Favorite Mixes

I still haven't quite gotten back into the swing of things but at least the gears are turning inside of my head.  Due to a very sad and unfortunate death in the family that brought me to AZ last weekend, I've been quite behind on things so I spent most of yesterday just trying to catch up.  When I do this, I usually put on music in the background and for whatever bizarre reason I wasn't in the mood so much for the usual Bill Frisell selections and such.  Instead, I reached into my past and pulled out Echo & the Bunnymen who were just in town about a week ago.  I had contemplated going but thought twice since I'm not a huge fan of these shows, especially when they're standing room only.  It's also a bit difficult for me to watch guys in their 60's dressing like they're still in their 20's.  Don't even get me started on Robert Smith and the Cure.

I actually pulled out the self titled Echo & the Bunnymen album a few weeks ago and gave it a spin.  I grew up during my teenage and early 20's years listening to this style of music constantly but ironically have rarely reached for the majority of it over the past 20+ years.  I estimated that I hadn't heard this album at least in 30 years, quite possibly more.  I saw this actual tour back in 1988 and it was a rather memorable event, although not in a good way (that's a separate story altogether).  Still, their actual performance was quite amazing and I wished at the time that I could more focus on it rather than all the drama that was going on in my life.

The first thing that I notice when pulling out one of these albums today is the tempo:  it's clearly calculated, something I would have never noticed when I was younger.  I guess there was just a "magic" tempo that songs had to be at in those days and literally almost every song seems to be clocked in within 5 bpm's of that beat.  At this age, it initially seems rather redundant to me but I seem to get beyond it, adjust, and return to the magic of those albums rather than worrying about tempos.

With mixing, a frequent topic that comes up are favorite mixes, either ones that you model after or perhaps your favorite all time mixes in general.  Yesterday, I listened to the remaining tracks that I had missed on the self titled Echo & the Bunnymen album, and then I moved on to the much loathed "Reverberation" album which I actually think is quite good, and then the "Porcupine" album.  I was amazed at how much I remembered of these releases even though I didn't think that I had listened to them extensively.  Then, to round out the afternoon, I reached for the Smith's "Meat is Murder", an album that more and more puzzles the hell out of me and yet I've grown to really like, and it tends to be the only album of theirs that I ever reach for these days.  The Smith's in general are one of the most odd and strange bands, in my opinion.  On paper, nothing about that band should have worked, not Morrissey's singing or lyrics or performance, or Johnny Marr's basic writing of songs purely from a riff stand point and hoping someone can sing over it.  The whole thing seems preposterous and yet it only takes about 3 minutes of hearing one of their songs to realize that there was something really special about them, this particular set of 4 guys, that completely stood out.  Add on top that their second album was called "Meat is Murder", you'd think they would have been the biggest flop ever...and yet quite the opposite.  I firmly believe that none of them would have really become successful without the others and it was really just perfect timing and pairing that made them work, albeit for only a short period of time.

The thing that I always return to with these albums, especially the self titled Echo & the Bunnymen album as well as "Reverberation", is that they sound in my head absolutely perfect.  I mean, to my ears, these are the mixes that stand out, and more than anything, not to use that word yet again, sound "magical", almost beyond belief.  If you ask me, one of the biggest issues with rock based music over the past 10+ years is the horrible mixes and "a thousand instruments" production methods that seem to plague many of the new releases.  For example, Sting's "57th and 9th" album...I couldn't even listen beyond the second song due to how this album is both mixed and produced.  I mean, these might be decent songs but the way they're put together squeezes all the life out of them that they end up sounding like nothing more than a wall of pointless blaring guitars coming at you from all angles.  To be blunt, I can't stand that sound, and it shocked me that Sting would even allow that sort of production since it seems so contrary to his earlier work.

So, for favorite mixes, what are your choices?  I have so many but very few post 2005.  My tastes do lean in quite a few different directions as well.  There are tons of great albums with real magic and yet the production is super low budget, primitive, etc., and then there are a billion albums that are more modestly produced and yet still sound perfect.  One that immediately comes to mind is R.E.M.'s "Murmur", and another choice would be Tom Waits' albums from the late 70's and then into the 80's ala "Heartattack and Vine" and "Rain Dogs".  The thing that I loved about the mix change in the mid 80's was how incredibly dynamic everything suddenly sounded, such as on Peter Gabriel's "So" or Icehouse's "Measure for Measure", these 2 actually being the first 2 CD's I ever owned.  The clarity of these albums is simply beautiful, in my opinion, and whereas Peter Gabriel 3 (aka "Melt") has a more aggressive and stripped down punchiness, "So" was like the perfect soothing clear album that you couldn't forget.  Both seem to have perfect production for their style and era.

I also really loved the louder, more aggressive sounds that started mainly in the early 90's, where it more or less sounds like the guitars are incredibly in your face and loud.  The Connell's "Weird Food and Devastation" album is a great example of this and has a guitar power to it that's both very live and bone shaking at times.  Then, Neil Young ventured into capturing what I'd call a truly "live" sound, or really something more resembling cheap amps ready to burst in a poorly sound proofed practice room, the best example probably being his "Broken Arrow" album.  When I listen to that, it makes me think of a band with the volume excessively loud playing on a back porch at a loud party.  I actually have no idea how they achieved this sound so perfectly.

So, again, favorite mixes?  There's just too many of them to even mention.  One would be R.E.M.'s "Life's Rich Pageant", what I still think is one of their very best albums, and the sound is simply sublime.  Talk Talk's "It's My Life" and "The Colour of Spring" also both come to mind as well as Big Country's "Steeltown".  I simply adore the first three solo albums by Sting and think they're some of the best sounding albums ever.  Tears for Fears "Elemental" definitely stands out in my brain as well as Thomas Dolby's "The Flat Earth".  Robyn Hitchcock's "Element of Light" is significant for a lower budget production and yet has such a distinctive sound and visual element to it.  I could go on and on, and I haven't even touched on jazz, prog rock, new age, world, etc.  It's a great discussion that will yield different opinions across the board.

Still, I do maintain that the mixing style and production techniques of the past decade or so tend to really make rock related releases sound flatter than a pancake when what they're trying to do is the exact opposite.  My advice is to do exactly what I do...pull out those old albums and study them a bit.

The Fish Swims...Sort of

My annual Thanksgiving week off started quite well but as usual ran astray.  Mixing the "...Fish" album was going very well during the beginning of the week, and one track is officially done with probably 2-3 only an iteration or two behind.  There are definitely some problem tracks, not to mention some that were put aside purposefully due to a larger amount of necessary reworking, but mixing for the most part remained positive.

I usually take actual holidays off, in this case Thanksgiving day, as well as the day after Thanksgiving, just to kind of have some relaxation time.  And then, I received awful news from a friend that you basically never ever want to hear, and I have yet to really get my creative or productive self in motion again.  I won't go into details because I don't believe these things belong online, of course.  Regardless, it was hard to simply turn on the gear and start plugging away as if nothing had happened.

