A Misemono Kyoto FM remix for the OBON Summer Holidays in Japan here.
The SHORT I released last Saturday as all of Japan went on Holidays only got 9 views, so not a great time to release something you put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into.
The cicadas stopped singing suddenly a few days ago, when the rain started and temperature dropped about 10 degrees.
Other Things
It is now official that there are more BOTs on the Internet than people, but that is not new news to me and seen that in our website access data for quite some time.
Is it the end of the Internet as a useful tool? Google search is now garbage, that is for sure.
Star Trek Discovery stumbled into our included with prime viewing and struck us that this probably shouldn't have been a STAR TREK show but some other original SF thing, as they don't particularly care about the Star Trek universe it should be part of. Like when the Klingons look like the ALIEN PROMETHEUS ENGINEERS rather than anything in any previous series, and the tech they have breaks just everything that came before.
It seems YouTube is mostly advertising to me. Like these speaker shoot out videos.
And the guy presenting it, using his own original songs in the comparisons, is effectively advertising himself. Seems the majority of videos offered to me follow that same formular. I have the JBL104s shown in this. At the time the iLOUD micros were the better sounding monitor, and smaller, but even then had heard of reliability issues. The small powered PROSONUS monitors sound good, but have reliability issues too.
The failure points of older products become known. iLOUDs micros can have AC ADAPTERs, woofer and cables fail around ~3 years.. BUT that bright yellow RIBBON tweeters can get damaged easily by cats is "unusual".
What is most important about using any monitors for mixing is knowing what they add or reduce, and taking that into account. The room they are in and acoustic treatment is important too.
My tiny acoustically untreated room (as NO SPACE!) means doesn't really matter what speakers I use, the results wouldn't be good.
But being 68 this year means I don't trust my ears anyway, with no highs, and big dips in my hearing, and rely on visual tools too.
SPAN in MASTERING MODE being vital to me. Headphones too.
Still being the cook with my wife still suffering from ongoing SHINGLES pain. Not as bad as it was, but still bad enough for her to not be able to leave the house or walk very far yet.
The animation is a steam punk Economic Fallacies Machine. Trying to be Monty Python-ish.
The song is about the vocal tone to me and is too much "Old man shouting at the clouds".
Ended up writing 3 different song lyrics for this piece of music. The first 2 on repeated listening ended up not being what I needed to say at the moment. Have them filed away though for the future.
Pseudoscience are things like Astrology, Homeopathy, Flat earth, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Detox Diets. Psychology borders on pseudoscience. Economics is a step up from Psychology, but far from a science with laws of nature and repeatability.
Economics has a big tie in with politics and is manipulated by it. Real Science doesn't. Real science can get a probe to land on an asteroid 6 years from now. Economics can't precisely determine anything 1 month into the future. As someone who had to be precise and accurate in my design engineering career, that economics is half bullshit annoys me.
So much discourse from Politicians, The Media and Government uses almost Pseudoscience Economics to justify what they do.
Some of those economic lies and fallacies:
Trade deficits cost domestic jobs.
Raising the minimum wage kills all jobs.
Government spending always creates wealth.
Price controls lower the cost of living.
Tax cuts always pay for themselves.
There is a lump of labor.
Government budgets are like household budgets
Taxing the wealthy always hurts the economy
Hard work is a guaranteed path out of poverty
Economics is an objective science
Trickle-Down Economics
A rising tide lifts all boats
Price Stability
Austerity
Free Market
Job Creators
Right to Work
Deregulation
That call to "get rid of the red tape!". Deregulation. Watching CLARKSON'S FARM, it looks like there are far too many regulations, and at least some should go, and not be up to a single authoritarian council member for their personnel use. Their bad behavior isn't regulated or reviewed is the problem! But in other cases, such as building codes in Australia, because they got rid of regulations to have independent building Inspectors, the builder did it themselves, and at least one apartment block in Sydney is now unlivable and dangerous for the owners who can't live there or sell it. If crooks aren't regulated, bad things happen.
Don’t let that there is a Nobel prize for Economics fool you. Economics is not a science, and yet there are no prizes for psychology, sociology or anthropology. That there is a prize elevates economics in the public mind it does not deserve.
The Nobel prize winning economist Milton Friedman wrote a New York Times article mentioning "a Corporations only goal is shareholder value". Of course bad people then use this to justify anything that may harm people or the environment. Enshittification is just bad people doing bad things to other people for monetary gain.
It is self evident that a corporation must be a good member of society to not harm the society it is in. "a Corporations only goal is shareholder value" is a lie, not a scientific law of nature.
So I have a problem when the half lies of an economist sets the course for anything. If a civil engineer did that designing and building a bridge for a highway, it would collapse. Economists should be held to the same standards as an engineer building a bridge to not to collapse and kill people. If they can't, then the advice is worthless, and may as well just use Astrology.
Lyrics:
Economic fictions get retold Like they're some holy truth, But these are just opinions No science, no proof
Economics and politics are not bound by hard facts Just fluffy nothingness holding us back
High Priests of Business Selling power to the sky but the system they have built Rests on sand and half lies
They preach from the ledger Where human worth is priced, And sacrifice the future To keep their charts concise
Keeping with my "unusual" 8 bars of instrumental, then 8 bars of vocals, then repeat song structure in these #MUSIC+COMICS. Trying to not do what everyone else does is interesting for me.
The Reaper project.
Guitar is my down and DROP tunned Ibanez GIO 7 string. My favorite guitar for a while now. Just a beginners guitar, but once I shaped the nut properly and set it up, there is nothing wrong with it (except GIO on the headstock).
The output jack could be better, and I did buy a quality unit to upgrade it, but haven't bothered to change it yet, as I don't use it on stage, just sitting in my tiny home studio. Recorded DI and tones from Neural DSP Modeller Vst.
That Sennheiser e945 microphone has made a difference to recording my vocals for the better. It is summer here now and the cicadas in the tree across the street make an incredible racket in the day time, but have found closing the studio window shutters reduces the noise significantly so it doesn't get in to the recorded vocals.
A year ago I moved to Win11 and left behind my Win10 only audio interface and driver. In that move I lost the ability to use Winamp or Guitar Pro and Reaper at the same time. Sound output was only one at a time no matter if sharing audio driver or not. The driver also had no LoopBack.
