Well, it’s been rather hectic lately. Much of the time that I’d normally spend making music has gone to other tasks. One major project is helping someone prepare for college. Choosing schools, investigating costs, seeking scholarships, and working on applications takes a lot of work. I expect the process to go on for more than a year, and it’s only going to get busier along the way.

Another big time consumer has been enhancing my programming skills. It’s the typical situation – I work with a programming team that has moved to the latest versions of all our tools, and now I have to make sure I’m up to speed. For anyone interested in the world of code, I’m referring to Visual Studio 2010 and C# 4.0, with my main concern being ASP.NET. This is the work that supports my musical endeavors, so, it has to stay a priority.

I also just finished converting to a paperless office as much as possible. In place of files and notebooks, I’m using OneNote 2010. The papers get scanned and inserted into OneNote notebooks, which I then keep on my laptop or on my SkyDrive. I’ve reduced the weight of paper I’m storing, and everything is available wherever I have computer access.

However, I’m sticking with pen and paper when it comes to writing lyrics. I’ve tried writing on the computer, and it’s just not satisfying. Perhaps I’m distracted by all the other programs doing things, and worrying about battery charge, and becoming eye sore staring at a screen. All I know for sure is, a good notebook and pen is more relaxing and brings out more creativity for me. I enjoy the process more, and you’re going to enjoy the results more.

After completing the last two albums, I took a break from music to put dents in the stack of books and queue of movies I’ve been wanting to get through. I also had downtime for the holidays, vacations, and other family events. Now we’re well into the start of a new year, and it’s time for me to work on some new projects.

One is another album of downtempo/trip-hop instrumentals, but this time on the Kaossilator Pro. I received the Kaossilator last year and intended to do this project then, but I later obtained a copy of Ableton Live, and it side-tracked me into the “Mysterious Unions” album. Now I’m back on the Kaossilator for an album with the working title of “Excursions into Chaos.” The first track is already online at these locations:
My site: http://grooveexpedition.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/grooveexpedition
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzuJCpxFt0U
Tumblr: http://grooveexpedition.tumblr.com/

Another project is a new album of rock songs using the Roland GR-55 guitar synthesizer. In previous posts, I wrote about installing the synth pickup on my Fernandes Sustainer Dragonfly. Now I’m creating the sounds I want to use and getting used to the device controls. I’m hoping to create all the guitar and bass sounds I had using my Digitech RP-500 pedalboard, the synth sounds I was using on my microKorg XL synthesizer, plus discover new sounds unique to the GR-55. The backbone of the new music will probably be guitar, bass, and percussion, as with the “What We Were Missing” album, but I’d like to introduce even more synth elements.

I already have a song in the works for this second project. The music is written and the lyrics are nearing completion. It’ll take me some time to get this first one uploaded, because I still have to finish setting up the guitar synth before I can record. But I’ll try to upload some new Kaossilator tracks in the meantime.

Here’s hoping we all have a productive 2012.

Today I’ve uploaded the latest track for my “Excursions into Chaos” album. This is an electronic album created on the Kaossilator Pro. All the music is played live, in one take – no multi-track editing. This piece is called “Mohawks and Animal Hats,” referring to events of the past week. It features a trip-hop-like beat, two separate bass lines, and a synth pad as background loops. Over this I alternate leads between a distorted guitar sound and a phased chorus sound. I originally planned to only have a drop at the beginning, but, as the song progressed, I worked in two more drops. I like the effect of the first time the beat stops. The song is marching along steadily, and then it’s like tripping and falling.

Now my only problem is how to get the audio into a Facebook news feed. The old music app, which would place a play button in the news feed, no longer works. The only option seems to be adding the music to a video file, and uploading that. However, I don’t want to just upload a blank video or a slideshow video, so I may need to do some downloading of videos and build a montage. That’s a lot of work just to get a song online.

