Interior design, selecting vibes for the creative space

As the work on my new creative space is ongoing, as it happens with building stuff, things happen unexpectedly. So my gear is still in boxes and I am on hold music making wise. I have now spent some time on thinking about the interior design of the space. The focus will be on the vibe, not so much the technical logistics of the space. I am aiming for a table where I can set up gear, or anything I need for a creative process. Whether it be music, writing or drawing. 

Making moodboards is fun, and deciding where things need to be and what colors I will have in the space. 

As far as music making goes I have postponed it until the construction is over. It takes out to much energy trying to do this while all this is going on. 

A short one this week, as not much is going on, on the creative front. I am just dabbling in things at the moment.

See you all next week. 

Art & income, the finance of art

This week has seen the demise of Aslice gaat stoppen. Aslice  was all about creating a more equal pay for musicians, for a fairer distribution of the revenue from music. Via a community driven structure.

There is a very big discrepancy between the income made by the artists who make the music (producers) and the people making a living out of playing the music (Dj’s). It’s not a coincidence you need to be a DJ/Producer nowadays to generate any income from making music.

The idea was pretty simple, Dj’s send in their playlists and from those lists the producers of the music get a paid an amount for each time a track is played. This means the Dj will make a little bit less, but the producer gets a change to have an income out of their music.

Not all Dj’s are big earners, and many struggle to get a decent wage out of it. You can still read everything there is to know about Aslice and their system om the website. But this brings up a bigger question there is in the arts in general, not just music, but writers, sculptors and painters and so on. All these people have trouble living of just their art. And have all sorts of jobs on the side.

Aslice & the importance of community

The biggest problem (in retrospect) for Aslice was the absence of a lot of Dj’s and mainly the bigger names and highest paid people in the industry. The problem with those people not signing up is that you miss a lot of revenue which should go back to the producers. But also in the lower echelons of the income pyramid it missed the volume to really make a breakthrough.

But why is a more equal distribution important? Everyone can go for their own succes by working on their own channels for revenue? Yes, these are options. The only problem is by doing this individually you can never reach all the corners of the eco system. You simply don’t know if someone is playing your music if they don’t tell you. Instead of being able to let the music work for you after you released it, by letting others play it (in other words sell it), you have to go out there and do this all by yourself. By playing the music yourself or do other activities to sell yourself.

The problem being, there is a limit to what the individual can produce as output.  There is a limited amount of time, and energy one can produce. And as a musician this isn’t your job, your job is to make new music. The Aslice system provided a way for musicians to generate income from music when other people went on and did their thing with it. I.e do their job. Making music is not a hobby, as an artist you have to be able to generate income from your music. And not just when you are at the top of the pyramid. Aslice provided a revenue stream without the artists having to put in time to generate it. Passive income.

An eco system can’t function if only a small minority profits at the expense of the work of all the others in the eco system (otherwise known as a community). This inevitably  leads to a hollowing out of that system. Artists drop out and no new ones can join. And some point the eco system collapses and a barren land is what is left. You can’t participate if you can’t live from an eco system. It’s that simple.
You can’t reach your full potential if you can’t work on your greatest skill, and have to to all sorts of side hustles to keep afloat.

Individuality & the illusion of succes

This is a problem in the whole of society, in the last 30 years or so this has become the main issue. The belief succes of the individual is solely the outcome of choices and changes that individual has made and taken. Throughout society the illusion that succes is a choice. Whatever is going on outside the circle of influence and the outside world. Just work ‘hard enough’ and seize ‘opportunities’ and you will reap the rewards.

This is only partly true, you can only be as successful as your environment is. Maybe a small percentage can fight their way out of a position of disadvantage, but the first thing they do is leave the place where opportunities are slim.

Succes, for the most part, is the outcome of great communities and solid infrastructures. You simply can’t do everything on your own. A society can’t function without education, health care, affordable living, access to food and so on. These things form the foundation for the individuals to thrive, the access to this infrastructure needs to be organized in such a way, that the majority of participants in these communities have acces to it and be able to use it.

