So, what’s going on here, what’s this track all about?

First of all, a dirty little secret: every track for BtF I’ve created -- every one -- the title is the very last thing I do. Seriously. I’ll come up with the video for the song before I even peruse possible track names. Back in my younger-person days when I wrote and played with an alt-rock band, the title came up pretty early on, usually while the lyrics were still in play, which makes total sense, right? Nowadays all my music is just that -- music. I haven’t written a lyric in well over twenty years, and I thank the Maker for that because..well, let’s say it would’ve helped if I actually sang the song I was writing for, right? So when I think of song names now, I’m zeroing-in on the vibe I’m picking up from the music, and for this one, I’m thinking something powerful, dark-ish king of.. and I’m okay with that!

Now, for the nuts and bolts of it.. I returned to my trusty steed AUM on the iPad, with favorites Figure and Koala Sampler providing the instrumentation. Nothing gonzo there. Blackhole for the ‘verb, Other Desert Cities doing its delay business, MoogerFoogers, blah blah blah... The second half of the song I bring in the wonderful ThumbJam for its lovely hammered-dulcimer samples. When I was much, much younger, my family took a vacation trip to Silver Dollar City outside Branson, Missouri. The only thing I can recall with any clarity was when one of the Silver Dollar City performers sat down on a picnic table in one of the pavilions, pulled out a hammered dulcimer, and absolutely went to town on it -- dude was like the Jimi Hendrix of the dulcimers; about the only thing he didn’t do was pull out a can of lghter fluid and torch his instrument. Blew my mind. And the dude knew he was rocking it, too, he had a lopsided smirk like “yeah, check this out and while you’re watching me, I’m totally gonna swipe your girlfriend hahaha..” So, it’s a sound I’ve been partial too for a long time, and whenever I get a chance to sneak it into a track, I do; last time was on “Left-Right-Center”, so maybe when you’re done listening to this guy, pop on over to my YouTube channel and give that one a spin.

Finally, the video: once again I dragged out POV-Ray to render the images using math and coding and not one goddamn drop of AI. Seriously I hate that I even have to say that every time I post a video now, but that’s the world we live in..

Well, I hope you enjoy the song; if you do, I hope you tell a friend or two, share a link, all that good stuff. Meantime it’s back to the studio; got two more ready for their final mixes and videos, so I’ll be back with more music goodness before you know it!

Stay safe, my friends...

Dan

Just to make things even more confusing, you’ll still get emails from the houseofcheese.substack.com domain. I think if I want to have the letters come from dbdoodles.substack.com, I’d have to create a new profile in Substack with that name, but I’d lose all my subscribers because I don’t think there’s a way to migrate all the subscriber data over (I suppose I could ask the helpful Substack AI chatbot but I’d rather punch it in the face because AI is the worst). Hey, I did NOT create this version of the internet where everything is broken and stupid, so don’t yell at me! If you want to yell at me about something I actually DID screw up, yell at me for creating so many identities for my online self (Goofy Graffix, DanBee’s Doodles, Roadkill Puppy, House of Cheese, and Drawing Board Confessional WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!)

So that’s that. Since Substack has shown signs of life and I’m attracting people interested in my silly art, I figure it’s probably time to give my Substack a facelift, maybe do something with the layout, the lack of graphics, etc., shine that penny up so it’s nice ‘n’ purty, right? I don’t update my website’s appearance for the same reason good auto mechanics never work on their own car because it becomes a forever project and I hate forever projects. Anyway, that’s enough ranting for one newsletter; thanks for subscribing and following along, and I’ll catch you on the next update. If you’re dying for daily blurbs of nonsense from me, check out the Notes feature on the Substack app and look me up. Peace, my friends...

Dan

Then I pushed the “Post” button anyway.. and had the temerity to wonder why nothing was happening.

Good lord...

This was my fault, one-hundred percent, nothing and no one else to blame. When you neglect to feed the algorithm with content, the algorithm brutally punishes you. It wasn’t like people watched the video, listened to the song and decided meh, whatever.. it was like I posted it to a void where the little hobgoblin whose job it is to feed digital foodstuffs to the algorithm critter said fuck this, then just up and left and didn’t tell a soul what was going on. Views weren’t low: they were nonexistent.

And I get to own that.

For some weird/stupid reason I got it into my head that “Lullaby for the Faerie Queen” was going to light the interwebz on fire, made it viral in my brain -- the second I hit “Post” the cables tying the internet together were gonna BURST into flames with so much extra traffic! No idea how I arrived at that conclusion; this is DEFINITELY not my first rodeo on the socials, and I’ve got the scars on my bruised ego to prove it. If you only show up once in a blue moon, drop off a mystery package and skulk away before anyone notices... no one is going to notice. Much less care. People are busy. They’ve got lives to lead, other people -- their loved ones, family -- to take care of. No one is going to camp out on my virtual doorstep and wait super-patiently for the Almighty BUD to drop a track. Puh-lease.

