Category: Uncategorized

it’s opinion time

I’m eagerly/worriedly tracking the shipping progress of the Miezo, and learning a little Malaysian geography in the process. Kuala Lumpur is apparently a huge “greater metropolitan area”; within it, Petaling Jaya is the home of Maurizio Uber Basses and DHL’s airport is in neighboring Subang Jaya. From there, the instrument went to DHL’s hub in Hong Kong and passed through customs. But I just got a notification “Entry has been rejected by Customs Authorities” in Cincinnati. “An attempt will be made to correct the entry and resubmit to Customs. A DHL representative will attempt to contact the consignee/importer or shipper if further information is required.”

Yep, nervous nail biting here. There is a bunch of paperwork for shipping musical instruments — the regular custom form but also CITES and USDA declarations about the wood, because of international restrictions on several protected tree species. There was a problem with some varieties of rosewood which led to confiscated guitars etc. in the past. The laws have been updated a bit but apparently there are still hassles to deal with. Hopefully this gets straightened out quickly.

[UPDATE] turns out the problem was wrong wood declared on the form. Corrected versions were sent to DHL and it should hopefully move along without much delay.

Earthquaker Afterneath arrived a couple of days ago. It lives in the (liminal) space between delay and reverb, even more so than Desmodus, Electus, Supermassive, etc. It can be a little strange to control, with some controls that aren’t super intuitive and some odd choices about which ones have CV control and which don’t.

But the Reflect Send/Return jacks give it a huge advantage over the pedal version. I found that putting Mutable Instruments Blades in that feedback path for combined distortion and filtering bears incredible fruit — whether it’s kept static, or modulated with an LFO, envelope and/or pitch tracking. Beads is also a great choice for a shimmer effect that I actually like. Also the Send makes for a very useful second output for stereo use, and Return can act as a second input to mix in other audio sources. (One could cross-patch feedback from the main output for instance.)

I’m not sure how I feel about the Fluidity modular strategy. To rack Afterneath, I pulled out Mimeophon. But I love Mimeophon, will want it back in there very soon and am curious to see how the two modules play together. So I think it’s Marbles that is going to be set aside for now. With Synchrodyne finally shipping, that’s going to go where Inertia is. I could see things potentially sticking that way for some time and not actually fluidly switching modules around after all. I may put the odd ones out into the Pod60 and occasionally bring that out for them to have a go. Or maybe my habits will change, especially with more options to move around.

The Stormlight Archive books pretend to be about honor, but they are much more involved with trauma, guilt and past mistakes (both on a grand historical scale and a personal level), and functioning despite being broken. They make pretty dark reading a lot of the time. But there are moments of humor and moments of absolute glory.

There’s a point in the third book where a character is dealing with their pain, and somehow through a combination of humility and confidence, acceptance and defiance, it emerges into incredible triumph. It’s intense. It made me want to stop and cry, but I couldn’t stop because it was a super exciting chapter with a ton of stuff going on all around. Brandon Sanderson loves to infuse his worlds with secrets, but his writing is not at all subtle, it’s hammer-blow impactful. And that’s what I like about it.

I know I’ve probably made that point before, but… yowza.

I just got called by the Endoscopy Center. The physician had to take medical leave, and my rescheduled procedure needs to be re-rescheduled. At least this time it wasn’t a last minute emergency and I haven’t gone through the bowel prep stuff.

Are your noodles too long?

I’m not going to call out anyone specific, but when I listen to peoples’ shared musical creations in ambient, drone, and/or experimental areas, I often find they’re just too long. They are engaging for a while. But they keep going after they’ve already said everything they’re going to say.

They say you should always leave your audience wanting more. Leaving your audience wanting less strikes me as a kind of failure.

They say you should always leave your audience wanting more. Leaving your audience wanting less strikes me as a kind of failure.

