How could I possibly get that wrong

This update was supposed to be about how well the third song is going. The song is about accelerating through a spacetube (sort of an alien made worm hole). The spacecraft wanted me to do some of the setup on the OP-1 (they were having a problem with the acceleration and all keeping together as I have to record each track separately). The request was simple enough, they gave me a patch, a chord pattern and which arpeggiator to use. I was to start at a specific speed, and increase it up to a level, stay there, then slow it back down. The hard part was keeping it in step with a drum pattern they provided. Then they would play on the other tracks along with it.

So, I worked out how to disconnect tape speed from tempo. I had to record on two separate tapes independently (and increase the speed in lock step). It came out really nice (took quite a few attempts, but I finally got it). I played it for them and all I got (from Darkstar) was “No..No…No” (sounded like Hook talking to Smee in Hook - sometimes Dark can be a bit pompous). Apparently, it is not a consistent acceleration all the way to top. At the beginning of each section, I should have the acceleration, then it stays at that speed for a while. How could I not know how one of those work? So now I know what I need to do and will have to get back to it.

The reasoning is as such. That is how it feels traveling through one. They can sort of feel the beating of the drum with the accelerators, but also the arpeggios (the machines communicating). There is not a constant acceleration as that means everyone would be going different speeds in the tube. There are only so many lanes in the tube, so you are accelerated to one speed, and then if you continue accelerating, you will move to another lane after getting up to speed.

Seems they do it that way to simplify the flow, but also not everyone wants the top speed. Some are just not going that far, others have ships that can not take the acceleration, and yet others just do not want to pay the extra for more speed (yes there is a fee, I will describe how the spacecraft deal with money in a future blog post). Some ships just never need to leave the slow lane.

Now I know I will be working on changing up the song (yes I need to start over, but that is ok). It was cool learning something about space travel while working on some cool music. Until next time, go ahead and accelerate to the fast lane.