People who live in cold places know you need to warm up your car before start driving in cold weather. Morning writing is that for my brain and the 200 word goal is just enough warm up for me. The problem is the whole what to write deal. Doing a thing daily is tedious. That's why I crow so much here about a writing trick I figure out. I also know someone has figure out anything I just figured out previously. People have been writing a long time.

Discovery

I wrote a sentence and used the last word of it to start the next sentence. It was kind of amazing how quickly I got through the 200 words. Something about not having to figure out the first word really kept the momentum going. It also kept the writing moving towards more random places and thoughts.

ex: My brain is warmed up. Up to the challenge. Challenge yourself to write. Write the last word first in the next sentence.

That style of writing has a nice ratchet effect. I like how it keeps things moving forward.

It is 2026-01-14. There are 483 albums on my list to check out. If I want to get to zero by 2026-12-31, I need to listen to about 2 albums a day. It is really 1.37, but who listens to a third of an album? Listening to three albums a day would get me to the end of the list at around June 24th. Four albums a day would get me there on May 14th.

My list isn't static, though. I am always adding albums throughout the week. Especially if we play a show and I talk to other musicians and get recommendations.

Having a huge list of things to listen to should be a thing to look forward to, but there is always that vibe that I am giving future me homework. There is also the problem that what I was into at the time isn't necessarily what I am into now.

It might be time to start breaking out the d20 and picking albums at random to clear out some albums. For me, letting the dice decide forces me to put something on despite variables that might block me from pushing play. Things like bad cover art, cheesy band name, or even "this genre doesn't go with the weather".

Knowing that listening to 3-4 albums a day is going to clear out the "clutter" does inspire me to listen to 3-4 albums a day, though.

Making the Map

Started the morning mapping out where the sounds should go on the drum pads. There are two rows of four pads which is eight sounds on the AKAI LPD8. The issue I have with mapping is my drum kit brain wants the positions to mirror a drum kit. It is possible to do that but it would be tough to play on the pads.

I think I have settled on an order for now for a traditional acoustic drum kit. It allows me to do the linear drumming I enjoy playing.

Bottom row: Kick, Snare, Hihat, crash - low
Top row: Tom, Floor Tom, Ride, crash - high

The two pads I am on the fence about are the crashes. I have a feeling on of the crashes is going to change to hihat - open or a second snare sound. I also can see the kick and snare swapping spots. Going to use this setup for now and see how it goes.

Random Velocity and Tone

Patterning app has a way to add randomness to effects. I need to look into whether or not that can be applied to the pads. If you can add slight volume and tone randomness, digital sounds sound a little more "real".

When I hit an analog drum with a stick, I don't hit at 100% every time. It is more like 96%, 98%, 100%, 95%, etc. You get the picture. Same goes for tone. If I strike a drum over and over, it isn't the same pitch with every strike. There are subtle variations.

Be Ok With the Machine Being a Machine

My drummer brain wants to play the drums on the pads. That is a things these pads can do. But that is just one of the things they can do. I need to remember to keep an open mind on what is drumming with this tool. All that matters is a beat leaves the speakers that works. How it gets made is less than how it got made. If I somehow create a beat I like using the knobs, so be it.

I spent some time relaxing in our hotel by searching for drum machine sounds. My three favorites are always Mini-Pops MP-3, Roland CR-78, and Casio SK-1. I always seem to end up gravitating to them.

When I was loading them into the Patterning app, I was struck by how different the wave patterns look compared to sound wave patterns I am used to seeing. The kick and snare wave patterns for the CR-78 look more like modern art than sound waves. I was expecting to see “www” but they look more like “O o •”.

The other thing I was noticing is that kick, snare, and high hats sound like kick, snare, and high hat. The rest of the sounds in the kits are really cool but I find myself wanting to rename them.

I’m still working out how to map out the drum pads. There are two rows of four. For the bottom row, I can’t decide between:

- Kick, Snare, High Hat, Snare 02
- Snare 02, Kick, Snare, High Hat
- Kick, Snare, High Hat, Open High Hat

It will get figured out. Just got to try each one a bunch of times and see which one clicks. Right now I like the having two slightly different snare sounds. I think there is a way to do the same effect in the Patterning app with the velocity setting.

It took a bit to settle on the drum resolution for 2026, but I finally settled on it. I am going to work on drum pads or "finger drumming," as some call it. I ordered an AKAI LPD8, which is a tiny portable drum pad setup I can use on iPad, Mac, and even iPhone.

It's not like I don't know how to drum on drum pads. I just am not that fast and smooth at it. It would be nice to be able to have the option of playing drum pads at shows where the place is too small to have a drum kit.

The next step for this resolution is to determine what success looks like. It is kind of hard to determine right now because I think I need a day or two with the drum pads to get to know them. I want to say being able to play a 1000s of cats song from beginning to end is the goal. I don’t know if that goal is too easy or not until I spend a chunk of time with them.

I've also been doing some rumination about parameters. With anything that can play samples, the options are infinite. You can literally play any drum kit or drum machine ever invented. I want to eliminate that kind of choice and just get down to playing.

This means picking a couple of kits and just pretending all the other ones don't exist. So I've chosen an analog kit option and a digital kit option. I will be "stuck" with these two for 2026.

The digital kit will be the CR-78. It is a drum machine from 1978, which I love. You'll know it when you hear it in a bunch of hits from the late 70s and early 80s.

For an analog drum sound, I am limiting the choice to my kits. I can use any drum sound that is me hitting the drum. It can be from old albums, or I can sample myself.

Applications are infinite as well. I am narrowing it down to a couple to just get rid of choice paralysis. The two apps will be Patterning and Koala. Both are extremely well-made Apple apps that I have loved for a while. I am really stoked to mess around with them using actual drum pads.