You will have to work on, maintain and build these infrastructures before you can become successful as an individual. Every member needs to make a small contribution to this infrastructure and help others to become successful in order to stay successful themselves. The most well known way to organize this is paying taxes. It’s that simple.

The arts and the revenue model

The world of arts has been plagued by declining in funding the last few decades. All emphasis was placed on building your own revenue models. A lot of subsidies which maintained a lot of the infrastructures, think public venues, studios, art centers and educational systems have been minimized or downright cut all together. Which implicitly meant the art community had to fend for itself. A fairer distribution of the revenue generated with the art becomes crucial.

By subsidizing important parts of the eco system, the money involved becomes almost invisible. People pay taxes for all sorts of things and don’t think about what is funded with the money. This makes a lot of people even wary of paying them. Most people can only think about the stuff they don’t want funded by taxes.  That’s why the democratic process is important. But that’s another matter altogether, the simple fact is, the lack of togetherness, which has crept in, in the vast majority of society is also very prevalent in the art world. It wasn’t easy making a living from arts before and it certainly isn’t now. The community in the arts world has vanished.

The revenue stream, and the value broader society has for arts & culture has declined. And therefore the system fails for individual artists to make a living. The revenue model has shifted towards the individual, it’s not the art that needs selling, it’s the individual. Things like the 1000 follower principle, where 1000 people pay 1000 dollars a year and generate an income that way solely hinges on the individual to be able to generate art (or mostly content).

This immediately comes to an halt when that individual has a calamity and can’t make any more music (or content) and the revenue streams stops. There are no safety nets within the system. The most hearth-wrenching examples are the Gofundme pages where artists seek help in paying for cost of living and medical bills ones they fall ill. Nevermind paying for their recovery. Passive revenue from songs played is an absolute necessity.

There is a massive limit in earning power of an individual, this is true for everyone, but especially artists, where art needs to be sold, in this case music played before any revenue is generated. For musicians music played needs to be a valid stream of income. But they can’t live off albums alone anymore. And this is a big risk, it takes a lot of time working on an album and the only way to pay for this time is by the music being played when the music goes out into the world.

Once it’s out there, a lot of the revenue sticks to the top of the pyramid. The balance within the revenue stream is off. A fairer distribution is why a platform such as Aslice is important.

Community back on the agenda

Technology enables us to quickly build a solution which when carried by a large part of the community can restore the balance in revenue pretty quickly. So everyone can carve out their piece of the pie and keep going, and add too the community and eco system. We just need to instill a realization that everyone has their fair value within the eco system. Not just a shout out on social media, but a simple small amount whenever you use a track someone has made. These are not big numbers, it’s about volume.

Technology can help us work out the distribution, the how of the equation. But for things to truly happen we need the majority of the community involved. This can only be reached if we put the topic of the community back on the agenda. Within industry gatherings we not only need to talk about the branding of the artist on an individual level, but talk about a healthy eco system and community as well. How we build, maintain and develop the eco system and subsequently the community.

And not just about the fun stuff, like making music together, collabs with instrument builders and so on, but be frank about the numbers, the accounting behind it all. The “boring” bits. The risks of being a one person company as most artists are. And the risks involved when you do not get paid enough for your work. The bullet points below are just a few of the risks.

      • Insufficient income for health insurance.
      • Insufficient income  for periods with less gigs, or to buy insurance against income drops.
      • Insufficient income for building up a pension.
      • Insufficient income for insurance against disability.

And these are just the individual risks, some risks for the eco system

      • No new or improved venues for younger talent to work and perform
      • No real networks are maintained as everyone is to busy making ends meet.
      • No synergy and scale advantages that a healthy eco system provides for growth and future proofing of the eco system.

