A little bit of work

So, I'm still working on "like a lighthouse gone mad from loneliness" and...it's pretty much working out  the way I want. I still feel like I'm missing something in the songs, so I've been thinking about the density and texture of the vocals. I believe that I need a lot more harmonies, which just take a ton of time to do on your own. I'll just try to do a few songs and see whether I like the results.

I was asked to write a piece of music for a dance student at North Port High School. The choreography is based on a poem entitled "Balloon" and I am doing the background music. It ended up being kind of a strange piece; I played acoustic guitar through a reverb unit and doubled that track to make it repeat a few milliseconds after the initial sound. Then I added a woodwind/string sound as a complementary instrument. Very spacey. I may take it and incorporate it into "like a lighthouse...", but I haven't made a decision yet. But I like the piece.

The studio is running pretty well. I've added a second pair of monitors to get a better idea how a mix is working. As it stands, I usually listen to any mix with Sennheiser HD414 headphones (one of the best open air headphones ever made, in my humble opinion), a pair of Klipsch ear buds, Alesis Monitor 1 speakers, JBL Control 1 speakers, the surround system in my house (Sony), and then drive around in my Nissan truck. If a mix works in all of those, you are finished! Since I do my own mastering, I had to find a way to reference a mix. I've used this method for over twenty years. It works for me.

On a totally different subject, I miss painting. I haven't taken the time to do any watercolors in months and it is starting to eat at me. I have to take the time and just do it. Instead of doing other things, like watching movies, or The Gilmore Girls on Netflix. Or playing around on my iPad. Or enjoying a sunset in Key West.

OK, so Summer's over

The Barn

It always seems that Summer goes by so quickly, especially when you are a high school teacher. And the last ten weeks have been great. Lots of bicycling, a family reunion, some house projects here and there…and spending time in The Barn recording music…of course.

The next now that they're here project, "like a lighthouse gone mad from loneliness" is coming along pretty well. Most of the music has been written, basic tracks have essentially been completed on most songs, and now it's time to start fine-tuning everything. This is supposed to be the first project where I play acoustic guitar on some of the songs. Oddly, that has gone very well and I'm amazed at how much fun it has been to start a song on guitar, then build the rest of the song rather than starting with keyboards.

As you can probably ascertain, the Pro Tools issues that I had a few months ago are gone, but not without some pain. The MIDI router I usually use for all of my equipment died, so rather than replace it (it WAS 30 years old) I decided to just rewire my studio as a large daisy chain. Much to my surprise, it worked. So, for most of the Summer sessions I've had, I've been pretty productive.

I had David Alvarez, bassist from the band The Boogiemen, come over and help with a track for the next CD. We had fun getting it together and, hopefully, I didn't scare David off too much by how weird the track was. (For some stupid reason, I interchanged all of the Em chords to G, and vice versa, on the scratch chart we were using for a song. Made for some really confusing rehearsals until I figured out what I did. Duh.)

I also find that I have certain sounds I love using, like choir and mellotron sounds. They are on practically every release I've done and will be on this one also. I have been experimenting with the sound of my voice in trying to not put too many effects on it, but still have it distinctive. No success yet on a winning combination.

As for school, I will have two sections each of Digital Video Production, Electronic Music, and Guitar. REALLY nice schedule, if you ask me.

The Yearly Musical, the next CD, and other things

If you have perused this blog, you will notice that I am the Sound Director for the musical every year at North Port High School. This year the Drama Dept. did "Hairspray" and despite my initial reservations, they did a marvelous job. It was funny and fast-paced, very retro, and cool. For this show, I decided to run the sound board myself, using my intrepid crew of three for running script, comm, and sound effects. All in all, it went pretty well, but I still think we need a new board and cardioid microphones. Maybe next year.

As it stands right now, we are going to have Digital Video Production as a class at NPHS next year. We are supposed to get 20 Macintosh computers with Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premier. We have been without a class like this for three years, so I'm really excited to have it back. Our goal is have third year students take the certification exam for both editing suites, which would be a first for high schools. More on that when we get started.

I am currently working on the next "now that they're here" music project, tentatively titled "like a lighthouse gone mad from loneliness". I have 8 songs written so far and plan on going into production in June (after school is out.) Looking forward to tracking…and playing rhythm guitar (for once) since I've been teaching myself to play for the past year. Not exactly Jimmy Page, but it works. Still plan on using others for bass and lead guitar.

As usual, I am having issues with Pro Tools. This is a constant in my studio...I have no idea why... but suffice it to say that I'll eventually work out the problems and we will go from there.

Wow, I'm actually updating my blog!

Where have I been? Well, right here, actually.

Back in October, the performance of Alice in Wonderland went pretty well. To me, in retrospect, director Dena Henderson and I should have worked more closely together on integrating the music with the play in the final rehearsals. Sometimes the music just either didn't work, or was too short, or too long. And having the sound crew just stop the music or replay a song didn't work. But, when all was said and done, I still liked the play and the music. I'm still deciding if I'm going to release it commercially on iTunes, just for the heck of it.

And, since then, I've done no music at all. I did produce and edit a ten-minute tribute video for one of our departing assistant principals at North Port High. However, when they played it for the staff at his farewell luncheon, the powers-that-be decided to NOT play it in the Performing Arts Center, but in the cafeteria. Worst acoustics ever. Couldn't hear a thing anyone said on the video. So, once again. another project sabotaged by how it was presented.

I also took a 10-week class on watercolor painting. Truth be told, I've been painting for years, but felt that my technique could use a little updating. I loved the instructor and painted some pretty good scenes (mostly landscapes and flowers.) The painting above is an example of what we did in the class.

There may be some good news on the resurrection of video production at NPHS...but I'm not going to announce that until it is absolutely a sure thing. So, for now, I'm just riding my motorcycle as much as I can and waiting out the winter.