lurksalot

Well I have to say I had a very twilight zone moment on may way home this evening.. I wrote the above 23 days ago as a jolly quip , but while in the village shop this evening, Mr Howard saw me and asked me to pop in on the way home to have a look at an old door that needed a new handle! that was weird

Congratulations to @SH73 who delivered a fine tune to grasp the January challenge win from a fine set of entries. As was his privilege, he chose the following image for the February inspiration. Apparently only built especially for the occasion , purely to satisfy the insatiable Basschat choonsmithery Please choose up to 3 of your favourites out of this tidy bunch 1 @Dad3353 Suspense, suspense. There's Willy the chimp, hanging on; will he let go, to Panda to the whims of the Mock Turtle..? Not Mushroom for manoeuvre; he may get the Bird, or just stay planted there. Anyway, here's my clip... 2 @NickD So what is he up there for, and what can he see? I've been doing tons of walking bass recently, while getting to grips with upright. The electric bass track on here was going to be a placeholder to be replaced with EUB, but it sounds good (to my cloth ears) as it is, so I decided to leave it. 3 Lurksalot Its a bit of a story about Lego I guess, with of course a hefty reliance on some license on pronunciation . 4 @Nicko The little red and white toadstool in the bottom left of the photo looks like a Fly Agaric mushroom (Amanita Muscaria) which is hallucinogenic (as well as being poisonous) which fits quite nicely with the rest of the photo, so I have adopted a theme of a substance induced dream. I couldn't decide whether to do vocals or an instrumental so I ended up with a halfway house - somewhere between indie funk and an Oompah Loompah song. 5 @Nail Soup Had to be the panda. I went with the 'pander' pun, and made the song about not pandering to big-heads who think they know best. Important note: It's not aimed at anyone on Basschat, where great advice is modestly given of course! 6 @Leonard Smalls Started with lots of percussion, got a keys riff going, added some big guitars, then a pumpinslappy bass thing. After that, a final roll in glitter and 3 coats of varnish. It's not jazz, but it probably is an oddity! 7 @Doctor J A reflection of the superficiality of modern plastic society where little is of substance and little pandas stand beside big toadstools, probably taking selfies. 8 @upside downer This is a jaunty little number with a sense of childlike swagger to it. I needed some small people to help me out so I got three of the grandchildren on vox to add to the vibrant feel that I hope the tune conveys. I don't think it's too sickly sweet but even if it is they had some quite splendid fun yelling into the microphone so all's good. 9 @skankdelvar "It ain't what I've done, it's what they done to me" At the time of going to press these are the contenders ....ed to add 10 @SH73 Monkey in the Jungle (or is it?) 11 @AndyTravis my first go at this Thought process is that the little monkey in the tree is happy to play, the panda is worried about destruction of habitat…as he/she is on the ground and can see what’s really going on… Should be apparent which passage is which… ”ignorance is bliss” Have a bit of fun with a listen to these , some serious some not so , but all excellent 3 votes to play with deadline will be midnight on Monday 28th

I’m home , give me an hour and I’ll set up the vote 👍

I have had a bash at cleaning this up a bit as it was rushed. I had time to redo the bass line with a cleaner sound , clean out 4 guitar tracks , tame the vocal a touch and re-mix it . the idea was to make it cleaner , but who knows ! probably not me

The machine I currently use is an all-in-one , and yep it is tidy , that's why the Mrs loves it !! This one has done most of what I needed since day 1 , well , for 8 years, so I cant complain , especially as the Mrs bought it in the first place So I think a decent spec replacement is only fair. Now if I can get one and set it up in the voting downtime , that would be a bonus

I’m looking at an ‘all in one’ as aesthetics are high on the wife’s criteria 😂 but have seen this Portus digital AIO 27-2 These specs look decent enough , but I don’t really know what I am looking at 🤦‍♂️ https://www.portusdigital.com/portus-27-curva-2-27-curved-all-in-one-pc-intel-i7-10th-gen-32gb-ram-2tb-hdd-512gb-ssd-gtx1050ti-10307-p.asp it is a touch pricey for what I need I think , but it looks like a presentable bit of kit and the company seems to get decent reviews 🤷‍♂️

I am revisiting mine a touch as I think I will find time to clean it up , I have found a bass tone that I like and might try to fit it in ... the only issue is , that having not been attentive to the thing for 5 days , I’ve forgotten how it goes , so I need to learn it , then suss out a bass line, then re-record it the PC is p1ssing me off , it can’t handle it any more and is a big drain on my Mojo new machine needed and that scares me, not the cost so much as the transfer of all the vsts and plug ins , files etc ah well I thinks it must be done 😳

I was there 😎 you were all on it, we all had a great evening based on a belter of a performance. 👍

Marvellous news we missed the first bus , and the connecting train is running late ......we’ll get there 😎

Mine is a bit of a rush job as well ! I bashed some guitars as I wanted to! but I reckon I found an 'in' that fits them to the picture Its a bit of a story about Lego I guess, with of course a hefty reliance on some license on pronunciation .