So now that I’ve flagellated myself for my total rookie move, what comes next? I was anticipating spending the week working on getting the next track ready to get out the door, but this whole experience threw me for a BIG loop, and I need to regroup and figure out what’s next. I hate wasting everyone’s time going on and on and on about what I might do, what I’m thinking about doing, this will be so great, the BEST, just you wait and see! ..coulda, woulda, shoulda -- that’s so lame. That said, I have several tracks well past the halfway point of production, and I think they’re good tracks, tracks that deserve their time under the sun, so I’ll definitely press on with them. It’s the what-to-do-about-then-after-they’re-done part that will need some mulling over -- I could hold onto them until I have enough completed for an LP (or maybe a couple of EPs) I could put on Bandcamp; I could also let them drip out one track at a time, post them to the socials and/or this newsletter so at least I’m not a total stranger when it comes time to release an album. Kinda like that second option, but making the videos easily doubles my production time for any given track, and there’s some times I would rather not have to deal with videos. So, I don’t know. I guess it will remain a mystery until you get an email saying a new BTF track/album has just posted. We shall see.

Again, I apologize for this rambling mess of a newsletter, and for making you feel neglected (this is exactly why I don’t have a paywall -- I’d be hella pissed if I was dropping cash for a newsletter that always comes whenever it feels like). If you’ve stuck around this far, thank you, I really do appreciate it.

Stay safe, my friends...

Ugh..

If you dragged this letter to your email’s recycle bin and said “SEEya, wouldn’t wanna BEya..”, well, you could easily be forgiven. If you’ve made it this far, awesome! Let’s keep that good mojo going with a little introduction to my latest track, “Lullaby for the Faerie Queen”!

This track is composed of various guitar samples I recorded a couple, three years ago — samples I’ve used on previous songs like “Left-Right-Center” and “Five”, both of which can be found on my YouTube channel. I have a couple of sets of samples, one done in standard tuning and the other with the G tuned up a full step to A, and these sets hang out in Koala Sampler where I abuse them with Koala’s effects — filters, bit-crushing, pitch-shifting.. fun stuff! For this particular track, it started when I had Koala opened with one of those sample sets, I had the Launchpad hooked up to trigger Koala at a keypress, and I just started banging on the pads until, lo and behold, a melody appeared! Well, sort of a melody, more of a rambling chord progression but that’s splitting hairs. Anyway, I did a bit of sequencing, threw in a bunch of space echos and sparkly, jingly stuff and voila! Like stealing candy from a baby!

Except it wasn’t. If it was, you would’ve heard this track maybe a year ago, because that’s how long it’s been sitting in the kettle.

So why the delay? Why so long without a word? Fair questions, and again my apologies for leaving it late like this. The answer is… well, I don’t have a reason. Not a good one, anyway. If I had been hit by a bus and was laid-up in a hospital with tubes ‘n’ shit sticking out of me, I guess, yeah, that’s probably a good reason. Or if I was in jail. Or I stumbled on some super-secret spy document that the feds knew about and wanted me dead so I’m on the run.. nope, not me, nothing cool or interesting like that. It was me buying more music gear — new keyboards, new effects, a lot more choices of putting music together; my sudden interest in watercolor painting; my returning interest into computer graphics (yes, I know, AI is absolute shit and has tainted just about any “art” rendered on a computer, but I’ve been using POV-Ray since the early 90-s, hand-coding all my animated projects and stills, and probably always will!).

And then there’s life itself, with sickness and funerals and graduations and weddings and vacations and all the other things that human beings do beside chain themselves to their music/art studios, and that’s just the way it is.

Oh, and we all can’t forget about the stupid social-media-induced distractions, our current political maelstrom of fecal matter, work, bills, blah blah blah… you get the picture.

Death by a thousand cuts, I think I’ve heard it said, and that’s probably accurate. Or close enough. Whatever.

What does this mean future-tense? Well, once I severed that Facebook-spawned demon known as Reels — by deleting, not deactivating, my FB account haha! — and taken..other steps to reduce distractions, I’ve actually got a queue of finished/almost-finished tracks to share! Three more tracks, actually; I’m working on the videos for them and hopefully next week I’ll have at least one ready to go. There are other tracks that are 80-90% of the way there, so we’re in good shape. So hang tight, more stuff is on the way!

