Harry's Blog

So I'm trying to make good on my New Year Resolutions 2010. So far I've managed to take a picture a day for Flickr.

My other goal was to write and record a new song every month. I'm a little rusty to be honest - both in songwriting terms and recording and playing. When you're rusty it's rather hard to launch straight into a big project like a full song - especially the kind of overblown nonsense I write.

So this evening - as a little refresher - I've spent half an hour creating the little noodle you can play via the buttons above. It's just a silly little improv over a simple chord progression - full of awful bum notes and the like, but it's good to actually create something and actually find I can still remember how to use recording software.

Should you be interested in the geeky elements it was recorded on Cubase Essential using Line6 PodFarm guitar tones. The actual guitars I played were a Yamaha bass (actually belonging to my wife) and my beloved old Epiphone Superstrat - which I have just restored with new Floyd Rose bridge, all new wiring and a new IronGear pickup.

This isn't my Cowon S9 32GB review. You've probably noticed that from the title. It was meant to be though. I just haven't finished that yet. Along the way though I picked up Fiio's wonderful little E5 headphone amplifier and I thought I'd post this mini review to tell you all about it.

But first, why on earth would you need an amplifier for your MP3¹ player?

There are several reasons. Firstly the headphone amp in many personal music players is cheap, nasty and the last thing on the mind of the designers of what might be otherwise an excellent quality PMP. Some lack power, meaning that even on small headphones you have to crank up the volume to hear in a noisy location but the result is distorted sound. Also small rechargeable personal music players - even the very good ones - aren't designed to be able to power massive audiophile headphones with an impedance of 300ohms.

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Now this is rather fab...

I'm in a fix. The reason? Wifey has just bought herself an iPod Touch. No I'm not suffering jealousy, my problem is that the device is clearly very good, it's almost the perfect mp3 player. But it's the "almost" that's annoying. The iPod Touch is a marvel of modern technology and arguably the best all-round small portable media player around - but it's still light years from being the device I want.

While I do have plenty of technology that's just right - my camera, TV, AV amp and the like, I've still not really nailed it with a portable music player. And the reason is I don't think the device I want exists.

Take the two mp3 players I already own...

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I reckon I'm getting quite a handle on this photography lark. Over the last week I've been learning how to make judgements on manual exposures depending on the subject I'm trying to capture.

But something has defeated me. But to be honest it's also defeating the brain in my Canon 40D too. Even its advanced electronics can't cope with the subject I wish to photograph.

It's my new guitar. A Yamaha RGX A2. But unlike the one you can see by following that link - the model I bought is black.

Not just black. But the kind of black that sucks in light around it. There seems like some sort of gravitational lens effect around it that prevents photography. Certainly with an advanced DSLR.

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Those of you who've known me for a long time are aware I have this annoying habit of playing guitar and there's not much people can do to stop me.

Even worse, I've a habit of accompanying this racket with my pretty terrible voice.

When the old version of this stie was set up it was to host our Lancaster University reunion articles, but also the songs I'd written and recorded.

Thanks to the installation of a new plugin, I'm now able to host these songs on here once again. Though why you'd want to listen to them is beyond me. Aural masochists¹ will find my songs right here.

¹_{No that's not meant to sound dirty. Wash your mind out.}

_{Update 14/06/07 - have just been listening to a lot of these songs. Crikey I've written a load of rubbish haven't I?}

_{Update 01/02/08 - Another bump for this post as the new version of this blog software now features an integrated mp3 player, so once again you can hate my songs through this site.}

Radio One has decided to play a censored version of The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl's Fairytale of New York this year, editing out the words slut and faggot.

It seems totally ridiculous that the nation's pop music station is the most reactionary.

Radio 5Live has just spoken to Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Holly Johnson who said the editing of this "work of art" is totally "absurd" and although the words are offensive in many contexts, they are not in this case. As Johnson said, this is a song about two drunks arguing, you can't expect them to obey social niceties.

A spokesman for the Pogues said the band "found it amusing that a song that has been one of the best-loved Christmas tunes should suddenly have been deemed offensive".

Update: Seems all the furore over this today has caused Radio One to change its mind and play the track unedited in future.