Ah, so many things have happened. The most obvious: My Funkwhale instance died. One of the upgrades broke something in the database and I decided to let it go for good. While this is okay, it also means I have nothing to securely host my music at this moment. And this makes me unhappy (and at least one of my fans who I know was using it).
The other thing was that I released the video from my GPN 24 gig. You can watch it here: https://makertube.net/w/kjMQaaWVVr9oFNsPW5P8Yy If you're interested in what I do there, why and most importantly, what didn't went as planned, activate the subtitles. I used them to add comments to the video and I wrote a ton of them! My intention was creating a full explanation tutorial-like video that I wanted to watch back when I was starting with all of this and now I have it for a full 1.5 hours long live show. Which makes me still very proud.
This brings me to the next big event: The MRMCD. On saturday, two weeks ago, I played there in the Lounge. And I thought it was bad. And sure, the recording was shit at first because due to a broken cable I lost the left channel two times for a few minutes each. But after repairing the audio file with parts of the right channel it's still audible but not that bad. I had a bit of bad luck with the RNG and also managed to crash the Roland T-8 somewhere 15 minutes into the gig, but for the first time my recovery plan worked. I bet nobody in the audience noticed it, even I can't point out the exact moment when it happened now that I listen to the recording. All I can tell is when the unit came back on and got its sequencer restarted by the Midi reset, it starts to play the melody pattern stored at the first pattern slot. It's the first one I manually programmed when I got the T-8 and started playing with it and I used it already in at least two recordings I can remember. So I recognize the pattern, but probably nobody from the audience knew it. I remember I put up a breakbeat pattern, immediately hit the zone and started to set the lounge on fire. It was so perfect.
So, while I was unhappy (until I actually listened through the recording), I got positive feedback from DJ Spock (the sound engineer responsible for the Lounge and I assume he made the program as well) and Rob StrobE (who played a modular synth lifeset after me). And honestly, I also learned a shitton of stuff just by watching how other people prepare, what they bring on stage, etc. I now know that having a USB light I can point at the T-8 is very important, I know that I need to double-check my cables and be prepared to connect to whatever could be provided (I mainly work with 3.5mm and 6.3mm mono and stereo jacks, but many DJs use RCA cinch connectors). I saw how Tunegirl, who was in the lounge at soundcheck, play her RD-6 and oh boy, this was awesome to watch. She basically has two patterns prepared. One with 4 step length, the other one with 3 step length. She uses them to quickly add snare drum rolls or to layer toms and put them through the onboard distortion which creates a beautiful noise layer. Since it's just 3-4 steps, she can quickly program them with one hand and barely needs to look at the controls. One switch over to the other pattern slot and boom, polymetric tom pattern. I asked her how she gets the RD-6 sequencer back in sync so that the 1st 16th plays with the other sequencers 1st 16th and she said it's just the timing when switching back to the 4 step pattern and a bit of experience. And then she did it like 4-5 times at 140 BPM just to flex while I was fangirling like crazy.
I also have been asked to hand in an application for the lounge on this years Chaos Computer Congress in Hamburg. It saddens me, but I have to pass here. The congress is always after christmas and that is an important time in my family where we visit each other and exchange presents. And this year I'm on a week long on-call duty for my dayjob during that particular week, which means that if my phone rings, I need to drop EVERYTHING and fix stuff. Not an option when I'm in the lounge playing my set. But I keep it in mind, maybe next year works better?
A big shoutout to Dave who was with me there, calmed me down and was handling his POI show in front of the stage to my music until he was tired and sweaty. Buddy, you were awesome!
What's next? I need to find something to self-host my audio files so that people can listen to my stuff again. Also, Looptober is coming up and I want to participate here again. Ah so much to do...