It is that time of the year again

It is time when people make resolutions only to break them in couple weeks. I don’t believe into starting something on first of January. However this is good time to check goal and make plans. My plan for year 2022 is to spend less money on everything. There have been times when I haven’t had money and now when I do I have spent it like preparing for times when I don’t have it. Have thought what I might want to do when I have less money and more time. This has lead to having lot of everything. Trying to get rid of this habit.

Habit has lead me to have good video and music making setups, big music library and lot of digital comics which I haven’t had time or energy to use, read or what ever. Not going to stop buying but concentrating on getting limited setups instead of getting everything I might want to use when I don’t have money. I could have got studio setup to point where I don’t need to buy any music gear on 2022. But don’t want to get everything at once just to have new year’s resolution.

The point is trying not to use all available money on something I might want to use in future. It won’t start 2022. I have done it before but will do more systematically on 2022. That is closest thing I have for new year’s resolution this time. Drawing and music courses continue. Trying to get more into doing than taking courses sometime during 2022. For drawing it should be current course and two or four more courses. Will not stop taking drawing courses after it but taking them slower and spend more time on drawing something. Should happen on first half of 2022.

For music it is more complicated. I don’t have as structured plan there. I want to learn good habits. That is why I have spent so much time taking courses instead of doing something same time. On music side I am trying a new thing which should unblock creativity. I’m not good playing keyboards. I can do it based on what I know from playing guitar but I am really bad at it. I bought Linnstrument 128. I should be able to play it with what I know from playing guitar and bass. Every scale I learn on guitar should be easy to apply on Linnstrument. Considered full sized Linnstrument but couldn’t justify price and size difference. Maybe I regret not getting full sized when I get good at playing it but at this time shorter was better option.

For videos I have no plans. Not for 2022 at least. Want to get back to making them but not sure what kind of videos. Have few ideas but there is long way to go before getting anything ready. Current pandemic doesn’t urge to go outside shooting videos and my flat ain’t cinematic. Talking about pandemic. I will be coming out of it better than going in. When ever it will end. Have lost lot of weight and had time to learn drawing and music. Still need to lose weight and learn but it is not over yet.

Plans for 2021

It is that time again. I don’t believe in new year’s resolutions. But it is good time to check you plans and plan for the future. Covid-19 changed plans for 2020. I have planned to make my flat more like studio for couple years. Didn’t want people to get old stuff out and new stuff in during pandemic. If pandemic is over by summer I probably rearrange my flat during summer vacation. I didn’t plan to ride as much as I did. When pandemic hit Finland I started to ride daily. Did it until end of October. I rode 9670 kilometers 2020 and lost about 20 kilos. I plan to continue this until end of April. By then I should be close to my target weight.

Going into 2020 plan was to limit gear purchases. On music front it mostly went ok. On software side it was upgrades (or what could be considered as upgrade with little imagination) until yesterday when I got new synth. On hardware side I got two synths which I have wanted for a long time. There is still need for polyphonic analog synth. But otherwise hardware synth side should be ok for now. Next is to get guitar side to ok state. I got new amp last year and started to build pedal board. Building pedal board is plan for first half of 2021.

On second half of 2020 I started to rearrange plugins in Cubase to have small set of plugins I start to concentrate and learn to use them. That new synth I bought yesterday filled cap I had in those plugins. After having pedal board ready my music making set up should be ready and not to get major changes any more. Rearrangement of the flat would make using it easier. I will upgrade computers but music making software and hardware should stay the same for years to come.

On camera/video/photography side situation isn’t as good or plan as clear. There is gimbal which could be the gimbal for years to come. My current one doesn’t have all functionality I want but that has. There is camera which could be the camera for years to come but I would have to get lenses for it. I am waiting for upgrade to my current camera which would give all features I want. Then I would have camera setup I don’t need to think about upgrading. Current setup have some limitations. Mainly 8 bit video and rolling shutter. I could get rid of those problems by paying about 10 000 euros and waiting for stores to get cameras and lenses. I don’t want to pay that much at the moment because there could be camera for my current lenses which would fix those issues.

I got some lights from end of the year sales. Still need few stands and softboxes for them but bi-color lights setup is ok at the moment. Still need some RGB lights. After that it is waiting for rearranging the flat and I can start to shoot more cinematic videos in my flat.

