Motivation is the key!

Well, that's what Steve Hillage says anyway.
I have none at all...it's all very weird but I can get so pumped up about something and then just totally fail to even turn on my DAW.

But I had a bit of a thought last night. I don't want to be a total failure and release nothing. I don't want to be the only guy from fwonk not to have a release. I don't want to be a complete cock.

So, it's all in my own hands now. Do something or be a failure.

2 screens are better than 1.

I finally got around to picking up a second monitor to aid my music creation.
Cubase is a bitch to work off a single screen, so 2 enables you to see both the sequencer screen and the mixer view at the same time.

So, I bought a 24" HDMI/DVI/VGA widescreen TFT. It's awesome. Easy to set-up, no drivers needed and I can now plug in my XBox 360 as well, using the HDMI connection.

Have done a little testing with Cubase and it seems to work ok, with the small problem of XP not being as good as Windows 7 when it comes to multiple monitors. Maybe I'll set up a DAW on a Windows 7 box soon?

Struggles, then success.

It arrived yesterday. I ordered it from Inta Audio on New Years Eve, so that's not a bad delivery time I suppose. Could have been worse, considering the problems my father has had lately with on-line shopping but that's all down to karma.

Out of the box and the first thing hits me....the paper manual is woefully small and although the supplied CD-ROM says that it contains drivers, it actually doesn't. This is slightly irksome, but seeing as I only paid £60, not that much of a problem.......or so I thought.

The keyboard itself is robust, well laid out and seems as if it will stand up to a few years of being bashed about and hit very hard with my huge, sausage-like fingers. The manual states that it requires no drivers, so it's plug and play time. USB cable in, power on.....nothing.

A quick examination of the hardware drivers states that no driver has been loaded.
Some head scratching and 45 minutes later, I find out that you need to follow the instructions on the pdf manual, not the quick start guide. D'oh! After following these instructions, all was well and everything installed.

The drivers on the CD are for a system called DirectLink which worked for me in both Cubase and Pro Tools. It's a very simple controller, yet feels right under my fingers and keeps me away from drawing in my MIDI notes with my mouse. And even after the faffing around with driver installs, it's well worth £60.

It's colder than a monkeys bum in the office today. I had to switch on all the PCs just to generate some heat from somewhere.

Now it's hot, I have found out that the air con is broken and it's not gonna get fixed for a week. I must remember to bring my scarf in tomorrow.

Work things to do....

• Service manual - not sure if it's going to be web based or just set out in a folder structure. I'd prefer web based myself, but it's not going to be up to me, is it?
• Video conferencing room - This is just dragging on and on. I think I need to get this finished asap.

And that's that, but the first one is going to take forever and I need to be paid a proper wage to do that.