Mixing. Wow, it's not easy.

So, I just posted the news item that mixing is finally done. So I figured I'd add an update here as well, since the site's been a little static for a while.

For those who know little about how music is made, "mixing" is the process of balancing all of the volumes and stereo imaging of all of the different instruments and voices that are recorded for the album. No matter how well played the instruments are, if the drums (or guitars, or bass) are too loud and overpowering (or too quiet to be heard), it can ruin the balanced sound we're trying to achieve. Mixing also involves adding "effects" like reverbration, echo, and other special touches to add life and fullness to the recording.

On the album "Awaken the Man", we have songs that have as many as 40-50 individual "tracks" - separate instrumental recordings - that make up the song (for instance, there are 8 different tracks assigned to the drum kit; one for the bass drum, one for the snare, a stereo pair to record the tom-toms, etc.) When you add to that multiple tracks for rhythm guitar, guitar solos, multiple basses, keyboards, organ, piano, as many as 9-10 vocal tracks, etc., it becomes a little overwhelming to make it all come together into a cohesive balance where there's a place for everything and everything is in its place.

So it wasn't very easy to take the raw material from our studio sessions and turn it into the final project, especially since I'm very new to the process (a more experienced mixing engineer would have made faster work of it since they wouldn't have had to experiment as much). But I feel that doing it ourselves yielded a far better project in the long run, since we were so much more invested in it than a hired gun would have been. The true beauty is in the details, and I believe that the listeners of ATM will be hearing new details for many listens to come.

We appreciate the patience that you all have exhibited through the unexpected delays and the long process we've endured in creating this album, and we're both confident that most - if not all - of you will feel that the end result justifies the wait. We've been critically listening to the unmastered tracks extensively, and we're very excited about the album. We hope you will be too!

More to come after March 29, which is when we go to MasterWorks - then it's on to duplication and distribution! I have had previous experience with the folks there, having used them for the Second Story album, and expectations are high for a totally professional, balanced sound for the album.

The new year…

I'm taking the liberty of speaking for both of us; we'd like to wish you and yours a very happy and healthy new year. We hope 2007 brings all sorts of new and wonderful things to you...



(...for instance, a copy of Din Within's debut album, "Awaken the Man.")

So what have YOU been doing?

Mark's update inspired me to chime in and let you know what I've been up to while Mark has been working on the mix. I've been checking out what he's been doing and making some suggestions/comments along the way. Mark is doing a great job and there hasn't been much I've had to make suggestions on. That's a good thing.

While that's going on I've been very hard at work with my playing. Over this past year I completely stripped down my technical approach to the guitar. I've been rebuilding my picking from scratch, and making more efficient use of my left hand biomechanics. It's taken a while but I'm starting to see some great returns on the dirt time. I can definitely hear the changes and it's making me a stronger player. My goal is to be able to play whatever I want without having to worry about the mechanics involved; at that point it will just be about playing what I hear in my head. The day I can do that will be a very good day.

My lessons with Scott McGill are as good as ever. I've been concentrating on the skills needed to play jazz in a trio format, where I would be responsible for both melody and chordal harmony. It's a challenge, but I'm up to it! Currently working through the standards of the Great American Songbook and having a great time working on more piano/organ-type chord voicings as opposed to guitarist block chord nonsense. Hopefully some of this will creep into whatever new music DW does.

Aside from my quintet and DW I'm also working on a few other side projects. One is an instrumental "power trio" project with two friends. Progress is slow-going as we all live far away from each other, but we hope to have a few songs finished by the end of the first quarter, 2007. Another project I have going on is a collaborative effort between two of my childhood/teenage friends. We got together a few months ago and decided to start writing some music to be used for video games, ring tones, etc. All three of us have very different influences and approaches to music, so it's an interesting mix of styles and playing.

There has also been talk of an acoustic rock project between myself, Mark, and our friend Scott. This would be a bare-bones, coffee house-esque songwriting project to give us another outlet for some riffs and ideas we've all had lying around for a while. I don't know if and when this will happen, but we've been discussing it.

That's about it. I know you are all hard-at-work with your playing and music projects, too, so I expect a lot of great music from all of us in 2007!

More progress…

I've been continuing work on the mixing; as of today, here's where the mixing stands:

• Better Than Before - in progress (70%)
• Turn It Around - in progress (90%)
• Song For Life - complete
• Weight of the World - complete
• Hey You (Part I) - complete
• The Bottom/Between Two Lives - complete
• For What It's Worth (Hey You Part II) - complete
• Awaken the Man - in progress (60%)

Mixing update!

Okay, figured I'd throw an update at you.

As Josh mentioned, We've (and I've, particularly) had a lot going on in my life which really made it difficult to find the concentration and enthusiasm to finish the mixing on the project. We did seriously consider jobbing it out, but I really wanted to do the mixing on this album myself - with Josh's help - and I knew that once most of the "stuff" was out of the way, we could press forward.

Well, we're pressing forward. "Digital Din Studios" is re-assembled (and even better) and operational. In the last week and a half, we've gone from one song mostly mixed to four songs in the bag and one almost done. That's out of eight total. So, at the current pace, I hope to have the album mixed and ready to master by the end of November or middle of December. We'll push for an early 2007 pressing and MAKE THIS THING HAPPEN!

Thus far, I'm VERY excited about how it's coming together. I've learned some things over the last few months and gotten some very good advice from a number of friends in the mixing business. We've come up with some really cool production ideas, and the uptempo songs are really slammin'! The drums sound incredible, the bass tones just "work," and the overall sound has lots of balz 'n' chunk (TM).

Even if you've heard the complete "demo-quality" songs we previously had available ("Song for Life", "Hey You" --from the Tsunami Projekt -- and "Better than Before") - you ain't heard NOTHIN' yet... the fidelity, energy and overall sound of these new mixes will blow those demos away.

We'll have some sound samples up soon; keep an eye out. I'll probably also make at least one "sampler" Mp3 that will have "highlights" from the album in a single track.

To those who have been supporting us through our ups and downs, we appreciate it! I look forward to making it more than worth your wait!