6.15 am: A curious dream. The guitarist Robert Fripp was playing several of his soundscapes from behind a wall at the bottom of the terrace where I lived as a child. And, I was the only audient. How strangely the mind hybridised memories, desires, and passions. I instinctively knew that the scenario was either too good or too peculiar to be other than a dream, and so visualised myself looking for the exit — which, alas, I found. 9.00 am: I returned to a consideration of the studio rack and mini-rack, with the aim of slimming down and focussing their function even further. I removed the stereo noise reduction unit from the main rack and installed it in the mini one, temporarily. I must, now, consider whether a smaller rack is required to house the power conditioners and plugboards for the mini-rack, and any other inputs required in a live performance:
An idea was mooted at the Kickplate Gallery opening on Saturday that has helped determine which of the two projects on the desk must go forward first. SteelWorks it is, then. However, I remain in the position of having to work with an amber light — waiting for permissions to be given, and otherwise busy collaborators to join the project. Therefore, I must continue to do what can be done in terms of preparation. I keep encountering ‘gender incompatibilities’ with respect to plugs and sockets. Finally, the mini-rack and monitors were ready for a dual oscillator test:
The current mixer will be replaced by a smaller analogue/digital hybrid; this’ll have the capacity to route the individual outputs to a computer DAW and a general output to an onboard SD recorder. (Belt and braces.) The test worked a treat.
After lunch, I began to assemble six of my Moog effector pedals on a vertical rack. These units were designed for guitarists. However, they’ve too many tweakable parameters to be fully serviceable at one’s feet. Moreover, they take up quite a fair bit of real estate on a pedalboard:
Evening. Replugging and Velcroing — preparing and securing one of the power conditioner units: the ‘Flatty’. I may yet revise my earlier idea of developing a power conditioning rack and, instead, incorporate it into the existing mini-rack. (The main rack has a power conditioner built into it.) Economy, efficiency, sufficiency, and consistency are my watchwords.