It’s not just about money

A community has a lot advantages for people who are part of such an eco system. You can grow your craft a lot faster you can focus on your skillset and not worry too much about other things. Everyone can learn and feed off each other and grow organically. Being part of a community is essential. For these systems to be able to flourish everyone has to contribute some of there time and energy towards that community. In a society this is done via taxes, we then pay other people with other skills to run the eco system. Now the world of arts need to do this themselves. The ‘invisible’ part in the form of subsidies is no longer there. The creative community might have gotten used to this too much, who knows. But in the current political and economical landscape you can’t count on this anymore. The creative community needs to organize this themselves. We need to make sure the eco system is healthy.

The most important thing for people to be able to contribute is that the revenue is divided fairly among the participants, so we can all work on the pillars of the system, such as education, safe spaces to work and crate, get together and interact. So everyone can work on their craft and be able to excel as much as possible and cover the basic risks.

Aslice had a great model to achieve just that. For everyone to be able to make a decent living and thus can dedicate some of their every to build a community in which everyone can work and make a living of their art.

For society as a whole this is very important, as art pays a big part in letting people be able to think critically and provide safe places for people in oppression. As a society we simply can’t progress without art. That’s why the art community has to take a hard look in the mirror and realize the need to work on the eco system and community as absolutely essential.

 

Ongoing construction

This week is all about the construction of my creative space. As this is going on for a week at least, I am not really finding the peace I need to make music. Which is ok, what I am doing is researching studio layouts and acoustics. Which is fun, and acoustics are a world of its own. Maybe this is better suited when I am actually aware of problems in my mixing. 

It was fun researching anyway. The layout will be pretty flexible, I am planning a table where I can build setups and use for other creative activities and a fixed workplace where I plan my computer, a controller, sound card and speakers. 

There will be a bookcase for all my books, and other items I use for inspiration and studying. And if there is some room left, a couch. We will see. 

Max MSP projects, notes and ideas 

What I have been is organizing my notes and ideas for Max MSP projects. So far I have only build and expanded a looper project. And making notes on ideas for projects I want to figure out. Learning while doing, as to not get stuck in manuals and books all the time. 

I have taken the time to work out some of the concepts into short descriptions of functionality and made lists of the order in which I need to build it. So it makes some sense from the start. The danger with Max MSP is that I start somewhere and end up somewhere which is miles from my original idea. Which in most cases isn’t a bad thing. But whenever I return to a patch to work on it some more, I first need to figure out what I did in the first place. 

Working more focussed towards a goal and making sure I document the steps and the patch I will be able to get stuck in every session, without figuring out what is was the patch is supposed to be doing. 

Planning for the coming weeks.

The main focus will be finishing and decorating the creative space. After this is all done, I will be able to start and finish projects more easily which I am really looking forward to. 

Building a dedicated creative space

Having a space for your creative adventures can be important in maintaining consistency in the process. This past week I have not been doing any actual music making, reading manuals or learning stuff. I have been cleaning out my attic so it can de build into a studio space. Or to more exact, a creative space. As music is not the only creative thing I like to do. Writing, coding & drawing being other creative outlets for me.

Construction will begin shortly and in the end this will be a space where I can put my musical instruments, and other stuff I use to work on my various projects.

Up until now the kitchen table was the place to be, which had a downside that after each session I had to clear everything again. And building stuff up before starting a session.

I can also create specific longer term setups for projects more easily in the new space. I have been thinking about the layout and various other things. But we will see where it ends when all the construction is finished.

Why I need a dedicated space

Lot’s of people can work anywhere. Whether it be on the sofa, at the kitchen table or in any coffee shop in the neighborhood, that is great, but not me. 

I need a space where I can go to and everything is available, plugged in and ready to go. It’s easier to start, take breaks and finish things for me that way. It’s also a space which has a lot of stuff in it which gets and keeps me inspired. Like books, art, music and miscellaneous bits. 