In the last few days I installed VOICEMEETER Banana, and have now paid for a license and virtual inputs. This has resolved those and OBS issues I had, well enough anyway. At least I can play GuitarPro to learn a guitar part, while playing thru Reaper now, like I could back in Win10. Winamp doesn't crash if Reaper playing when it opens too.
Still getting the hang of it, and what issues it can cause, and it isn't something I need all the time. When using Reaper to record, I use the native ASIO drivers, and bypass VOICEMEETER, at least so far. I am not a streamer so features for that kind of thing isn't something I need.
The last week has been so hot and humid in Kyoto. I made the trek out to 京都第二赤十字病院, (Kyōto daini sekijūji byōin, Kyoto 2nd Red Cross Hospital), near Marutamachi Station 3 times for the 3PM visiting time. The trip requires changing train 3 times and 12 minute walks each way, which isn't much, but the weather made it so hard at that time of day.
Walking to:
Walking back to station
There is a GUSTO just near Marutamachi Station, and ended up there for an early dinner each time before making the trek home. Had enough of GUSTO for the time being.
The robot in the GUSTO there has a broken wheel and makes the same klunk klunk klunk sound all Sydney Supermarket trollies do. The first GUSTO I have been to where things like ICE and hand towels had run out. Many more young people there than my local place.
August 2 2026, was 11 year Anniversary of our adventure with Kidney Stones. Early afternoon 2015/8/2 I had a sharp pain in the back. It quickly got worse and I could do nothing but lie on my back on the floor and I got my wife to call an ambulance via the EMERGENCY NUMBER. I talked to them to go to Royal North Shore Hospital Emergency.
A Firetruck arrived siren blazing, then they called the ambulance. Off to hospital. I had no idea what this terrible pain and illness was, but Emergency soon had me on Morphine (and the world was really wonderful again) and into an MIR to tell it was Kidney Stones. That was a huge relief.
Daughter rushed to Hospital with her boyfriend too, but the panic was over then.
I stayed overnight and with use of drug to enlarge the water works path, was fine in the morning and I caught a taxi home. Didn't sleep at all in Emergency though as the ECG equipment I was attached to made a loud beep every 5 minutes to indicate all was well!
That was the first of 2 Ambulance trips to emergency I have made. Worth it, as if you come in via an Ambulance you bypass the EMERGENCY WAITING ROOM which will add many hours before any treatment would start. Our private health insurance covered the ambulance fees.
10 years ago I was converting a number of my vinyl records to high res MP3 files. The stuff that had never been rereleased on CD or just rare album like the music to Australian TV series AGAINST THE WIND. I had made an RIAA equalizer and recorded them into REAPER. I had a Technics DIRECT DRIVE D2 Turntable and an OROTOFON cartridge.
I had some 120 albums and once I had recorded 12 or so, I sold them and my turntable. Practically gave them away at the time. No one wanted them in our area. Vinyl always had sizzle, pops and clicks, no matter how well they were cleaned and looked after. I just loved CD for the silence the music came out of.
Vinyl when it came back was of no interest to me. Still not. I prefer HiRes MP3, what I can carry around with me.
Wife still has all her albums and I do still have a few 7" 45rpm singles. No plan to buy a turntable at the moment though. Would just take up space we don't have.
Next week is OBON here in Japan. A public holiday, many extend a few days. Doctors and Dentist clinics closed. All rather too hot to go anywhere. Thinking I may not make it to Hyogo for the GHOST IN THE SHELL animation artwork before it closes end of August. It isn't a full exhibition but a smaller display in a 3F gallery. The multiple Hospital visits last week have shown me in this weather that is probably just all too hard.
The Random Rewards and the addiction they generate in a creator exemplified by our random YouTube SHORT views.
All just manipulation by the Tech Bros.
Bots are so active on X. 2 weeks ago had a jump of 10 followers, then a week later a reduction of 10. All about them getting followers and cash from X for garbage.
The Illusion of Equivalence Practiced by Politicians, the Media, Business & Advertising... speaking with forked tongues.
None in the mainstream media dare mention climate-change at all during recent extreme weather events, the power of the fossil fuel industry at work, world wide.
A Heavy Guitar & Synthesizer Punk (not polished performances, DIY aesthetic ) Philosophical Nursery Rhythm at 145BPM. With a nod to Frank Zappa and how easily we confuse activity with substance.
Lyrics:
Beauty ≠ Love Silence ≠ Peace Belief doesn't make it real
Love ≠ Freedom
They may not say What you think they did
The words are important
Movement ≠ Progress Progress ≠ Growth Certainty ≠ Proof Reason ≠ Meaning
Freedom ≠ Choice Choice ≠ Power Justice ≠ Law Law ≠ Order
The words are important They may not say What you think it did
Information ≠ Truth Knowledge ≠ Wisdom Truth ≠ Beauty Wisdom ≠ Truth
I like how the last 10 songs I have done sound. Okay with much of the vocals too. Doing a new song in about 3 days means I haven't really spent a lot of time on them, but I don't have any audience so I just do as I please.
All in G flat (F sharp) with similar riffs and melodic stuff. But that is okay. Ervin Berlin wrote 1500 songs just using the black notes on the piano.
Written the lyrics for the next one too, Bad Bosses. Had a few, but second worse boss I had for 2 years at a financial software developer. He took the cost of living pay increase for the year of a team of 12, and gave it to himself instead, and bragged about it. He had the Marketing department promoting himself rather than the companies products, and I don't get how they didn't see that.
All involved in Sabotage of Potential of staff and Credit Hoarding. All companies, as looked back on decades later, paid the price though for being so stupid.
Pain been a big thing with wife and SHINGLES again this week. Hasn't been a good time. Not going to go into details though.
Last weeks YouTube short, MONSTERS OF PAIN only had 10 views! Was that because of school holidays here or just algorithm related things I wonder?
I have been doing all the cooking and cleanup single handily for the last 4 weeks or so now. Something I needed to do, and haven't minded it at all.
I still haven't baked anything despite keenly following BRITSH BAKE OFF. Just so easy to buy a fancy cake or patisserie here, something very rarely do anyway.
