so my search for an alternative “first step” lead me to YouTube. i just cant fault it. one more fantastic piece of freeware that is available to everybody. i have my own channel now where i upload my own musical compositions and videos. i have completed three musical works and uploaded them so far, the latest being a track i called “Warshayka”.

i constructed it using Hydrogen and some open source samples. i did also put it through MixPad, but didn’t use that version for Youtube as although i feel it was better, there seemed to be a problem with the sound quality after saving. there isn’t a problem with MixPad, it’s something i’ve done wrong and i was in a hurry to get the track uploaded to Youtube, so i used the version straight from Hydrogen. i am in the process of doing a remix of Warshayka with MixPad and i will sort the sound quality issue when finished.

i urge anybody who may read this to check out my Youtube channel via the link on this blog. enjoy!

now i have also been researching selling tracks via iTunes. you’d think that being as it’s so easy to buy tracks, it would be just as easy to sell tracks. but, you’ve guessed it, a whole industry has sprung up around doing just that. a few of these services are free, so i will research it further and post my findings.

when i think about how difficult the government has made it to even play music publically these days, it would be easy to get downhearted. compared to just a few years ago, it is now regulated up the wizzwang. but i aint never let ‘them’ stop me doin anything before and i aint gonna let ‘them’ now.

(RANT)

lets take the rave scene for instance- would that have developed the way it did with a f**kin smokin ban in place? i think not and, believe me, music wouldn’t be what it is today without the whole rave movement. i don’t think people understand how free we were then compared to now. it’s a god damn shame and to be frank , it’s embarrassing. once a freedom is lost, it’s hard to get it back.

one of the worst issues about how free we were to how free we aren’t is that we’ve let people who don’t live in our reality regulate our lives. these people at the so-called “top” all went to the same school and universities – they have no comprehension of struggling to pay bills, or buying school uniform, or putting food on the table- they have lackies to do all that for them. when they talk about our lives they have no empathy and yet we allow them to regulate our lives. they would tax the air you breathe and they just might.

btw- just so “you” know- this is a for real .com. faker- hahahahahaha

i also purchased a couple of cd’s- not music, but what you might call ‘stock sounds’. one is a effects cd, with 2200 different fx, while the other is an ‘Analogue modular’ cd.

stock cd's

to be honest, i bought the ‘Analogue Modular’ thinking it was something else (my own misinterpretation!). but, as i have increased my uderstanding of hydrogen, etc., i have realised that there isn’t any harm in exploring how i might conbine this cd with hydrogen. the fx cd will easily be incorperated into hydrogen- i will just download the fx to my harddrive and import them to hydrogen via ‘new instrument’ as needed.

rsw1

i have also been sorting through some of my cupboards and i came across a folder which i used to keep all my old flyers from when i used to go ‘Raving’ every week. i thought it might be a good idea to scan them into me PC for uploading into my MSN ‘Skydrive’. i can remember the first rave i went to was “Snapper Club” at the ‘Hummingbird Nightclub’ in Birmingham city centre U.K., way back in 1989. at the time i was heavily into punk rock, but previous to that, since the age of about 13, i had been into electronic (?) music – these being early hip-hop, via the Street sounds Electro compilation albums, then House music, via the Chicago Jack Beat and House sound of Chicago compilations, then more avant garde electronic music i.e. Throbbing Gristle, Test Dept., 23 Skidoo, Renegade Soundwave, Meat Beat Manifesto, Tackhead, etc. and then punk rock. so, as you can see, i had house music ‘form’. anyroad, there i was 15 and at the hummingbird in me tartan trousers and me biker leather, hair dyed black and spicked up. after about 10 minutes of dancing and seeing all the other young people at this brand new style of event – ‘raving’ hadn’t even been thought of at this time, it was still called an acid house party – i realised that i was at the begining of a brand new scene. and what a scene it was. i have to say that to this day i would say that the hummingbird was the best venue for raving i ever went to and i eventually went all over the country. i danced my way round the UK.

