I have finally succumbed and purchased my first iPad and have immediately set about installing a few of the apps recommended on the various blogs and forums I look to for advice.

I have recently been part of the brilliantly conceived Disquiet Junto project by Marc Weidenbaum and have come to enjoy the idea of constraint as part of the creative process. What may seem as a step back in terms of raw computing power, sophisticated DAW apps and plug-ins, could actually help forge my sound and point it into a fresh direction. Pieces may be solely created on the iPad or I may use it as starting point and transfer ideas to my main PC for completion. Who knows? Time will tell, although at least an EP of iPad only stuff is my minimal aim.

I don’t, as yet, have a midi/audio interface, but one is planned when finances allow for it. The list of apps I have initially installed is as folllows… Animoog, Sound Prism Pro, NLog Pro, Sunrizer, csGrain, Mega Curtis, Space and Node Beat. I’ve yet to decided on something to pull these together, such as Nano Studio, but I will update this list soon.

It may take a little time for things to come to fruition but hopefully it will be worth the wait.

Throughout April 2011 I’m giving away 320k MP3 versions of all 24 ambient music releases that I have made in return for donations to the National Autistic Society.

http://www.justgiving.com/ambienteerforautism

Once you’ve donated, you’ll find a special web link in the thank you message. Please grab whatever you like right up until April 30th 2011.

If you’re one of those lovely people that has already paid for any of my music, or you do decide to make a donation, I will be creating a special EP that will not be released publicly, but only for you, as thank you for supporting me and a cause close to my heart.

As a parent of a teenage son with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, I am only too aware of the difficulties faced by those with Autism and their families.

My target is a tough one, but with your help, I’d love to beat it.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – together we raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Please donate if you can, no matter how little that might be.

Thank you,

James

Just a quick update to let you know that all of the albums are now up on Bandcamp and it would mean a lot to me if you could go and download them. You’ll find me here. There is no obligation to pay anything, but if you feel you could offer a small payment, you’d be helping to invest in my ability to keep creating new music.

On Friday, I was blown away by the generousity of the Peter and the crew at Create Digital Music for including me amongst some esteemed company as a new music listening recommendation. I’m very grateful for receiving support from such a terrific site.

I’m beginning to work on some new sounds but combining work, family, school holidays and creative time is not that easy in August. I hope to post something here soon.

Thanks to each and everyone of you that have taken the time to listen so far.

Just letting you know that I am currently uploading all of my pieces in their originally intended album formats. So far, I’ve posted the first few.

Please take a look over at http://ambienteer.bandcamp.com/ and grab whatever you fancy. There really is no obligation to buy anything, but if you feel you can, please do so. It really will help me cover the costs of running this blog and making more for you all.

Thanks… x

On a tight budget, I’ve managed to find something that will hopefully see me being creative again v.soon. Will report back here once I have had some time to see how it performs. Thanks for the sympathetic tweets and emails! :)

Sorry, but there will be a delay in my Bandcamp uploads and just about everything else. My laptop is completely dead this morning. Timing couldn’t be any worse. Will report back here later.

Just thought I would update you on my plans over the rest of the summer.

I am currently beginning to upload my work in its original ‘albums’ format to Bandcamp. 250 tracks will take some time to upload, so bear with me? I’d love it if you could pay just few pounds if you do like what I have made so far? The hope is that I can raise enough money to help cover the basic costs of upgrading my computer hardware/software and running the server that hosts this blog.

I am creating sounds for DJ Chloe Harris, collaborating with another Twitter friend (spoken words over ambient) and I’m also writing, what I would call, my first ‘proper’ release. Until now, due to the nature of the blog and timescales involved, the pieces I have made have not been optimised or mastered, just made and shared.

All of this is having to be squeezed in around my day job. I also have my son with me and he needs plenty of attention, as of course does Nickie!

This will mean that this blog may not be v.busy for a while, but I hope you’ll still use it to listen to one or more of the 250+ tracks I have left here for you.

Thank you ALL for your support this far.

James x

Sorry for the lack of sound.

Nothing I’ve made in the past week sounds right. I fear that there is an element of repetition in the methods, sounds and melodies I am using.

The Zoom H4n’s (my recent purchase) manual has been consumed and I shall attempt to press it into action.

Hope to have something new here soon.

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you may already know that I am moving home (to Guildford, to be with Nickie) over the next couple of days. So no new sounds are likely until after this weekend. Bear with me, I’ll be noodling again before you know it.

Thanks,

J

Sorry for the quiet spell, my daytime job is v.busy and (more interestingly) I have just bought Max for Live and therefore had to install another (but this time v.exciting) Ableton upgrade.

I hope to post something new here later tonight or early tomorrow. For now I will just be experimenting with what is available out of the box. As a Max novice it may take me some time before I create anything new myself, but I am hoping that others will share patches with me, so that I can continue to make the odd interesting sound here.

J x