Our JBL RUN2 headphones finally had one earpiece fail during a train trip this week (of a few visiting hospitals) , and I immediately ordered the current JBL RUN3 model when I got home. Couldn't not have music while out and about. The sound isolation they provide is really good, BUT the Italian songs they had in Saizeriya on Tuesday were so loud they couldn't keep it out!
I like being able to pull out the earbuds, and have them hang from the top of my ears using the IEM cable over ear way to wear them. That is great, but having to plug them into my phone in my trouser pocket, the cable gets in the way with my train travel card and such. So have ordered a Lavodio Bluetooth Wireless Audio Receiver, and see if that is more convenient for me, despite being another thing having a rechargeable battery.
The thing iPhone users without a headphone jack could use.
The clip holding it to your shirt was broken at the hinge before I even opened the shrink warped box. The size of the plastic hinge components is about 1/3 the size of an old Sony Noise Cancelling Earbuds unit I have, so it is just a mechanically bad Chinese design. The strong spring in the clip broke its own plastic hinge component.
Getting a replacement wouldn't fix that, So I hot rodded an attachment with a clip from SERIA and a bent paperclip.
This receiver with the JBL RUN3 is good in the trips I have done with it so far.
Been watching the new THE GHOST IN THE SHELL series. It looks great, and like the manga.
But it is just the same stories I already know, which is kind of a disappointment. Better than ARISE though. That was just dull for me.
YouTube algorithms are garbage now. Doesn't show you much of what you subscribed to, and more likely something related to what you liked on Facebook or searched on Amazon for.
I am so aware now of the pricing associated with BRANDS and the age groups targeted for different things. Still getting shown videos of how great the SSL2 MkII audio interface is, justified having around low noise preamps BUT mostly the brand name. So many useless unboxing videos just repeating the marketing material 😒.
The Internet now has more BOTS on it than PEOPLE, officially. That is what the access stats for our own website showed from a few years ago. No shock there at all, and that isn't a good thing. With AI just stealing everything, I don't put my artwork on their anymore. I do put up music, but that is okay, as BOTS are the only ones to listen to it besides me. 😃
The childhood "Chicken Pox" virus you had as a kid, lays dormant, and can/will strike painfully
as a run down elderly person. Shingles always seemed a strange harmless name for it to me.
I had Shingles 10 years ago, wife has it now and 3+ weeks into the pain. She didn't start the within the 72 hours treatment window as she thought the internet told her she had some thing related to a shoulder issue she has. So PAIN has been a big thing for me in the last weeks, even though not my own pain this time.
I had KIDNEY STONES about 10 years ago too, and that is incredibly painful, but after an ambulance ride to ER and getting Morphine everything is right with the world in short order. Other drug opens up the water works and it flushed it out easily. Went home next morning. But that was in Sydney, and don't know about what happens in Kyoto here these days.
But the real pain I had to endure was after an extensive Hemorrhoidectomy 9 years ago. The first 4 weeks were agony, but I wasn't approaching normal again till after 10 months. Back to normal was after 12 months. The Surgeon had said pain should last no more than 2 weeks, so I was in no way prepared. But the reason I came down with Shingles was because I lost a liter of blood one week and almost passed out once. That was the driver for getting my issue fixed.
People with some kinds of terminal cancer, have constant extreme pain. Read some don't think giving them Morphine is "right", but have to say that ignores how terrible extreme pain is and giving them Morphine IS the right thing to do to make their end more pleasant.
Guitars using the NEURAL DSP MODELLER vst for AWSEOME METAL tones. Even if the song isn't METAL.
The animation is reusing something I did from first learning MOHO V12 animation bones on single images, but effective enough for a SHORT and the popcorn brained.
Lyrics:
Monsters of pain,
A weight on your soul,
Sandcastles crumble
As you lose control.
Pain is a monster,
It tears at your skin.
But standing united,
We're going to win
The tides are rising,
The shore disappears,
Drowning the secrets
And fueling your fears.
Again, not a traditional song [Verse/Chorus repeat] structure, but [Verse/Musical bit repeat]. Why would I want to do what every one else is doing? The music industry/ record industry is irrelevant to me.
Worked out to record DI guitar for Neural DSP Modeler, I need zero latency monitoring of a distorted guitar tone. So my signal chain is guitar to Mackie 402VLZ4 and the output of that goes into the Rubix22 inputs. The TAPE OUT of the mixer then goes into a LINE6 distortion pedal and into my ORANGE micro amp, to a 10" cabinet have under the desk. REAPER is set to AUTO on the GUITAR TRACKS so it doesn't output the recorded signal during recording.
So I play back the backing through my monitors, while I play the guitar and listen to my ORANGE guitar amp. ZERO latency.
Other Things
YouTube has been showing me many guitar related channels again. Phil McKnight is one that has had some really interesting stuff to me over recent years.
Like he made 2 of the same guitars, but put a True Temperament neck on one and spent 6 months playing them to work out if it really was better. His first problem was it took 6 months to get a True Temperament neck after he ordered it for $1,000, and that really shocked him, being an American, where next day delivery is normal. His journey was interesting as he knew others didn't like the better tuning as it made guitar "sound like a piano". But over his 6 months of using both guitars, for the first 3 months he preferred the sound of the traditional frets, but in the end found the True Temperament was "better". It is subtle though.
Made me realize True Temperament definitely isn't a must have for me.
He also has a lot of videos about "are expensive guitars worth it or not?". The thing with over $1,000 guitars is that they don't play better and the attraction is other things like the beauty or recapturing something from your youth (if you were really into guitars then).
In this one from a couple of months ago he discovered GUITAR Marketing for young people is all about expensive custom shop and boutique guitars. All FOMO based. For old guys, the opposite!
I have seen the same thing here, where Osaka Sound Messe is all about expensive boutique guitars, and that this is some how normal. NOT spending $4000 means your not even in the game. The kind of X advert for guitars:
Japan is kind of a different case, where keeping up appearances is important. Really Important. iPhone market share is 60%+ in Japan and 20%+ rest of the world, as it really is expensive, and THE thing to have. The clothes people wear, accessories and your company title changes how people relate to you.