snappers int'l.ectoFRONT

the layout of the club was thus: there was a massive main room that had a very large balcony area that overlooked the dancefloor all the way round, there was two bars and a food area with seeting and at the front of the main room, the stage. either side of the stage were two huge stacks of speakers that reached up to the cieling! the bass bins at the bottom of the stacks were that large that we used to sit INSIDE them. 3 people to a speaker! 4 speakers wide. these

ectoFRONT

ectoINFO

things were massive. aswell as the main room there were two back rooms that were both large enough to house a 3-4 hundred person event.

eruption world dance

i remember one sunday (maybe 1994) evening, we arrived at the venue and the event was being held in one of the back rooms (this was done on a sunday due to less numbers- the main event being on a friday). anyroad, the main DJ’s booked for that evening didnt turn up, so the management decided that they would open up the partition to the large main hall. what a fantastic discision- because as we 100 or so ravers looked out over the balconey to the capacity packed main room, who should come on stage, but CHAKA DEMUS!! the security said as we had paid less than the other customers we had to stay on the balconey until after Chaka Demus had finished, but we didn’t mind cos after him there was a SOUNDCLASH event. it’s well known that ravers have always been big fans of reggae, so we had a fantastic night. i remember the slightly astonished look of the reggae fans as this group of ravers started giving it nuff noise via whistles and horns- but believe me when i say they welcomed us with open arms.

i could wax lirical for a long time about the rave scene, how it was destroyed in Britian and how they have applied the same technique ‘they’ used on the rave movement to the ‘free’ festival scene (as in there arn’t any free festivals anymore.) Raving was a big part of my life and to see go the way it went added insult to injury (handbag fashionista binge drinkers dance pop)

below is a selection of me flyers:

 i used Hydrogen drum machine and wavepad- both free to download- to create the track. hydrogen is a fantastic piece of creative software that i can’t recommend enough. it is very versatile, in my opinion, and as long as your willing to put a little effort in there isn’t much you cant do with it musically. it does have certain issues to do with special fx, but every time i hit a ‘stumper’, it only took a few minutes to find a way round the problem.

Wavepad is also fantastic. like Hydrogen, its free and an added bonus is that when you download the software, you get a massive music creating suite that covers every thing from file conversion (essential for hydrogen), to an ‘unlimited’ track mixer, to streaming audio recorder, to disk burner, to virtual DJ console. whilst these extra features are initially free, they are subject to a 14 day trial period, which when the trial runs out, obviously, you have to pay to continue using the software- apart from Wavepad.

initially you get a few excellent drum kits included in the Hydrogen download. on top of these you can download extra, user-created, kits to the sound library. after i had downloaded these extra kits, i then realised that i could use Wavepad to get samples and then upload them onto Hydrogen using the new instrument feature. Hydrogen also comes with its own self updating mixer. but it versatility really shines out when you click on the ‘DRUM’ button. these changes the part where you add the beats to a musical scale. for example: lets say you record your voice in the key ‘A’. once you have added this sample to the ‘new instrument’ layer, you can add the sample as many times as you like in its original key of ‘A’. click on the ‘DRUM’ button and you can add the sample in any key, as many times as you like. you can also alter pitch using a more traditional looking knob.

hydrogen + mixer

the screenshot above was also created using free software- ScreenHunter 5. in the shot you can see the ‘snapshot’ area – the gray area with black dots is the individual beat/ sample placement area. the grey area with light blue squares above that is the drum/ sample pattern placement area. the bottom half of the screen is the mixer- i wont even guess how much a ‘real’ (as opposed to virtual) mixer with that many channels would cost, but suffice it to say it would be in the thousands of pounds rather than hundreds!

i have had Hydrogen on my PC now for at least 2yrs and i am still learning how to use some of its more advanced features, but in reality, ANYBODY, without any training can download this software and start creating beats.

so i suggest you do

(click on my YouTube link to hear UKBASS)

Wavepad is from NCH and Hydrogen is available from sourceforge.com. ScreenHunter 5 is available from Wisdom-soft.com.

when I was younger, I didn’t take well to secondary school. I don’t know why particularly, it was just one of those things. there was, of course, an end result to my non participation- a lack of formal qualifications that reflect my intellect. so now I have projects that could and invariably will better mine and my children’s lives, I don’t have the qualifications to back up my ideas. I have the knowledge, the drive, the ambition and the skills – but nothing on paper to say “it true, he can do this!”