To me, a piece of music needs to have an evolution or story arc — change in what Curtis Roads calls the “macro time scale.” This may or may not be the same thing as “form” — the verse/chorus structure of pop and folk songs, the forms of classical and baroque music, and so on. Even pure drone pieces should, I think, have some kind of buildup or shift over time, though it may be subtle and gradual. If not, they need some other way to keep your interest up for the length of the piece.

One could argue that ambient music isn’t necessarily supposed to demand your attention. Okay, fine, but… music just shouldn’t be boring. It should be engaging if you choose to pay attention, but that type of ambient music (or music “used” ambiently) may permit your attention to wander.

When I set up for my recordings, I prepare for this evolution in advance by having multiple voices I can bring in; some are fairly static drones, some are modulated or textured a bit more, some have sequences, and some I have to play myself. Sometimes, this still yields a piece that feels like it goes on too long with too little of an arc. Editing can sometimes make it right, and if not, there’s always the delete button.

huh.

One of the first publicly known image-generating “AI” projects was Google’s Deep Dream, and app.wombo.art is apparently really called WOMBO Dream.

like this…

You know that thing where supposedly, you can’t read text in your dreams, except sometimes you can for plot reasons? And that thing where, when these art AIs try to incorporate text, they often get the letters either subtly wrong or completely garbled and cryptic, just as other forms do? Well. I think such comparisons between AI generated stuff and the off-kilter nature of dreams are pretty spot on.

In last night’s dream my spouse and I were on a road trip, caravanning with a couple of people from my past and at least one fictional character. We had stopped in some unnamed city for a few days and I didn’t really have anything to do, but was talked into going exploring around the neighborhood. And so I did, but for some reason I was carrying an XBox under my arm, in its cardboard box as if I had just bought it, while worrying about being robbed. But without incident, I found a shop that, in the anti-logic of dreams, had interesting electronic music gizmos but also random other stuff. Mostly old and well-worn if not completely ruined, or at least questionable. But fascinating nonetheless.

A partial listing of some of that stuff:

This would be more in the Noisy Europe style, I think.
  • A box labeled “chill tell mill” in just slightly weird text. I think it was an oracular set of chimes… however that works… with a slightly toylike presentation. For whatever reason, I kept getting drawn back to those. Maybe it’s the name.
  • A series of packaged home decor labeled “No More Noisy Europe!” The one on top seemed to be a pink wooden hanging sign advertising donuts. The main logo was legible but the explanatory text was not, except for the word “Bavarian.”
  • A highly damaged and incomplete circuit board with the text “SUPER JUPITER” (which is the nickname of an actual Roland synth, the MKS-80) which was supposedly really rare in this dream world and they wanted thousands of local currency units for it, despite it just being in a heap of junk with parts falling off.
  • A very sketchy box that said “CONTROL SYNTH” and what I vaguely recall as a legible but syntactically nonsensical list of features. Inside was a wooden box with vaguely blobby glass tubes, like a twisted dream version of my Nixie clock — but oversized and distorted, painted silver, quite a bit scratched up, and studded with small yellow LEDs.
  • Several cylindrical televisions, wedged in place with piles of books to keep them from rolling away.
  • Aisles and nooks of stuff where the space between the shelves was too narrow for people to normally fit to browse them, so naturally, people obligingly shrank themselves to look at it. I couldn’t figure out how and I was jealous of them because it look like there was more fantastically weird junk (some of it tangentially musical) that I couldn’t get to.

a slight paradigm shift

There’s a new thread on ModWiggler about being “too case-oriented.” I mused that too often, people prioritize module choices based on their size, rather than more important criteria: relevance, sound, feel, features, etc.

There are arguably three schools of thought with modular:

  • Module Tetris: attempt to fill your case(s) completely. For some folks, a few small blank panels might be allowed if modules need a little extra room for ergonomics, or if nothing suitable can go in that space (particularly with odd-HP modules that a few brands offer).
  • Go Big: get a bigger case than you need, and don’t try to fill it. Fill the gaps with cardboard or fancier blank panels. If you start getting close to full, get a bigger/another case.
  • Fluidity: this is most often done by people who use multiple small cases for live gigs, and by people who do lots of demo videos. Allow yourself to move modules around, and in and out of the rack, as frequently as you like.