There is a TAMAHOMES housing area not far from here, where all the "reasonably affordable" smallish homes are all variations on the same 8 or so components. I think Australia should have something like that. But some of the places still have EXPENSIVE cars like BMW and MERCEDES BENZ parked out front, which to my non-Japanese way of thinking is just really wrong money priorities.
In another of Phil's videos where he talks about expensive guitars he says there are many that just don't care about expensive (over $800~$1000) guitars and I am one of them. 😊
Another thing I have come to realize over the last few years is that I aren't a guitar guy, and only care about the recorded sound of a finished piece of music I do in my studio. Synthesizers are even cooler, and the studio/DAW, and having my own RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP is what I am about. Don't care about bespoke guitars and the culture around that.
I was involved with developments of the Fairlight Instruments CMI series II & III in the 1980s, but I never had or used one, and really don't care about the new CPU System on a card Freshwater Instruments has done. Lots of CMI fans do though. To me a CMI is so limited compared to what anyone can do with the REAPER DAW and simple gear now. But I think the fans are Synth People/ Collectors the same way the Bespoke Guitar buyers are. It isn't about them using whatever to make music, even if they do that sometimes.
Came across Kenny Gray Comedy+Music and love it. He has videos on Instagram, but I just love his GARY NUMAN-ISH INDOORBOY
I wish I had written that song.
Was expecting to go to THE GHOST IN THE SHELL exhibit in Hyogo this week, but it is extreme hot here
and info from the site says it is expected to be extremely crowded and you need a ticket with a time to enter. That is not any fun, and with my wife in the condition she is have put off going. I may get there before it closes August 30th, but maybe not.
Much on display is in the MAKING OF books I have had for decades, and it was the original manga work of Masamune Shirow I saw last year that was the real must see to me
X has always had a massive problem with bots/ farms. I get so tired of the engagement farming and even good guys can post way to much. Keeping up isn't worth the trouble, but luckily I don't have notifications on for any social media, don't use the Apps at all, so it can silently all go past without bothering me.
Guitar, synths, techno drums and the synth noises/ sweeps are a KORG MONOTRON
Something of a reaction to being a care-er in recent weeks, and for many, the fashion and look aspect of being a musician are so important, and aren't anymore when I am a grandfather in my late 60s.
The Sennheiser e945, in a small desk stand with mesh pop filter has simplified my singing setup/tear down in our tiny studio and I seem to be able to hear myself better now. Putting vocals on something is so much easier now. Coming up with Lyrics isn't something I spend any time doing.
Much of Marty Friedman's book Dreaming Japanese I read last year seems to be fussing about his hair, being short and fashion. He was a rockstar. My own hair was so important to me in the last years of High School, but not in the 50 years since.
Lyrics:
I'm not a rock star, no fancy shoes no fashion sense No fancy hair An ordinary guy,
I'm not a rock star, a family man, a steady guy. no fancy shirts no make up Just An ordinary guy,
I'm not a rock star. no flashing lights, no big guitar, a quiet life just an ordinary guy,
I'm not a rock star. no stadiums, no screaming crowds, no limousines Just a quiet life,
I put it on Bandcamp and posted to X and Bluesky about it a week before releasing the Music+Comic. But my followers have zero interest in any music I put there. It is just my own vanity publishing project. Okay with that as I have already had my own 15 minutes of fame in another field over 20 years ago.
Will I do another new song this week? Don't know. I seem to be out of inspiration, or maybe the domestic things occupying my time make it unnecessary .
Other Things
The kitchen in our now 7 year old new house in Japan used to be my wife's domain. Took me years to be able to make anything there, but I have been preparing meals the last week+. Caring for others makes you feel good, and being able to look after myself when I need to is back at the level it was when I lived in Australia.
Australian political cartoonist Pat Oliphant, who made it in the USA, has passed away, aged 90 this week. There is a glorious film on him I need to track down. The Trailer:
2 cartoons he came out of retirement to do:
Oliphant favoring neither liberals nor conservatives. 'We Are in a Forest Fire of Ignorance'
8 years ago during down sizing I ended up throwing away about half of my once cherished Cinfex collection. Issues 74 to 119. I kept 85 the 2001 issue
But the once great magazine of cinema special effects had lost anything of interest to me way before then. They went out of business during COVID. I wasn't the only one that cancelled their subscription.
Once the industry changed to hiring a bunch of disposable CG animators and their workstations, there was little of interest to me in an article saying "we used XXX software" and "YYY wrote a cool shader to do ZZZ".
I changed too. Narrowing my interests to what I can actually be involved with in some way, or be useful to me in my own creative adventures in retirement.
Facebook is a very different thing now compared to when I first joined. At first it showed you stuff people you knew posted, even if it was an outside link. Now it rarely shows anything people you know post, and for me it is all about the groups I am in. Only 3 or 4 I know post anything at all now.
I don't post actual personal stuff there any more. Just my MUSIC+COMICS. It is the place people I know DM me.
The English Musician Composer, Hans Zimmer, Peter Gabriel collaborator, once Fairlight Instruments CMI III demonstrator/support person Rodger Bolten has passed away, I learnt 2026/7/17. Just a couple of years younger than myself. I never met him in person, as I left Fairlight Instruments the time he joined. He had been posting about his hospital visits and treatments the last 2 years or so, and stopping the treatment for his cancer a few months ago. He had it rough recently, collapsing in his apartment and the fire brigade rescuing him. Waking to huge weeping swellings on both knees, a side effect of a chemotherapy drug administered 2 years ago and now banned. A long list of rather terrible things, but he always appreciated the hospital and staff treating him.
He was the first person ever some 2 years ago to video call me out of the blue. We talked about old CMI III things, such as the System Floppy Disk I made for the first system to get to the UK. RIP
Enshit-tification by Cory Doctorow, interestingly explains what UBER and TIK-TOK did, but not that YouTube is doing the same thing. Manipulating the metrics to exploit creators and users.
My blog and song of a couple of weeks ago, BAIT AND SWITCH SUPPREME was all about that too. I dislike intensely that a smart phone is now required to even allow many online accounts for 2FA, and a phone has a built in end of life with non replaceable battery and software made obsolete for pure profit motives. We are all just cattle to the tech industry.
Who Are You when the titles and status are no longer in play?