now about the projects proper:

MMOrg. – the next step for this is to start playing to the public. sounds easy and it should be easy, the basic act of taking my love of Reggae, Jungle and everything in-between to the local community, showing them the how’s, etc. and spreading these musical styles, inspiring others to get involved, raising monies for charity and community projects, etc. “no problem” you say, “set up the sound, lets start  playing music”- but what about licensing? what about health and safety rules? it seems that just as you find out about and comply with one regulation, another, just as dubious regulation is there to thwart your efforts. I think getting others on-board might be an answer to help spread the issue of dealing with red-tape.

MMOflyer

NCAN – this project is the one where college is most relevant. I think I have a great idea here, but I can’t ask others to get involved if I havent got at least one relevant qualification. I am in the process of setting up a meeting with a rep from the college, but I have got to pick a day when I havent got my children with me, for obvious reasons.

NCAN logo

SCYGOC - I have got the website up and in the developement stage. I am really looking forward to doing this project, because my son will be so involved in it, learning so much about organising at such a young age. he is also very enthusiastic about the project. we know what the next step is- venue and advertising.

there is another issue that affects all three projects- funding. I have 2 children, so their needs come before all others. funding should be a simple matter, but again there is a whole mountain of issues that could affect our basic day-to-day lives. am I ready to take that leap? I think I can do more to ensure that it’s less of a leap and more of a natural step forward.

there is a saying, I think it goes like this: “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

The last few weeks of the school hols have been great for me and me kids, what a great time we’ve had, when we’ve been together. of course, “the wicked liar” just couldn’t help herself and made sure she engineered a non issue to try to have some sort of effect on my life. now, I could spend the rest of this post trying to psycho-analyse the why’s and wherefore’s of her motives and behaviour, but the conclusion would only be stating the obvious. you can’t reason with the irrational. I will write a short (ish) paragraph of the events that were the “non- issue”.

last week, during my time with me kids, 2 days before they went to visit “the wicked liar” for a week, I started receiving texts from her complaining that she felt that she had been ‘done’ out of two days due to me manipulating the arrangements. I then had to text a reply back pointing out that she was mistaken. unfortunately, she is one of those people who feel that they are never wrong and don’t like being proved wrong. she was, in fact, getting half a day less than me due to me kids going back to school on a Tuesday. if they had gone back on a Wednesday she would have got half a day more than me, but they didn’t. she then sent a text demanding that she collect me kids at 10am a day earlier than we had agreed. I refused this demand, but offered a compromise - she could collect them on the evening at 7pm, the day before she was due to collect them. she refused this offer (all of this 2ing and fro-ing was done via text) and threatened me with the police. I knew it was an empty threat, because of the times when I legitimately asked the ‘old bill’ (means “police” in english slang) to retrieve me kids from her in the past and they had told me they didn’t get involved in civil disputes.  so I didn’t reply. she then texted me again saying that she was going to take me back to court as I was breaking the court order by not giving into her demands.    (she had obviously forgotten that it was i who had taken her to court, not the other way round.) so I offered another compromise -she could collect them at 6pm. she replied it must be 2pm. I said 5pm and that it was my last offer. so to facilitate a solution she …..rejected the offer. she wanted to collect me kids at 4pm. I mean this was getting infantile. I didn’t reply. I was then barraged with insulting and demanding text for about 2 hours. then she said that she would “speak to her solicitor” and would accept the compromise, if the solicitor said that it was ok!?! I mean ….how do you negotiate with such a person as this? I bet you can guess what the outcome of this all was- well I will tell you. after i had informed me kids about the more than likely change of plan (to which i got “ooowwww!”) she finally texted me stating that she couldn’t possibly collect me kids at 5pm. she was going to refuse the compromise and collect me kids on the day originally arranged at 9:30 am, half an hour before the time we had already agreed to weeks before. now you see what i am dealing with here. i just texted back “ok”.  but that wasn’t the end of this ridiculous affair. after she had collected me kids, I then got a text message saying that she was told by the solicitor to make up the time she felt that she was due (which she wasn’t) at the end of her week. true to form, half an hour before me kids were due home, I got a text off “the wicked liar” saying she wasnt bringing me kids home and that she was taking them to school on their first day back.

there is an old saying “daddy fu is like a sleeping lion, be careful when he awakes.”

and finally…..