Up until now, I’ve done the Module Tetris thing — I’ve tried to fill my lovely custom pyrographed 12Ux144HP case as close to exactly full as possible, and own no modules that don’t fit.

Since I’ve bought the Synchrodyne, I’m switching a little more toward Fluidity. And now I’ve finally managed to trade the Befaco Crush Delay which I’ve been listing for months for an Earthquaker Afterneath — which I also don’t have room for. It happens to be the same size as Mimeophon though, so I could swap it in and out. Or swap something else in and out. Or use the Pod 60 on an occasional, temporary basis. Or whatever. Fluidity!

One of the advantages of Module Tetris was a ready reason not to buy modules: not enough space. Now I’m going to have to exercise a little more judiciousness without that easy thing to lean on. I think that’s OK though — I won’t go crazy 🙂

one more step…

Maurizio of MÜB emailed last night to say that they’ve begun assembling my instrument, and asked which pickup I wanted. I’d already settled on one dual coil without paying extra for something fancier, so it came down to Aguilar DBC or Bartolini CBJD. He says, “if you prefer a warmer, fuller tone the Aguilar complements the inherently clear tone of the Miezo. The Bart, instead, is a good choice if you want to further accentuate that clarity.”

Not the most straightforward choice from a verbal description, but I went for the Bartolini. I feel like since putting the tapewound strings on the Mikro, while its feel and string noise have improved, it’s lacked a bit of the zinginess the factory strings had. And I think “warmth” is easier to bring out with filtering, saturation, and/or amp sims while it’s more difficult to bring more clarity than what’s already there, if that makes sense.

The next album is done, named, artwork finished, etc. I wound up dropping a track which I think had some merit but didn’t quite sit right. There’s another one that seems a little bit off-axis for the album but I also feel like it’s genuine and needs to be there, so it stays. The release will be Sep 2, the next Bandcamp Friday.

that’s a wrap

I found a temporary-ish solution to my touchplate/BeetTweek issues: a cable tie. I have this set of 100 microfiber hook-and-loop cable ties and have only put about 8 of them to use. So now one of them, with excess length trimmed, is wrapped around the BeetTweek encoder knob. No risk of sticky residue, easy to remove and replace, and it does the job. It’s not super elegant, but the tactile experience of turning a fuzzy knob is pretty amusing…

I got news on the Miezo front — it’s not ready quite yet (another few coats of finish and then assembly) but they sent me a photo and also made an Instagram post in video clip form. They genuinely seem proud of this instrument and want to show it off, despite it being close to their most “basic” instrument options. And I think that pride is well-earned, because this is a beauty.

WMD (William Mathewson Devices) is one of the longest-running Eurorack module builders there is, and are well-liked and I thought pretty successful. They’ve done some contract manufacturing for other Eurorack makers as well as a couple of lines of their own stuff. And… they’re planning to shut down by the end of the year. Wait times for the parts they need are measured in years, costs are up and sales are down, and things are just too difficult to keep going. I wonder how other makers are faring? Some do still seem to be thriving, aside from difficulty sourcing parts for popular designs that are sold out.

WMD, and their collaboration WMD/SSF (Steady State Fate) was never really a staple of my own rack — but I have had a few of their items during my modular journey. Mini Slew is a good design overall, though with some odd quirks that led me to favor Make Noise Function. MSCL is a worthy compressor. I’ve had a couple of their utilities, Blender and S.P.O. A limited edition black colorway of their Geiger Counter pedal was my second favorite pedal I’ve ever played with (second only to Red Panda Tensor). And then there’s the unique Synchrodyne, which combines a sawtooth VCO, a PLL with frequency multiplication and division, a switched-capacitor filter and a wavefolder in one slightly crowded but awesome package — and its expander which adds another VCO, PLL and filter (with more inputs and outputs) plus a compressor and some other goodies.