I have a whole ‘nuther newsletter in draft to discuss the art side of the house, and how there may be changes in how I share those. For one, since I’m no longer on Facebook, I’ve been posting the doodles on my Tumblr using my domain, dbdoodles.net. Go check it out some time. But, yeah, changes are coming.

Anyway, sorry for the long blurb that should’ve concluded about four paragraphs ago, but thanks for sticking around.. and check out that track and let me know what you think! As always, I wish you peace — stay safe, my friends…

Dan

Concerning Bud the Fish…

I'm trying out a different music production process, one that should get songs made on a more consistent basis. I used the process to make "Worlds Ending", but right now it's only one song, so it's a fluke; if I do it again and it works, then it's a trend -- that's when I'll fill you in on it..

So, "Worlds Ending" technical stuff: this was all hosted in AUM, with Koala Sampler the star of the show. I sampled sequences and 2-bar loops from Figure into Koala, then used Koala's sequencer to put things together, with lots of effects from my favorites: MoogerFoogers, Other Desert Cities, ToneStack (to add some distorted grit to the lead sound), and Crystalline, among others. Lead, rhythm, and drums were provided by Figure; bass tracks, by the MicroFreak. Everything was sequenced by Koala, so this ended up going direct to 2-track with no overdubs.

Bits and Bobs...

This new year I'm only running with a couple of intentions I want to explore, as opposed to resolutions which are too often nebulous, pie-in-the-sky wishes that never materialize. In Bud the Fish's world, the main thing I want to do is introduce more of a 'live' quality to my songs; by that, I mean instead of merely composing a song and letting the sequencers play it back, I want to be able to either play it directly or manipulate things in real time. Filter sweeps, key changes, soloing/muting parts -- these are small things I can do already, so I want to expand upon that, utilize Loop Pro's control surface to drive the boat. I also want to get more guitar playing involved. If there's a long term goal here, it's so that one day I can do a live stream and actually perform a track.

(I played live in bands through the 80's and 90's, and let me tell you, there's absolutely no high like a live set where you and the audience are in perfect sync. None.)

The other unspoken intention for the year is to stay focused on music- and art-making, keep those creative rails greased, do my level best to keep my heart full and my spirits up. That means less mainstream and/or social media. I made the mistake of downloading Bluesky and Threads last month and I gotta say, I could NOT tell a difference between any of them and Twitter/X. So many angry people... jeez! My circle of friends and family in real life is quite small, but I prefer it that way because I always know they're true.. they're also less grumpy! Thanks, I'll stick with the less-grumpy, mmkay?

So, that's it for this newsletter. Nothing to report with Roadkill Puppy -- it just plods along, putting up doodles on the Roadkill Puppy Facebook page, so if you want to see what's happening there, check it out. Anyway, I've got files to archive and clean up, and then I gotta get ready for working on the next track. Time waits for no man! Or woman! Or..whatever!

Stay safe, my friends...

To get the album, click the link to be taken to Bandcamp's website. Alternately, if clicking on a link embedded in an email makes you break out in a cold sweat, open a browser like Safari or Chrome or whatever Microsoft uses these days, and type in "Bandcamp"; you can also get the Bandcamp app from the App Store or Google Play or whatever Microsoft uses these days. Once you're in, do a search for Bud the Fish and that should take you where you need to go.

The album is five tracks long, four of which are brand-spanking new. You can purchase & download the entire EP for three whole dollars -- if you want to pay more, you can -- or individual songs for a dollar each. You can stream any of the BtF songs from the app or browser for free, in case you want to try before you buy.

Wanna snippet of what this album is about? I made a music video featuring one of the tracks, "Subversion" - check it out here:

I'm really excited to release this album and I hope you enjoy listening to it. I've had making and releasing a solo album on my bucket list since I was a snot-nosed punk running around with a 4-track cassette recorder and a boat paddle for a guitar, and now after a gazillion years it's here, big as life.

(Yes, I've been on a couple of CDs in the past but it was when I was in a full band, so they don't really count haha..)

So, what comes next? Well, for now I'm gonna chill, dig out some art supplies I've been neglecting for the past five, six months, and do some art stuff, doodly stuff, just enjoy the next few days, then it's time to start making more music again. Next newsletter (in May) I'll cover a bit more about lessons learned from this experience, break down a track or two from the album to explain what I did. Geeky stuff like that.

That's it for now. If you're trying to get the album and are running into problems, hit me up and I'll see what's going on. As always, I thank you for supporting Bud the Fish (and Roadkill Puppy, too), I hope you enjoy the album, and I'll see you next month!

