Back at the Liberty Festival with SoundLab

SoundLab at the 2015 Liberty Festival
SoundLab at the 2015 Liberty Festival

So this is the second year I’ve been at the Liberty Festival with SoundLab. This year was a bit damp and wet, but fun nevertheless. We still had a lot of people come along and play and enjoy themselves, so it was a good day all in all. I’m glad that I was able to be a part of it.

iPads at SoundLab Liberty Festival 2015
iPads at SoundLab Liberty Festival 2015

Even though it was wet we had a steady stream of people wanting to try out new ways to make music, and experiment.

A bit of Theremini and AlphaSphere
A bit of Theremini and AlphaSphere

A day at WOMAD

Obligatory WOMAD flag picture
Obligatory WOMAD flag picture

I wasn’t able to spend the whole weekend at WOMAD this year, I was only able to go for the day this year. Which was ok. The weather was pretty awful on the Friday, so the Saturday was a good option in the end.

So as always here’s the obligatory photo of the flags. I think you have to take one as part of the terms and conditions of the ticket. I heard a few interesting things on Saturday. Possibly the most interesting was Hannah Peel, who I’ll be listening to some more of soon enough.

It was also good to see Hossam Ramsay doing a workshop at WOMAD this year. Quite a while ago I did a workshop where Hossam taught for a day, and that was excellent. I really enjoyed it.

Hossam Ramsay at WOMAD
Hossam Ramsay at WOMAD

So I’m glad I went. It was good to meet up with some old friends and see how the festival has come on in a year. I’ve been going for a long time now, not as long as some of my friends though, and it’s sort of become an annual tradition.

I like WOMAD, but this year it felt a little crowded. I’m not sure why. It was good to go for the day, this year that was enough for me.

My favourite calculator app (Tydlig) needs to do more

I really like Tydlig, it’s a little calculator app for iOS and it has a great design, but it needs to do a few more things to be truly great. Here’s my current wishlist:

  1. Be able to store calcs as files or applets or something like that
  2. Be able to reference external numbers like dates and times and be able to update stored calcs / applets in the background
  3. Have a URL schema of some kind so it can be automated
  4. And lastly, and least probably, integrate with IFTTT.

If it could do the first three things that would be amazing. A real step forward.

Oxted Beer Festival 2015

Oxted Beer Festival glass.
Oxted Beer Festival glass.

A nice festival and bigger than last year, or so it seemed. At least it must have been a bit bigger as they actually ran out of beer at the Oxted festival on the Saturday night. I’m not sure that I’ve ever been to a beer festival where that’s happened before.

It was a good event. Music wasn’t bad, food had some interesting choices too. But if anyone offers you a sausage role called a ‘ring burner’, just say no. Take my advice.

Wrist band from the Oxted Beer Festival.
Wrist band from the Oxted Beer Festival.