Finished something!

Actually, there is a positive aspect to getting new toys. Some of them actually inspire you. In this case, it's been B4, the hammond organ that's part of the Komplete 2 package I bought the other day. All I can say is "Wow".

Now, I've never owned a hammond organ so I couldn't tell you how good an emulation it is, although judging by comments on the web, it's pretty good. What I can tell you is how alive it sounds compared to the sampled organs I've been using before.

Now, plenty of people will tell you B4 is a bit long in the tooth and is in dire need of an update. They'd be right. But the point is that playing it made me immediately want to get it into a tune. That got me back to doing "Rebecca & Me", which I've now managed to finish.

Boy that feels good...

In other news, some other woodies seem to be evaluating the tree in my garden as a nesting site. Turns out a friend from round the corner has been feeding the magpie. The idea was that the magpie wouldn't feel the need to kill anything. Pity the magpie didn't understand the deal.

Spending too much money

Now, there are many things I need to get for my music set up. Absolute top of the list is a decent set of speakers. Just below it is an audio interface to replace my busted 6fire. I'm still thinking about a better microphone, the list goes on. Even if I were to be thinking of enhancing the computer side of the equation, a UAD-1 card would have been a much better idea.

So just having spent £350 on Komplete 2 isn't entirely bright. Well, frankly I can afford it, it was a great deal and I will find a use for it all. Certainly the Hammond Organ is going to get some fairly immediate use.

However, the truth is, I didn't need it and simply bought it because I like toys and I like a good deal. One of my guiding principles is not to mess around with stuff I don't need. I pretty much broke that today. Still, I'm going to keep my eye out for a deal on a UAD card.

Anyway, it's just arrived and I can't wait to play with it. My time would be better spent finishing "Rebecca and Me", but there you go...

Dead Baby Birds

None of this has very much to do with music. Sorry.

Title says it all really. I've had a really tough time recently and this just summed it up. Two wood pigeons decided to nest in a tree outside my house. They had two squabs, who were just getting ready to fly. They got attacked by a magpie when their parents were away. One had its throat ripped out, was thrown onto my path, and was left twitching and covered in flies when I found it. The vet had to put it down. (They didn't charge anything, I'd have paid.)

That bird was the lucky one. I hadn't realised, but its brother was still in the nest. The parents weren't coming back and the magpie came back for it. It probably suffered for ten hours before it died.

The mother came back the next day. You wouldn't have thought a wood pigeon could cry, but it sure sounded like it.