I have been spending a lot of time getting to grips with my new 8-track recorder, a Zoom 802. It's a fairly low-end model, but results so far have been quite encouraging with some nice recordings of Silvia put down. She's pleased to get some recording time, and I'm finding it useful to learn the ins and outs of the machine with a good singer as source material! As always the key elements are chiefly a good performance and then secondarily competently engineering it. Avoiding clipping is the main thing with digital gear, and I don't want to use unnecessary compression. Therefore much playing with limiters.

My friend's 40th last night went off brilliantly, with much good food, beer and music. Several hours of top reggae fired up the garden from my PA. Many insect bites on my head. If you haven't hear Alpha Blondy doing "All Right Now" then you probably should.

Muggy weather, but at least it's warm. Rain is expected, but apparently this does very little to alleviate the drought. Obviously there's a lot I don't understand. At least the plant growing in my guttering has died of natural causes...