Dan

So, the EP is DONE! Actually done. Yay for things being done! I should clarify: it's mostly done. When I say mostly, I mean it's done enough that I can give a release date - April 18th, 2024. Yay for release dates! Now, there's mostly done and all-the-way done, and for this project to move from the former to the latter requires a couple more days of attention, mostly involving the album artwork. That's the focus this week, as well as cobbling together a music video for the first official single. Lots to do.

The EP will be available on Bandcamp only - no Spotify or Apple Music. Sorry, I have a little dignity.. anyway, there's a Bud the Fish section already set up - budthefish.bandcamp.com - go there, set up your Bandcamp profile/account if you haven't already. The Bud the Fish page is sparsely populated right now but that will change.

More details coming, but I wanted to give you a heads-up on the EP. This particular finish line is in sight and we're getting ready to cross it.. hang tight!

Dan

Concerning Bud the Fish...

https://youtube.com/shorts/HpsyEyG8Bp4

Sorry, can't help buy chuckle at that one... hehehe... this song is the FIRST one I've ever made that received a down vote on YouTube, which makes it even funnier!

Anyway, a little context: for the past few months I've been trying to come up with formats I can use to blend the Roadkill Puppy side of life with Bud the Fish -- a tall ask, I agree, certainly when it comes to the cartoony things I usually do. One thing I have to work with is a massive stockpile of old guitar riffs and song ideas from my ancient days as a gigging musician; in fact, I have a CD full of ideas I burned decades ago, containing among other things partial songs from around 1992, if you can believe it. Many are absolute trash, but quite a few others have held on for dear life in hopes that someday, somehow the big, spinning wheel of life would land on a time and place where they could finally blossom. Yeah, yeah, creative debt bad, I know, I get it, but we'll see who gets the last laugh ha ha... anyway, since I've been gifted with so many musical "riches", and since I have a plethora of silly cartoon ideas that haven't magically morphed into a finished comic or something, I figure why not mash them together. This particular song actually came from fresh brew, a little nothing riff that popped into my brain the week before and I had kicked around without any real direction; Mother Nature provided a bit of inspiration and here we are. Creating a template in POV-Ray I can use for future animated films took up the most time, but even with that it still came together relatively quickly, and I have something I can cross off my music to-do list, so hardy-har-har to YOU, YouTube Down-Voter Person...

Now, on to the EP.. while the video was a momentary diversion, the rest of my musical creative activities was focused on making new tracks. The previous EP candidates that were dead in the water have been relegated to the boneyard for now; they're actually alive and well for the most part, but they just don't have enough meat on the bones for consideration right now. In their place, three fresh songs swooped in; one of those ideas has been tracked out and is hanging out with the previously-finished pair awaiting mixdown, while the remaining two newbies are currently sitting at the 50%-complete stage. Two of the three are very ethereal, atmospheric, while the third one wants to knock your teeth down your throat. Tasty stuff. Whether the EP features the brand-new material or tracks from the vault remains to be seen. More to come...

Concerning Roadkill Puppy...

Back to our little animated doohickey above: the original drawings came from my journal; I just scanned them, dumped them onto my older iPad (the one the Pencil is mated with), then used Procreate to clean up the scruffy bits:

I've got some finished animated films I worked on over the month, films utilizing the CGI process I've used in the past (no, POV-Ray is NOT A.I. -- it's stuff I actually have to code by hand!). These films are awaiting some ambient-style music to partner up with, or something. Again, more to come...

Bits and Bobs...

The better half and I got around to seeing "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" last month, so I've finally caught up with the hype that was going around. "Barbie" was cute, I'll give it that; "Oppenheimer" was...wow. VERY impressive! I'm a huge fan of Christopher Nolan -- no director today can manipulate the space-time continuum and weave it into a story with his skill. Amazing... there's a hefty stack of other Oscar nominees to go through, but "Oppenheimer" has set a pretty high bar, I'm just sayin'...

That's it for this month. The second half of January was warmer than usual, and that means February will probably bring the pain. Winter is the best! Take care, my friends...

Dan

Concerning Bud the Fish...

I finished one track in December: a little sumthin'-sumthin' I cooked up over Xmas Eve, a perfectly lazy day I was able to plop my caboose into my one comfy chair with the iPad and get lost.

I recorded multiple sequences from Figure directly into Loopy Pro, changing the key and sequence pattern, then using the MoogerFoogers and Bleass effects to mutate the sound in LP. For those without Loopy Pro -- if you want to stick them into Koala Sampler, for example -- an alternative approach to recording direct would be to export the sequences as WAV files, then import them into the app of your choice. A bit of a workaround, but it does work. The MoogerFoogers are warm and twitchy and add all kinds of character to the sound, while Bleass effects are sonically more utilitarian in nature; I find they compliment each other nicely. I have a cartload of other, very expensive software synthesizers and effects to choose from, yet I keep coming back to these guys. If it ain't broke...