An important life question to know the answer of. Some men have a big problem retiring and not having their position anymore. There is a common story that "many" Japanese Men follow there wives around like wet leaves stuck to their wives shoes after they retired. Don't be that old man!
Also what Mr.Morden asked all the ambassadors in Babylon 5.
Another of my amateur Heavy Metal/ Techno/ Pop/ Nursery Rhythm/ MUSIC+COMICS . It isn't a generic verse/chorus structure but rather 8 bar alternating musical bit and verse with 2 longer musical bits.
They don't have a repeating chorus either. Just what I am doing at the moment and no set in stone rule I have set my self.
Jut straight ahead 4/4. I have tried to get into Prog Metal, but the stop start nature of it isn't what I need. May be amazing technique, but that isn't attractive to me.
I seen advice to record the vocals 10 times and comp together the best bits to make the perfect take. I don't go to that much trouble. 2 or 3 takes and just keep the best one for each verse. I will listen to the completed track a 1,000 times and may decide, like this time, some words could be better, then record those verses again, 2 or 3 takes. I am the only one to play a track more than once so it really doesn't matter in my case. I am not some guy trying to go PRO and make a career out of music.
The rhythm guitar is this 8 string going through the DONNER 10 Band EQ (to cut lowest 2 bands) into the POD EXPRESS BLACK Anvil+CAB.
The melodic guitar is my Ibanez RG350. The drums and synths are very Dubstep/ Techno and I like that. The bass sequence is almost just a pedal tone, but it does drive it along.
Simple hummable riffs and melodies are all I am after. This one kind of reminds me of the vocal sound of THE EAGLES (rather than Tull's Ian Anderson of a previous one), even if I am not a fan of them, but due to the tone and register of my voice and the multitracking.
The Demon is a Copic marker on paper sketch I did a few years ago. One of 2 demons in an old Japanese illustration I have in a book somewhere.
In MOHO V12 pro I assigned BONES to it and manipulate those to warp the illustration a bit to make it move a little.
Lyrics:
Who are you, and what do you want? The truth will set you free.
When titles and status are no longer in play. Who do you see at the end of the day?
Sift through the pieces find what lacks. Tear the shadows Bring light back.
So drop all the armor and step from the dark, See the version of you that you really are.
あなたは誰なのか そして何を望んでいるのか？ 真実はあなたを自由にする。
肩書きや地位が もはや意味をなさなくなったとき。 一日の終わりに、 あなたは誰を見ているのか？
断片を一つひとつ 見極め、欠けているものを見つけ出せ。 影を引き裂き、 光を取り戻せ。
だから、すべての鎧を脱ぎ捨て、 闇から踏み出せ。 そして、 本当の自分を見よ。
EDIT: 2026/07/22 Next day has had around 600 views (then it is just turned off on the SHORT feed, completely artificial numbers), but most only watch the first 9 seconds, which is even before when the drums come in! The POPCORN BRAINED.
The FB stats same deal. Turn tap on/ turn tap off after a fixed number.
Enshittification and dumbing down run unabated.
Other Things
Second time to replace closed back KRK KNS8400 headphones rotting earpads. An earpad and headrest set from Amazon. Much prefer open headphones BUT recording vocals need closed back, and these isolate really well.
The realities of getting older with a sick spouse were our lot for the last weeks. Nothing serious, but trying. Luckily I didn't have to go anywhere at all. Preparing meals and the clean up after. I had 帯状疱疹 too about 10 years ago.
Met up with youngest son for morning after putting it off due to heavy rainy season rain for the last 2 weeks. He gave me this late FATHERDAYS gift.
An AKIRA + EVANGELION mashup piece. Very cool.
And the rainy season is now officially over so the humidity and temperature skyrocket.
Kyoto Live House GATTACA July 17 - Anima Tempo JAPAN TOUR 2026
7月14日(火) 京都 GATTACA
開場 17:30 / 開演 18:00
前売 ¥3,400 / 当日 ¥3,900 / 学割 ¥2,400 (+1Drink)
Anima Tempo is a Mexican Prog Metal Band I hadn't heard of. 5 bands in one night sounds like it finishes late. Has Rikugo in the line up at a place I haven't been to before, but isn't far from here. But can I go?
Would like to see them again. They supported Freak Kitchen last year, and the first time I saw them.
Psychedelic Delusion: the scientific and philosophical debate surrounding whether profound, life-altering insights from some drugs are genuinely revelatory, or merely delusions from temporarily brain disfunction.
Psychedelusion: A similar thing applied to AI. Life-altering insights and mystical experiences from AI THAT ARE completely delusional!
Psychedelusion a term I made up yesterday. 😃
Lyrics below are just supposed to be Psychedelic. Vague and just all out of your mind words of a experience rather than dig into the meaning of the title. It is more fun that way, and what I need at the moment.
Lyrics:
Ooohh the right thing Melts right through the floor Spinning like a neon sign On a locked up door
The colors start to breathe The walls begin to bend We’re walking backwards to the start To find the heavy end
The static turns to sound The shadows learn to speak We’re climbing down the mountain top To find the lowest peak
This just came out of playing with the Mackie 402VLZ4 Roland Rubix22 Reaper DAW set up re-installed during the week. Allows ZERO LATENCY input monitoring. 64 sample buffer gives 3.4ms latency. Will use this for awhile. They used to say a change is as good as a holiday.
Expected the bright colorful animation will make it more popular than the pencil Greek philosophers of last week music+comic.
See so many on social media and YouTube, "all about music". About the gear, or fashion, or some other non sound aspect, but actually making and releasing music itself isn't what they seem to do very often... cool solos though...
Other Things
Lots of rain during the week. The Rainy Season hasn't let up much.
The year is half over and that speed just gets faster and faster as you age.
Killswitch Engage, melodic metalcore, is new to me and have been listening to some 6 tracks with great riffs on repeat the last few days. The guitarist uses a fixed bridge, rather simple down tuned 6 string guitar. 180BPM and lots of pick slides in his technique. Too fast for old me. His current Caparison TAT Special FX "Metal Machine" Guitar is at that 400,000yen price of the boutique/ collector stuff in Japan.
Been thinking about a 10 band EQ pedal for the 8 string for awhile, as my BOSS EQ-7 doesn't have the required low bands, and testing with a 10 band EQ vst before Neural Dsp Modeler shows that tightens up the low end sound a lot.
