So having spent most of the day feeling crap in bed I thought I'd achieve something by posting the latest photos the the Crunchie Boost. After blowing things up and generally taking far too long to assemble what should have been a simple circuit, I now have a power supply. It uses the LT1054 and actually works! With the standard Boss power I get 9.11V and now I have -8.31V in addition. This is perfect for the preamp section and should be ok for the tube too (though not the tube heater). Therefore, next stop - getting some crunch.

Post Fail

I need to rant...

Online shopping in the past few years has become pretty awesome, in fact to the point where you could easily buy 90% of everything you need without ever having to leave the house. Websites are easier to use and payment is quick and less risky than before things such as Paypal. However, there remains the problem of delivery. Most delivery firms are, I have decided, incompetent, unhelpful and while attempting to introduce web-based or automated features are still not addressing the main problems.

I thought some companies were ok but I have had shit service from DHL and HDNL to name a couple, and everyone else thinks Royal Mail are rubbish (although I would say they are the best of a bad bunch). One of the main problems is their inability to specify a delivery time, just stating the day on which it will arrive is useless for anyone who does any kind of work. Secondly even if you can rearrange a delivery and find a day that you are willing to waste, I have had a least three occasions where I have waited in only for them to fail to turn up. This is totally unacceptable - you don't expect when paying for something for your credit card to say "oh wait sorry can't sell you that but we'll charge you anyway and maybe you can get it some other time". You then try to contact the branch at which your parcel is being held, but this is basically impossible because they only give you a phone number for the central services. Finally on deciding to go and fetch the parcel yourself you realise that the depot is miles away and nowhere near any kind of sensible public transport and even if you do get there, it has just defeated one of the points of shopping online in the first place.

Rant over. Now someone sort out a better postal service.

I'm back (with a new studio)

Well it's been a long time - mainly due to a lack of internet, the general stress of moving flat and the fact that writing endless stuff for my PhD means that writing for my blog has less appeal. One advantage of moving was that I now have room to set up my recording studio properly and even have space for a couple of new additions. Here's what it looks like...

I'm particularly pleased with my new drum controller (an Akai MPD24) above the keyboard. It's got really good touch sensitive pads and the whole thing feels solidly built which is surprising given that it is only about £150 new. Loads of knobs, sliders and transport buttons too. My other purchase was a second-hand Soundcraft Notepad mixing desk for small scale live use which I can confirm works well outside for micro-festivals but more on that later.