(I suppose I could make a New Year's resolution to play around with those other apps more, but resolutions are the work of the devil...)

Meanwhile, the EP remains a moving target. I've had a chance to review the tracks I originally thought I would record for it, and while two of them are solid and complete for the most part, the others are...well, less interesting -- it seems time was not kind to them. In retrospect, I suppose it was a tall ask to create an EP out of songs that didn't yet exist; more prudent would be to make the songs first, and then decide which ones would make to the EP. No, I'm not my mother's smartest son (don't tell my brother I said that because it will go straight to his head and I'll never hear the end of it). So, let's just say the EP is, um, in a state of flux. I have a stable of other finished tracks I like a lot, and I may look to them to create this first EP. More to come.

Concerning Roadkill Puppy...

The last couple of times I posted a doodle dump, Substack got pissy and said my files are too large, the newsletter is too big, whine whine whine, complain complain complain... yeah, well, umm, maybe they have a point? For now, I'm going to try this: post one or two doodles in the letter, plus any big projects I'm doing, and then -- this is the yucky part -- direct your attention to my Facebook page for more-frequent doodle updates. No, I don't enjoy giving Zucker-douche any more business than he already has, but I think the majority of the Roadkill Puppy fans who subscribe to the letter still loiter around Facebook, so it might make sense to post the doodles there? The other option is to make the doodles much smaller and go back to a twice-monthly letter, with music news and big Roadkill projects in one letter and doodle dumps in the other. A bit more work, but it gets you out of having to touch that dead skunk. Something I'll have to think about. Anyway, these were the doodle highlights for December:

Bits and Bobs...

• I'm about to start reading Hugh Howey's Silo series, and after that I'm moving on to Dune Messiah. Weird that I haven’t read Messiah yet, but whatever. That's the plan. I may get distracted, though, soooo...

• Speaking of distractions, season 4 of "True Detective" will be out on HBO mid-month, and I'm looking forward to it, especially after season 3. Hurray for murder-kill shows!

That's it for this month. Northern hemisphere people, dress in layers; southern hemisphere, use lots of sunscreen. Peace, my friends...

Dan

Happy holidays, and thank you for reading! November was a bit of a bear this year: the job I had for twenty-two years vanished, just like that. The job loss was not entirely unexpected -- business for our particular division had all but dried up, and the company that purchased us late last year was in no mood for a bunch of developers sitting around not programming anything. Who'd‘ve thunk it? On a positive note, I've been working on a couple of very good job prospects, and I anticipate my joblessness will be short-lived, maybe even by the end of this week. Fingers crossed!

The downside of this -- well, apart from having no income -- is the drag it induces on my creative world. I probably mentioned this before, but I am not what one would call a person who creates well under duress. It's why I never seriously considered pursuing a career as a freelance graphic artist; if I know my next meal or house payment depended entirely on my ability to create something, my brain goes into the WORST lockdown, and I would probably end up living in a cardboard box on the side of the road somewhere, eating garbage out of trash cans, or scraping up the unfortunate critter that was tagged by an SUV while crossing the street. No thank you! So, my attention is locked solely on securing that next gig, and that means things like the EP or comics or whatever are on hold. Believe me, no one regrets this more than me. Right now the most my brain will allow is the occasional doodle in the sketchbook and the 10-minute daily guitar jam. That said, once I've returned to the world of the gainfully-employed, the brain-lock will cease and the EP will finally resume production. That's the hope, anyway…

I truly apologize for not having anything good to show you this month. I hope you don't abandon this newletter because I have every intention of producing it going forward. Thank you for your support and for keeping the faith, and I'll catch you in 2024. If I don't speak to you before the new year, I wish you and yours a joyous holiday season and a hope that your 2024 turns out awesome! Take care, my friends...

