Mr Scruff

This blog is about things I like.  That's it.  I don't claim to have any (well, many) remarkable insights or anything interesting to say, I just want to write about the ...stuff... that I ...er... like.  And here is something.  It's music - but unlike the mainly acoustic or electronic music that I dabble in this is more sample based (more posts and theories on that later my friends!).  And it's Mr Scruff who is a tea drinker, cartoonist and samplist-er (whatever it's called).

I came acoss this fellow because he was at one time one of the featured producers in the Computer Music magazine (CM158, December 2008) and on a whim I visited his website, which you should have a look at.  I would particularly like to recommend the following tracks which you can find on the above link and also on his soundcloud page (although they're all interesting):

• Baisies
• Jus Jus
• It's Dancing Time
• Shanty Town
• Fish
• Get a Move On

There's quite a few examples of what I understand is referred to as Nu-Jazz as well as samples of Brian Cant, Raymond Baxter, John Noakes and Captain Pugwash, to name but the few I recognised.  It's funky, and to quote my good friend Professor Roberts (now in San Diego), there's no point if it ain't funky.

Check it, as they say.

Panormo Guitar

One of these days I'm going to make a classical guitar and if I do it may well be one of these, a Panormo guitar.  Louis Panormo was a guitar maker active in London in the 1840s and 50s.  His instruments are actually based on earlier Spanish designs.

This one happens to be in the collection of Edinburgh University and I think that it is one of those on display at St Cecilia's Hall, an 18th century concert hall in Edinburgh's Old Town (in the Cowgate, just off Niddry Street).  We went to a guitar concert there during the 2011 Edinburgh Festival and were amazed to see all these early guitars on display in the area that they served coffee in at the interval.  They were in glass cabinets, mind you.

Actually, I've no idea how to make one but did come across a luthier (a maker of stringed instrument, especially guitars) called Gary Demos who had made one and shows how on his website. Another interesting website that discusses many 19th century guitars can be found here.

Admira Malaga

I've always loved classical guitar music and after my son was given a guitar and started lessons I thought I'd learn too, so I bought a guitar.  It's an Admira Malaga and I think that it is a beautiful instrument.

It has a solid cedar top and the sides and back are made from a wood called sapelli (a tropical African wood similar to mahogany).  The neck actually is African mahogany and the bridge and fingerboard are made of mongoy (another hardwood from west and east Africa).

I'm still learning and try to play every day (using Frederick Noad's Solo Guitar Playing (Vol 1)) which I think is excellent.   A long way to go yet but I'm enjoying it!

Z3TA+ ModernRetro

Much that I like my new soft synth Z3TA+, it's appearance is a little dull, and even a bit pale (see earlier post).  So, I had a search aound for a new skin that was more exciting.  I didn't have to look far as I went straight to Flavours of Lime's site and found this:

It's called ModernRetro and it has a bit more contrast and colour than the original skin. Nice.

z3ta+

Yes, I know. It's another post about virtual synthesizers, but I couldn't keep this one to myself.  I managed to pick this up for the cover price of the latest Computer Music magazine (No. 171 - it was on the DVD).  It was formerly retailing at about 69 dollars/euros, I think.  Anyway, I've had my eye on it for a while, particularly as there was a KVR Audio One Synth Challenge (OSC) using this very synth a few months ago (see link).  Actually you could use the recently released Z3TA+2 if you wanted instead.

This OSC was unusual in that it was the first time that the competition had been held using an out-and-out commercial synth.  A lot of the regulars were no show because of this (I count myself as a regular although I rarely participate), but it did attract a lot of new people to the competition.  Might have had something to do with the tasty prizes too.

Anyway, it sounds good and has some interesting arp (arpeggio) patches to add movement to the mix.  I have far too many virtual synths as it is (all free-ware) but have decided to remove all the extraneous ones downloaded on a whim and concentrate on just a few to really get to know them.  This one (and Oatmeal, below) are on that select list.  There are a few others that I have retained and I may get around to posting about them if I have time.

Oatmeal

I dabble a bit in making electronic music and contribute very occasionally to the KVR Audio One Synth Challenge (OSC).  I use Reaper for this and have tried quite a few synths, almost all free ones, available from the web.  One of the best is Fuzzpilz's Oatmeal, which I used for one of my OSC entries, which effort is actually on my sound cloud page.  The synth looks like this (hence the name, presumably).

However, you shouldn't judge a synth by its cover, although it can be a bit off-putting.  Luckily Fuzzpilz, with great prescience (or maybe he was just being realistic) included a button which allows you to change the skin very easily, and there are now various skins (as well as hundreds of patches) for the synth out there including the one I've been using.

Finally, the point of this post is that flavours of lime has released a new two-in-one skin pack which looks like this (well this is the dark version, or the 'Derek' version as he calls it), and it's the one I'm using now.

And it still sounds as good as ever it did...