It also save me the energy I now need to take a few pieces of kit, set it up, have a session and tear it down again. Even just sitting in a custom space and thinking about projects, solutions and take notes is worth having it. It’s a luxury I know. But if you can have even a small dedicated space this will undoubtedly improve your creativity, efficiency and consistency. Just going in for an hour every day is easier when everything is in one place and ready to go. 

It’s been a long time coming, so now that it is finally happening I am pretty excited. Next thing will be planning the lay out of the space. 

Sampling, an art form.

One of my favorite instruments is a sampler, ever since I watched music documentaries like lola da musica and read magazines with studio pictures in them I was drawn to these magical boxes which could record sound and then be worked into a completely different sound altogether. And make tracks with those sampled sounds. 

Sampling is an art form in and of itself, finding samples or making your own as is more common nowadays is a real cool expression of someones insight into music. From the early days of making collages out of existing materials and making it your own with deconstruction and rebuilding out of existing materials has been a legitimate art form. The things you can do with sampling from an artistic perspective are endless. Everyone hears and feels something different and will go into a different direction with the same sample. It’s really intriguing. 

Albums like Endtroducing by Dj Shadow is one of the most well known examples of sample based music (all done on an MPC 3000), but most electronic music and hip hop would not exist without samplers. For some reason, and this might be just a collection of nostalgic reasons, music from the late 80’s and early 90’s has some qualities which I attribute to the samplers and more specific the limitations of gear in those days. Maybe it’s the less boxed in way of thinking about genres or simply the case of “If it sounds good, it is good”. 

Some of my favorite tunes made possible by sampling, many more can be added but that would make this blog extremely long ;-).  So 2 well known examples. 

Roger Sanchez – Another change

Dj Shadow – Stem (Cops & Robbers remix)

A lot of these devices are unaffordable these days, things like the Akai MPC 3000 & Emu sp1200, and the Akai S950 are commanding crazy prices. There are some very nice and in my opinion overlooked samplers which can be bought for less money, like the Emu ESI 4000 or the Akai S3000. Even the MPC 2000XL can be found a little bit more affordable. Question is, would you go down the route of these vintage tools or not? 

Some cool documentaries 

First off some inspiration which could sway you to go the hardware sampling route. Whether that be old school samplers or newer ones. Here is some cool  documentary stuff which got me inspired, and still gets me inspired these days. Pretty old stuff from the nineties and some newer things as well. 

Rogers Sanchez on making another change

Lola da musica (dutch) Drum & Bass

Lola da music sampling (dutch)

My sampling adventures

At that stage in my life these devices costs more than a couple of months of wages so these were out of reach. Stuff for future dreams.

One of the most intriguing samplers was the MPC, made by Akai. A lot of great music had been made with these. It’s a staple in many studio ever since its inception. What was so great about it, to me, that it was all about beats, rhythms and structures. This had a large pull for me and many years later I bought my first MPC, a 2000XL. By then hardware sampling had fallen to the wayside in favor of sampling with the computer. So this MPC was rather cheap at the time. And I loved it, then it died and I replaced it with another one.

Work & life got in the way and I didn’t have enough time to dedicate to music making so unfortunately I sold it. But it has always held a big place in my inspiration and I always missed it, even just looking at it gave me an urge to make music. The period after these last of the old school samplers died out and all the focus shifted to software in the industry I always looked at it as a missed opportunity. Akai kept developing the MPC’s with mixed success, the MPC-1000 was a nice one, the MPC-4000 was a bit of a miss. Both great machines to be fair. Just overlooked I think. 

The last decade has seen the return of hardware sampling in many forms, mostly led by beat oriented devices, such as the Elektron Octratrack, Digitakt, things like the OP-1 (Field), Tracker based stuff like the Polyend, the M8 and so on.

