August 2026 – Cornerman

Dream machines

Everyone has them, dream machines from your younger years which you would have loved to have. For me these are plentiful, mostly electronic music machines. Way before the internet became a real source of information, the go to place where magazines. Sound on Sound, Future Music and Interface (in the Netherlands) and a couple I have forgotten about.

Future music was the one for me, within budget and it had my favorite type of article, “In the studio with”. Lot’s of pictures of the spaces and the gear and info on how they were used. Lot’s of unknown equipment to spot which to me were unknown and very intriguing.

The machines

One of the machines most often featured was the Akai MPC 2000 XL, or the 3000. The 3000 at that time was already out of reach budget wise. But the 2000 XL was still in production and while still expensive, I would in theory, be able to save up the cash with a few summers of holiday work. Dreaming is allowed.

There was however another novelty out at that time, the Nord Modular G1. In a rack and keyboard version. Lot’s of people where after the 303, 909 and 808 as there dream machines and although I would have loved to add those to the list. They weren’t as magical to me as the combination of the MPC & the Nord Modular. Im my mind, these machines would let me build everything I could think of.

Added to this was that some of my favorite artists at the time were in possession of the Nord. I thought I had the magazines laying around somewhere, but I got rid of most of them apart from a few really nostalgic ones. Funnily enough not the ones with the Nord Modular reviews or the interviews featuring one.

I have tried and look for the interviews, didn’t find them. If I am not mistaken Jori Hulkkonen & Christan Vogel had them at the time.

Also Dr Macabre had one, and much later I came across one in an interview with Frank Bretschneider in al lovely combination with an een mooi rack met een Octratrack and a Sherman Filterbank. Very nice combo.

Nostalgic

We all get nostalgic from time to time, and every now and again I look for a Nord G1 keyboard, and it’s always just a bit too big of an expenditure to justify. An MPC 2000 XL is very doable, and it will work. I have had one for quite a while. Until there was a good moment to sell it.

Now you have the MPC One, Live 3, and the new and very fun MPC sample which in a way has the limitations of the 2000 XL, or any of the other older MPC’s which made them so much fun (and to be honest, frustrating at times) So outside of the nostalgic reasons there is not much of a reason trying to get my hands on one.

The Nord Modular, in the other hand, keep lingering in the background, and I will search for one from time to time.

The software side

The Nord Modular is a platform consisting of hardware and software where you build the patches and sent them to the Nord Modular over midi. All the DSP power sits in the Nord Modular. The Nord Modular was built by a small company and the product weighed heavily on them and with the advents of ever more powerful computers the need for a pricey DSP platform subsided. With the rise in software synths, samplers and the like the need for it diminished.

So you not only need the hardware, but also get the software running. And don’t forget the right midi interface to keep things running. You could go for the old windows or Mac machine and the latest official release of the software, match the midi interface from those days and go full retro.

Nowadays there are modern editors re engineered which for some reason I never got up & running. So option one will take up too much space. Option 2 has not successfully been implemented by me. Which makes it a very expensive object for just looking at out of nostalgic reasons. And for that, I can just as well look at pictures.

A solution

Owning old gear for nostalgic reasons and getting it to work, maintaining and using them is a fun hobby on its own. My fear is that the hours I would have to invest into it versus the hours of actual music making with the machines will be too limited. The fun would be mainly in the first bit, getting things to run. In the end the working with the machines might disappoint slightly. These are not sums of money fit for impulse buys. And it would be a shame not to use the stuff.

While not a one on one replacement of the setup, modern solutions are plentiful. I will miss the nostalgic feel, that being said. Lot’s of cool options out there. Modern modular synthesizers in different formats are available, most notably the Eurorack form. Which has been doing lot’s of cool stuff over the last few decades. Software wise we have MAX MSP, PureData, and live coding tools like Tidal Cycles. With a nice controller to go along with it, workflow wise you will get close. And be in modern times.

In the MPC realm there are numerous options, which I previously mentioned. The MPC sample being the machine most closely related to the older machines in workflow, like the MPC 2000 XL.

Then there is the learning curve, time I would rather spent learning MAX MSP. Which is a great environment with endless possibilities. But still, every once in a while, indulging in nostalgia I am searching for these old machines. And in the event of a gigantic price drop, I might still go for this combination.

Focus & workflow review time.

I have been redesigning my workflow aimed towards gaining more focus. It’s been a while since I last reviewed my daily, weekly and monthly planning. I have a planning as this is important to maintain my energy over the long term.

As you might know I have braindamage which means I have limited cognitive energy. As does everyone else, mine just drops faster and is more unpredictable.

I can maintain energy in such a way I can more or less predict how good my energy levels will be in the next few days. I have a planning system where I track my energy and can see how I am doing.