It’s been another one of those extremely busy periods where I haven’t been able to spend time working on music or posting updates online. I’ve done an occasional tweet or picture upload, but that’s been as much as I could manage. Most of my time has gone to unforeseen web programming projects, helping others with projects of their own, and preparing for a large party for Halloween. Now that Halloween is over, and the projects are stabilizing, I can start getting back to my normal music routine.

The angry, anti-landlord Kaossilator piece is still next on the list for new music. I still intend to put the albums, “What We Were Missing” and “Mysterious Unions” on CDBaby, iTunes, and Amazon. And I still need to find a music player that functions on Facebook like the original one that they’ve apparently abandoned. I’m not optimistic about Facebook. My feeling is they want to push users to services like ReverbNation and SoundCloud, which don’t do what I need. And users have been requesting a fix for the Facebook Music app since March, with no response from the developers.

As for new projects, in the course of creating a mix of music for Halloween, I put together a list of blues songs that would be good for a live set. I’ve toyed with this idea for a few years now, but haven’t seriously started working on it. This is at least the first step. And using the Roland GR-55 guitar synthesizer, I’ve been able to play a bass and guitar at the same time. I just need to get the details worked out and see if it can sound the way I’d need it to. That and some live looped percussion might do the trick.

Also, I mentioned previously that my loop station, the Boss RC-50, was discontinued, and there had been no word on an updated model coming out. That concerned me, because there’s no other loop station that has the features I need, and if my RC-50 were to have a problem, I’d be dead in the water. Thankfully, Boss has released the RC-300. It’s the RC-50, with much more memory, additional footswitches to make it easier to operate, and built-in effects. The new footswitches alone are enough for me to add this new model to my wish list. Then my RC-50 can be my backup unit. But at the very least, there’s an option available should my RC-50 take a dive.

I’ve been having a really hot time this week. Literally. The AC died a week ago, and while the property manager lined up a repair for the next day, the owner chose to work on it personally. Only, he first had to come back from vacation. And when he finally showed up with his “turse” (tool purse), all he could do was determine that the property manager’s contractor was correct – the compressor (the outside unit) was dead and needed to be replaced.

He left to shop for one, saying he would tell me by day’s end if he could find it. This would be the quickest repair, but wasn’t a sure thing because the system uses discontinued refrigerant. The alternative would be replacing the entire system, which would add days to the job. With interior temperature at 90 degrees, you can imagine how eager I was to hear which way it would go. Unfortunately, he didn’t call.

To save my equipment, some of it had to be moved to another location with working air-conditioning. For the rest, I located a portable AC unit and set it up in a room that could be closed off. It was only powerful enough to lower the room temperature seven degrees less than the rest of the building, but you’d be surprised how good that seven degree difference can feel.

Two days later, the call came, and he was only then beginning the compressor shopping, with no clue how long it might take. The next day, he reported having found one and set an appointment to install it, only to cancel later. And finally, yesterday, it was installed. The cold air is flowing, and I’m incredibly relieved. The only down side is that the air handler (the inside unit) is decades old, rusted out, and causes me to worry about repeating this episode in the near future.

Obviously this completely disrupted music production, and once I get everything back, I have to set it all up again. However, it’s given me a bit of inspiration. My next Kaossilator track will be expressing anger toward crappy landlords.

Meanwhile, the Music Player app on Facebook stopped functioning on my page (and for thousands of other pages, apparently). I loved the ability to post a song to my wall and have the play button appear in people’s news feeds, since they didn’t have to leave the page they were on to sample the song. I’ve been trying to get a response from Facebook, who developed the app, but that’s not working.

As alternatives, I tried BandCamp, ReverbNation, and SoundCloud, but all they do is post a link to your page in news feeds when you add a song. They do allow you to display a music player on your page, but I’ve already written that code on my own site. And since Facebook has discontinued FBML tabs, I switched over to their new iframes and placed my players on tabs already. So the search for the elusive news feed play button continues.