So not too long ago I picked up a Korg Monologue from eBay with a peculiar problem: it was haunted. The controls would just jump around all on their own, and wouldn't respond to your inputs. Luckily I'm well versed on electronic exorcisms and so I was able to sanctify the synth and rid it of the troublesome spirits.
I'm getting a little better at playing them too, but I've still got a fair way to go on that front.
So when we last left off with my new-to-me drum pad, it was just sitting on the floor.
For the sake of ergonomics, I feel like I should really get this up off the floor somewhat.
Hmm, yes, that's a start but I think we could maybe go a bit higher.
Ok now we're getting a bit better.
Anyway one of the nice things about this sample pad is that it supports external triggers, and that's quite convenient because having only 9 pads can be a touch limiting. Let's start off by adding a bass drum trigger.
Which also will necessitate a kick drum pedal, assuming I don't want to just kick the pad with my toes, which I most certainly do not.
Fun fact: most bass drum pedals are designed with a clamp at the front to grab onto the rim of the bass drum, to keep the two from walking apart from each other during a performance.
This also works quite well with bass drum trigger pads too.
Ensuring that the two units are united as one.
And speaking of staying put, they also come with some pretty nasty spikes at the bottom to help secure them in place.
Which might make it a bit more clear as to why I started with a floor mat.
So let's get that added to the setup.
Now looking at this, it occurs to me that I have two feet, and it is traditional to use one of them for the bass drum and the other for the high hats, so...
Yes, this high hat control pedal should do nicely.
It really balances things out. And speaking of balance, it's getting kind of hard to hover in midair while my feet work both the pedals, so I should maybe think of getting myself a throne upon which to perch my buttocks.
Hmm, yes, one like that. You know, this is almost looking like a complete drum set-up, but I can't help but feel like there's a crucial part missing, one last component to add that finishing touch and make it a real drum set.
There we go, now we're ready to play!
A while ago now I had noticed that there was a root or two growing up into the weep holes of my retaining wall.
These roots belong to the plum tree in my back yard, which seems to be very rootful indeed.
Unfortunately these roots aren't going to be doing good things to the cinder blocks that they've wedged themselves between, so we'll have to deal with them. And I happen to know just the tool for the job.
Now unfortunately the roots don't have any nails embedded in them, so I'm not sure if these blades will work. I'll give it a try, though, and if all else fails I can go grab my brad nailer to shoot a few in.
Well that's a relief, it seems to have worked ok without the nails. Saves me some time.
I just cut out a short knob of wood from each root, and the remainder in the wall should die off and rot on its own.
Of course, I should probably check the rest of the weep holes along the wall here to see if...
Ah yes, of course.
Of course there's more.
Well, it's a good thing I've got plenty of charge left in the battery of this oscillating tool.
I just wanna bang on the drum all day.
So when I picked up my SP404, as seen in the previous blog entry, one of the first things I discovered was that despite all the hours I spent playing the drums on Rock Band back when I worked at Palm in '08-'09, my sense of rhythm was just a wee bit rusty. Perhaps very rusty. And there's really nothing quite like playing back a recording of yourself to really make that painfully obvious.
Now I didn't much fancy the idea of buying a set of plastic toy drums in order to fire up Clone Hero, and instead decided to buy a set of plastic drums... possibly to play Clone Hero, we'll see. But mostly to have a rhythm instrument that I could noodle on to build up my rhythm again.
I'd actually been mulling over the idea of getting a full electronic drum set since before I dove into the world of synths, but due to the fact that even electronic drums take up an awful lot of space and cost an awful lot of money, I never actually went through with that plan.
But as it would happen, multi-pads, such as the above pictured Roland SPD-SX Pro, exist. They don't give quite the same experience as an actual full on drum kit, obviously, but they trade that off for being much more compact and easy to live with.
What's interesting though is that it's only really been over the past few years that they've started to actually not completely suck ass. Previous versions of this product, as well as Alesis's similar multi-pad, have suffered from glacially slow load times when switching between kits, peculiar amounts of latency, kind of shitty samples, and just general jank. Thanks to this somewhat inauspicious start, they haven't really caught on much yet, and while the electronic drum sets have also previously suffered from the same issues with their sound modules, the more familiar formfactor has lead to them having a quicker uptake since that was resolved.