It’s a pretty straight forward based points system, for example exercise adds one point, breakfast & morning tasks deduct one. And so on. I have done a few weeks of monitoring and taking notes when I was first in recovery, getting to know how much energy activities cost or how much they give energy, like a half hour power nap or a walk. All in all I can “spend” 28 to 30 points on any day, before the recovery takes to long to be able to “spend” the same amount the next day.

Exact science?

This is not an exact science, there are no guarantees I will be able to sustain this load when I follow my planning but the system gives me a fair chance it will. It’s all about probability really. If I just go hard, there is almost a 100 procent chance I will not be able to do much in the days after, if I follow the chances increase significantly, I have good streaks of several months.

The devil is in the detail, once I am experiencing such a good run I tend to get distracted and forget or ignore my planning, maybe not so much my planning, but the focus, as I recently found out when reviewing my planning after a period of rapid energy loss and bad recovery.

Problem of late, focus.

Once I am feeling good I will deviate from my planning, not so much in spending more hours but taking on more projects, ideas, interests. If I am less energetic I am able to focus on the things that matter the most. The most important project, the fun thing, the hard thing. Whatever it is.

If I have a period of more energy, I tend to lose the focus on the most important things, and start looking at other cool stuff to explore. Which in turn makes everything stall. And nothing, or almost nothing moves forward or gets done.

How do I keep my focus, and why do I lose it so easily?

Attention.

It’s all about directing my attention, which is all over the place on a good day. Which is fine. Your brain needs time to explore ideas and wander. In life goals, interests and priorities change as well. There is however a limit to where you can direct your energy, you can’t deliver your best work on all fronts all the time. You can’t learn to play the piano, learn a new language, build a house, exercise, and do the daily tasks at the some high level. At best, if you can even find the energy to do all of this. It will be mediocre or things take forever to finish.

Which is my problem, too many projects, tasks, activities. So the problem wasn’t the planning in itself. It was the lack of direction and selecting the things most important.

Aligning myself to the important things.

I needed to re-align myself with the things who I value the most. I like working on the most. I have older notes which show you can have a maximum of 3 main projects you can manage. Or activities you love to do is a better description as it doesn’t have to include your day job, but as it’s very convenient if you love your job, it’s nice if it fits. So your job is one, then you have your main interest. Let’s say learning how to play the piano. Or write a book, or rebuild your vintage motor cycle. These are all highly time consuming activities which require focus, consistency and effort.

That doesn’t mean they are fun all the time, it’s just the things you love to do.
So I needed to limit my “projects” again. Make sure they are the things I love to do, the things I really want to put energy and time into and make sure I do them consistently enough to move forward.

So there was no need to rebuild my planning, just select the projects and rethink the steps in these projects and align my activities towards these projects. When I am reading a book, the book should fall into one of the projects. When I have reserved a block of focused work, I am working on the selected projects. This sounds easy enough but if I don’t remind myself of the projects and goals, I tend to divert towards something else.

What has changed?

I didn’t change my planning, I did however added a daily moment of reminding myself of the projects I want to work on and not give myself any other option. And have a few notes in plain sight that remind me of the importance of these projects. Let’s see if it helps.

Another reminder.

If I have a period of higher energy levels it’s also important to not extend myself too much, I can do somewhat more, but I don’t want to overdo it. As it will inevitably lead toward a downward spiral. This is true for everyone. You can get consumed in projects and goals pretty fast, especially of they mean a lot to you personally and require a lot of time and effort. Remind yourself that rest & recovery is essential for being able to show up every day and have the highest chance of doing the work. It’s being consistent that is the most valuable in life, not sprinting a few weeks and than crashing. So be hard and kind to yourself, make sure you prioritize rest, recovery and downtime just as much as the work itself.

Enjoy the process, it might not be fun all the time, but the fun is also in the hard bits.

Max patching – working on my library the expert sleepers edition

Max MSP is getting some more attention lately as I am working more with my Eurorack and have some expert sleepers modules which would be ideal combining with Max.

The expert sleepers setup consists of the ES-9, an audio interface with 16 inputs and outputs, for audio & CV signals. As it is a DC coupled interface, I also have the ES-5 which add a few DC coupled outputs and the ESX-8CV expander adding CV outputs.

Lot’s of in’s and out to play with. So the first new patch I have been building is a simple communications block for this configuration. So I can make the best use of all these in and outputs. Then the possibilities are infinite, designing sequencers, audio manglers, loopers and so on.

All the while learning Max MSP

I have been working on this patch by asking Claude how to do it and adjusting things along the way. I am finetuning it at the moment. If it’s finished I will share it to my repository. If I produce any music with my future Max patches. I will share it as well. Might be a nice combination publishing the patch & the music. Something to think about.

