I am Ashley Elsdon

someone who's doing some things

Category: Music

Music is a huge part of my life so it’s almost certain that this category will have a lot of stuff in it.

Messing around with littleBits MIDI bit

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I’ve been playing around with my new littleBits MIDI bit. It’s pretty easy to get to grips with. It handles USB MIDI and 5 pin MIDI too, which is very handy. It all worked very well actually. I tested it out using Genome MIDI Sequencer on my iPad. No problems at all.

I got it to hopefully make my littleBits collection a bit more useful. I think that it will. The down side is that it appears that one of the oscillators in my kit appears to have stopped working. Which is disappointing. I doubt that there’s anyway to fix it sadly. I guess I’ll just have to get a new one.

Finished a new track with NanoStudio

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En Hiver in NanoStudio
En Hiver in NanoStudio

I’ve been a big fan of NanoStudio since it first launched, but I’ve rarely finished anything that I’ve started with it. Today I’ve finished a piece that I began ages ago. It’s an old track that I’ve re-worked and I’m really pleased with it.

Recording En Hiver in AudioShare
Recording En Hiver in AudioShare

AudioShare is an awesome swiss army knife of mobile audio. I used it here to record the track in so I could then move it into …

En Hiver mastered in Final Touch
En Hiver mastered in Final Touch

Which made it sound even better, or at least that’s what I think. The final track will be up on SoundCloud later.

So Reaktor 6 is here

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And it looks really interesting and like a good update from 5.5. But before upgrading I have to ask myself if I’m actually going to make enough use of this update to make it worthwhile. So far I’m not doing anything really interesting with Reaktor so I’m sitting on the fence about getting the upgrade. There’s always the argument that actually the upgrade itself will make me make something interesting with it, but I’m even struggling to get myself to believe that!

I think I’ll leave it for a couple of months and see what I feel like then.

Enjoying Spotify’s new Discover Weekly playlist

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It’s been a few weeks now since Spotify introduced their new ‘Discover Weekly’ playlist feature. I approached this with some skepticism. I didn’t like the idea of a playlist generated by some algorithm based on my listening habit. I assumed it would pick up all the wrong things and offer me some dreadful concoction of tracks that would be ultimately unlistenable.

However, I was for the most part wrong. It appears that Spotify have done a very good job of pulling this together and making it something that is in fact quite enjoyable to listen to, and that has, somewhat rapidly, become a looked forward to part of my week.

As a result of the discover weekly playlist I’ve already found a few artists who’s work I didn’t know and have looked into further. It’s been very good. I really hope it continues to provide interesting discovery and open up new musical possibilities.

I just hope that they don’t get rid of it like they did with Spotify apps.

Bill Nelson’s Getting the Holy Ghost Across … the tape!

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Bill Nelson's Getting the Holy Ghost Across Tape front
Bill Nelson’s Getting the Holy Ghost Across Tape front

I already have this album, on vinyl and on CD, but the tape has something special about it, and it isn’t just that it was the format that I bought this album on for the first time. No, it’s something different.

Bill Nelson's Getting the Holy Ghost Across Tape back
Bill Nelson’s Getting the Holy Ghost Across Tape back

With the original tape was a lyric list that came with it, printed on the same sort of paper that bibles are printed with. It was a lovely touch and in keeping with the whole album, so when I saw it come up on eBay I knew it was something I wanted to own again just for old times sake.

Bill Nelson's Getting the Holy Ghost Across Tape lyric sheet
Bill Nelson’s Getting the Holy Ghost Across Tape lyric sheet

Moog Soundlab residency: Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard Performance

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Moog Soundlab residency: Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard Performance
Moog Soundlab residency: Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard Performance

After being at one of these performance I’d booked to go again, expecting, not unreasonably, for it to be of a similar format to the previous Moog Soundlab event at the Ace Hotel in Shoreditch. I was wrong. At least, I was for the most part wrong. It was similar in the sense that there was the same enormous (or at least enormous by my standards) Moog modular rig being used. However, I was different in more or less every other aspect.

To illustrate I took a photograph of the letter that every received (on their chair as they arrived) and were asked to read.

Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard Performance
Moog Soundlab residency: Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard Performance … the letter

I think you’ll agree that this is really quite unusual. As were the two glasses of gin that did arrive and were, at least to my taste, nothing like the gin I’m used to.

In fact, as an event it was more like something I might see at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, rather than in London, so from that perspective, I loved it.

Listening to old songs …

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I’ve been listening to a lot of my ‘old’ songs. Stuff I recorded on old analogue gear, like my Fostex X-15. Those old recordings were made my bouncing loads of tracks from one side of the tape to another. So the quality wasn’t brilliant. With some tracks it was pretty bad in fact, but, even then, some of those tracks were great songs.

I been really enjoying listening to these songs, and they remind me about what’s important in music. It’s about making songs that mean something, that are good and that stand the test of time. I think that once in a while it’s important to be reminded about that kind of thing.

I like to think that I can make some more songs that I can feel that good about again. That’s my plan.

Moog Soundlab residency: Dave Colohan

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Moog Soundlab residency: Dave Colohan - The Modular
Moog Soundlab residency: Dave Colohan – The Modular

This was a lovely little event, and when I say little I really do mean it. The audience was tiny in a tiny little basement bar at the Ace hotel in Shoreditch. It’s a nice venue though. The performance lasted a hour and was very interesting and used a lot but not all the equipment.

More modular stuff
More modular stuff

I find it interesting to watch a modular performance like this to see how the music is actually generated and sustained. It isn’t like normal performances at all of course. Quite different indeed.

Modular beauties at Moog Soundlab residency
Modular beauties at Moog Soundlab residency

The arrangements were lovely, with people’s names on their booked seats.

My seat at Moog SoundLab
My seat at Moog SoundLab

And on each seat was a thing called a “dream machine”, which was a strange light contraption sitting on a turntable. It made an interesting effect though.

Dream machine at Moog SoundLab residency
Dream machine at Moog SoundLab residency

So it was an enjoyable evening, good fun, interesting to watch and different environment too.

Dave Colohan performing
Dave Colohan performing