Gizmo rehearsal was productive in several ways tonight. David Gilmore and Freddie Hill both refined songs they have written and we now have a working arrangement for both of them.

I was able to get my 2-keyboard setup working and was quite happy playing voices on my macbook. I used Minimonsta VST plugin for a couple of songs, and we experimented with a guitar sample that I've used in recordings. I think next week I'll use it on Walk on Fire. I'm using an ELP inspired square wave voice for David's new song. Perhaps others will learn to appreciate it as I do.

Everybody made it to practice, so we moved ahead and had a great time in the process. We're now #41 rock band in NW Georgia!

We worked on some other songs tonight. "Be Somebody" got some attention, as we rocked out our time proven arrangement for it. We also played "Miss Liberty's Head" with gusto. That's more of a group write, and it's evolving as we go. Tonight I think we got in an extra keyboard solo here and there, experimenting as we go.

Btw, Robby here: It's great having Logic on a macbook to represent a live keyboard setup. I've got a lot of AU instruments that I've used in recordings over the years, but having them live is a great opening of choices. I like the KORG Legacy cell for string sounds, using two poly six synths in unison with a few affects, nice sound from that. I also have a Native Instruments Reaktor OP-X synth that really has no equal. Playing these voices live is a whole new ballgame.

The Laws of Physics

Gizmo's rehearsal play list tonight:

Candy-O - The Cars
The Dangerous Type - The Cars
My Shadow in Vain - Gary Numan / Tubeway Army
Velvet Elvis - Garner
Be Somebody (With You) - Gilmore, Garner
Miss Liberty's Head - Gizmo
U R not Alone - Garner

That was all we had time for. Still working out final details of the last 3.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

It's been suggested lately that I learn guitar, and while I think that is a worthwhile project, the prospect doesn't appeal to me lately. I really don't see the appeal in guitars, except everyone seems to be stuck on them.

Rest assured that the new year will have me writing and recording in my brand, Flux Oersted, more than anything else. To the extent that I can play with other musicians, I will.

To the future!

Robby.

The Cold Red Eyes of Home

I published my first kindle post yesterday. The Cold Red Eyes of Home is a short story about a man who builds a robot and they have adventures. I chose this story as a test, to see how the publishing process works, but hope to follow soon with more titles. I'm working on a serial story called The Interrogators, and am looking into ways to have it also available as an audio book or podcast. Not sure about the details on that yet. I may publish a collection of essays at some point, if I can find enough of them about. Some of my favorites were written to the Robitron discussion list over the past eight years or so. Some spelunking may be in order to locate them. Luckily, there is a search feature on the messages there. On Amazon.com, you can download free kindle reader software for macs, and there is a free kindle reader for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. I found that useful to me for testing, but now I am interested in getting a kindle. The Barnes & Noble Nook is an interesting device as well. I guess at some point they become like so many remote controls lying about the house.

New Projects

I've got several new projects in the works right now. The main one is a series of short stories called The Interrogators, based on a couple of dreams I had about a steam punk "body snatchers" sort of thing, that I intend to write in serial form with music. I think it will take place around 1905, so may be post steam punk, just a little bit. Maybe no steam at all. It was a "golden" year of sorts, and that may be part of the stories. I have a couple of loose songs left over from my last album, that would be nice to do something with. I'm not sure if they are "singles" material or not. But I rediscovered them in my iTunes jukebox, and thought, "That was pretty good!" I have an acoustic guitar recording project coming up hopefully, and would be nice if that turned into more than one song. More about that later. There is a drummer attached to this, plays digital drum pads. That seems ideal to me. I may be doing a project using JFRED as a story teller, with incidental music accompaniment. It's for a FutureMusic Summit, but still not sure what the entrance to that requires, or if I can do it or not. I not grok in fullness. Robby.

Fans

It seems the Chinese are finally leaving me alone. For a year they dominated my web stats by downloading all my music files, and probably didn't understand a word I said. I kept rearranging things and removing all my songs, then making them only available for a donation, then free, but renamed. Eventually all my traffic disappeared. I am either bipolar or enjoy html editing. Possibly both, but not necessarily in that order. My doctor says it is in remission. I don't know how he would know, he does all the talking. I miss the Chinese.

Finally finished with the setup and distributing of Fabric and Dreams. Now you can get everything from 128k free MP3's to lossless versions in FLAC from our website at FluxOersted.Com. Coming in the next few weeks will be CD on demand from Amazon.com, but apparently it takes them some time to set that up. This makes my fifth offering from iTunes, but we're about to retire two of them, and consolidate our material somewhat. If you're even the least bit interested, you should check out Fabric and Dreams, it really is our best album since Inference Patterns. I didn't know until recently that our best selling single was "Timothy Leary's Dead." It's on The Visitor album. It is a weird and kooky track but I guess the name says it all.