They have three more products that they’re selling limited runs of (because the parts availability is limited) and closing out their remaining inventory. Though I don’t really have any room in my rack, I decided to grab another Synchrodyne.

My thinking is, it’s the same size as Inertia, so I can swap between the two of them for different flavors of weird filtering. Or put it in the Pod if I must. Or otherwise find ways to make it work. It’s unlikely to be the last change I make to the modular anyway, so… we’ll just see what happens.

Switched-capacitor filters are weird things, and they are very rare in Eurorack. It runs in discrete time, rather than continuous time — it is clocked at a high rate, switching between different capacitors to change the filter cutoff, rather than the typical voltage-controlled filter which changes a resistor value instead. Clock it slowly enough and it starts getting glitchy and aliasing despite being 100% analog. Synchrodyne’s brilliance is to take an audio rate VCO, use a PLL to multiply its frequently drastically to clock the filter, and run the VCO through that filter by default. But in good modular form, each puzzle piece has its own I/O jacks and can be used independently or in tandem with the other pieces. It’s a little mad science lab in a single module.

When I had it originally it was great for experimenting with. At some point I kind of turned away from sawtooth waves and filters in general, obsessed with FM and wavefolding and LPGs and wavetables. So I let it go. Since then I’ve occasionally missed that crazy high rate clock for a few different purposes, and certainly come back around toward creative use of filters.

Grabbing it now at a discount seems like a good move. They haven’t always been available, and they’re going to be much less so in the future. If I decide later that I don’t want it, it should not be hard to sell for a good price — I’m not profit-seeking here with this stuff, but that likely increase in market value does give me confidence about grabbing it again now.

Speaking of shortages, there’s a global shortage of Ozempic now. A diabetes med injected once a week, it’s the exact same stuff that’s in Wegovy, though Wegovy is a higher dose. Wegovy is prescribed as an obesity treatment, but has not been well covered by insurance and has been a bit scarce in supply. So apparently some TikTok influencers have decided to push Ozempic as a weight-loss drug, and some doctors are perfectly willing to write scripts for whatever their patients ask for.

As a result, I need to call my doctor’s office tomorrow. I’m probably going to have to be switched to something else — most likely another GLP-1 inhibitor. Hopefully they don’t go chasing that one too.

As a result, I need to call my doctor’s office tomorrow. I’m probably going to have to be switched to something else — most likely another GLP-1 inhibitor. Hopefully they don’t go chasing that one too.

As a result, I guess I’m probably going to have to be switched to something else. Most likely another GLP-1 inhibitor, which also would likely have minor weight loss effects. So hopefully they don’t go chasing that one too.

untitled XXVII

I’ve begun mastering the next album, which is still nameless. Guess I need to take care of that little detail too…

Unsurprisingly, it does seem to have its particular sound and style which emerged without any particular planning. It sounds like a horror soundtrack, noisy and with dissonant “horns” in places. To me it paints mental scenery that makes me think somewhat of the Shattered Plains in the Stormlight Archive series, although my reread began after I started working on it.

It’s very difficult to pin down the things that influence my music. Obviously, other music I’ve listened to — but just as much, the books I’ve read, movies I’ve watched, games I’ve played, things I’ve been thinking about. The gear I was beta testing or was new to me, or wanted to understand better, the patching techniques and musical ideas I wanted to try. Some dumb luck discoveries. And most of these things were influenced by other factors in turn. Maybe one reason I chose to reread Stormlight Archive again because I subconsciously felt like it fit the music I was making…?

I’m expecting news on the Miezo any day now. I plan to take a bit of a break between projects to get to know it and put it through its paces, but there’s also the chance it will inspire a lot of new recording instead. We’ll see!