I have had a call from the local college about the courses I expressed an interest in and i have filled in the application form and i am sending it off tomorrow. the areas of study i am interested in are art, music and business. I am really looking forward to showing me kids that no matter what obstacles are put in your path, if you set your mind to doing something and you earnestly pursue that goal, you can achieve it. i have also been spending time setting up a local community group. it is still in the planning stages, but it will happen and to the benefit of the whole community.

when i walk around the cliffs, looking out to sea, looking at the beaches, taking photos and watching the surfers, it just gives me so much inspiration. whether the sea is rough or calm, the feeling i get inside is always the same- my problems are no longer as big as they seem. the natural beauty of the waves and the power of the sea makes me feel a little bit better every time.

i am reminded of a lyric in the excellent “Sizzla” track- “so solid as a rock”- it goes like this- “they can’t keep a good man down,

always keep a smile when they want me to frown!”

during that last week of the hols, me ma came to visit and we all had a fantastic time…especially me kids. we visited various Penzance,

cafe at Penzance

inside cafelook what i got!yay!

look what i got!

 

and again:

about 3 months ago i sent a email to my local college outlining my skills and requesting feedback about one specific course and advice on a course suitable to reflect my abilities. the specific course had in its blurb on the website that a couple of GCSE’s were necessary to gain entry, but mature students would be evaluated on a case by case basis. at the time i also placed a call to the college, leaving a message. i didnt get a reply to the email, but last week i got a call back. i was told that even for mature students, certain qualifications were necessary, as it was a university level course, irrellevent of the individuals intellect or skills. i was then told that although i wouldn’t be eligible for the course this term, there was an alternative course that , on completion, would make it possible for me to gain a place on the university level course. fantastic! now i have a course of action to follow.

so onto my battle with HMCE. this is the dept that deals with child benefit in the u.k. i had appealed their ridiculous and discriminatory decision about my daughters entitlement.  this led to a tribunal before a Judge. my outlook was very positive, as it was obviously an open and shut case. unfortunately it turned out to be a bit of a shambles. an excercise in futility. the judge said that she sympathised with my predicament and recognised the validity of my argument, but she didnt have the power to overturn the original decision, due to HMRC rules regarding appeals tribunals!? so what to do next? i got in touch with a pressure group that has some knowledge of these issues and gained the information i needed. again this wasn’t great news. i was told that i needed to get a judicial review, before i could go to the european court of human rights. “no problem” i thought, until i found out that it would cost at least £10,000. so that put the kibosh on that. but there is one other agency i can approach, so the battle isnt over yet…..watch this space.

i have taken a photo of my self-portrait:

Self portrait

  i have also been sea fishing:

sea fishing

when i was a kid i used to be part of a course fishing club- the Birmingham Anglers Association youth team “The Starlets”- and although i was the youngest (by a long chalk) and the least successful, i really enjoyed it. the things i learned about course fishing, i have never forgotten. a few weeks ago, me an me kids went course fishing and we all really enjoyed it.  so i have been getting everything sorted for us to go again. the problem is transport to the venues- i dont drive and unless the bus drops us off right outside the venue, i dont think that me little daughter would manage much of a walk with  or without carrying equipment. the only other option is taxi’s. this means that with the cost of the day ticket to fish – approx. £5 adults, £4 children, the cost of fishing license- £4 a day, taxi fare £10 there and £10 back, the basic total cost (excluding picnic food, tackle and bait) is £37! which is a big chunk out of our living money. working class and unemployed/ single father families priced out of another sport. i will have to get in touch with the bus company to see exactly how far the bus stops are from the 3 main venues.

sea fishing

by contrast, sea fishing (excluding tackle and bait costs) is completaly free! (but it’s not as relaxing for me and there arnt any duckies, etc. for me daughter.) i will have to see if i can raise the 40 buff by tomorrow, to go lake fishing, if not sea fishing it is! 