There is a lot to be said for these devices. As you can create whole tracks with just the one device and some sound sources. Which can be as easy as recording stuff on your phone. Looking back at my days with the MPC 2000XL it was time to get a more modern version out of storage, in an effort to further simplify my setup. 

Modern MPC’s 

The current MPC line up is pretty much a DAW in a box. It’s much more powerful than the old MPC’s which has its downside as you can fall into the wormhole of possibilities just as with a DAW. For me I worked around this by only focussing on sampling sounds from my small Eurorack case and trying to create some grooves with it. Setting limits that way. Nevertheless the MPC one, which I use, is a lot of bang for your buck. Whether it’s a MPC in the classical sense is up for debate. And with the new 3.0 software approaching this debate is pretty heated at the moment. 

But I am a firm believer of making a device your own in such a way it fits your workflow and with a machine which has these capabilities this is possible. Might not be for everyone, but there are lot’s of alternatives out there. 

I love the new line of MPC’s, especially the one with it’s attractive price point and all the options, it even has CV/gate outs, always a nice feature if you have a modular or any other synth with CV/gate. 

My current approach & future ideas.

My workflow is pretty simple, the MPC is there for sampling and editing sounds from the modular, then I make a program filled with the samples from one session. Which gives it an instant coherent sound and vibe, then I make some basic sequences and see what I can get out of it. 

All pretty basic, but for now that’s just what I need, for the future the MPC will function as a hub between the MAX map world and the modular, but I haven’t completely worked this out yet. 

This was a good week music wise. Hopefully I can continue this week. 

Research, into everything, fueling the creative process

Past week has not seen any musical activity, apart from some patches without sound. As I needed a recovery week after a pretty busy week traveling, visiting cities and social interaction. Which always takes a toll on my cognitive energy levels. That is just how it works when you have permanent brain damage.

It’s all worth it, being among friends, family and visiting cool places and soaking in art. All the while trying and stretching my limits a bit. That part of the equation did not go as planned. So this week I had to dial down on some activities like making music in order to recover as quickly as possible.

One of the things I try not to do, is break the chain. Or in other words, I need to stay active in my music making process or creative process on a regular basis. As I have mentioned before, there is no point in going all out for a couple of weeks and then not do anything again for months. That is not how you build habits and get better at anything.

So I have devised a few other activities which I can do and are related to making music and or the creative process in general. One of the things is research.

Applying research to the creative process

What do I mean by research? Well I don’t mean it in the scientific sense. But rather finding books, gear, interesting topics that can spark ideas. This week I have been thinking about design in a broad sense. Architecture, beautifully written code, visuals, and so on.

So I just started out writing some search options, and see where I end up. I love all sorts of mathematical things, most of them go way above my comprehension but there is something beautiful about it. While searching I stumbled upon the book, The nature of code , interesting and added it to my reading list.

While looking around the internet for visuals I found Generative Art. Going further I got into the wormhole of visuals and coding I reconnected with a long term interest in live coding of music, among others there is the coding language Tidal Cycles. Which I watched some video’s on.

Another interesting book on music & coding is Fundamentals of Music Processing.

What do I do with this?

So while we all browse the internet on a daily basis and find cool stuff, it’s hard to do and try everything we see, as there is simply too much. I always get inspired by simple seeing all the stuff people do with all the things out there. And even by just going tru the index of a book I get triggered for new ideas which I can apply to my own set of tools.

It always sparks an idea and an approach which I haven’t thought of or something I can try with my own setup.

I am in no way inclined to start learning something totally new like live coding when I am just getting my head around Max MSP for example. But in all these resources there are pathways you can apply to your own creative process or way of thinking about your workflow. And the most important thing. It keeps my process going even if I don’t have the energy to work on the ‘core’ which is making music.

A new week, learning more Max MSP, Art.

This week I have been learning about Max MSP, especially how to record the audio into Ableton, and work on finishing tracks from within Ableton. This was my small task this week, get sound into Ableton from Max MSP. Using Ableton as a recorder and being able to set some things up within Ableton, like EQ, compression and other bits. I could have just recorded directly onto Harddisk from within Max, but my future system is one where I would like to include Ableton. 