Dan

Truth be told, I'm somewhat apprehensive about the EP, specifically my plan to put it on Bandcamp. Spotify and Apple Music scare me, especially all the stories about how any money earned on either service is...well, substantially less than advertised, so when I first thought of doing an EP, I figured Bandcamp, with its emphasis on indie artists and measured, controlled growth, seemed like a good fit. Unfortunately, Bandcamp has seen itself bought and sold a couple of times, with music-licensing outfit Songtradr the newest/latest owners. Right after they bought Bandcamp, Songtradr fired a whole bunch of writers and playlist curators who were responsible for highlighting newly-discovered indie artists. The ominous sign from this little move is that Songtradr really doesn't want to be in the business of nurturing talent that might otherwise be overlooked/ignored; rather, Songtradr wants to mine Bandcamp's library for licensing deals for TV and radio ads, no doubt for a pittance for what the artists could license with competent, independent representation. Obviously, if you don't want your music licensed for commercial use, you don't have to say yes to whatever Songtradr pitches at you, and go right on releasing music on Bandcamp...for now. Who's to say Songtradr won't engage in some skullduggery on the site's TOS making it a condition for uploading your music. I wouldn't put it past them. Anyway, while Songtradr gives me a case of the heebie-jeebies, I'm still going to push my EP onto Bandcamp and just cross my fingers. There aren't a whole bunch of other options...

(This topic of Bandcamp and royalties and streaming and licensing deserves a full newletter to cover... perhaps another time?)

Concerning Bud the Fish...

While doing the EP tracks, I found myself needing to come up for air long enough to examine some non-EP music ideas in more detail. "House Mouse 1", the first track I'm showing, was my latest attempt to make an entire song in Koala Sampler in a day, using only sounds sampled from my house. Well, the do-it-in-a-day thing didn't work out -- took three days instead of one -- but I like how it turned out:

Seriously, I'm almost to the point where if I had my phone, Koala Sampler, and nothing else, I could still create a track in short order. The beauty of a sampler like Koala is you can sample anything, then take that sample, reduce it down to a single waveform, and turn it into an actual instrument. Doesn't matter the sound -- it could be a percussive hit, random static, a dog's bark... hell, I've already sampled conversations at the local sandwich shop and turned it into a song, and if I hadn't just told you, you'd never suspect how it was done. Frankensteining sounds together is huge fun -- you should try it!

"Homecoming" was a totally impromptu jam done on my phone with Figure, my favorite idea-generating music app. I've got Ableton's Note app on the phone as well, and it does similar things to Figure, but I prefer Figure's layout. For this tune, I'm just using the same melody throughout, but changing the modes to make the melody move. Some MoogerFoogers for distortion and delay, and it turned out like this:

Concerning Roadkill Puppy...

As I'm going through the various sketchbooks and coloring the doodles within, I'm running into plenty of drawings that could... well, they need help. To that end, I took a few less-than-satisfactory doodles and redrew them on drawing paper with colored pencils only.

Back to the sketchbooks, here's a handful of characters from Moleskine plain-magenta 11 and Leuchtturm plain-blue 9:

Okay, that's it for this month. I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving, and I'll catch in December. Take care, my friends....

Dan

The whole car-buying process is pure grist for the anxiety mill that resides in my brain, as I'm sure it is for many others. That anxiety factory steals resources, mainly energy and logic, that would normally go towards my creative endeavours, and it hogs the whole calendar so that, instead of contemplating music and art projects and where/when to do them, it focuses exclusively on THE THING AND OH MY GOD THE THING IT'S COMING IT'S ALMOST HERE AND THERE'S A BAZILLION THINGS THAT CAN/WILL GO COMPLETELY OFF THE RAILS... you know, anxiety being anxiety? I have yet to learn a method that squishes those worry-whispers into the insignificant nothings they truly are so I can focus on the things that bring joy into my life, but I do the best I can…

Concerning Bud the Fish...

Even with life being weird, I'm still able to get my shit together long enough to kick out a trio of groovy little tunes, including a stab at real ambient music, thus:

Like I mentioned last newsletter, creating ambient music is actually a lot of fun, and this time I obeyed the conventional wisdom and removed any rhythmic elements from the mix, like percussion or delay slapback. Personally I prefer a little rhythmic component to my music, so future ambient tracks from me will have a little sumthin'-sumthin' added to the recipe to, umm, propel things along…

This second song was a science experiment, a case where I wanted to see just how far gone this old iPad Mini 2 was. It was left behind by my daughter when she moved out a few years ago — she had won it in a school raffle, but since she already had a phone and laptop, the iPad wasn't really needed. It's been sitting in my studio desk for at least three years — when I booted it back up, it was still on iOS 9! — and with only 16 gigabytes of memory, there isn't a whole lot it can do...

...or is there?

The recent update to Koala Sampler made this song possible. Normally, I would use Koala in conjunction with apps like AUM to split out the individual samples into groups or channels, add effects to them, and mix accordingly, but this ancient iPad wasn't going to have any of that. Fortunately, the new Koala update revolved around a 4-channel mixer with new, upgraded effects, so in theory one could create an entire song using only Koala. To put that to the test, I loaded another app called Figure onto the iPad to generate sounds and sequences, save them as WAV files, and import them into Koala for further sequencing, arranging, applying effects, mixing, mastering, and so on.