The patch consists of a few independent parts, first a few parts delivered by Expert Sleepers for the 2 expanders, you can find them here Expert Sleepers Max externals.

The rest is build around these eternals, and the logic around the in and outputs, It has been fun using AI as a teacher and help me analyze each step in the building process. It’s a lot faster, only worry I have, will I internalize it just as well as with a more traditional way of learning, i.e. read a lot of manuals, tech docs and trial and error. Time will tell, and with pretty “boring” and basic things like interfacing which is arguably less fun it’s nice to make some fast progress.

Future ideas

The main idea is integration of my Eurorack, sending CV information to the Eurorack and getting audio in and make loops, edits and sequencing. Which will vary per patch idea. Next up is finishing a looper. For now this is a start.

Is learning how to code still relevant?

My journey in computer’s started with programming, which was somewhat essential way back when if you wanted your computer to do something. Especially if money was tight and you wanted something. Software was expensive.

It’s been the start of a fascination with technology, engineering and science.
Making stuff work out of nothing is some sort of magic.

In this day and age there is so much software, free and lower cost in general. So a lot of people just use software without ever getting near a line of code. In this new AI era you van code without knowing a lot (or anything) about coding, engineering and other technical subjects the question is, is learning how to code (or engineering skills in general) still relevant.

Is there any use for learning how to code.

As with all new technology there is always a group of people which are warning for a demise of knowledge in the field of this breakthrough new technology. When higher level coding languages appeared on the scene a lot of people were concerned with a lack of technical knowledge on how computer’s function on a technical level. How this would lead to inefficiency in software and bulky programs which were less efficient. In some respects this was true. But this had more to do with More’s law than anything else. The abundance in power did lead to less focus on small and memory efficient programs.

As time went on these topics are back in full force. Same will be true for coding is my expectation. If you want to build solutions domain knowledge is important, and if a technical engineer has domain knowledge this is a very nice advantage.

Can you build solutions with AI with just a great idea nowadays? Yes, I think you can, however it will most likely be good enough for the first release or at least good enough as a prototype. After this, you will probably need engineers for future updates, new functionality and making sure the solution will scale properly and get new larger goals implemented.

And for this, coding is essential, a basic knowledge will get you only so far. Deep knowledge of coding, or any engineering profession is extremely important for future tech roles in this new Era.

How important is the coding (or any engineering) knowledge?

AI can do a lot, especially logic and straightforward things like coding and the all sort of task. Likely to get better in the future. So why learn how to code and write code yourself. The answer is simple. It’s important to deeply understand language to communicate effectively. And really convey what you want to achieve. The only way to do this is to really know it and all the constructs behind the language.

The most important factor is the fun of learning how to code, the joy when things work, you find that bug that’s been there for ages and just experiencing the flow state when writing. This can only be achieved when doing the actual coding, also it’s a very cool challenge which isn’t easy and takes time. The rewards are there. It also teaches you a framework for working trough problems, ideas and translating ideas into solutions.

Can AI do a lot of things very fast and pretty good, it cannot give you the sheer joy of building things and learning (hard things). It trains your brain and makes growth possible. Learning anything is very important and coding is as good a start as anything.

Simply go for it.

Working on various things, without a plan, is hard.

Trying to get into a rhythm again isn’t that easy, while I am pretty good at sticking to things I am in an irregular state at the moment. Most of the time I work on projects with a goal in mind. Without trying to get to the goals in the most efficient way.

Meant to leave room for happy accidents, new ideas and changes in goals altogether. It still holds a lot of benefits, having goals. It keeps momentum going.

Having no goals, which I don’t really have at the moment, keeps me from gaining momentum. Which for me at least is a basic need for consistency. Even a vague goal is good enough. But at the moment the goals are not there.

Working on various things, mostly technical.

Now when this happens, it’s hard to rely on just showing up consistently as a clear driver is absent. Luckily there is always something to do. Stuff, things, which as a byproduct, result in ideas.

Unfortunately I tend to lean towards reading manuals, figuring out how things work or trying to sort out technical issues. Which is my comfort zone when having no goals or guidance.

Reading about how inspiration strikes it tends to happen while working on your skills and improving the flow of your process. Which is true, but I have a knack for leaning towards learning more and not playing around and just going with the flow.

So I end up with a lot of notes of how things work and theoretical knowledge and not with some recordings for the archive which later can (and will be used) for finished tracks.

That is a problem.

Play mode

I have not yet figured out how to get into play mode. Which for me, should be grasping a device, or a few and just start jamming and recording, all the while forgetting time and space. I just don’t get into play mode that often. For some reason.

I just need to find a way to just play around more. It happens, but mostly when I don’t have any instruments around, resulting in things ending up in notebooks for later recording, which may or may not happen. In an ideal world I would have just recorded everything.

Keep playing!