The goal of the patch. Record audio from Max into Ableton, 1 track for now but if one works I can easily extend it into 4 or 8, or any other number. 

For sound generation I am building a noise source into a simple reverb and a distortion, nothing fancy but just a fun little thing to produce sounds. These are not finished yet, I am miles away from being fluent in Max. It’s really fun however and a never-ending flurry of ideas pops up when coding in Max. 

Other things this week, mostly art.

Most of the week I have been absorbing art and traveling, reading books and taking notes. I went to the Kunstmuseum in The Hague, went to see the exhibition “True Colors”, part of the collection of Akzo Nobel, a chemical company which has a department collecting art. A lot of companies do this, as part of their social responsibility programs and to brighten up offices. Luckily we now get to see some of it. 

Most of it is modern art and there were a lot of cool pieces on display, recommended. This was after last weekends visit to the NRW-forum in Dusseldorf for die Grosse. Also modern art. 

The kunstmuseum is pretty large and they have a lot of Mondriaan as well and they had the exhibition about Mondriaan & de Stijl, the latter being a group of artists, architects and others forming a loosely formed collective discussing the modern arts and writing essays on it, making art and making sure it was published. As per usual the women in the group and close to the group where the driving forces behind the succes. Great to see that they get to be more in the spotlight, well deserved and way too late at the same time. 

Everything I have seen lately has led to a large set of ideas, and I just love being in musea, it’s quiet, most of the times, especially during the week. It’s nicely lit. There is beautiful art. What more can you wish for. Not much. A great week all round. Not much music making, but being in the creative process in other ways. 

Inspiration, where to get it and making sure you don’t forget it.

Besides the consistency of working on your craft, inspiration is another very important factor. Whatever your craft is, art, music or professions with a creative side to it, inspiration can help a long way in staying active and focussed.
Inspiration is the fuel to keep the consistent process going. For me at least. 

It’s just like any other form of training, there will be moments of difficulty, pain and discomfort. It’s all part of growing and sharpening your skills. Balance & rest is important to integrate, as your brain needs time to process and ingrain the result of your constant work. I plan deliberate rest moment, and make sure I plan short visits and trips to cities, exhibitions which I know will spark 

This is how I keep my energy levels up and find new energy and ideas for the future. 

My week & finding inspiration

This week I have worked mainly on learning Max MSP and I have been going outside in search of inspiration and ideas. Walking around a city and visiting musea does the trick. I try and look at things in detail and allow all sorts of random encounters. Step into buildings I don’t know, visit exhibitions which I want to see or stumble upon. And simply walking round a city and look at loads of things. 

But how do I make sure I know what inspired me and why, the feeling I got when watching a piece of art or seeing something cool while walking. I used to rely on my memory and tried and record it once I got home, but I soon realized I could not recall my feelings and what exactly inspired me or what idea a piece of art evoked.

Documenting the inspiration & ideas

I started out taking quick pictures with my phone and a note in my phone for writing down quick short sentences and ideas. Which I then forgot to bundle and be more specific. I worked on documenting the inspiration & a simple template to make it easier to recall the feeling and ideas I had when being struck with inspiration. Without having to scroll trough loads of digital notes and pictures and then try and remember everything. 

It’s pretty easy and it’s instinctively applicable for me. It suits my needs very well. 

I take pictures, on my phone or camera and mark them if possible, and notate the place, date and title or description of the artwork (if there was an artwork) or other object so I can find the related pictures. I add a few keywords that give a good description of what the inspiration was. I stick to 4 keywords. Which helps when I search for things later on.

I write a short story about the moment, the inspiration and the surroundings.  If I have an idea on the spot or later on I also make sure to write it in my notes.