So after having noodled around on this for a little bit, I can say I'm really quite pleased with it. The sounds are good, the loading is quick, the responsiveness of the pads is really nice, and the compatibility with accessories is... well, that's something for a future blog post, isn't it?
In the meantime, I've got a lot of practice to do.
Maybe he never said it, but he thought it.
So throughout my synth journey it has become somewhat apparent to me that cloning technology has not advanced to the point where I can summon duplicates of myself, and as such I am only able to play one instrument at a time. MIDI sequencing can, to some extent, bypass this unfortunate limitation, but it can only go so far before it too reveals its weaknesses.
But while I may not be able to clone myself in space, science has developed a way to instead clone myself in time.
This slab of metal, plastic and silicon right here is the Roland SP-404 MKII, a sampler. It digitally records audio and plays it back, but does so in a workflow that lends itself quite well to music creation.
I can, for example, record a piano clip, then chop it up, reorder it, run it through various audio effects, and then play it back while I record perhaps a bass line, some guitar, a synth part, or even some drums. And I can keep chopping and layering and sequencing to my heart's content, without ever finding myself descending into such levels of desperation that might otherwise lead me to seek out other human beings to play music together with. Can you even imagine? Gross.
Anyway, no dramatic repair story this time; I did find a different unit for sale that had a broken USB port, but when I asked the seller to take a photo of the PCB where it broke off they just ghosted me, and I didn't want to take a chance that the pads and traces had been ripped off the board when the connector left the chat. This one I did end up purchasing was a good enough deal that I didn't feel bad about missing out on a deeper discount.
Another day, another broken synth repaired. This time it's a Yamaha Reface CP that was making no sound. This one was a pretty fun fix.
I've had my eye out for one of these for a while, and I was lucky to find this one popping up on eBay, and I managed to score it for the starting bid of $150, which is way less than the $500 retail price. The repair cost was a whole $0 so I'd say I got one hell of a deal.
There comes a time in every towel's life when its youthful looks start to fade away, to be replaced by the sure signs of aging.
This bath towel has served me well for quite a few years, drying my hands time and time again. But after its most recent trip through the laundry, the sad truth was revealed.
It was starting to go bald.
Thankfully the fix for this is as simple as it is effective.
But it does leave me with a puzzle, as the old towel is only worn in a few specific places, and there's quite a lot of cotton terry left on it that's half way brand new. What do we do with this conundrum? Read on below to find out.
The seasons are changing, and so it's time to prune back the summer growth in the landscaping so that fresh new greenery can take its place over the winter.
In particular, the baby sage needs to be cut back a little, and the beardtongue needs to be deadheaded.
Thankfully my new hedge trimmer made quick work of both.
And yes, that is the correct amount to cut back the baby sage. It will grow back even bigger by this time next year.
I also followed this up with trimming the purple sage in the back, and the spanish lavender that is to the right of this photo. I didn't bother photographing those as the change wasn't quite as dramatic.
Not long after I moved into my house, I decided to expand my collection of weights, and along with that I needed an appropriate surface upon which to lift them. I solved that latter problem by getting a few packs of EVA floor mats, the style with the puzzle-piece edges that snap together.
Unfortunately over time these mat pieces have distorted somewhat, and have begun to pull apart.
To remedy this, I've had a plan to glue them together sitting on the back burner for a while. But before we get to that, we should take a little cloud break.
Summer is starting to wind down and the rains will be upon us soon.
Anyway, fuck nature. Specifically, fuck it with a bunch of toxic volatile organic compounds from our favourite neurotoxin: Barge contact cement.
Being contact cement, it adheres immediately upon contact. That means that applying it to the puzzle piece edges could be quite tricky, and we need to use a careful technique to avoid a sticky disaster.
Specifically, we need to apply the glue to the flat edges parallel to the sides of the panels. By keeping the glue off of the diagonal edges, we'll be able to set the panels down flat and squish the puzzle piece edges past each other to zip them back together, without having to try to slide any glue-coated surfaces against each other.
Gluing the long rows together got us part of the way, but it's obvious we'll need to make this whole mat a single solid piece.
But before we get to that, let's have another cloud break.
There's definitely a full blanket over the bay.
The clouds get an interesting texture to them when they roll over the hills.