I know I'm going to kick myself next week for not pushing through and being productive but, well, sometimes you just crash, for lack of a better term.  Today is Sunday and my last day off before restarting work tomorrow and so I'm faced with the dilemma of trying to restart things, even though they're going to stop later tonight regardless, or simply blowing off today as well.  I'm contemplating a bit of both; maybe looking at a couple of mixes but also venturing out to the La Paloma Theatre at 2pm for a showing of "Stop Making Sense".  Would you believe that I've never seen this film?  Well, I was never really a huge fan of the Talking Heads so that's why I wouldn't have watched the movie in my younger days but have developed an interest in them over the years.  I guess we'll see if I do in fact venture out.

I guess the good news is that I also take 2 weeks off over Christmas so I have more time ahead of me for music.  Still, I was hoping to have "...Fish" almost wrapped up by then so that I could instead focus on Defrost Nixon.  Sigh.  This has pretty much been the way of 2023.

I was also dabbling with the idea of purchasing another Lowden acoustic, two of which are more or less on Reverb.com right now at "reasonable" prices (I say that term very loosely because Lowden's are super pricey in general).  I ended up talking myself out of it, at least for the moment.  Money is tight, mainly wrapped up in endless housing projects that are on the horizon, and so the idea of shelling out quite a few dollars for a guitar that I don't need seems not the wisest choice.

That's the news for now on the music front.  I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday weekend.

Nobody Likes a Fish

I've been hitting the mixes for the past couple of days, mainly the "...Fish!" redo's.  I've already said it two or three times but I'm incredibly shocked by how well these tracks already sound in their redone mode and I probably should have wrapped this up a few years ago.  Having said that, my mixing technique is way better now so maybe it's not so bad that I waited.

The "It's Raining Elvis Fish!" album was originally released around 2009, I believe, and was met with incredibly poor reception.  It didn't really shock me because I wasn't very happy with it either, and after a few listens I myself thought it was near unlistenable.  The whole idea at the time was to record something quickly after the TFTO fiasco, basically to try and prove to myself that I could both do it and also that it could actually be done with the gear I had.  Rather than "ruin" another set of originals, I opted for an album of Robyn Hitchcock cover tunes, songs that I had always wanted to record anyhow.  In this manner, if it was total trash, well, who cares (well, sort of).

I had barely released it when I started working on the redo's.  It was the first time that I had ever submitted anything for mastering so I had no idea how much that process would improve the mixes.  Much to my dismay, it didn't help much at all, in fact it just made badly mixed and put together songs sound concrete.  The whole thing was very depressing, to the point that I vowed that I'd fix it.  And thus, yet another backlogged project was born.

Ironically, the original release was fairly on target time-wise.  I think it only took me a year or two from start to finish, which is probably the part that I should have dwelled on at the time since TFTO took up to 8 years and was never actually officially released.  In any event, I looked at the whole album and started making notes about what I would change.  When I originally recorded it, my intent was to keep it simple on purpose; it ended being the wrong approach.  I also wanted to try mixing an album fairly dry, getting away from the heavy reverbs I always liked.  That also backfired and instead I realized that my preference is, well, my preference, making things much more lush.

The idea of rereleasing this album will probably spark zero excitement due to what the original sounded like but, ironically, I think once people hear this version their opinion will greatly change.  Still, I may do some reworking of the track list here and there, of which I just started fiddling with a couple hours ago.  In general, I think these mixes will be done very quickly since there's not a ton that needs to be tweaked.  I suspect I may only have to do 3-4 passes on each which would certainly be a new record for me.

In general, I really like these tracks, hence my pushing forward.  I now have to think about what I'm actually going to do with this album, though.  To release it on CD, which would be my preference, might cost quite a bit due to the cover song royalties.  There are certainly equal royalties due for online downloads but they're much more easy to control since you pay a little at a time.

I had asked a friend of mine to come up with an outfit for a version of the big mouth bass doll so that it looked like Elvis.  I asked her to do this about a decade ago, of which she completed it fairly quickly.  The fish has been sitting in my room ever since, still waiting to be photographed.  Maybe at last it'll see the light of day and we can change people's opinions of "the Fish".  One can only hope.

Never Really Done

I did another round of mixes today on the 4 tracks that I was working on/looking at 2 weeks ago.  The good news is that all 4 are done; the bad news is that at least 3 of the 4 are going in the red on certain tracks so I have to readjust all the levels accordingly.  When doing this, it usually throws things off again slightly, which means probably 2 more round of mixes on those songs.

I have yet to really figure out how to simply lower all the levels properly in ProTools.  There is an "All" group, which I've tried, but that lowers literally everything, including even the Auxes.  In my simple tests, it also threw off the levels slightly.  I usually lower all the levels manually that aren't Auxes and that aren't busses but this also tends to have a minor affect on the overall sound.  There has to be an easy way to do this but I'll be damned if I can find it.

Once that's done, then I move on to the next round of crazy which consists of double checking the mono mixes, putting in finishing touches like fade outs and such, and then listening to the mix on multiple systems.  Once all that passes, it's ready for mastering.  If you're following along, you can probably tell that this all can take awhile as well.  And, of course, then I can spend a few hours on artwork.

The other bit of bad news is that I really wanted "The Effects of Connection" EP completed in its entirety by Xmas, meaning mastered, printed, and so on.  Now, if I worked really diligently and such, and I got a bit lucky, I could maybe...just maybe...meet that date.  It would take a lot of work, though, and it would be fairly stressful.  Would I make it?  Honestly, not likely, and therefore I don't think I'm going to put myself through that pressure.  Hell, I've waited this long so...

Besides the "Effects of Connection" EP, I think I have the radio edit version of "As Evening Brings Tears" finally done as well, which means that it can be synced with the video once it's been mastered.  That's been a long time in the making as well.

The last track in the group is one song from the "It's Raining Elvis Fish!" redux, and I must say that it sounds pretty damn good, way better than the original.  And so, I guess I'm opening that vault again as well.  The mixes in general have been going better so hopefully that's a trend that continues.

Since my eye is still recovering, I've not been working terribly hard at this stuff, mainly because my bad eye seems to throb with tremendous pain most evenings now.  It's hard to push through it, plus I feel that looking at a computer screen isn't helping much either.  Still, I'll get done what I can and keep pushing forward when my body permits me to.

With these four tracks done in the preliminary stage, I can now once again go back to the "Mirror Land" tracks.  The last time I worked on them, I was trying a new compression plugin on the acoustics and I pretty much feel that it ruined each mix so it'll be either removed or softened.  Apart from that, I still hope to get these completed by the end of the year as well.  One can only hope.

Somethin'

I had a good first weekend back with music related tasks.  I spent today going over about half the tracks that I was working on over a month ago, basically figuring out where I left off and what was left to do.  As previously noted, I would like more than anything to get the "Effects of Connection" EP and the "Mirror Land" EP off my back by EOY.