Looked at that MXR pedal, but this Donner seems more appropriate for my low end home studio use to go in front of the POD EXPRESS BLACK. Those sliders would be so fragile for stage use, but that isn't how I use it.
All I really need are the 31.25 and 62.5 Hz bands and in a previous life I would have made something myself, probably just a variable High Pass Filter, but I aren't that person anymore, and just couldn't be bothered.
In 1938 psychologist B.F. Skinner, using the "Skinner box" to dispense food to rats and pigeons when a button pressed discovered "Variable Ratio Reinforcement Schedule" is extremely addictive. SM is now built around it for both users and creatives. The whole reason a posts or video will generate completely different view numbers. We are all rats in a Skinner Box to YouTube, X, Facebook etc. Constant Bait & Switch, as the Algorithms Spin
Just because you understand what is happening doesn't mean you can control yourself on Social Media
Powerful stuff.
Dopamine is produced when you are expecting something feel-good. Not on the actual receiving of the feel-good thing. So dopamine sky rockets on looking on your feed expecting to find something good. When you don't, you try 10 minutes later, again...
A related piece from him is related to this in that the powerful and wealthy loose empathy. This now is a scientific fact. And they are the ones controlling the country. Maybe the reason America and the UK have become dystopias. Despite NASA and other super cool really attractive American things. It isn't just the current administrations but a wealth imbalance system.
See yesterday actor/body builder that was in Mad Max 2 died yesterday at 76 after a long painful illness. See a lot of things like that and comments from the other retired. One of the early 60s retired in America is in a group of retirees where they share what is going on mentally and physically. The GO/ SLOW GO/ NO GO years came from him. He mentioned a few in their late 60s died recently. They don't just die of one thing though. There is a cascade of health issues in the last year(s). I think about that and see it in people I know.
You just don't know how long anyone has.
Another thing that comes up amongst the retired introverts is they don't want to deal with others. Being alone with your own thoughts and interests is the best. I very much feel that way too. The ones that suffer from loneliness are the extroverts, not everyone. This seems common knowledge now.
Who are you? is a question I answered years ago even before retiring.
Joe mentions it in his latest video here too. Many men, apparently, are lost after they leave their "position of title and authority" where ever they worked. They don't know who they are without that. And the reality is that is never who they were, but what a job they had was.
The only 2 things I will comment on in his 12 here are WORK STRESS and WHO YOU ARE.
Loosing the stress was such a huge thing for me when I retired. Life changing to not be responsible for solving big problems not of my own creating. So much happier without that,
Musical Cartoonist is what I think of myself now, despite being involved with high tech electronics & software/firmware design and development for much of my career. It doesn't have the status, but no one cares about you, other than your wife and kids, after you retire anyway. You are just one of those old guys...
Updated my EP- The Songs to have 8 songs and a 12 page PDF booklet now.
A Cosmologically Bouncy Techno Guitar Pop track...
THE BIG BOUNCE is one of the Cosmology theories on the Universe. That after the BIG BANG, and expanding universe, there comes a time, some 30 billion years later, when it all collapses and the process starts again with another BIG BANG. Hence THE BIG BOUNCE.
Interestingly this "matches" the Hindu Nasadiya Sukta ( 1500 BCE ~1000 BCE). The Creation Myth. Even the billions of years time frame. The Cosmic Dance of Shiva is briefly shown.
As an individual, the UNIVERSE, what it is and how it happened is on time scales so vast it is irrelevant to our insignificant lives. Still really interesting though.
Carl Sagan talked about all this in episode 10 of his 1980 TV series COSMOS. 46 years later we are no closer to knowing the real answer. It is something for our descendants to discover, hopefully within the next 5 billion years before our Sun dies and burns our whole solar system to dust. Expect in a few billion years our descendants will look very little like humanity does now.
The lyrics of this touch on, the Creation Theories and the Hindu Nasadiya Sukta.
Lyrics THE BIG BOUNCE
Before the breath of time was drawn,
Before the twilight or the dawn,
Did it spring from golden seed,
Or a silent, dreaming need?
時の息吹が吹き込まれる前から、
黄昏も夜明けも訪れる前から、
それは黄金の種から芽生えたのか、
それとも、静かで夢見るような
渇望から生まれたのか？
Who can say what sages saw,
Of the churning, cosmic law?
Was it woven from the dark,
Or ignited by a spark?
賢者たちが何を見たのか、
渦巻く宇宙の法則について、
誰が語れようか？
それは闇から紡ぎ出されたのか、
それとも一筋の火花によって
点火されたのか？
Even gods arrived too late,
To behold the opening gate—
So who knows if it will burn,
Or in cycles, just return?
神々でさえも、門が開くのを
目撃するには遅すぎた――
だから、それが燃え尽きるのか、
それとも循環を繰り返して、
ただ戻ってくるのか、誰にも
わからない。
Through the dark energy's pull,
Will the vacuum stay full?
Or a Big Rip ahead,
Tearing space until it's dead?
ダークエネルギーの引力によって、
真空は満たされたままでいるの
だろうか？
それとも、ビッグ・リップが
待ち受けており、
空間が死に至るまで引き裂かれて
いくのだろうか？
The drums are only a dubstep KICK and SNARE. I based it on a much longer instrumental thing I did a year or so ago. The bass patterns are a VITAL synth patch. Made it to be just under 3 minutes to not be as repetitive. It isn't a usual song structure, but that is what I like to do.
When doing vocal overdubs, the DAW latency becomes an issue. DIRECT MONITORING doesn't help when doing vocal multitracking. Have to turn off fancy reverb and limit backing to just what is needed to keep the rhythm and pitch right. Have found that when I do 3 tracks of vocals, aligning them in time manually becomes important to keep the words clear.
Edit: 6/28/2026 the next day and even though it got over 250 views on Facebook, YouTube only managed 31 last I looked.
Luckily, I do it just for my own entertainment...
Other Things
Been much rain this week, so haven't gotten out much. Did order the recent Moebius Library: The Depressed Hunter from Dark Horse. Even though THE AIRTIGHT GARAGE isn't a great comic to read, the artwork is amazing.
