I lied...

Remember that post I made about being "pretty much set" regarding all the gear I need?

Well, I lied.

The thing is, when I am coming up with songs I always start to get some semblance of the finished music in my head as it starts to come together. I think "Oh, you know what would be sweet? If..." and then the inevitable next thought it "oh, wait. I do not have anything capable of that sound/effect."

Now, even if money was no object I have extremely limited space to put all this crap, so some cool things (lap steel; harmonium) are just out of the question. BUT, I just had to buy this PAiA Vocoder, built into a toolbox and painted with a stencilled Cyberman from Dr. Who on it. How cool is that? I've been curious about the PAiA Vocoder for a while (ever since I sold my Micro-Q, which had my only vocoder) but it's over $200 to buy the parts and then you have to solder it and build it from scratch. So when this one, already built into a case for less than the cost of the parts, showed up with a DR. WHO STENCIL no less, it was a sign. And I am quite amazed that I am the ONLY person who even bid on it.

The thing is... I thought my Electrix Warp Factory vocoder would allow me to input my own formant and source lines (blending voice with, for example, a concertina), but it just doesn't seem to work that well. So... I will probably put it on eBay once I get the PAiA one; I don't really see a need for 2 vocoders, although the Warp Factory does a great job with making robot-sounding vocals and also has a "formant freeze" feature which is cool for electronic music. Still, it's such a hot item that I could probably sell it on eBay for more than it originally cost me.


I also decided I need a vocal processor. I can do some simple effects on the computer, but I'm thinking... well, I'd like to play live gigs at some point. Even if they pay me in nothing but espressos or Sparks. It would just be a fun way to get out, share my creativity, and contribute something small to the world. So... for that, I need actual hardware (not software, which is pretty much just as expensive as hardware for some strange reason.)

I looked at the TC Helicon VoiceWorks, but it's kind of expensive and does a little TOO much for me I think (do I really need to set up choral arrangements with my own voice? I want to have some vocal effects and processing, but I'm not aiming for that "almost realistic but can still tell it's fake" arrangement thing.) So, I've pretty much decided on the Antares AVP-1. This doesn't have a ton of features in it, but it will let me a few things I want... like the muffled lo-fi "singing through a telephone" effect (I used to have that on a Korg digital recorder/mixer, and it was pretty sweet) and will give me real-time autotuning for my mediocre voice... which can also be pushed to overkill for the "Cher effect" which is quite trendy and cliche now. But I still plan to use it.

Sweet Blogs

I have to post links to a few other blogs because they are flippin' sweet.

It is rare that I actually decide "Hey, I'm bored. I'm going to go read some blogs" but these never fail to deliver. They are sprinkled with content that is so random yet thematically-focused, and just all around 99% interesting... with enough content to keep me reading/watching/listening for hours. I honestly hope I never get through all of the posts they have, but it gets addictive so that day seems inevitable:

http://musicthing.blogspot.com

http://www.retrothing.com/

http://videothing.blogspot.com/

Accordion Wax

So, did you know that accordions are basically held together with beeswax? You can't see it, but inside it is used to mount the metal reeds with an airtight seal.



Since concertinas also use accordion reeds, I got the fun pleasure of discovering the joys of accordion wax when I picked up my concertina today and tried to play it. About 8 buttons produced no sounds at all. I unscrewed the end, pulled out the reed board, and... no reeds! Instead, there was melted wax goop everywhere and a few reeds rattling around inside. Great.



SO, the concertina is not functional -- just when I was inspired to use it in a song I am composing and recording (tentatively titled "Chaos Theory") Now I must create my own accordion wax (the only recipe I've seen indicated a mix of 90% beeswax and 10% pine resin) and figure out how to mount my reeds back inside the instrument. FUN! Maybe I should just open my own musical-instrument construction and repair shop?



P.S. I also have made zero progress on completing the theremin, despite the fact that I now have all tools and required components.



I suck.