I decided to only tackle one at a time and I do know that I was working heavily on "Effects..." before I was forced to take a break.  I cracked open that track, made the adjustments based on my notes from the last time I had listened, and then of course did a couple more minor tweaks.  I spent a lot of the weekend just playing around with the short delays on main vocals so I decided to apply a bit of what I had learned.

Next, I cracked open "Two Step", even though I had previously thought of it as done and complete.  Since learning about high shelving plus the delay/vocal thing, I figured what the hell, I might as well tinker.  I actually spent over an hour on this track because I was having difficulty with it sounding decent in mono, and I'm not sure how much I had worked that aspect of it beforehand.  By the time I was done, I thought, oh god, I just made it probably 10 times worse.  Oh well, if so...simply revert to the previous version.  Nothing to lose.

I also opened the radio edit of "As Evening Brings Tears" to see where that was at.  I had a few previous notes of what to change and then again made a few additional tweaks.

Lastly, I decided to start poking around the "It's Raining Elvis Fish!" tracks for whatever reason, the redux mixes that I never finished.  I opened "Queen Elvis" and I dare say that my jaw hit the floor.  Why?  Well, first off, it was a rather old mix but the way I had it setup in the session was contrary pretty much to everything I do today.  So, what was the issue?  The issue was...it sounded brilliant as is.  I mean, completely brilliant.  Was this the first time I was listening since buying the Focals?  Not sure.  And so, I did add a few minor tweaks and high shelving, some busses, that sort of thing, but opted not to mess with the reverbs really at all even though everything is running through one Plate verb which is pretty much unheard of for me.  Still, it sounded brilliant...so don't mess with it.  Big gulp.

I then opened up a variety of other sessions but didn't do any actual mixing.  I figured it was time to poke around and such.  I also worked slightly on the new Caution Children track, trying to get the session setup correctly and begin dabbling with the arrangement.  Every time I opened another track, I tried dabbling with the vocal delay thing, just to get more exposure to it.  I must say that it works freakin' brilliantly and I highly recommend it although the high shelving is really what I was missing for the past X number of years in my mixes, dare I say decades.

The thing that really blew me away, though, is that most of the "It's Raining Elvis Fish!" songs sounded pretty good, and they only need a tweak or new track here and there.  What I mean to say is I could TOTALLY finish this now without it being a huge ordeal.  Wait...did I just say that out loud?!  What AM I thinking??!  You have to understand, folks, that I have never felt this way about any of my stuff, so this simply means I AM getting better at mixing.  I now have proof!  Oh my gosh...I could actually start being productive after all!

I just got done listening to the 4 bounced tracks and every one of them sounded pretty much ready to go.  I wrote down a couple of tweaks on each but we're talking super minor things, nothing to fret over.  I'm a bit stunned.  You mean..."Effects..." might really come out this year yet?!  Well, hopefully this small bit of confidence doesn't spark some other new health disaster.  Aye.

Well...New Plans

I should never comment about plans out loud because every time I do everything goes astray in a matter of days.  This time, they really went astray, and if you remember that eye issue that I had been complaining about for quite some time...well, it ended up being yet another detached retina, this one worse than the last, and therefore yet another more intense surgery.  I'm still recovering two plus weeks later and that eye is still pretty much useless, although I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it does improve.

Today was the first day that I've fired up Pro Tools probably since my last entry in this blog.  I have yet to really look at what I was working on over a month ago, and of course I certainly do need to do that, but instead I started digging around in my back log to see what was lingering.

It's weird because most of the time that I was unable to do anything post surgery I kept thinking about electronic music.  In fact, I had even sort of convinced myself that I should start working on something new in that genre.  Today, though, I might have come to my senses.  I decided to dig through the Caution Children files and try to figure out just how far along those tracks are.

As a refresher, the main core of the Caution Children songs were written in 1993-95.  Yes, you read that correctly (sigh).  I started actually working on these recordings sometime towards the late 2000's although one of the tracks was done in the late 90's on my old ADAT system.  The rest were done on the Mackie D8b and so you can probably imagine the difference in sound in some of these tracks.  In going over them today, I was kind of surprised to see that they're not that far from complete.  Hmm.  There's also a brand new demoed track that I really like the feel of which is very Thomas Dolby, in my opinion, and so that makes a total of 6 songs.  I'd imagine 10 would round out the album and I've already got 2 more that haven't been started.  The remaining 2 songs might just fill my itch for writing something new in an electronic vein.  Double hmm.

Yeah, I don't know, I guess we'll see what happens.  I obviously need to get back on the mix path with the songs I was working on but it would be nice to actually work on something new and different.  At times like this, you've got to keep your spirits up and keep moving forward, even if I am working with only one eye at the moment.

I also played a bit more with super short delays on vocals.  I had been thinking about this quite a bit, especially after hearing a couple of my favorite albums this past week and realizing that the same technique was probably used.  In playing around with it a bit more, I realized that I can probably be much more liberal with it than previously thought.  I'm always learning new stuff, that's for certain.

A Plan

My Saturday night listening was pretty positive so I was mildly excited.  It's always a good feeling when things are working as you'd hoped.

Sunday was spent...wait for it...basically reopening the lid on the "Mirror Land" EP tracks and starting over yet again.  Yes, this is probably the 5th time I'm starting over on the mixes, although admittedly it's not completely from scratch.  I've picked up so many new mixing techniques in the last year, trying to fill in some gaping holes in my work, that I knew I was pretty much going to have to start again when the time came.  Mixing is kind of like a Jenga puzzle; if you move one block, well, pretty much everything is out of whack again anyhow so starting over just made the most sense.

It actually took me 2 hours per song to get everything rerouted, setup, labeled, played around with, etc., in the first two mixes.  I certainly knew going into it that these mixes wouldn't exactly come out the other side "done" but the goal here is to make things cleaner, clearer, and fatter than before.  In listening to the tracks later that evening, I accomplished it in most arenas while overdoing it in some others.  I guess it's to be expected.

I was actually blown away by the vocal sound on "Optimism".  Wow.  I need to write down how I got this tone because it's pretty interesting, and this was the main track that I was fighting with the vocal on for months and months.  I feel like I might be onto something here with these settings, albeit a bit bizarre.

"Only With You" ended up being a bit overdone with the new compressor, basically squashing the heck out of the acoustics and giving the track way too much high end.  It's funny how these frequencies affect your ear, literally to the point of annoyance so that's all your brain focuses on.  The vocal on this track continues to give me issues but I'm going to try and borrow some of the techniques from "Optimism" to see if I can finally wrangle it in.

I also did another mix of "As Evening Brings Tears" for the radio edit version, trying to tame the bass slightly, something I should have done with the original mix.  The song is definitely brighter now, which is good, and once the bass is sitting a bit better I think it'll be ready to roll.  I'm arguing with myself if I need to lower the kick drum (the answer is probably 'yes').

