First mixes of the four songs made this afternoon. No panning, delay or further effects applied just yet but everything seems to be going in a constructive direction :-) #qy10 #walkstationtostation #railwaysongs #lofi
Dynamic microphone (with grey spherical head to the left and black body - long enough to be hand-held - extending to the right.) Top of the mic stand, blurred, is to the centre-right (the mic body is clasped by this) and a lead runs out and then downward beyond this. The back involves blurred boxes on shelves and two off-white painted walls.
Vocals recorded for what, now, is a quartet of railway songs. #walkstationtostation
The #fieldrecording piece was mixed this afternoon; there’s a bit of feint monosynth as well as my voice in it (talking about something architectural, with a bit of geology thrown in.) More news on this soon. Also recorded three more #walkstationtostation parts; it’ll be vocals next :-)
Rudimentary drum-machine work on #walkstationtostation today; QY100 driving a software CR-78 on three songs (the fourth may remain drumless.) Then, as it was nice enough to sit outside, I also wrote the text (it is more that than a lyric) to go with Friday’s #fieldrecording. Unusually productive :-)
Finally started recording four new songs today; just a click track and a series of #monosynth (BassStation & UnoSynth) parts, but they worked well enough for me to rehearse the vocals afterwards :-) Small progress. #walkstationtostation
Part of a Novation BassStation II control panel. Black backing with pale blue lines delineating various sections (arpeggiator, Porta, LFOs identified in this image) and white text. Some small circular red lights show whilst a digital display panel features a red-illuminated number 82 (in “calculator style” text.) At the bottom of the image, starting a third of the way along, the top of the low end of the musical keyboard is seen. The run of these keys - starting with a white “C” note - is white/black/white/black/white/white/black/white (thus a “G” note is at the edge of the image.) A headphone lead trails across the image, from three-quarters of the way along at the top to the bottom left corner.
Patch 82 (a self-programmed one, created in the past few days) on the #BassStation responding nicely to a trigger from the #qy10 this evening. May make it to a #walkstationtostation song about an Essex itinerary or another referencing Alexander “Greek” Thomson…
Find of the day is this post from @danthompson33.bsky.social re a 1990 #JonathanMeades film. Coincidentally, track 9 on #HomeSounds (The First Funicular Of The Day) is set in Hastings and mentions #bohemia in its lyric! There’s an unintentional #walkstationtostation song link in Meades’ script too…
A #walkstationtostation update. Hopefully I will grab a couple of hours in the coming week to start some recording. There are now two fully-written songs, three further with reasonably progressed lyrics and a couple of very rudimentary instrumental works. #qy10 #qy100 #lofi #synthsky
Yamaha QY10 walkstation (a VHS cassette-sized sequencer and sound module formed of a black plastic box, with one octave keyboard of rubber keys, plus tiny black and yellow buttons for an assortment of functions and a green backlit electronic display screen) on a black & white striped stair carpet. The stripes run vertically in this image, at right angles to the rise of the stairs.
Tapping ideas into this #QY10 en route to places such as Rotherhithe, Margate, Bristol, Colchester and Keswick in the past six months has been a fun way to make music. Now some songs are taking shape. Welcome to a new #walkstationtostation thread… the paths and rails to a single, EP or album?
Most of the front panel of a Yamaha QY10 Walkstation. Black plastic with a single octave piano-type keyboard (made of black & white rubber buttons.) 12 further black buttons above these and four yellow to the left. A clear plastic display strip above partly reflects some nearby trees. Behind are a blue and white painted wall, pale brown brick shed and base of a chimney stack. There is a grey sky and trees that are in full (green) leaf, beyond and above the wall, shed and chimney.
#VoltagePoetryProjectAtoZ (Q): #QY10. Given my current writing project is #walkstationtostation this is a very obvious inclusion! The photo shows mine outside the #Brunel museum in Rotherhithe. One riff and a bassline idea from the train ride there are part of two “underway” songs as of today :-)
Detail shot of part of a BassStation II synth. Black & white plastic keyboard fills much of the image, with a small part of the control section towards the top - this is black with pale blue vertical and horizontal lines separating different sets of controls on the synth. The Porta, LFOs and Envelopes sets are seen in part.
#VoltagePoetryProjectAtoZ (N): Novation BassStation II. The fanciest synth I own; it is monophonic but nice to create patches on and really quite expressive. It’ll almost certainly by triggered from the #QY10 as part of #walkstationtostation.
#VoltagePoetryProjectAtoZ (I): IK Unosynth. My newest instrument - albeit second hand from a friend who lives at the edge of the Forest of Bowland. It may be triggered from my #QY10 as part of the #walkstationtostation project. Has anyone got good views on it? www.soundonsound.com/reviews/ik-m...
#VoltagePoetryProjectAtoZ (F): FRBH Recordings. The #walkstationtostation project is based on doodles tapped into my #QY10; discovering this @frbhrecs.bsky.social got in touch to share the Ireless ‘QY10 Ditties’ release! The label is based near the best looking #volcanicplug in these islands too :-)
As it is now January, the time has come to sift through riffs & bassline ideas tapped into the #QY10, plus some field recordings, and see if I can write any new songs by the 31st for the #walkstationtostation project. Looks like I could be writing at least 5 songs after today’s playback! #synthsky
Mixing one song and remixing another this afternoon. This has involved putting a lot of effects on my (usually quite soft/intimate) vocals and I’m wondering if, when it comes to working on the #walkstationtostation sequences, I’ll be veering towards Cabaret Voltaire territory.
Thanks to my new followers! Here’s a brief (re)intro:
1 #lofi electropop album, #HomeSounds, is out on @hartshornmusic.bsky.social.
2 I’m adding an IK UnoSynth to the #WalkstationToStation writing project.
3 Recording a song referencing Thomas Bouch (my lyrics, not McGonagall’s!) at the mo :-)
Yamaha QY10 walkstation (almost exclusively a black plastic box, size of a VHS tape (!), with some white buttons, a single orange one and four tiny yellow ones… plus a green LCD screen) placed on the black & white striped stair carpet at Marine Studios, Margate.
A final #walkstationtostation post for a little while. I’ll still be working on it (also keeping a diary of what I put into the #QY10 and where (so Rotherhithe & Margate will be added to)) but shall report back a few weeks after my debut album is released via #monochromemotif :-)
Yamaha QY10 Walkstation in front of the engine house at the Brunel Museum. The base of the latter’s chimney - largely in light brown brick - rises to the right.
Day 1 of #walkstationtostation. The station traveled to was Rotherhithe and here’s my #QY10 outside the Brunel Museum, nearby. Limited time so I only came up with two bassline patterns, a rhythm (not drums) part and a piano motif. It’s a start though :-)
1st album mixing session today. Seven of the nine recordings are close to completion and there’s a definite “feel” to the collection now. Something a little different tomorrow as I have a “day job visit” that should enable a start to the #walkstationtostation project…
Nearly a third of my (modest number of) followers have started to do so in the past couple of weeks. Firstly, thank you! Secondly, you can expect posts on progress with my debut album, a new songwriting project called #walkstationtostation and perhaps the occasional photo too. I hope that’s okay :-)
Drawing for an OO gauge model of a Southern Railway restaurant car (3rd class apparently, and including wine storage in its kitchen) on the window of a shelter at Ashford International Station.
Yesterday, on another platform, I announced a new (for me) songwriting project called #walkstationtostation - six months of writing music on a Yamaha QY10, in various locations. This might mean composing on trains; I’d be surprised if any had a restaurant car but I can daydream…