Personally, I thought the tune turned out pretty good, and the experiment was a success, with caveats. I like the size of the iPad Mini and I think it's the perfect size if you're just dinking around with Koala and Figure, two apps made for the small screen. I like starting Koala projects on my phone using the standalone version; I can do that more efficiently and with less eye strain on the Mini. That said, as much as I like and appreciate the new Koala mixer and effects, I still prefer to use Koala together with AUM, Loopy Pro, and all those fancy-shmancy effects apps I've picked up, to get the most/best use out of it, and to do that means transferring the Koala project over to the main iPad, the M2 Pro. I also have a 2018 Pro that serves as a backup; with multiple iPads at my disposal already, I see no need to buy a new Mini, especially since I will lose the headphone jack and have to migrate over to Dongle City (a loser town if ever there was). So, while it was an interesting experiment, ultimately it leaves me exactly where I was, only with less time using the phone for Koala in the early stages -- and more on the Mini -- and that's a perfectly acceptable outcome...

Finally, there’s this little number called “Lighter Than Air”, a welcome diversion cooked up over a hot stove of Figure, Loopy Pro, and a bunch of Moogerfoogers. No important lessons learned, other than those Moogerfoogers are fuuuuuuuun to mess with…

Concerning Roadkill Puppy...

Another doodle dump! I'm in sections of both sketchbooks where I've got more choices than what's good for me, and some others that, well, need to mature a bit. A couple of pages flat-out STANK, like, real bad! I won't include those, haha.. anyway, here's some cherry-picked goodies for you, starting with Leuchtturm plain-blue 3.

Sorry, but that rabbit kills me... heehee.. ANYWAY, we're off to visit Leuchtturm plain-blue 4, which yielded this collection of oddballs.

The Music Muses have been sucking all the air out of the art studio for months now, and it's made me light-headed and forgetful of how to hold a pencil, but they've chilled ever-so slightly as of late, and I've been getting antsy lately to start stepping out and trying larger art projects. More to come, I hope...

Bits and bobs...

• Bought some watercolor painting supplies recently. I know nothing about watercolor, but I've always been curious about it. No, I'm not going to paint a bunch of stupid flowers. Not quite sure where this road leads, and that's kind of the point...

• Car-buying sucks. I said as much earlier because it needed to be said, but I feel it needs to be said again and there it is...

• Along the same lines, health insurance sucks. Everyone already knows that as well, but I want to say it again and there it is, again...

• I've been kinda/sorta uploading doodles onto Notes for the past few weeks. Take a second or two to swing by and let me know what you think. Right now it's a bit like screaming into the proverbial void, but I have hope... provided the ex-Twitter mob doesn't turn the whole thing into a dumpster fire of doom.

That's it for now. If you find these newsletters useful and/or enjoyable, I sure would appreciate a little feedback, so drop me a line and let me know how I'm doing, how YOU'RE doing, and I'll catch ya next month. Peace, my friends...

Dan

Concerning Roadkill Puppy...

It's a doodle dump! I currently have a Moleskine and a Leuchtturm sketchbook filled with line art and blackspotting, and I'm going through the process of backfilling them with colored pencils. I like to do these in the morning before my workday starts. That way, my blood pressure is in a good place before Corporate America goes about ruining it. This is from Moleskine green-circle 10.

These Leuchtturm doodles up next had previously been colored using Procreate, but I decided to do them again with pen and pencils. I haven't been spending as much time with Procreate as I have in the past, but I have a few 'problem children' that could benefit from getting some Procreate attention. This is Leuchtturm plain-blue 1 and 2.

Concerning Bud the Fish...

I've been dabbling with creating ambient music lately, just because. A bit of a challenge to create music that wanders around aimlessly like a kid on the playground coming down from a sugar high. Many people consider ambient music a high-brow cousin to elevator music; if wind chimes had a radio station, that is what it would sound like. Fortunately, music is the ultimate PlayDoh of the universe. Don't like the way it looks? Moosh it up and start over! Sound isn't spicy enough? Grab your arpeggiator and go to town! That's what I'm doing here, with this track:

I can't really say it's true ambient music, but it's ambient enough for me. Turns out ambient music is actually fun to make, if you like things that make swooshy sounds and echoes and choirs of angels singing from the bottom of the Grand Canyon and nonsense like that. I have a number of interesting sound-generating apps that are well-suited to ambient music-making, so I'm covered there. In the future I want to get my guitar more involved. I think sampling it while it's making weirdo spaceship noises or whale sounds — and then looping the whole mess — might just be the thing to add a little pizzazz to those ambient jams. Hmmmm... more to come?