It's now the middle of September but I'm going to try, and provided I stay on it it should be doable, to get the 2 EP's and most if not all of Defrost Nixon done by 12/31.  It'll be a ton of work but that's my goal.  If nothing else, I want these 2 lingering EP's off of my back at long last.  Wouldn't that be nice.

Maybe Mixing Isn't So Bad...?

I was of course gone all last weekend and a few days before, and then I had yet another Mohs on Wednesday so today was the first time I could actually fire up the Mac/ProTools and see where I left off.  I started by editing the parts I did on "Never Say Never" last week, the ones that I literally finished in a hurry and shortly after headed out to the airport.  Sometimes, when you "record and run", the results are a bit disappointing once you return but these seemed right on target.

I bounced "Never Say Never" first but I still have to listen to the results.  Next, I did a new pass on "The Worst Salesman Ever", creating a few new busses and trying to clean things up a bit.  I'll be highly interested in listening to the results of both tracks, something I'll probably do in about an hour.

Next, I did some investigating on "The Effects of Connection".  Basically, the song is ready to go except for some minor boominess that's occurring only during the pre refrains.  And so, I did a bit of digging, something rather new for me, and made an attempt at trying to correct it.  I'm not sure how I lived before I got the EQ with the visual readout.  I mean, my goodness...that was like working in a hole, never knowing what the heck you're trying to do.

I then decided to dig up a handful of in progress acoustic tracks, mainly ones that I know I wasn't pleased with after the initial recording, and wanted to see if I could mix them enough to make them go from thin sounding to full and satisfying.  The results were fairly positive and I dare say that I'm just starting to really get the hang of this mixing thing.

Last up was finally working on the "radio edit" (really, the "video edit") for "As Evening Brings Tears" from the "...Miss You Most..." album.  The video has been done for quite a few months but I've been dragging my feet on getting the radio edit locked down.  It ended up being good because I could again use some of the new techniques that I've discovered over the past 6-12 months to see just how well they work.  My initial test and review was also positive.

I'll probably start working on a few other Defrost Nixon tracks tomorrow and maybe even do a bit of light "fill in" recording since I still have the mic's setup.  I'm not sure how possible it is to get this album fully mixed and ready for release by the end of the year but it may actually end up being close, that is if I stay on it.  It would be a huge win for me to get both this and the "Effects of Connection" EP out.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Yep, 'Never"

I'm way behind on keeping up with this blog.  My intent was to make an entry every single night of the past week after daily recording was done but I simply didn't have the time.  I wish I could figure out how to add about 4 hours to each day.

Recording actually went pretty well this week.  As previously stated, I worked on Defrost Nixon corrections, mainly three tracks that have been giving me issues for the past 12 years.  One of them ended up being a fairly simple fix but the other two took some time.

I spent a heck of a lot of time just working on guitar tone, something I haven't done well in the past.  I have to say that guitar tone does seem to be key in many circumstances, with the old "if it doesn't sound good going in, it's not going to sound good coming out" perspective.  You can do a lot with EQ but you can't always fix all around bad recordings, apart from re-recording, which is of course how I even got here in the first place.

"Usurper" happens to be the opening track so it's pretty important, of course, and it's a song I really like and always have.  We used to practice this one a ton and it always sounded good live but getting it to sound full on the recording has been a real challenge.  I decided to try something new...using the compressor in the guitar chain, thinking that might help, and so I went with that.  It's still TBD if that was a good choice or not.  From here, I need to work on adding keyboards because I think that's the missing element.

Next, I turned to "Never Say Never", what I'd call one of the "singles" on the album, so again it's a fairly important track.  This main guitar part has been a mega thorn in my side for years because I either a) don't get enough power from it or b) the riff gets lost in the distortion on the guitar.  I tried different settings, different guitars, and on and on.  What I ended up with after all of that testing and such was a wall of distorted mess.  More on that later.

"The Worst Salesman Ever" was the easiest re-record since I knew exactly what I was looking for.  One key element, though, was that I quickly learned that I can NOT use the compressor in the chain since the dynamics get lost.  Whoops!  Well, I always learn the hard way, of course.

I also did a bunch of mixes and some minor riff work on "The Effects of Connection", the damn EP song that was supposed to be out last December that Peele initially was mixing.  I'm happy to say that I think I finally got it, and I'd dare say that it sounds way better than Peele's last mix.  Hold on to your hats...but I probably will have at least one minor release before the year is up.

After listening to these songs quite a few times, analyzing them, and so on, I finally realized that I needed to re-record the guitar on "Never Say Never" yet again.  I think I'm up to maybe #5 now?  Yeah, it's that ridiculous, and even worse I ran out of time and had to do it on Thursday just before heading to the airport in order to head to MN.  Talk about pressure.  I simply carved out an hour's worth of time and ran through it cold.  Hell, I can play the part in my sleep at this point...

After that, I quickly packed and headed to the airport with the intention of letting all these songs just sit over the weekend and revisiting next week.  I think I might have gotten a good enough sound finally for "Never Say Never" but who knows.  I guess we'll see.  Regardless, it was a fun recording week but very stressful due to time constraints, and unfortunately I wasn't really able to see any of the US Open in a comfortable manner.  Oh well...

Finally...Back at It (Whatever 'It' Is)

Ah, finally...  It's seemed like forever that I've a) picked up a guitar or b) spent any time at all in my studio this summer.  After having a fairly productive Memorial Day weekend/week off, I've basically spent almost no time whatsoever in my studio all summer, which also doubles as my own personal space.  It's nice to be back 'home'.

Of course, it won't be for long since I have at least 2 more Mohs procedures on the very near horizon.  Still, I'm going to try and manage my time better from here onward.  The year is fast approaching its close and I once again have nothing to show for it, and I'd love to change that if at all possible.

My recording week this time around is going to be cut short due to a trip out to MN to see the John Zorn 70th birthday fest.  I caught the 50th and 60th in the past, and both of them were quite memorable and extraordinary, and hence I'm making the trip out to MN for this one.  It'll actually be my first time back since leaving 7 years ago.  All I can say is thank goodness it's not being held in the middle of winter.

Recording week started at a decent pace but it's so far been more of a mixing versus recording week.  Since I don't have a ton of time, it just made sense to work on the Defrost Nixon corrections, all of which have been sitting around for over a decade at this point.  The likelihood of wrapping up this album by the end of the year is starting to look grim but I guess I'll at least give it a shot.  I'd love to have this one released and over with as a Christmas present to myself.

I began by catching up on where I left off and so Day #1 consisted of a lot of that, bouncing some mixes, listening, taking notes, etc.  I was less than pleased with the couple of mixes I heard on Saturday night.  And so, yesterday, I did a bit of research and found an EQ technique that I decided to try, and in last night's listening it seemed like it might have done the trick for the issue I was having.  Well, I'll be a monkey's unc...  At this point, I've grown immune to personal shaming in learning of 'new' things that are just technique I haven't used before, and I refuse to really beat myself up any more over it.  In the end, all that really matters is that the work gets done.