There's a forecast for rain this evening, and it looks like a bit is already falling over in the east bay.
Anyway, with the mat fully glued together, all the seams are finally tight.
Now I just have to hope it stays together long term.
So I think the previous owner probably DIY'd the bathroom reno, or at least hired someone fantastically unqualified. There's a lot of cheap materials and poorly executed installation. For example, when installing tile, one should never apply grout in the corners, and especially not along the bottom edge where the tile meets the shower pan. Of course, both locations were grouted. I had caulked over top of it when I moved in because pieces of grout were falling out (which is one of the reasons you don't use grout in these locations) and I had some hopes that this might tide me over until I rip this bathroom out and redo it some years down the road.
Sadly, while the caulking looks fine, it was not quite sufficient.
People tend to think that tile is waterproof, but in fact the waterproof layer is behind the tiles. Water can and will get behind the tile, and from there it'll drip down onto the rim of the shower pan. It's important to manage this water properly to keep it contained, and I had at least made an attempt by omitting the caulking at the last inch next to the shower doors, as one should.
But this was clearly insufficient, given that a day or two ago I found a mushroom growing out of the destroyed MDF baseboard. Never use MDF baseboard in a bathroom.
I had hoped that the leaks had stopped and the decay of the baseboard had been halted, but clearly it was time for a bit more of an invasive intervention, and that starts with removing the caulk.
And then removing the misapplied grout.
I managed to get some pieces fully out, but the rest can just live behind the tile until I reno this bathroom properly and redo this whole mess.
So now that I've cleared out this section, we can get a better look at the gap along the bottom that should not be filled with grout.
And the portal to Narnia that leads behind the shower door and out the side of the shower pan.
We'll need to fully fill this spot with caulking to keep the water from getting out of the shower pan.
And we'll also need to do the same on the other end of the shower, though the gap between the pan and the tile was quite a bit smaller here, which necessitated breaking out the Girl's Best Friend.
Though with the grout saw blade in place of the usual conjugal attachment.
And after a little clean-up, we're ready for caulking.
The caulk I'll be using today is a sanded caulk which is colour matched to blend in perfectly with the grout. I know this is exactly the right colour to match the grout because I had to regrout half the tiles shortly after moving in, around the same time I did the first round of caulking. Did I mention these tiles were installed wrong?
Of course, we'll be leaving the very important drainage gap next to the caulk dam that's hopefully going to keep the water inside the shower pan.
And with any luck once the caulk is cured, it'll do its job.
At least it looks good.
It's time for an oil change in the PedoVan again. I got kind of sick of paying $1000 at the dealer (granted I'd usually be getting something else taken care of at the same time, but still) so instead I just bought $150 of oil and decided to do it myself.
I technically only needed 13 quarts, but they only sell boxes of 6. It's kind of like a hot dogs vs buns thing, I guess.
Anyway, the first challenge is to reach the oil drain plug. It's gonna be a challenge to get under there but I think I might just be able to reach.
And with the plug removed, we drain the van of its precious life blood.
The oil, that is. Black gold. Texas tea.
While that's doing its thing, I also need to replace the oil filter. Obviously vans are very difficult to work on and this one is no different, just look at how tricky it is to reach the oil filter here!
The lengths I had to go to in order to access the oil filter housing was just astounding.
On the bright side, there's no finely ground bits of engine in here. The oil is very black, but that's par for the course with diesels: they get a lot of soot in the oil.
Did I mention that I had to buy a larger oil catch pan for this job?
The new one is... adequate. Just barely.
On the subject of new things, the new oil filter goes into place nice and easy, as do the fresh new o-rings.
And also on the subject of fresh new things, I naturally forgot to buy a new crush washer. Luckily copper can be annealed pretty easily with the application of some heat.
So from there it's just a simple matter of plugging up the holes and refilling the engine with 13 bottles of oil.
And cleaning up this mess, which was made all the messier by one of my government-issued oil recycling milk jugs having disintegrated and cracked all the way up one side, which I didn't notice until it was half way filled.
Thankfully I had the foresight to do all of the transferring in this tub, so it didn't turn into an Exxon Valdez moment. The tub, drain pans and so on got cleaned up pretty easily with oil dry and a bit of simple green, and now I just have to hope that the recycling guy drops off some containers in better shape for next time.