I discovered that if I’m playing an 0-Ctrl touchplate and touch the encoder on BeetTweek, it cancels out the touchplate. The motor on BeetTweek is electrically isolated to prevent it from interfering with audio by feeding back through the power supply, so when I do that, I’m effectively grounding it, instead of closing the circuit of the touchplate. The designer had a few possible suggestions, with the simplest being to wrap the knob in non-conductive tape. Some gaffer tape might do the job nicely, since it has a little texture and is supposed to leave minimal residue when removed.

Inspired by some peoples’ photos of their Eurorack setups with clear distinctions between silver panels and black panels, I’ve rearranged my case. I was able to do this almost perfect grouping by manufacturer:

This is with a third-party black replacement panel for Planar on its way. Now, I could get silver panels for all my Noise Engineering modules on the third row, and replace the Mazzatron Mult+Passthru with a TipTop Wayout8 and then have exactly one dark-panel row. But that would cost more than I like just for the temporary aesthetic flex (I assume I’ll continue slowly evolving my modular over time)… so this will do. Beyond just panel color though, I like this grouping; there’s something right about having the Mutable Instruments family together, the Xaoc bloc, the Noise Engineering cluster.

We’ve been watching the new Sandman series on Netflix. It’s quite faithful to the comics without being slavishly so — I feel like it was updated both for the 2020s and the different media format. At times it does come off as kind of slow for TV, while I never thought the comic dragged at all. It could just be because there are few surprises — I wonder how it comes off to an audience that hasn’t read the comics.. But for the most part, it’s definitely got the look.

It really says something that the John Dee character (not meant to be the original “Doctor Destiny” of history, but certainly alluding to him) — a regular human with a broken mind who acquired far too much power for anyone’s good — is far scarier than any nightmare, demon, god or monster in the series. We faced the “24/7” episode with dread. It was indeed mighty tense, moving from awkwardness into conflict and then very swiftly to shock. Possibly the best constructed episode so far, though I’m not sure I would want to rewatch it.

flavor of the tweek

I found out how much my pay raise was, and while I’m not going to suddenly start spending a lot except to make bigger mortgage payments, I did want to get myself a lil’ something.

So here’s BeetTweek, which I was interested in when first announced but let it slip off my radar because it’s a bit on the pricey side for a controller due to its Extreme Fanciness. But controllers have come to be mighty important in the way I make music, and I’m worth it 😉

Aside from providing an excellent light show with its total of 97 multicolor LEDs, the knob provides haptic feedback. Which means that it’s motorized, and can not only move on its own but offer turn resistance, create detents/notches you can feel, springs that bounce its position back to where it wants to be, and so on. There’s also a knob recording and playback feature which can be used in any mode. There are 8 different modes in this version of its firmware:

  • Spring: the knob has a “home” position set by an input voltage; turning it by hand (or rapidly changing the voltage) applies a spring force that makes it once to bounce back and wobble into place. Outputs represent the knob angle and spring stretch, and the “augment” settings can convert the knob angle to an LFO. It’s a really versatile, useful and fun mode for sure.
  • Torque/Friction: inputs apply a small amount of torque, and friction to resist it. This doesn’t generate particularly exciting signals to be honest, but is meant as a combination of basic controller and a method to feel signals through the knob.
  • Indent: 8 “notch” positions around the ring can store and play back voltages — pretty basic stuff but a useful control option.
  • Ratchet: turns freely in one direction, resists and springs back in the opposite direction (which can fling the knob “forward” as you let go). The direction can be switched via an input, but there are no inputs that move the knob without using your hand. Offhand, I’m not sure how I might put this to good use, but I may think of something.
  • Turntable/DJ: sort of a cross between a county fair Ferris Wheel with neon lights, an LFO, and a tape loop. If you spin it, it will just keep spinning at the same speed. As the notches around the ring pass by, it can generate triggers or a synced sine or ramp LFO. It’ll also record and play back lo-fi audio (with sound-on-sound), influenced by the movement speed. You can sync it to an external clock and stop/reverse it with another input, then scratch it like a DJ. A versatile and fun mode for sure!
  • Sequenced Pluck: somewhat similar to Indent, but the paradigm is strings that you pluck by turning the knob. You can feed audio back into it to feel the vibration. There also extra outputs which I think offer expressive control, taking it well beyond the gimmick that it seems like at first.
  • Torque Curve: probably the most abstract mode, “plots” torque values around the wheel like an oscilloscope (synced with another input). It can sometimes have the effect of turning the wheel, but the main use seems to be feeling the shape of the wave as you turn the knob.
  • Orbit: a particle is magnetically attracted to or repulsed by the knob position (and also influences that position). You can spin the knob to get the particle to fly away, swing back and forth (maybe settling down, maybe not), or launch into a continuous orbit. Inputs multiply the force and affect the simulation speed, but don’t directly move the knob or particle. Outputs represent the angle difference, velocity and attraction force. This is a lot more fun than it probably sounds from my description, and generates cool wobbly modulation signals.