Ooh , I’ll see if I can round up the troops , it’s a bit short notice mind 😁

😂😂 I’ve got one in the garage that I’ve promised myself to hang up ....but ...you know 😂 mine isn’t available until Fleabag’s has gone 😁

...And so it is written ...... here ....

Congratulations to @SH73 who delivered a fine tune to grasp the January challenge win from a fine set of entries. As is his privilege, he has chosen the following image for your February inspiration. Apparently only built today, purely to satisfy the insatiable Basschat choonsmithery Simple rules ✔️ Entries must be <5 minutes and recorded this month. ✖️ No illegal samples, copyright infringements or other snide goings-on ✖️ No Bagpipes. please no bagpipes, the Chinese new year truce now Expired. panpipes only if you have too. ✖️ No voting for your own entry. We'll know. And we'll shame you. A line or two offering an insight to your inspiration/track choice will be good as well , it works nicely on the voting thread. Deadline wise , we will go for midnight on ' World thinking Day ' 👍, though you probably have till I get home from work on the 23rd. I guess midnights are good deadlines though , I think probably creating a deadline of.... '19.36 on the 23rd Feb after getting home from vising Mr & Mrs Howard who wanted advice on a new front door' ... isn't very rock and roll now is it ? Dive in

Well done @SH73 ! A worthy victory in a competitive field , as soon as you send an image over I’ll fire up the February challenge 👍

voting is up and running

Here we go then , another year down , a new start to the monthly challenges, so lets just do it The picture to inspire us was chosen by Novembers winner @skankdelvar who offered the following titbit with the image .. "it's a picture of the universe and everything in it that has existed or happened, is in the process of existing or happening, and might exist or happen in the future. So there's scope to write a tune about absolutely anything that takes one's fancy." Now this has produced an brilliantly eclectic range which will start with ... 1 @Leonard Smalls This month I've been mostly listening to Albert Collins. So I thought I'd do some blues, with keyboards duelling with guitars, more guitars and more keys. I felt this was far kinder than unleashing my much-feared "blues voice"! 2 @Dad3353 An audio exercise, capturing (more than...) fifty shades of real Grey Noise, representing the neutrality of The Universe, and literally pitching this beside a Human Condition notion (somewhat dark, maybe...) and a more potentially joyful version, both stemming from a deep cultural heritage going back eons. I'll freely admit, with no apologies, that it's not the most EDM of my stuff, and will not garner many votes, but that's where the picture led me, so... The fundamental key is the genuine grey noise, playing a theme from an operatic piece by Massenet thanks to Sforzanda, flanked on each side by a set of Kontakt voices, to render a human aspect, and another set of Kontakt balafons, to bring a touch of light-hearted optimism 3 @NickD A song about wondering, I guess. 4 @fingers211 Tried to create it to scale, but didn't have the time. So this was it ! The 6 parts are ,beginning,creation of earth,stompy human race, end of race and new start in Dminor, new creations and lastly, endless time. The titles are more 'grandiose' than the actual pieces,but t'was still good fun to do. 5 @upside downer Here's mine. Skank said there's scope to write a tune about absolutely anything in relation to the picture. I was planning to use only samples but that idea died like a louse in a Russian's beard so instead I've written a tune about everything and nothing. It's a tune that exists digitally in this universe. There, nailed the premise. 6 @SH73 In this month challenge I decided to experiment with Ableton live. I tried to produce some electronic song for change, so enjoy 7 lurksalot with such a open goal left for us with this picture , I have taken it upon myself to have a dig at songs that refer to themselves in the song, I think its despicable and lazy song writing , so I did it as well There are 2 swearages in at the end , not as bad as last months , but they are there . 8 @alittlebitrobot This is not so much a composition as a bunch of ingredients for what should have been some kind of arrangement. Still, at the eleventh hour, here 'tis. 9 @skankdelvar A slice of cheesy 80's synth-pop. Guaranteed no real instruments. 10 @Doctor J We've never been able to see further away but, these days, rarely gaze past our hand Well that lot is a great listen! I have to say I find it incredible what you all produce given barely three weeks , fantastic. Enough Already ..3 Votes lots of listening and 3 votes deadline is midnight on 31st January Good luck Y'all

I appear to have picked up a cold with a blocked nose, so you will have to cut me a bit of slack on the vocal line this month with such a open goal left for us with this picture , I have taken it upon myself to have a dig at songs that refer to themselves in the song, I think its despicable and lazy song writing , so I did it as well There are 2 swearages in at the end , not as bad as last months , but they are there . musically a cheat, with my digital piano that plays itself after you set it up and press go , just a few chords and patterns to punch in, then my fingers are free to stick in my ears when I start singing!

I plug straight into the interface , I have enough stuff confusing my head already , I don’t want any more stuff in the chain 😁

All I can say is it’s a good job I use ones and zeros , if I had to pay for the equivalent in tape I would be beyond broke 🤔 😁

I’m on my third attempt at this , all stealing the bit of time I can while my room is in pieces. I have a tune laid out , but am struggling to set my singing to it , and that is after 3 different approaches to the thing . if I really think it’s abysmal I’ll ditch the vocal , but if it’s just utter crap , I think it will scrape over my very low quality threshold . it’s a story which won’t be much good without words, but then again ......