regarding the sound system………

it was almost inevitable that money and beaurocracy would come into the picture, to make things difficult. but i am serious and dedicated to this project. it is my dream and therefore my obligation. i have to stay focused on my ambitions, which isnt easy at the moment. i have to somehow juggle my aims to be creative (in a way that makes me kids proud of me and inspired), with the normal humdrum chores, etc., that are as important to me kids life as anything else. i want to be able to prove to me kids that an idea can become a viable reality.

sea fishing

at the moment it is the school summer break for the kids, in the U.K. in total they get 6 weeks off. due to restrictions on “the wicked liar” (me ex-wife) and the time she is allowed to have me kids unsupervised, (due to neglect issues) we do a 1 week on, 1 week off arrangement.  i have no such constrictions on me.  any road, we (me+ me kids) decided to go to birmingham to visit me ma for a week. she said she would come to us in cornwall for a few days, then take us back to birmingham and at the end of the week, bring us home again! quite a bit of travelling! on route TO birmingham, we decided to stop off at weston- supa- mare. weston is just about half way between cornwall and birmingham.  we all had a great time. they’ve a working pier at weston, and at the moment they have a large “london eye” style ferris wheel. there are also some great rides for the little ‘uns on the beach – donkeys, bouncy castles, etc.

weston pier

Tha Fu Family!! {son #1 taking picture}

Daddy Fu and Ferris wheel

The little ‘uns

The little 'uns on bouncey castle

The little 'uns on swing boats

donkeys

DONKEYS!

DONKEYS!

son #1 on donkey

 

Weston Pier

yellow belt!

as well as this blog, i also have a YouTube ‘channel’. the link is below. it is really going to be a conduit for getting my musical and media creativity ‘out- there’. i really enjoy using Windows Movie Maker and think that it a fantastic piece of software, especially since it’s free. I have been taking a lot of pictures since I started blogging, etc., and love the way an individual can access the world and show their pictures and share their thoughts relatively easily. we are connected. an individual linked to the entire world. people having access to the thoughts and dreams of others. creativity for its own sake. “I don’t care if anybody reads my blog, because I know that if they want to, they can.”

http://www.youtube.com/v/gBRx_TCg32g?version=3

Casting

i thought i had better do a post!

i “recently” took my kids fishing. they had said that they wanted to do something for my up coming birthday, so i suggested that we go somewhere together, as this would be the best kind of ’present’. 

firstly, we sorted out all the tackle i already own. lucky we did, as two out of the three rods i own were broken! the reels were fine. i had forgotten how much tackle i owned, so i didn’t have to get any new hooks, floats, etc. i also had some boilies left. obviously with the rods in the state they were, a visit to the local tackle shop was in order. i purchased a new landing net pole, a new rod, groundbait, maggots, extra line. we also went to the post office to buy a fishing license. i also brought a few bits of food for a picnic.

we returned home and got all the things ready and we left. we had decided on fishing at ‘Gwenere Pools’. it has three lakes- a specimen lake and two smaller carp lakes. it is a few miles just outside of Newquay. unfortunatly, on arrival we found out that the two smaller carp lakes had matches on. so we fished the specimen lake.

we pitched the tent and set up the new rod to fish. it wasnt long before my son caught his first eel! this was followed by a large roach, 6 smaller roach and then a decent size bream. the eel was the hardest fish to land- it took about 10 minutes.

i cant say it was a cheap day out- because it wasnt- but it was a great day.

 (the picture at the very top of the post is the large roach.)

sunset2

the sound system has gone from an ‘i’ to a ‘we’- and we are so close to recording tracks, it’s unbelievable. theres just one thing lacking at the ma and that is lead vocals. we are lookin for a female lead singer and a male/ female toaster/ mc.

Daddy Fu escapes capture again!

my kids are doin great- both of them recently won new belts at there shokotan karate class- me 7 son says he’s eager to fight a bout! the sensai said that at the moment he didn’t want the students comin to school sportin black eyes that they had won, but me son wasnt even fased! proud ain’t the word.

i still get the occasional grief from me ex- “the wicked liar”- but sour grapes dont taste nice- hahaha

Known Associate- Mik McMumbles

i can finally say that “we” are gettin somewhere!