There's a lot of internal debate going on in regards to which guitar parts should or need to be rerecorded, and whereas you'd think that's an easy decision, it isn't always.  For the moment, I'm still fighting with what I've got already and I'm going to make one more mix to see what they sound like, but if it doesn't cut the mustard, per se, I'll be getting out the Rick tomorrow and rerecording.  If this happens, it's fine; it's just one part on 2 songs, after all, and if it sounds better then it's worth it.  These parts just happen to be the main guitar on each song so they are rather important.

More later!  I'm just getting ready to start the day as I type this.

Time Isn't On Your Side

Oh my...  Has it really been since the  middle of July that I made a post here?  I guess that doesn't completely shock me since I've been really distracted all summer with the Mohs surgeries, etc.  In fact, as I've said in my other blogs, I'm simply having a hard time even getting motivated to do anything at this point.

Of course, I take pretty much every Memorial Day and Labor Day week off for recording each and every year.  I'm now only one week away from starting supposed recording and, well, I've barely picked up a guitar all summer.  Yikes.

To add to the drama, the US Open starts tomorrow and I'm supposed to have yet another Mohs surgery this coming Wednesday.  Talk about distractions.  I'm actually thinking I'm going to postpone the Mohs since it's simply way too distracting, plus it'll almost completely knock out recording next week since the spot they were going to work on is literally in the path where my headphones would sit.  No headphones pretty much means no recording.

Now that it's slowly approaching September, otherwise known as Halloween time in my world, this means that the year is quickly coming to a close.  I've had to have my usual "come to Jesus" session with myself, realizing how little time is left and talking about what I can realistically get done in that amount of time.  The end result isn't too terribly positive.

Therefore, whereas I initially thought I'd be working on the new Jazz Machine album next week, it's looking like I'll instead be tackling some of the redo work I have on the Defrost Nixon album, some of which are quite a bit mind boggling, and then also trying to do more mixing.  I mean, I simply have to get these 2 damn EP's out this year.  If I don't, well, I might simply implode...or give up in general.

Look for more entries starting later this week.  I'm also heading out to MN a week from Thursday so that'll cut into recording week as well.  The trip is centered around going to the John Zorn Birthday fest once again up there, an event that I really loved the two times I went while living there.  It's also the first time I'll be visiting since leaving.

Until next week...  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can get motivated.

To Demo or Not to Demo

I've mentioned before the act of doing a "demo", something that apparently almost all signed bands used to do back in the day in order to present a new album to their record label.  Basically, the band would record all of the material that they had written in a simpler, cheaper manner, then present it to the label, a producer would then be hired, time would be booked in a recording studio, and then the actual album we all know and love would be recorded.  In essence, the album would be recorded twice...and this concept still puzzles me slightly.  It's hard enough to record an album once but to do it twice??

This whole topic came up via a discussion with MWP in which I initially misunderstood what he meant by the term "demo".  After thinking on it more, though, and doing a bit of investigation, I got his point although I'm still not sure that I actually agree with the whole process of recording an album twice.

And so, I stumbled upon the below this week in which the band the Connells just shared the original "demo" version of the song "Carry My Picture" alongside the album version.  I find this whole thing very interesting because apart from the obvious lyric changes for the refrain I'm not entirely sure that, as a fan, I would have minded if they had just released the original demo version on the album.  Now, I will say with a caveat that I'm only listening to this through shabby computer-y speakers and not headphones so I could be missing something very major (and that's because I can't yet put headphones back over my right ear at this point).  Here's the link if you want to check it out:  https://www.brooklynvegan.com/the-connells-releasing-ring-30th-anniversary-edition-listen-to-carry-my-picture-demo/

I've heard a few demo versions of songs over the years and I find that usually the original demo version has more spunk and life to it, mainly because it's not over produced.  Rarely do the demos suffer that much from sonic quality, though, which is what I would have originally thought.  One famous instance of demo vs. album version that I still remember is when R.E.M.'s longtime manager said that he greatly preferred the demo/"original" version of "Radio Free Europe" to the album one, and after hearing it (and not being sure if I totally agree personally), I will say that the energy level of the demo differs greatly from the version on "Murmur" so I can sort of understand where he's coming from.

What are your thoughts on this?  In this day and age, with the rise and prominence of the home based recording studio, do demos really make any sense any longer or is it just a way to either a) work on some additional albeit not completely necessary small details in the crafting of a song or b) a way for "real" recording studios, labels, etc., to make cash?

Revisiting the "...Opsimath"

I've reached that age where I've thought about doing a task enough that I actually think that I've done it.  For example, I've in my head written an entry in this blog called "Whatever Happened to that '...Opsimath' album anyway?" about 10 times but apparently I've never actually done it.  Hmph.  Even weirder, I actually physically wrote the below over a year ago and somehow never actually published it to the old blog.  It's almost like the spirit of the "Opsimath" issues are still alive!  Frightening.

Anyhow, I decided to re-open the casket, not knowing what kind of cobwebs and other critters I would encounter.  Yes, it's the gravesite known as "Theories for the Opsimath", my so-called triumphant solo album that was started in 2001 and nearly was the death of me, taking all the way until 2010 when I finally said "...to hell with it".  I clocked enough hours on that album, from writing to tracking to attempting to mix and fix, probably enough for about 7 albums.  I mean, the amount of time that I spent on that project was beyond words and completely ridiculous.  And what did I get?  Utter disappointment on all fronts, basically a product that was unlistenable.  After much trying, I finally couldn't take it anymore and decided to just throw it aside and possibly revisit it once my skills, ear, and knowledge were a bit better, not to mention my interest and stamina rejuvenated.  It ended up being the correct choice although I know I let a ton of people down in doing so, etc., but I really wish I had put it aside earlier so that I didn't waste an entire decade of my life.

So, here's the story of that album, being told in print for the very first time.  It all started like this: my first real recorded album was "Lost Weekend", simply put just an experiment in playing instrumental, something I had never done.  Up until that point, I had never played a lead in my life on guitar - no joke.  I also had no real clue how to record an album, just my 2 ears and a lifetime of listening to music.  That album was done ultimately on 2 Alesis ADAT recorders running S-VHS digital tapes tracked through a fairly cheap 24 channel Behringer analog mixing board.  I recorded most of it direct through a guitar unit called the Digitech 2112 of which I still have, and it doesn't sound that realistic, to be frank.  Recording direct in this nature is a bit on the silly side anyway, I think, and I simply didn't have the gear to record amps and such back then, let alone know how to do it in an efficient way.  So, "Lost Weekend" was quite an experiment all the way around that kind of worked on some level and took 3 years to complete.  To my complete and total surprise, people liked it.  I was beyond filled with anxiety when I self released it because I thought it was incredibly poorly done but apparently no one really noticed that or focused on it.  There was even a time where I seriously thought about throwing the entire album in the waste bin, but again, much to my shock, people seemed to like it.  Go figure.

