Iain Cameron's Diary
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2003-03-28 - 10:33 a.m.

I am running through the file in Cubase Clean which contains the New York Set � currently there are seven pieces in the file. I have just been working on the fifth of these which is a �B3� solo. I have just taken it off the MD into Wavelite where it acquired the slightest hint of Derek May. Literally. The track on the MD is adjacent to about a minute of Derek May that I snatched off digital air. Well you can guess the rest. A bit of editing and there you are � homage to Detroit as well.

There is a LmY thing which happens just before the DM event which I am very pleased with. Its all to do with the way the wave envelope works on the CZ101. You can control the rate at which the sound moves away from the sine wave to the specified other wave form. If the other wave form is harmonically rich and the note is low and the envelope rate is slow you can hear the harmonics creep in as the waveform acquires harmonics. At one point towards the end you can hear it shift from a high E through a mictonal note to a high G and then go up a Pythagorean chromatic scale just before it drops own into the Derek May sound. I think the hamonics are 10 for E , 11 for the micronote, 12 for the G, 13 for an Ab-ish, 14 for a blues Bb and 15 for a B. Actually it�s the next few which are purest � 17, 18, 19, 20 � you can stick 15 and 16 on the front which will give you a Pythagorean version of half the chromatic scale.

The second piece in the set � or maybe the third � I am still deciding - draws on A Hard Rain.

I have been listening to first six tracks of Red Blues � Paul W asked for some observations on the content within a specific analytical framework.

Simon Prager mailed � he is an extraordinary guitarist � who lives in Tooting and was in Streatham at the right place at the right time. Indeed he is the only civil servant who appears in the index of Val Wilmer�s autobiography � Mother Said There�d Be Days Like These. He has met and played with Sonnie Terry and Brownie McGhee. (This provides me with an opportunity to remind the world that I am a honorary citizen of Knoxville Tennessee which is where Brownie comes from � unfortunately this honour has nothing to do with my craft in doing blues fills). Anyway Simon has said that he will do a Lullabye � and has suggested a couple of unusual ones that he already knows. He has said a propos KC research that he will introduce me to a nodal figure in the early 60s Streatham blues scene. This is great progress on two fronts.

(Talking of honours I see my old jazz teacher Owen Bryce who has not long turned 80 is a honourary citizen of New Orleans � now that is something)ik

I have also mailed another blues guitarist � who lives in Royston and whom I met at Wendy�s 50th birthday party . Stuart who is married to Kim who works with Rob who is married to Wendy. Their son Laurence plays bass in Fellthru who are on Plundafonix and is going to study bass at the Guildford school of music next year. This is where my daughter Vita learns the instrument. Stuart has a birthday coming up and he is looking for a Dobro � I mentioned to him that there were some in the sale in the guitar shop in Farnham � at the other end of the Hogs Back from Gfd. Stuart has been running his band for about 25 years.

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