Interesting John Carpenter Interview.
Even as someone with successes, it doesn't last and he found some looked down on "horror", as a lesser genre.
He was also flogging his coming album and comic book combo.
Came across this video in the last week on why people buy expensive guitars. The Osaka Sound Messe I have visited the last years is mostly boutique guitars and other gear like hand made pedals.
I originally thought I would be interested in Mattia's FREAK GUITAR LAB ulv7 7 string. Till I saw the original price was 900,000yen and recently some 750,000yen. This is just luxury goods pricing, and that they are expensive and exclusive is what those buyers are after. As someone that's most expensive guitar at todays prices, (and I paid 20,000yen less!) is only 60,000yen and I don't have the guitar love that many others seem to have, I ask myself how did I get involved with this scene?
The answer I know was because of Mattias's clinics at SoundMesse. That was for his technique and approach demonstrations.
But I myself are more a Creator/ Inventor type recently working on my original MUSIC+COMICS. It is the resulting song and animation that is what I am about. Not the collecting of rare limited edition gear.
The thing is, on a recording, you can't hear the difference between an expensive and reasonably priced guitar. And it is the recorded sound that matters to me. I am not collecting art objects or status symbols, or performing live. Seems performing live is a significant part of the guitar scene and I have zero interest in that.
Anyway the why of buying expensive guitars is how it makes the guitar loving buyer feel. Recapturing their youth or the beauty of the guitars finish. The finish of a Custom Shop $7000 Fender for example, even though it looks exactly the same as the $500 model, makes it easier to play, even if it sounds the same when recorded.
They are just all tools to me though, and I agree with Adam Savages approach to tool purchase. Buy the cheapest one, and if you actually use it and it eventually breaks or has a problem you can not fix with it, get a better one the next time.
When I first started using REAPER, my audio interface consisted of a Behringer MC-100 and ASIO4ALL going into the motherboard audio of my PC. Used it for many years in fact. The specs were completely fine for metal guitar, synths and vocals stuff.
When I bought a Win10 Laptop in preparation to move back to Japan, I also bought a Roland Rubix22 as a reasonable carry on solution. Always found the Rubix inferior to my preamp plus ASIO4ALL approach though!
Biggest issue was the Rubix didn't go well with all the standard Windows stuff, like Skype. Skype couldn't see the microphone. Don't know if that was because much of Roland were Apple fanboys when I was there or not, and so didn't care.
The preamps also don't have enough gain for a dynamic microphone (you have to be kidding me!) and the level indicators are okay/ clipping only. Hate that! Looks like they copied a Scarlet 2i2 badly and got things wrong as they never used it.
The way Roland Japan always seemed to work was that if someone were an expert in something, that something isn't the job they would give you, so you wouldn't argue with management. No idea what the place was like during the development period of the Rubix units though.
On going to Windows 11 with a new PC, I didn't connect the Rubix, but used a MACKIE 402VLZ4, motherboard audio and ASIO4ALL again. It works fine, but without having an extra DIRECT MONITORING box, I don't have zero latency instrument or vocal takes.
The top diagram is what I currently have
The bottom diagram is what I would need to add to be able to MIX between PC IN and OUT audio for zero latency takes. Could be implemented as a stereo 2 input mixer, such as this unit on Amazon.
Then I see SSL has introduced a new low end audio interface, the SSL1. A cut down SSL2 MKII.
The MIX button on this gives a 50/50 mix of direct inputs and output of the DAW to the headphones. To adjust the level of the backing you are singing or playing to, you adjust your DAW output level. What seems to be attractive about this unit though is the driver supports all kinds of windows driver ins and outs to make it very usable in all kinds of streaming and recording applications.
My current setup doesn't allow REAPER and GUITAR PRO to make sound at the same time, but not sure if the SSL1 driver would allow that. The driver for the Roland UA-1G did, but that isn't supported under Win11.
Edit: 6/30/2026 I looked at what I had and decided to try just using the Rubix22 just as a LINE-IN interface and ignore its not great preamps. So I have the Mackie mixer feeding into it, and instruments and microphone plug into the Mackie.
The Rubix22 is set for MONO DIRECT MONITOR, so the closed back headphones plug into it get the zero latency pre computer instruments sound, and the sound from the computer independently adjustable. Seems pretty usable so far, and driver plays fairly with other apps, such as ZOOM I use a lapel microphone with.
Edit: 6/28/2026 the next day. Did this silly thing with 4 tracks of vocals and it was all fine to do with existing system with 3.4ms latency and no DIRECT MONITORING.
Buried it in reverb in this animation, but don' know if will use it for the start of something else yet...
Bait & Switch Supreme was the unusual song I wrote this week. On the constant Internet/ Phone / Streaming service Bait & Switch, where the service you signed up for, now has advertisements, costs more while providing a worse service and they steal everything you create to feed their AI systems.
Seems rather cynical, but that is the place we are today.
I have to shake my head at all the tech companies that sacked 1000s of their programmers to replace them with AI to save money, now find AI costs more!
Did the music at 140BPM, wanting a high energy rock guitar feel thing. First version had stand in lyric of "hello how you doing."
It is a non standard structure made of 8 bar sections, where an 8 bar instrumental section is followed by an 8 bar vocal verse. I think these are Instruments with vocals rather than "songs". No one cares what I do, so I do what ever I want 😁
Mattias IA Eklundh was the inspiration for me doing this kind of thing, my own way. Even if my stuff is musically unsophisticated and only ever in 4/4, I do ALL of it and the animation/comics too. 😊 Some people are really into the technical gymnastics of the playing of the likes of Dream Theater, but I like my stuff to SAY SOMETHING!
Yesterday, went to make a phone call on my Rakuten Android phone on the platform before catching a train and the call app first put up a blocking popup to "WANT TO UPGRADE YOUR PLAN NOW?" It didn't used to do that. I am sure I will go to render audio in REAPER DAW in the future and MICROSOFT will make you watch a 30second video commercial first before you can press the render button!
Guitar is my Ibanez GIO fixed bridge 7 string. Love the tuning and stability now, but that was terrible till I used a set of NUT FILES to correct the plastic nut slots. Guitar sounds all free NEURAL DSP MODELLER vst and EQ.