Hot off the heels of that project, I decided it was time to get back to the "real" me, which at that time was vocal work.  I therefore set off on a brand new musical journey of 10 new songs coupled with 2 older favorites.  I wrote for about a year and then started recording, this time wanting to NOT record direct and instead mic amps and such.  That's when the issues began.

Like I said, I had no idea how to record an amp.  Looking back on it now, I can't help but shake my head at some of my errors.  It should be mentioned that, although the internet was out there, it wasn't filled with info like today, nor was I really used to to seeking info out in that manner.  This left me pretty much on my own, puzzled, scratching my head, and so on.  I would spend an entire afternoon recording guitars and then listen to it back and not understand why it sounded awful.  In my head, the logical solution was that I did something wrong and therefore I should re-record it.  And so, I did...again...and again...and again...and again...  This is what I mean by I basically spent enough recording time to do about 7 albums.

Take this mentality and times it by multiple years.  That's right, not days or months but years, simply recording pieces over and over until they sounded semi decent/acceptable (notice I didn't say "good").  Then, there was the piece about actually putting the album together in a nice cohesive way, another skill I really hadn't yet gotten my head around, but hell did I learn it the very hard way.  Again, more years go by.

Also, did I mention that I early on made the decision not to use traditional drums?  Yes, another great decision (sarcasm, of course).  More years added on, trying to make that overly ambitious idea work on some level.  Initially, I thought the whole album would be semi acoustic based with maybe some light world beat sounding drums.  I had a Roland electronic hand drum unit at the time that I thought would do the trick...until I realized I'm not trained at all as a hand drummer.  I fought with this concept for quite awhile until I finally gave up, only leaving scant traces of those parts on the album.  I instead decided to use traditional drum machines instead but since many of the tracks were already in motion, this meant trying to sync a drum machine track to already recorded songs.  Now, in the modern world, this isn't a terribly awful task but when you're basically working with tape, this is very difficult to accomplish and often a bit messy.  Now, I say "tape" but it was really a digital recorder; however, it didn't have any of the visual screens or capabilities so it might as well have been tape since it pretty much had the same limitations.  And so, much more time was spent on weird little drum machine tracks that didn't really sound optimal.

Finally, after years of fighting with the recording, I thought I had it done.  I knew it was a bit clunky, mind you, but I thought I had it enough.  This started the endless mixing phase.  I was using the Mackie D8b system which I opted for back in 2001 since it more closely resembled a traditional mixing board, etc., since the idea of doing something in a computer completely scared the hell out of me at the time (yet another wrong decision, for had I opted for Pro Tools via a computer instead, I think I would have been happier).  Also, the Mackie D8b/MDR system cost a small fortune for someone who was making almost no money at all.  I worked almost the entire decade just to pay the dumb thing off, and then, when I sold it, I think I got a whole $500 for it.  Yes, pure pain.

Back to mixing...  Well, the D8b had very little power since it was developed around 2000, and now it was 2008-ish.  It was like using an old Windows machine from the 90's ten years later.  Automation was beyond ridiculous since half the time the machine didn't respond to the commands in a timely manner due to lack of memory, which completely defeats the purpose of automation during mixing.  I encountered all kinds of issue, including terrible plugins (again, the machine had no real power behind it) and so on.  I also didn't have good monitors to mix by and so it became a complete and total nightmare of at least another 2 years, and we're talking me fiddling and mixing every weekend for countless hours.

My frustration level was through the roof.  I had so many mix CD's lying around that I could cover my living room floor with them (I have a picture of them somewhere - it's absurd).  And still, it didn't sound that great.

Finally, I got it as good as I thought I could and was willing to live with it.  And then, the nail in the coffin - sibilance.  It wasn't that I didn't know that there was as sibilance issue with my singing previously but I didn't realize just how bad it actually was.  After careful evaluation and soul searching, I realized that it was unlivable and completely ruined the recording.  The only way to fix this sort of issue in a mix is via automation, which as I said didn't work well anyway, or using a de-esser which had an effect of completely removing too much of the "s" sound, leaving me sounding like someone with a bad lisp.  That's when I caved.

I made one more attempt a year later, giving the entire album to someone who had Pro Tools (it was now around 2010) to see if he could do any magic.  He worked on it for about 6 months and I paid him a fee to do so but that didn't work either.  It seemed the only real solution was to completely re-record the vocals, and it took me forever the first time to record the vocals since my voice had already started going out in the early 2000's.  The task looked impossible and, by this time, my spirit had simply given out.

And so, the album got shelved, smartly.  I instead began working on a Robyn Hitchcock cover song album purposely that I called "It's Raining Elvis Fish!" with one goal in mind...to try and figure out at least half of what I did wrong on TFTO and then correct my techniques.  It sort of helped but not really, hence that one's been in the remix stage for ages as well.  From there, my band Defrost Nixon was already in motion and we started on that recording of which I'm actually mixing right now (again, over a decade later).

Let's just say that it's been a tough and very long road.  If I could do it all over again, I'd certainly do it differently.  This is partly why the "I Miss You Most at Nighttime" album was such a big deal for me since it was the first release I've ever done that, well, actually sounds decent AND was put together on a normal time frame.

So, that's the story of "Theories for the Opsimath" and why it was never released, and that's just the highlights, actually.  Living through it was a total nightmare and incredibly defeating to my confidence and spirit.  It's amazing that I even found the strength to try again, to be blunt.  And yet, here I am.  I guess that says something about me.

Will TFTO ever be released?  An excellent question, and actually, yes, I'm hoping to revisit that album, possibly in the next 2 years.  There are many questions attached to this idea, however, and it requires some real soul searching.  My entire recording process now is so different from back then that I fear that I'd start rerecording every little piece of the album, and I'm not sure that it's actually worth that amount of time.  So, a) what exactly do you rerecord, b) how much do you do, c) how much time do you want to spend on it, and d) what do you think the final output will be?  These are the questions that I need to answer internally.  I will say, though, that I recently decided to take a peek under the TFTO gravestone and see just what the heck is living under there, and start the gears turning slightly.  Obviously, the vocals are the number one priority and need to be recorded in their entirety so that's probably where I'm going to start (some are actually already in motion), but I'm also thinking that I'm going to want to redo some of the electric guitars as well.  The question is what exactly should be considered sacred and untouchable (if anything) on this album and what isn't?  Tough questions.

In listening to some of the songs, I was amazed at how young my voice sounded on these old recordings.  Wow.  I wish I still had that sound but alas I don't.  One thing is for sure...the title is fairly ironic since it does look like I have become the opsimath after all.  Sigh.

Blog Intro

Welcome!  Um, that is, if you somehow stumbled and found yourself at this blog.  After writing under one blog header for over a decade, and having the purpose of that blog change many times over that period of time, I finally realized that I really need to break these blogs out into separate pages.  The reality of the situation is that some people have zero interest in reading about my recording pursuits and others have zero interest in reading about weird stories that happen to me, and so on.