I found the module pretty confusing at first, because of a combination of things:

  • There’s a bug where sometimes when you select a mode, the backlight goes white (instead of the usual purple) and the encoder stops working. (Nothing in the manual mentions the backlight going white.) However, once you’ve used the knob recorder once, it doesn’t do this anymore.
  • Mode selection is a little different from described in the manual — there’s a second “page” of modes with a single diagnostic mode. Not a big deal, but combined with the bug, it threw me for a loop.
  • For a few modes I just didn’t read the manual closely enough.
  • Some of this stuff is a pretty new paradigm for me, particularly the modes where the main point is to feel a signal through the knob.

That said, I mostly get it now, and despite all the modes and the generically labeled jacks which change their meaning with each mode, I don’t think I’m going to need a BeetTweekCheetSheet for regular usage, nor will I need to look stuff up in the manual.

It occurred to me last night after I finally quit playing with it and went on to read a bit more Stormlight Archive before turning in quite late, that the knob angle outputs will be perfect for modulating Planar in its polar coordinate mode. Finding pairings for modules like this is great stuff, it’s kind of the soul of modular.

Speaking of which, I’ve been experimenting and getting along a bit better with Compare 2, and have decided to hold onto it. I’ve found that stereo PWM tricks are much more interesting with more complex audio input rather than basic periodic waveshapes. I’ve also found that using it with Clep Diaz is a fun way to generate different rhythmic gate patterns, which can then run in a different meter from another sequence and provide lots of variation. Using Compare 2’s multiple outputs to feed Drezno’s DAC inputs to generate a new steppy CV signal also works quite nicely. Generally, I just needed to think outside the boxes I’d previously constructed around the module in order to not feel so disappointed by it.

solid, liquid, gas

So, that colon cancer screening I was scheduled for? I went through the low-residue diet (not too onerous) and the day of clear liquids and gallon of nasty laxative+electrolyte sludge and the disturbing and unpleasant consequences of that. But there was a massive thunderstorm with record-breaking flooding — 10.85 inches in a night here, up to nearly 13 inches a bit west of here — and the doctor had to cancel.

So at this point I’m waiting for a call back from the nurse to reschedule me and hook me up with more of that crud I had hoped not to have to drink for another 10 years. Sigh. My considerable ire and frustration at this were mainly offset by the fact that our house suffered no damage, while several houses around here flooded spectacularly. Last I read, one person and several pets and shelter animals died. So my day was on average, far less awful than it could have been.

The next album is at 42 minutes of material. With lots of beta testing recently of both Eurorack stuff and plugins, I was inspired to take one track outside my usual area (*) although there’s still continuity to it. Then the next brought it back in, with the next with some very simple but effective patching, including the Mikro just running through a volume pedal, Valhalla Delay and compression, and a two-voice drone done with one instance of Arturia Easel V.

