ambient

I have Asperger's Syndrome, I am prone on occasion to type what I am thinking, I generally proofread what I've typed before pressing submit reply, or I edit it later. On this occasion I didn't, but I did clarify why I wouldn't use the services of the guy in Coventry in a later post. Billy Apple's reply to me was both confrontational and rather aggressive, and not something you'd expect from a moderator on an internet forum. His reply was direct; questioning. Surely is would have been better in his reply to have asked why, rather than to adopt such an aggressive, questioning manner? I find things like this to be extremely upsetting; I have anxiety problems and really hate confrontation, people that know me in real life will vouch for that. I found this episode very depressing, I was actually awake for several hours last night, both annoyed and upset by this. I am going to take my leave of this forum now, and will not be returning.

I have you on ignore. Your attitude is awful and I can’t be bothered with you; to be honest I rarely come on here too often anyway, and following this I probably won’t again. I merely said I wouldn’t go there. I have been there, and wouldn’t use them again. You took it as some kind of personal insult.

That’s the huge thing, there are plenty of music shops with a guy who calls himself a ‘tech’. In reality they’re probably fine doing basic jobs; set-ups, maybe a bit of soldering if a new jack socket is needed, but anything more difficult than that, then they’re out of their depth, but will still have a go. I took an instrument to two places for something they both said they could do. The first was awful, absolutely terrible. I took it to the guy in Coventry to make good what the first guy had done, in doing the work he messed something else up. I should have been more patient and used JD, they’re brilliant but busy; they’re busy for a very good reason. There’s only two people I would use, who from my experience are great; in London Martin at the Gallery, Birmingham it’s JD.

I wasn’t ‘taking a dump’ on anyone, absolutely no need to get so worked up. From my personal experience I wouldn’t take an instrument there. I took a very expensive instrument to him for a simple job and he messed it up. Have you actually used him? I also know someone else who went there and wasn’t exactly happy with the result. Unfortunately I found out afterwards.

From my personal experience the only place I’d use would be JD guitars in Birmingham, a little further away maybe, but they do a superb job.

Don’t go there.

I totally agree, I actually tend to use Thomann, I only use Amazon if something is needed in a hurry. Though I do buy books from them; particularly academic texts, simply because they're so expensive from anywhere else. I tend to buy used ones from the Amazon marketplace.

Yes, that kind of thing. This wasn't for my PhD, but it's the kind of thing that is. I just find it fascinating taking a recording of an everyday sound, and turn it into something totally different.

It'll be very interesting to hear what others do with the same source material. I was involved with a project called Cities and Memories last summer, a one-off thing in conjunction with the British Library National Sound Archive called Sounding Nature. You chose a recording and worked a piece based from it. That was interesting; hearing how others had approached the project and composed their pieces.

Not a band, but both Michael Manring and Steve Lawson. Hearing them I realised that bass isn’t just a role, but a fabulous solo instrument in its own right.

Thanks for listening. Most people will think what the....? It’s something I’ve got more and more into, and at the same time further and further away from regular music. I realised nearing the end of my music degree that it was sound that I loved, not playing.

Possibly not of interest to a great many people, also possibly the strangest yet that I've shared on here. I was invited to do this by a small Essex based record label called Courier Sound. They do some absolutely beautiful releases on cassette, CD and vinyl, they're always fantastically well presented, and the music is amazing. They use a machine called a Silhouette Cameo 3 to cut intricately shaped designs into their packaging and sleeves; hence the title of this. It's composed entirely from a stereo recording of the cutting machine in action; I haven't used any other sound material or instrumentation. They asked other people to work using the same sound material, the various versions will be collated together and released by them later in the year.

I used to just use a simple metronome. Lots of stuff you can do with one, have it click at 30bpm, but play at 120bpm for example. The single click can be on any beat, you have to imagine the missing ones.

I’ve given up worrying about buying from bricks and mortar shops. Their customer service generally tends to be rubbish. For music gear stuff I either buy from Thomann or Amazon. Anything else it’s from Amazon.

It’s beautiful. I’m really looking forward to playing it sometime.