are doing a bang-up job at the exact role that the pedal has. I don’t feel like the clock rate control goes far enough into lo-fi territory to be really exciting.

Speaking of exciting. US political news over the past couple of weeks has been a hell of a rollercoaster. I didn’t much like the rumbling over whether Biden should drop out of the race, but now that he has, I think things are looking up.

People are actually uniting behind Kamala Harris — not just the party establishment centrists, not just the Squad, not just Black people or women, not just labor unions, but basically anyone who would ever consider voting Democratic anyway. Record-breaking funding with 60% of it coming from first-time donors.

Yes, in 2020 we were saying “Kamala is a cop and all cops are bastards.” Wouldn’t I rather have someone more progressive/leftist on the ticket? That’d be ideal, but let’s run with what we have.

  • Bernie is too old (82) and part of the renewed energy right now is getting someone younger on the ticket.
  • Elizabeth Warren is also getting up there (75)
  • Ilhan Omar was born in Somalia, so she doesn’t qualify.
  • AOC is slightly too young to qualify (34) and needs more experience.
  • Cori Bush (49) also needs more experience IMHO. Plus she is currently under heavy attack from her competitor Wesley Bell, for doing exactly what we elected her to do (light fires under slower Democrats to make positive change happen). This is not the right year for her to run for VP.

I also read a bit about how Harris wound up as a prosecutor. Her parents met in a study group that led to the rise of the Black Power movement; it’s not like she grew up wanting to keep other people down. Rather, she wanted to get in and effect change from the inside, to change the balance. I’m not sure what I think of that story, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt.

One of the criticisms a lot of people rightly have against Biden is his stance on Israel/Palestine. Harris apparently wants to pressure Israel to stop doing a genocide, supports humanitarian aid for Palestine, and is going to kick out some of Biden’s appointees who have been so pro-Israel on this.

I’d like someone more on the left but this actually looks like a step in the right direction, a possible starting point for a real shift.

So yeah. I’ve gone from “I will hold my nose and vote for Biden because the alternative is horrible” to “I’m actually pretty glad to be able to vote for Harris.”

(Right now. Something might ruin that. I was pretty excited for Obama’s first term, buying into the entire Hope thing… and that kind of shifted toward “he’s not actually that progressive” by the time the election came around. For his second term I voted Green instead. But where I stand now, Harris looks like an actual decent choice and not just a lesser evil.)

bzzzzz

I pre-ordered a DecadeBridge Sn (aka “Tin”) — a small desktop lo-fi FM drone synth. It’s kind of redundant and kind of not; obviously I have a great deal of FM capability among my hardware and software but this is a lo-fi example, with a couple of unique tricks. There is a small chance I’ll decide with this I don’t really need the Akemie’s Castle, but I’m not particularly counting on it. So this is probably just another flavor of that thing I like a lot.

MW now has banner ads. When SynthCube took over, they said they weren’t going to. As a Patreon supporter of the “Memorial Initiative” I was offered the new Power Wiggler status, which removes the ads but otherwise seems to be about the same. On my desktop I already don’t see them (thanks Adblock) and it’s a tiny strip on my phone. I’m not sure if I want to accept the new thing, continue as I was, or drop the Patreon. The proceeds were supposed to pay for a nice memorial gift for the McGrath family and also some kind of tchotchke for the supporters, but we haven’t heard anything about either yet. Kind of leaning toward dropping it. MW has been a helpful resource, and it’s also a pain at times, especially the way it tends to be administered.

Quite some time back, a reader of my blog recommended a book by Dr. John Sarno about back pain. I never did approve that post, because I looked into it and it seemed like quackery. The medical establishment pretty much thinks it’s bunk and the supposedly amazing results he’s gotten are a placebo/coincidence.

I saw another reference to it, and since my back was actively hurting at the time, I thought… OK, I’ll give it a shot. My thinking was: Qi Gong is not based on science at all, but the exercises feel pretty pleasant to do.

So the idea is, back pain (and a lot of other pain, fibromyalgia, etc.) are psychosomatic in nature. Real pain, but not mechanical damage. The physical cause is restriction of oxygen to certain muscle groups; the psychological cause is anxiety, anger, etc.

The book says both that (A) you should always see a doctor about pain in case it indicates a physical problem and (B) doctors don’t know what they’re talking about and will diagnose injuries that aren’t real, making your anxiety and thus your pain worse, and (C) if you have this “TMS” you should discontinue any physical treatment and just fix yourself by, essentially, being told that’s what’s wrong and telling your brain to stop it. The author is not a psychologist or psychiatrist and seems to be a fan of Freud, whose ideas are not terribly well respected today. And the book also keeps citing ulcers as a well-known and accepted example of psychosomatic effects, except oops, ulcers are caused by a bacterial infection. (This was proven before the book was published, but to be fair, the stress = ulcers thing had been believed by medical science and society as a whole and it took years for the new science to be widely accepted).

I’m not at all willing to discount the idea that the mind affects the body. Maybe a lot of cases of back pain are psychosomatic, and maybe by reading the book and thinking about it, that’ll help. I am not an entirely scientific, rational person and maybe this is magic that will work. I guess I’ll see.