(*) My spouse says, “you have a usual area?” That got me contemplating the perceptions of an occasional listener vs. the musician who is steeped in this stuff 24/7. Part of the music exists in my head and not in actual sound transmitted to others, perhaps. On the other hand, she might also be thinking about my older work or my earlier Starthief releases, which certainly have differences from most of my more recent music.

Since it’s been a bit since the progress photo of my Miezo, I wrote to the luthier to ask for a time estimate. Mostly I wanted reassurance that I didn’t miss an update or invoice. Between a very busy shop and a much needed vacation, it still does need the final sanding and finishing, then assembly — but it should only be another couple of weeks. I’m eager but satisfied with that.

I am rereading the Stormlight Archive series, as it’s been a couple of years and it’ll still be a while before book 5 is released. I’m nearing the end of its first novel, The Way of Kings.

I’ve become a more critical reader of Brandon Sanderson. The way he wrote women at the time the series began, while better than many authors, still had some room for improvement I think. And while his very specifically designed magic systems are kind of his trademark and they work well, they are sometimes explained by exposition dumps that can affect the pacing of an action scene. (This is contrasted with a lot of secrets and mysteries that are hinted at and never fully explained, or foreshadowing that happens several novels before the event itself… but you just know there are charts of how all these mysterious figures and legends are interrelated.) In my opinion he’s gotten better about these things in more recent books. Anyway, what I find especially compelling about the Stormlight Archive is the distinct voices and attitudes of the characters — you can really see their mental state and their different ways of thinking — and the great big emotionally packed moments.

Some of those are big glorious hero moments. Some of those are “just told off the asshole” moments (and those are almost as glorious). Some are “holy shit” moments (big reveals of something hidden or really, really bad news for the good guys, or super weird freaky scary stuff). And they all hit hard. And sometimes they hit in rapid succession without even time to breathe in between them. He’s really good at these and it’s very much at its peak in this particular series.

So I reread the series because Dalinar and Adolin and Shallan and Rock and Lopen and Lift and co. are awesome characters, but also for the really huge payoffs and gut-punches.

at peace

The first week of hybrid WFH worked out pretty well. That second monitor is occasionally mildly helpful for gaming or music or other things, but really handy for work. Staying home 4 days was nice. Coming back in to the office today hasn’t been unpleasant; I think the balance is good with this.

Two books I was waiting for were released last week. Linda Nagata’s Needle has a couple of fascinating new characters who really stole the show from Urban and Clementine. Overall though, it was a bit disappointing. There was some tension in the plot, but it felt pretty weak compared to the earlier stuff with Lezuri, with a vague “confusing anime ending” and not much closure for something that was supposed to conclude a series.

Becky Chambers’ A Prayer for the Crown-Shy was not disappointing at all. The second in her super-cozy “Monk and Robot” series, almost every chapter is like a philosophy discussion among friends over tea (sometimes literally). It brings smiles, and there were times where I just had to close the book and sit back with satisfaction. My only possible complaint is that there isn’t more of it — I feel that it’s fitting that these books are short, but I want more, but I also feel like wanting more is part of the experience of it, if that makes sense.

Maybe rather than wishing specifically for more of this series, I should wish there were more books like this. It’s in the “hopepunk” subgenre but also feels a bit like Moominvalley in November but specifically for adults. Hmm. Anyway, after devouring this one I’ve gone back to reread A Psalm for the Wild-Built.

Over the weekend I recorded 15 minutes of music for the next album. This time I’m going to try not to be surprised when I find I’m ready to start mastering. 😉

I’m eagerly anticipating shipping notification for my Miezo — I expect it any day now. I’m also beta testing some fun stuff, experimenting with a couple of techniques, and still grabbing the low-hanging fruit from Koszalin.

One thing I’ve found recently is I really need to keep up with practice/noodling on bass. Otherwise, during a recording session — especially with the Mikro — I’ll wind up with pretty sore fingers. It doesn’t take a lot of practice to maintain calluses and finger strength, but it also doesn’t take more than a few days for those benefits to diminish.