I've spent this week in hospital with a sudden bout of diverticulitis (not a fan, can't recommend it), so I haven't really had a chance to work on anything musically. However, in a delirium, bottled up on painkillers, I realised that the sound of the call buttons and IV pump alarms going off slightly out of time with each other sort of sounded like something Ryoji Ikeda might have composed while sick with a head cold.

Once again relying on my phone as my primary piece of recording equipment, which unfortunately wasn't able to properly capture the binaural effect that could be heard in the room, not least because it was positioned right next to my own IV pump. I would have liked to have moved it, but moving wasn't really an option at the time.

Should be getting out tomorrow, but I think I'll try incorporating more found sound in the future.

Note: I recorded this to submit as a late submission, wrote the post and uploaded it, before re-reading the rules and realised that I shouldn't be submitting something I made this week as a late submission for last week. I've since deleted that submission. Anyway, knowing what I'm like I'm going to submit this for this week because it's eminently possible that I will procrastinate away the rest of my time despite this being literally the only deadline I have in my life right now.

Original Post: During lockdown last year I picked up a Korg Volca Keys and Volca Sample to keep myself occupied and, hopefully, finally learn to use a synth live and not rely on sequencing everything through a DAW.

I used them on an off for a couple of weeks but found the Keys in particular a difficult interface to get a handle on. Anyway, now that we're back in lockdown again (although that's nearly over already) I decided to dust them off and have another crack at it.

(Also, I needed to whip something up quick as a late submission and figured I could get at least a usable minute out of jamming on them.)

I ended up using an AKAI MPD24 to interface with the Keys, the benefit of which is that it has 16 big square pads for my clumsy fingers to inelegantly mash instead of the tiny and overly responsive interface on the Korg.

Give it a listen if you want to hear me subtly adjust some parameters as I try to teach myself something - in real time!

Recorded by sticking my phone in front of the speaker because a) I couldn't get the audio input on the laptop to work, and b) I think more electronic music should include room tone.

This week I tried to create a song with as few parts as possible in an attempt to work on my sequencing and song structure. Rather than layering new synth lines over each other whenever I ran out of ideas, I tried to build a song around just a bass line and a handful of drum loops.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and definitely think I'll be working on this track further.

After an abortive attempt to familiarize myself with Terry Cavanagh's tracker, Bosca Ceoil, I instead retreated to the more familiarish surrounds of FL Studio Mobile - A program I bought like 8 years ago and barely ever used. I immediately fell into a lot of the bad habits I learned through years of "teaching" myself Fruity Loops, but did at least get a feel for the touchscreen interface.

Anyway, I got a bit carried away futzing with filters and resonance in an attempt to make it sound more dynamic and now I hate the drums. But, oh well, there's always next week.