Bits and bobs...

• As I mentioned last newsletter, I was giving serious consideration to posting doodles and comics in Substack's Notes. I've decided to give it a go, so starting next week I'll post something two or three times a week. Not sure, but I think you need to be a Substack subscriber to view it with the app. It's free, though, so if you're interested, look for my stuff next week (the Notes will post under my name, Dan Byers).

That's all for this month. See you in October, my friends...

Dan

The Better Half and I were on holiday in Cancun a short while ago, for a glorious week of soaking up the sun and expanding our waistlines. During our visit, we took an excursion to an island off the coast, and there, while relaxing under the shade of coconut trees lining the boulevard, we spotted this mural and were left with way more questions than answers. Who is the singing guy? Does the fish have a name? What's their relationship? What's he doing to that fish?? Why is he holding it that way? Is he singing into it? Singing about it? Is the fish singing, too? Are they friends? Are they lovers? Are they going to kiss? Are they going to tongue?? Is this going to lead to an NC-17 rating? We never did find out the full scoop, mainly because we didn't bother to ask anyone, but if we ever go back, I'm definitely going to inquire, maybe...

Concerning Roadkill Puppy…

Didn't get much doodling done while wandering around the resort — sticky fingers and hands due to the unholy mix of sweat and sunscreen makes handling a paper sketchbook... problematic. I had better luck at the airport and on the plane... well, sort of:

Concerning Bud the Fish…

The past two weeks have been busy, with three new tracks completed and uploaded to YouTube and Instagram. Two were entries for the Koala Creative Community's weekly sample-flip challenge, and the third was a spur-of-the-moment ambient track created on Xynthesizr and the MicroFreak:

Bits and Bobs…

Substack has this Notes feature, which kinda acts like/operates like Twitter, or "X", or whatever the hell it's called this week. Anyway, I was looking at it as something I could share some daily doodles/comics/cartoons with; I would also like to share some of my music-making/art-making processes, some behind the scenes stuff. If daily is too gonzo a commitment, maybe weekly? I don't know, kinda curious if anyone would derive any value from it. If this is something you'd like to see, let me know and we can go from there.

On a related topic, the next newsletter goes out the 5th of September, then it switches to a monthly release. Kinda what I figured. Monthly is a little easier to manage on my part, but more importantly there's less "newsletter fatigue" on yours. Things around here don't change so often that anything more frequent than a monthly needs to go out the door, so for everyone's sanity, monthly it is! If you are a process junkie and need a HOC fix... well, then, maybe that’s an argument for daily/weekly Notes updates? Just sayin’...

That's all for now. Comments/gripes/etc., let me know...

Dan

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What is this letter about, you ask? Skipping past the details, this is my platform for sharing my art and music with the human race, where you can come check out my creative output without the b.s. associated with social media (trolls, clickbait, fake news, etc.). There will be none of that political- or social commentary-type jibber-jabber -- just art, music, and my ever-failing attempts at humor..

Just so we're clear, this site has nothing to do with actual cheese. It's just a name. Moving on.

The format will be simple. Top of the letter I'll give you a quick how's-it-going, then it's off we go to visit Bud the Fish, then finally Roadkill Puppy and whatever images I've finished. For the music items, I'd like to write a bit more about how the song came into being - motivation, technical challenges, details about some of the tools I used. Since Roadkill Puppy is currently entrenched in the world of colored pencils and drawing paper, the 'how' is pretty self-explanatory, but if I diverge into other media, I'll share how the journey went, did I enjoy it, will I go back and do another one the same way, that kind of thing...

The plan is a newsletter every two weeks give or take, but I can easily see this turning into a once-a-month letter, especially if I hit a creative dry spell, or people start getting annoyed with so many newsletters, or I'm in the middle of a big something but the something isn't ready yet for its big reveal.

So, now for the elephant in the room: as you may or may not be aware, Substack primarily operates as a paid service, or at least they want their writers to push for paid subs. Fortunately for you -- and me -- I'm not into that. Honestly, even the idea of a tip jar bothers me A LOT, so you won't be experiencing me hitting you up for money. Why I'm that way will have to be discussed in a future newsletter, but suffice to say you can keep your wallet in your back pocket, leave your credit card in your purse 'cuz I ain't interested. This newsletter is free and will always be free. Cool? Cool..

That's the scoop for now. Next letter in two weeks - I've got a bunch of doodles to share! Anyway, peace, my friends...