Where We At?

Hey everyone,

Been quite a while since we've given you an update, and even longer since I posted something. So, here goes...

Mixing has been slow, to be honest. Lots of stuff going on in both my life and Mark's that has been preventing us from properly focusing on getting the songs finished. Mark has done a very good job on Song For Life that I got to hear the first time last night. It's pretty much there; I think we both want to listen to it a little more on different systems to make sure we have it the way we want.

Also last night Mark and I sat around and listened to the songs (which we haven't done in a while) to re-energize ourselves with the music and get the CD finished.

In slightly related news, I have also been very much involved in a jazz quintet I formed. For the past few years now I've been trying my hand at jazz, mostly bebop and hard bop. It's a very big challenge for me to learn how to play jazz, but I'm determined to get it under my fingers. Anyway... the quintet hopes to begin playing out in September. If you live in the Philadelphia area and like jazz, check out my personal website for gig information once it becomes available.

That's about it for now. We appreciate all of your support, everyone, and I promise you the CD will not disappoint!

It's been a while…

I haven't posted in a while, but that doesn't mean things haven't been happening. I've had a lot of stuff going on in my personal life which have slowed down the process, but Josh and I have been working on the album. We recently completed (mostly) the organization and audio-tracking of the songs for the album, which will make mixdown a more streamlined process. We've also put the same basic effects on the drum kits throughout, which will give the drums a consistent and cohesive sound across the whole album.

I started final mixing work on "Song for Life" last night. As the first song we actually finished, it just seemed apropos to begin with that one. It's also one of the more conventionally laid out and arranged songs, so I thought it best to "break in" my novice mixing ears on something that wasn't too "wacky," mix-wise. So far, it's coming together well - the drums sound GREAT (thanks, Mike!), with nice phatness but not overly "processed." And the bass is nice and grindy - it's got loads of "Ballz-n-Chunk^TM." Gotta love that overdriven Ricken-sound!

I was getting to work on the Hammond effects and mix when my eyes started to droop, so I figured it best to come back to it in another session. But so far, it's coming along nicely.

SUCCESS!

So, one of the ongoing problems I've been having with SONAR is a pretty crucial one. Whenever I'd attempt to render a mixdown (export to WAV), if I had any of the Waves Platinum plugins in any of the effects busses, SONAR would simply crash before getting anywhere. This, obviously, was a very big issue, as the Waves plugins are some of the best around, and I use a lot of them within every song. And it was making it impossible to actually mix down the songs - though they sounded and worked great when playing them, I just couldn't get a mixed-down file.

I had submitted a note to technical support of both Cakewalk and Waves, and gotten very little help - Cakewalk said that it was a Waves problem, and Waves' answer was to buy a very expensive service contract, update to the newest versions, and HOPE that it would fix the problem. Not good. I also did some searching on the Cakewalk support forum, and found little that helped.

So I've been thinking about doing the upgrade, despite the cost involved. But yesterday, I just did some searching on that forum again, and the answer was there! Apparently it's now a significant problem that is recognized, and a simple checkbox for the "multi-processor engine" makes the problem go away. I was able to successfully mix down a track yesterday, and now I can go forward, full speed ahead. HOORAY!

Sorry, I'm stoked, and I had to share it with somebody. :)

Putting on our "Mix Ears"

Josh and I worked a bit more on the mixing last night, and added a simple, melodic keyboard line to a section of "The Bottom/Between Two Lives" that I had previously felt was a little sparse. We found a reasonably minimalist approach that satisfied both of us. In the meantime, we're working diligently on the mixing, which is a big, big job. Hopefully, some of the hurdles cleared on the first song or two will make the subsequent songs go more quickly.

When we get the songs "most of the way there," we'll have our friends Mike and Eric (both excellent engineers, themselves) provide their professional opinions and assistance to make sure we've got all the t's crossed and i's dotted. Forging on!

Mixing begins…

I got about five hours of mixing time in on "The Bottom/Between Two Lives" last night; it's about 85% done at this point, and is sounding really good. I figured I'd start with that one since it's a little less complex than most of the other ones. (And since I'm relatively inexperienced at mixing, it'd be better to start "easy.")

I'm looking forward to getting more work done on it and continuing on with the rest of the album!