"Supernova Hodgepodge" is the title of my recording and mixing diary and it will contain nothing but posts in that category.  If you're looking for opinions and/or weird reflections of life, please go to "Observations of a Modern Day Idiot" which is also on Blogger.

Lastly, it should be noted that the title "Supernova Hodgepodge" comes from one of the early "albums" that I penned in my teenage years, something only in theory and has never been recorded, nor would anyone ever really want to hear it since it's incredibly juvenile.  A song here and there has actually come to fruition from this early period but most of those songs have been chalked up to "...that's how I learned to write songs..." material.  I'm sure every songwriter has a bunch of these.

Lastly, I'm thinking about moving over older posts from "Observations..." so don't be surprised it they magically disappear on one site and then reappear on the other.

The 4th

I had a great past two days of mixing, however.  I'm actually getting to the point that I sort of both enjoy and mildly look forward to doing it.  I mean, wow, what a change!  I've turned my attention fully to the "Effects of Connection" EP since that one is fairly close to done and then also finally the Defrost Nixon album.  Here and there, I also dabble in "Lost Weekend" territory.  I had to put "Mirror Land" aside yet again since I have these vocal issues to work out on "Only With You" and, well, I can't yet wear headphones so I can't do any recording right now.

I think I may finally have "Across the Desert" working.  I believe one of the real issues was that I was doing everything I could to control the high "ding, ding, ding" of the drum machine track and thus did a bunch of weird EQ cuts over a year ago.  After diving deeper into this one yesterday, I played around with that and lessened some of my cuts, and the results seem much more in line with what I was hoping for.  It's amazing how much a mix suffers when you pull out that sort of high end, and I guess we're just going to have to live with the "ding, ding, ding".  It's actually not as major on this track as it is on "Interstate Blind", which is really the song that I thought originally didn't live up to my expectations due to the repetitive drum machine sound.  I've done a bunch of very strange EQ cuts on that one as well but I haven't listened to it in awhile so I'm not sure where that one's at.  Maybe today I'll dust it off and tinker away.

I was super stoked about the Defrost Nixon mixes last night.  One of them I hadn't even begun mixing yet, really, and just dived right in yesterday.  On first cut, I got a pretty damn strong mix that only needs minor changes.  Wow.  The other two tracks sound pretty damn good as well, and I dare say "Scapegoat" may in fact be done.  I fought with the drums on this song for so long...I mean, again, wow.  Once I got the drum in place (and replaced), what a world of difference.  These three songs, all of which are Cameron's, all sound really strong to me so major pat on my own back.  I'd even dare say that they really rock.

I started tinkering with 2-3 other songs, all of which all have various glaring issues.  The bad thing and the beauty of mixing the Defrost Nixon songs and "Lost Weekend" is that these two albums pretty much cover a myriad amount of unique mixing issues.  In other words, I should come out the other end pretty well versed in things, that is, if I come out the other end :s  I'm actually feeling incredibly more confident, though, and I know I'll figure something out.

Ridin' the Coaster

Music production is an emotional roller coaster.  For any young person thinking of getting into music production, or any person of any age, for that matter, I'd just say prepare for riding a constant roller coaster of ups, downs, feelings of devastation, and then minor triumphs.  It just seems to be the way that it works, at least if you're more or less doing it yourself.

In the olden days, the days of MWP, you were more or less simply the band that showed up with songs, hired somebody to help you shape them and ultimately lay them down to tape, and then the mix was handled by some third party that you may or may not have had any say in whatsoever.  A month later, the magic mix shows up, you listen to it, I'd imagine there's some sort of approval process, and then the record label takes it from there.

This, of course, is not the way of the home studio or independent artist.  Instead, you go into doing a recording knowing that you want it to sound like X album that you love by X band, and then start the process of falling on your face, over and over, until you hit a wall and realize that you can't overcome the bizarre issues that you seem to be working against.  This was pretty much my experience through the entire "...Opsimath" album, except that I don't believe I really had many "minor triumphs" whatsoever.

All that aside, I do really believe, after all of this time, these countless years, and definitely endless hours, that I'm finally getting some triumphs.  If I continue on this path, I'd dare say that I might even be comfortable with charging for my mixing services and opening it up to other projects, not that that's my priority, mind you.

I listened to my mixes last night that I did over the weekend and they pretty much went as expected.  I can't tell you the joy I experience when I go into listening to a mix and a) things work that I think will work and b) I can more or less suspect where potential issues are beforehand.  In the past, it was all blindsiding, meaning you had no idea what issues would be thrown at you, etc.  This has really changed in the past year...thankfully.

For example, I have been fighting with the song "Scapegoat" from the Defrost Nixon material for quite some time.  I felt I had it...and then the next mix sounded much worse and I couldn't figure out why initially.  In looking at it over the weekend, I noticed that I had a plugin on the mix buss that even by wording sounded aggressive in nature.  So, I switched it to something calmer...and what do you know?  That was in fact the issue.  I also spent a good hour adding some "spice" touches to the mix, thinking it would work, and by george...it did.  So, this trouble child mix went from being the biggest blocker to now the first one basically done.  I dare say that 10 years ago I probably would have fiddled for another 10 years on this one and only mix, desperately looking for the issues.

Actually, all the mixes sounded as expected, most of them fairly close to being done.  Two of the four are ready to be locked down but unfortunately are on different releases, meaning I still have trouble spots in the other tracks.  I'm still struggling with "Only With You" from the "Mirror Land" EP, mainly with making the vocal sound consistent and normal.  This has been a bit of a thorn in my side but I have quite a few ideas on how to fix it.  "The Effects of Connection" is pretty close but just needs some minor mods.  I haven't been doing much mixing over the past month because of my ear but I have at least been really pleased with the little work I've done.  Another way that I know that I'm getting better is that the new Jazz Machine tracks sound pretty good right out of the gate, something else that would have been completely unheard of a decade ago.

I'll be heading off to my Moh's appointment shortly.  I'm unfortunately fairly convinced that my graft is not taking on my ear, after doing some online research and putting 2x2 together based on what they told me yesterday.  Sigh.  If I need another graft taken, etc., this is really going to be pure ick.  And so, I don't really know what I'm headed into today and I'm doing my best to brace for pretty much anything.  Talk about being agile.

Who Needs Frets?!

I finally got around to working on the real bass line today for "This Town's Not Big Enough (for You and I)".  I had actually intended to work on it earlier in the week but it just never happened.  I also laid down a small acoustic part for the refrains in an effort to liven up that area.  I feel that I really want the core pieces of these new songs put down fairly early, just so that I can judge the songs in a better manner and start mixing them from the get go.

