After updating my studio buying log for the last couple months, I thought I should take a moment and reflect on the journey so far and what the road ahead looks like.
The good news: I have not lost interest in the reconstruction effort for the old tracks. Even though I’ve been working on them on and off for months now. And the progress is fairly steady as well. So far 29 tracks have been reconstructed, which I think is amazing. There’s only maybe 8 left to do and of those, maybe 3 may have lost data or sounds that are impossible to source or recreate. The progress is substantial enough that I purchased the device needed for yet a different recording from the era, done on gear not in the original studio. Gear that was cutting-edge at the time but now is cheaply available.
And that’s sort of the roadmap for this month and next month. This month is sort of paused on spending since homeowner’s insurance was due and it just feels prudent to keep my expenses level month to month. But, there is a plan for the next phase.
The next phase obviously is new creations. I’ve got a massive selection of new devices to work with now and there should be no wanting for any sounds for inspiration. In order to make that next phase happen, I need to get all those dives out of the closet and set up for play. That means I need a rack, maybe multiple racks. There are ten keyboards in the closet right now. I have my eye on a rack that will hold six of them, which might just be fine.
As far as repairing devices, I’ve done alright. Most devices that I take in only need little changes. Like the U220 on the table right now. It had a completely dead battery and the power button got stuck in when I power it on. After disassembling it, the plate that held the MIDI message light, which was also the frame for the power switch had become detached. Just needed superglued back into place. I think someone though the MIDI message light was a button and pushed it so hard it detached it from the frame. The Kurzweil was a mystery that I returned to a couple of times and by random chance I seemed to have fixed it by changing the default startup patch. My suspicion is whatever the previous default patch was had some bad configuration data in it and when it was loading that faulty patch, it caused the sound output settings to get botched. The wonder of fully software-driven devices. My Alesis QS8 started exhibiting audio problems after it warms up, so it’s relegated to a MIDI controller right now. And the faders are still nasty, spewing garbage on the MIDI channel, so its time may be short altogether.
So in summary, the travel has been smooth and the road ahead looks clear and bright. Barring any unexpected events, the year is looking positive.
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