To conclude everything above 2021 will continue same transition that started during 2020. I haven’t released music or videos for a while but I will do that in future. 2020/2021 has been/will be time to reinvent how I do things. In music I will add more playing into programming. On videos it will be better lighting and more cinematic footage. You could get from above I concentrate on gear but that is not the case. 2020 have been more about learning to use what I have and that will continue 2021.

Then when to expect new music or videos? I don’t know that yet. I had plan to do something during holiday season but Festive 500 was easier. There will be something this year. 2022 should start me already continuously making music and videos.

January is over. How is the plan going?

I probably should start by saying ancient Romans started their year from March and I am so conservative I will do the same. I don’t follow this year starts from January nonsense.

January basically went preparing for what I planned to do this year. I got new guitar and few plugins I have considered for ages but which have never been on sale and probably never will. I could have waited with effects. Probably with guitar too but it was never in store and I wasn’t sure if it will be available in future. Guitar is Fender’s Ed O’Brian signature Stratocaster. I like Radiohead but that wasn’t the reason to get the guitar. It is only guitar with sustainer you can get from Finland. I would have modified one of my Stratocasters with sustainer if I could have found someone to do it. Sustainer gives something I can’t get from other guitars. So it still fits to plan. I will make post or video about it later.

I should have bought ValhallaDSP’s Shimmer long time ago. I used it in last video. It brought missing piece to my music. I have wanted that sounding reverb but alternatives didn’t give it. It can be heard everywhere which is one reason why I waited this long to get it.

I got Pinhole Pro X yesterday. About two months after it was promised. It is as fun as I thought it would be. Only problem is it shows how dirty your sensor is. I might have it permanently on my old camera. IBIS would be nice with long exposure times it requires but cleaning the sensor every time before you put it on camera is not tempting. This lens will also get video or post later. Picture above was taken with the lens. Using the lens was so fun I will get more lenses with artistic look later.

February isn’t starting any better. One reverb and two sample libraries are on introduction sales with prices I will never get in future. One of the libraries in new entry to series I already have almost every entry and other is next generation version of library I already have with new features old one doesn’t have. And reverb is from company whose plugins I use quite often. Just can’t skip these with these sales prices.

Without buying part plan has gone quite well. Videos I have released have been more experimental. Next one will be too. I hope I can start buying part on March. Everything else goes according the plan.

New Year's Resolutions 2018

Here is little video of my new year's resolutions or lack of them. I talk about aspect ratios in the video. When I uploaded it to Youtube I found out why no-one use different aspect ratios here. You can't use end screen if you use different aspect ratios than 16:9. This means I will get back to 16:9 on next video.

New Year's Resolutions 2017

It is time for new year's resolutions. Rather than resolutions I set themes and goals for next year. When I get good ones I start immediately rather that wait for year to end. Next year's goals are to get finances in better shape and learn to use gear rather than hoarding it. I started some of that already and some I will start some time in January.

Stopping hoarding gear will have to wait until January. I want to get one delay and reverb before I put music purchases on hold until couple sample libraries are on sale again. I try to stay away from new synths for whole year. Only upgrades. If something really interesting and cheap comes during next year I will reconsider this. This shouldn't be too hard since I upgraded to Arturia's V Collection 6, bought couple synths I have tempted to buy for a while and U-He is giving update to Zebra 2 soon and Zebra 3 is on its way. Zebra 3 counts as upgrade. Ableton Live 10 also count as upgrade.

This should also help getting my finances in better shape along with similar plans on camera side and purchasing new music. Right now on camera side there is one lens on shopping list. Other items there haven't been announced yet. I am pretty sure GoPro Fusion won't be my first 360 camera and I am not sure if I really have use for drone. Motorized slider would be nice but it can wait until I have my finances in better shape.

Learning part started with one year pass to MasterClass. The one with Hans Zimmer, Ron Howard and Martin Scorsese. I will get similar pass to other online courses later next year. I haven't decided which one yet. I will get it later because I don't want all annual subscription fees to hit same time.

If this works I can start planning bigger eurorack this time next year. This will make harder to make most popular videos on my channel. Videos with new synths get most views. I just have to get better at other things to compensate this.