As a template this would look like this:

    • Date 
    • Time
    • Place 
    • Title 
    • Title of the artwork (if there is any)
    • Pictures
    • keywords
    • Short Story
    • Idea it sparked (if any)

I prefer writing in a notebook, and I use notebooks where I can easily add page numbers and so on, I also give my notebooks a number and a name. 

for searching into these notes I notate the keywords, the notebook number, and the page numbers into a simple excel sheet. So I can always find the ideas. 

Why is it important to me? Well it’s a big part of playing around and putting myself into situations and places which can spark any form of inspiration and ideas. Which leads to a backlog of things I can develop further.  There is no pressure when simply walking around and looking at things. It also develops my knowledge of art and architecture in a simple and effortless way. It’s a way to take a brake without breaking the creative consistency when I can’t work on my skills or need a break. It’s an alternative way to be creative without the sole focus on music.  

It’s also important to make it a habit, getting outside and reconnect with art and life which for me, is the energy for my creative process. In my process there is always room for finding inspiration, this doesn’t have to mean I go outside, it can also mean just picking up an art book, reading a biography or flicking trough photo books. But I prefer going outside. 

By making this a fixture in my creative process I keep engaged with the outside world and have an alternative whenever I can’t work on music specifically. This way I keep working on my creative process and keep the consistency going. 

Eurorack patching adventures

Last week was all about the new proces. The idea was I make a patch on my eurorack, record it, make samples and make a track out of it. I already encountered some time difficulties getting all this work done in a week. So I let go of the fixed time table and started at the first item on the task list.

Patching the Eurorack synth, it’s a pretty basic setup, think of a single voice mono synth with some extra modulation. The great thing about Eurorack, or any other like-minded system like Max MSP, Reaktor or VCV is that you can construct your own path of sound & functions. This is a double edged sword as it can lead to just patching and nothing further. Which is always a dangerous thing with me, being limited in time. 

It’s also a way to escape the limitations in processing sound by my brain, I can patch without sound and audition the results later. Perfect for me. So while time flies when patching, it’s a great way for me to learn more about developing sounds, signal flow and other sound designing stuff without over extending myself. 

The second part of the week was spent learning max map further and reading about design in general. Which is always interesting. Max MSP has a high threshold for me in getting fluent with it so it will take time mastering it to a degree I can write ideas without spending time in books and manuals but its fun and has the added benefit of not having to have sound on all the time. 

All in all a good week spending time doing music and music related things. Looking forward to next (technically this week as I am a bit late writing this blog) week. 

First week with the small setup & new process focussed mindset

Working with my small setup has advantages, After spending a week working with it on a consistent basis. It’s easier to get going and I am far less distracted. My first idea was to work on a patch for a few days, then record loops and then finish a track, all  within a week and build a catalog of work that way.

This timeline was a bit over enthusiastic, as I am with a lot of my planning. But given the focus and shift from goals towards the process of working on my skills, I am still happy with my progress this week.

I have also build in a learning and education bit into the process. So I am studying Max MSP again. Which is great fun and pretty difficult. But it’s very promising as I have tons of ideas already for merging Eurorack with Max MSP and building a set of tools for it.

I need to focus on the proces first. And not jump on and trying to get all these ideas out as fast as possible. I have to leave the pressure out of the equation.

I do pencil my ideas down in my notebooks, and work on them by working them out in the notebooks. So I keep working on ideas while doing the work. It easy to dream away and imagine great goals ahead and try to reach them as fast as possible and burn yourself out. It’s hard to focus on the small incremental gains and work on your skillset. At least for me. 

Showing up is half the work, or battle. But it’s hard and not easy at all. At least for me. Just twiddling knobs and enjoying the hobby is nice, but doesn’t get me towards my goals. There is playtime reserved into the process, don’t worry there is fun to be had. But I also  need to choose the harder path. In the end it will be more fore filling and rewarding.

Let’s see what this week brings.