02023-09-28 | HuHeartDrive, Music, Rain Music
Burned a CD of the album and am listening on an old and familiar system to check the relative volume of the tracks. Plus it’s a habit that is decades old. An album is done (or kinda done) when I have a CD of it. I remember listening to albums on DAT (digital audio tape), a prehistoric recording format, at home. In my car I would listen to Mini-Discs (a rather brilliant idea that was terribly executed by Sony) until we got a CD burner in my studio in the late 90’s.
The other day I thought it would be cool to have a 12×12 inch cardboard, which is the size of vinyl LPs, with the cover image on the front. On the back there would be credits and titles and a little foam button that holds a CD. Mailing this might be a pain but there should be LP mailers available that it could be shipped in.
02023-09-17 | HuHeartDrive, Performance, Rain Music
I have been listening to the 18 tracks I recorded for Rain Poems and love the way it sounds. Recording is done and mixing may be done as well, as I don’t hear anything that wants to be changed. Some of the tracks have been mixed a number of times while others remain an early version.
(It used to be quite the occasion to switch from recording to mixing because analog tape recorders have two separate heads for reading the tape. One is a recording/monitoring head and the other is for listening only. The listening-only head reproduces sound in a higher quality.)
We performed one of the new pieces in Seattle and in Beaver Creek this past week and it was fun to play. We may try to arrange other new pieces for the live show.
02023-09-05 | HuHeartDrive, Photos, Rain Music
I created my first binaural surround sound mix today. It took a few hours to set up and to create automation for the three objects (instruments) that I wanted to move in space. It’s a learning process I enjoyed.
02023-08-24 | HuHeartDrive, Rain Music, Recording
Fine-tuning the mixes. Listening, making notes, making small changes, listening some more. Switching between a couple of different speaker pairs and a few headphones. Oh, this is fun!
02023-08-04 | Rain Music, Recording, Studio
A few months ago I looked into audio localization software for binaural and transaural mixing. I downloaded two different solutions and ended up not trialing neither because I started recording again and when the muses visit you must not stop and you must not interrupt them. You do as they say and you say please and thank you.
When I received an email from Flux this week, about their 50% off sale, I took it as a sign and bought the SPAT Revolution Essential software for $199.
Once I am happy with the stereo mixes for the 18 tracks of Rain Poems, I shall begin to experiment with SPAT.
The summer promo of 50% off continues until Monday.
02023-08-03 | Rain Music
I think the recording has been wrapped up. More of Jon’s bass tracks arrived via the cloud. The next step will be mixing and more mixing. Perhaps several singles… I enjoy creating covers for individual pieces of music and the concept of singles will let me present different versions of a track.
I am so happy with this album! Really, I am thrilled. I put together a new studio in a backpack and figured out how to record high quality sound outside of a traditional studio. I learned a lot. This will open all sorts of new possibilities for the future. I enjoyed the the playful place I was able to occupy. So many cool guitar sounds, using a sponge and pieces of paper and cloth to prepare the guitar. My head is already humming with ideas for the next album…
I will have a little under two weeks to concentrate on mixing after returning from my retreat and before leaving to play duets with Jon. Then another week before playing in Seattle and Denver with the trio, and more than three weeks from the end of that run until the east coast tour starts on 11 October. During all of that time new singles will appear on Backstage.
In November I will be in Japan for several weeks. I will walk around a mountain on an ancient trail and will experience a few places I never visited but always wanted to. Then a little time off in December before we start it all up again with a run in Texas in January, followed by our traditional three week tour in California in February.
