Happy New Year & Resolutions

Photo courtesy of the awesome people at www.stocksnap.io

A very Happy New Year to everyone, I hope you enjoyed the break over the Christmas period. May 2016 bring you everything you are working for!

As is customary for the time of year, I have a few resolutions for the new year that I would like to stick to for music making and branch further out into a wider variety of music-related topics and coverage.



Here are my 2016 resolutions:

• Move completely away from Madtracker II into Bitwig. This process has already begun and I am pleased to report that things are going well for a couple of tracks I never got round to completing due to the idiosyncratic way that MT2 works. 
• 1 new track for my Soundcloud account a month, minimum. I ought to be able to find time to convert some of my sketches from MT2 into Bitwig to get started and then start making news ones once I have a better idea of 
• Start using some of the second had gear I have been picking up on Gumtree and eBay. Seriously, I have loads of new old stuff to play with and talk about.
• Minimum one post a week on the blog, more updates to come via Twitter.
• Get a GoPro camera and start making proper videos to share as well.

As for me I have lots of things I would like to look into on the blog for 2016, including:

• NAMM 2016 is just around the corner! The dates for your diaries is 21 - 24 January 2016, so just two weeks to go. As a number of music hardware companies have been quiet of late, I have been gathering up ideas and news about new products coming up and what to expect, as well as gathering the latest press and product releases once the dust has settled.
• Musikmesse coverage. Don't forget about the biggest European music show in Frankfurt AM - this year's event is 7-10 April 2016. While NAMM tends to get all the limelight, Musikmesse often brings unique software releases and updates on products only featured as in development at NAMM.
• Bitwig tips and ideas. Now that I have a new PC and am finally getting into using the DAW, I would like to share some updates on my findings and some ways I am using the software. It might be useful for someone else who is looking for guidance at least!
• New gear reviews. While I don't have any plans to buy anything until after NAMM (after which it will probably be about 6 months before they hit the streets), I have had some cool things for Christmas that I would like to write about.
• Return of Saturday Soundtracks. I have been a bit lacking in writing the Saturday Soundtracks entries, one because of time and the other because of laziness. Either way, I have written a few new posts sharing my love of all things video game music. I have already covered off a few of the more obvious games from my childhood, so take a look through the archives via the post tags.
• More regular updates. Goal is at least one post a week about something music related, or at the very least some reviews on recent CDs I have bought.

Looking for something a bit more regularly updated? Why not follow me on Twitter?

Thanks for reading and I hope you will enjoy the updates in 2016!

PS: Did you know that this blog has been going for four years? Madness!