What the REAPER DAW project looks like:
The Megaphone effect at start and end has more low end than I used before, just to make it less harsh sounding.
I used to fuss about the mix and mastering in years past but not now. Check it is frequency balanced in SPAN in slow mastering mode, and the LUFS level is where I want it is all I do now. Most people will see it as a SHORT on YouTube on earbuds. Nothing else matters.
Sure the Philosophers versions of the lyrics will not encourage views from the POPCORN BRAINED
We can be contacted at:
https://www.artandtechnology.com.au/
Lyrics (English & Japanese):
Bait And Switch Supreme
Always out to win,
The Algorithms Spin
Terms and conditions have changed,
All you posts are claimed
Always out to win,
Trapped inside this game
Marketers are here,
The warning signs are clear.
Always out to win,
Grifters and their spin
Selling you the dream,
Everything is a scheme.
Fakers on the screen,
Bait & Switch Supreme
Algorithms spin,
Everything is a scheme.
Always out to win,
Grifters and their spin.
Always out to win.
Always out to win.
----
究極の「おとり商法」
常に勝利を狙い、
アルゴリズムが紡ぐ
利用規約が変わり、
あなたの投稿はすべて奪われた
常に勝利を狙い、
このゲームの中に閉じ込められて
マーケターたちがここにいる、
警告のサインは明白だ。
常に勝利を狙い、
詐欺師たちとその策略
夢を売りつけ、
すべてが罠だ。
画面上の偽者たち、
究極の「おとり商法」
アルゴリズムが回り、
すべてが罠だ。
常に勝利を狙い、
詐欺師たちとその策略。
常に勝利を狙う。
常に勝利を狙う。
Of course the Philosophers Plato, Aristotle and Socrates spoke Ancient Greek. But if they wrote these lyrics in English it could be like
"Terms and conditions have changed, All you posts are claimed
Always out to win, Trapped inside this game"
As said by Plato:
The masters of the forum have altered
have brought forth from your mind is
now claimed as their own trophy.
their eternal covenants; all that you
"Marketers are here,
The warning signs are clear.
Always out to win, Grifters and their spin"
As said by Aristotle:"The rhetoricians of the market are
upon us, and the portents of their
arrival are unmistakable. Driven by
a relentless pursuit of victory rather
than truth, these sophists employ
their art solely for deception and
private gain."
"Selling you the dream, Everything is a scheme.
Fakers on the screen, Bait & Switch Supreme"
as said by Socrates
"They offer you a phantom of the
good life, yet it is but an illusion, a
grand deception. Look closely at
those who project their shadows
upon the wall; they are but merchants
of false realities, masters of the
bait and switch, substituting true
wisdom for a fleeting, superficial prize."
Other Things
Hans Zimmer struggled intensely for three awful days scoring this mutiny scene in Crimson Tide. Everyone else had been banned from the studio. I was on milky coffee duty alone with Hans in the studio. - Roger Bolton (Fairlight CMI UK support and FB friend) posted on Facebook yesterday. He posted more about it too.
So coming up with this compelling music was a really difficult torturous thing for Hans. Creativity isn't easy.
In the 1995 film Crimson Tide, the Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument) was a foundational tool for Hans Zimmer. It allowed him to combine bold, sampled orchestral elements with driving synthesizers
In my own musical journey in retirement, it isn't any more gear that I need. Musical ideas, or rather new ideas I haven't used dozens of times before is the thing I need. Involves expanding musical knowledge and "luck" I think. A reason I went to Mattia's Freak Guitar Camp last year. I don't have a movie deadline, but do want to do a MUSIC + COMIC every week to release on Saturday. That is about as far as my own goals go these days. Have no interest in Spotify or the current music "whatever".
Put the above song into my EP - The Song on Bandcamp
So all from the last 6 months and made around a working project I have. Similar sounds and structures and sounds. But are they really all just variations on the SAME SONG?
Carl Sagan has been quite the influence on me, that I didn't really think about much till recently. Or maybe things like having no trust in superstitions, and mindless rituals and their believers is just my natural position? I had to do a lot of fault finding of devices and systems, and so PROVING what the problem really is was so important to fixing things. Seen many NOT DO that! This "code has some bug, so I will rewrite it" without understanding what the real problem is is just a waste of time. Just a mindless superstition.
Did a 4WD truck illustration for an engineering company and yet to get feedback on it and the concept for a pump on skids that goes with it.
4WD tires are tedious, but I do have a process now, after many years of doing them. It involves doing the face on view using the CAD like CorelDraw copy rotate and place functions. Doing them first makes the rest of the illustration a much less tedious affair.
Out to the Cat Trimmer Friday again. Every 2.5 months and the 5th time now, so worked out how to fill our 1.5~2 hours around SUMINODO STATION while she does her magic on our "youngest child", who is now 10 years old. I find it interesting that at first he thinks he is going to the Vet and complains, but then seems to enjoy the train ride with all those other interesting people and smells and then me carrying him around in his cat carrier.
We make his appointment at 11:30AM, so we then go have a leisurely lunch at OSAKA OHSHO. Did not think it was great the first 2 times we went, but then I tried their CHICKEN KARAGE and that is wonderful! GYOZA also goes down well, and trying other smaller dishes too.
After that, we then make our way to DOUTOR COFFEE. It was overcrowded until the KOMEDA COFFEE opened a couple of months ago, and now is the perfect place to have a drink and wait for the Cat Trimmers phone call.
We had previously tried STARBUCK, ZETTERIA & HOLLIES and found them all rather noisy and unpleasant in some way, at least to my wife. STARBUCK annoys me in particular, being too noisy and crowded, being filled with people "working" on laptops!
A tiring trip for me carrying a 5Kg cat in his carrier around KYOBASHI STATIONS OSAKA and from and to SUMINODO STATION. Getting from the KEIHAN STATION platform to the JR STATION platform is a long way. The first time we ever went was by Taxi, and that took longer and was more door to door, but I don't like being in the back seat of a car. It is also way more expensive, taking about an hour each way!
Been using Obsidian for the last week+ . Much faster to start up than Scrivener is significant to me. Unlike Notepad++ has a spell checker and formatting. Used it in writing the above song and taking notes. That is enough, so has a use to me.