With this bass part, it was my maiden voyage with my fairly new Fender Mod Shop Fretless Jazz bass that I purchased a few months back.  I must say that I really dig this instrument so far and it's quite nice having a bass that doesn't have frets and also has flat wound strings, neither of which I'm used to at all.  I usually use my P Bass for most bass lines but having this new fretless bass is quite a nice addition to the arsenal.  I wasn't sure if it would be the appropriate choice for this song but it actually worked perfectly, especially since my own personal bass style is to do a lot of sliding (I now have a blister on my index finger to prove it as well).  I was also tickled to hear, when listening to the song later this evening through my stereo, that I had the bass volume almost perfectly set and the bass sound/tone overall needs almost no EQ.  I don't know if that's just a coincidence or literally something about this bass but it's quite a bonus.

The song is really coming along and is getting closer to done each time I tinker with it.  I also did a bit of a remix on "Younger Days of Manchester" and again I'm blown away by how far these two new songs for the next Jazz Machine album already are.  If I really wanted to, I could have these songs completely wrapped up probably in about a week or two since they're that far along and without a ton of instruments on them.  In other words, I think I'm filling the space of a song better than I used to...which is great.

I'm really enjoying this new album so far and I'm looking forward to working on the next track, "Do You Bump?", once I can get back to recording, probably not until late July or August.  It's going to be a real drag not being able to record for the next 2 months but I plan to occupy my time with mixing through the monitors since headphones will pretty much be off the table for me for awhile.

Speaking of, I'm mentally trying to prepare for my appointment this Wednesday.  It feels like I'm going in for voluntary body mutilation, to be honest.  I have no idea what will be left of my ear post Wednesday and it's a bit unsettling.  I'll then be going in weekly for a different spot to be removed for the next 4-5 weeks.

I need to lay very low for the week following this upcoming procedure so that the skin graft takes.  I imagine that I'll be writing a bit here since my options will be a bit limited.  I also think I'm finally going to start doing posts here about albums that have really influenced me over the years.  I have thought about doing a separate blog of those for probably a decade so it's probably best that I just start posting them here instead, especially since it hits me at random moments about different albums.

Here's to a good week!  I'm personally keeping my fingers crossed.

Last Day

Well, another recording week has come and gone.  I ended up working on the three solo parts today for the 2 songs that I'd been working on all week for the new Jazz Machine album.  The first solo, the one for "This Town's...", took forever.  Geesh.  I think I worked on it for like 2-3 hours which is a bit absurd, I'll admit.  I'm still not the greatest at laying down a really inventive solo for a fairly long musical passage so clearly I need to work on this more.  I did finally get something down that I really like, though, and I just listened to both tracks on my stereo so I think they'll pass with flying colors.

It was pretty late by the time I even started messing around with the two solos on "Younger Days of Manchester".  I had a feeling that this song would be a bit easier since both solos are shorter in nature, plus the song has a fairly slow tempo.  I pretty much laid down the first solo right away; the second took me a bit of time, mainly just to figure out what I wanted to play and then actually learn how to play it.  I used the Gibson ES-335...it seemed like the perfect choice since it's kind of a bluesy solo, really, and a bit different for me, to be honest.  Using only 2 pedals, the sound recorded perfectly, I think, and it's got exactly the tone I was looking for.

I've also been experimenting all week with different mic placement, although I've been primarily using the same 2 mic's, namely a Royer R122 and a Neumann U87ai.  In the beginning of the week, I followed some advice that I read online but today I decided to try something a bit different, making the U87ai the primary for most of the sound.  I think it worked quite well and this configuration may just become my goto going forward.  The biggest difference from what I've done before is that I hanged the U87ai upside down this time, primarily for the reason that I can get the two mic's closer together.  Everyone seems to talk at length about how they love the sound and tone of the ribbon mic's.  Whereas I got a much better tone out of the Royer this week using the advised placement, I think I still much prefer the U87ai for it just sounds bigger to me.  The key with the U87ai, though, is that you absolutely do not want to overload the condenser for it sounds like complete crap, in my opinion at least.

The only thing I didn't get done today or this week was the bass for "This Town's...".  I'm going to try and put that down sometime this week, just because I don't want it to sit too terribly long.  It's also an opportunity for me to use my new fretless bass and see how that goes.  I record most of my bass parts direct so I also won't be bothering my neighbors when doing it.

All in all, even though I didn't get tons done, it's been a pretty good recording week, putting my eyes, nose, and finger issues aside.  Even with those things, I still got through it so I feel pretty good about that.  What can I say?  I'm learning.

Oh, that Bond theme...

I finished up the main guitar part today on "This Town...".  It ends up that I actually had everything I needed and didn't have to record any more for the part, even though I was convinced yesterday that I'd need to.  It's funny how that happens.  Sometimes, especially when you're in the thick of it and listening to a track over and over and quite frankly too close to it, you can't really judge what you're hearing.  It's sometimes best to walk away and return with fresh ears, and much to my surprise I liked everything that I had down already for a take.

I did redo one very small literally 5 second bit, where I hit a string in a strange way, and knowing how I am, I figured I might as well do the correction now rather than later.  Trying to correct something later can be a real nightmare since it's very hard to get all the same settings, sounds, mic placement, etc., so that it sounds seamless.  It's not impossible, mind you, and I've done it multiple times, but it can be a bit of a headache and so I do what I can to avoid that sort of thing whenever possible.

After editing the main part, I worked on all the little tidbit guitar parts.  Unfortunately, I burned over an hour just trying to get the right sound/tone and effects settings for one of the little parts.  It's amazing how you can burn time in this manner.  I'm sure I was also driving my next door neighbor nuts by playing the same little riff over and over, probably around 50-70 times.  I'm sure he was thinking, "...what the hell is he doing over there?!"  This is the same guy that in the past yelled out his window very loudly, "Shut up!!!", when a car alarm kept going off down the street.  I feel bad about making the neighbors have to listen to this sort of thing (the guitar riff, not the alarm...because that wasn't me) but then again it's their choice to not have a/c and keep all of their windows open all the time.  Living next to me, I'm not sure I would recommend it.

I think most of what I did today worked and will stick but I still have some questions about some of the guitar tone.  I did end up keeping my rough version of the Morricone guitar bit but I recorded a new version for the James Bond styled guitar.  As I always say, I don't consider anything closed until I've had a chance to listen to it the next day on the stereo.

I was hoping to also do the solos today but I ran out of time.  Sigh.  I'm going to try and do them tomorrow but I'm not sure if that'll happen since I have other chores that I also need to attend to.

By the way, I'm trying to get used to looking at my nose.  It's far from healed but all the Steri strips finally fell off.  The stitches made quite a few imprints in my nose and I do look slightly Frankenstein like from the front.  I think it'll probably heal fine but I get the feeling that it takes a very long time to heal.  Speaking of, another joy of getting older...your body just doesn't heal like it once did.  I swear...I have cuts on my legs and knees that happened six months ago and just never seem to heal.  Ah, the joy.

In the "...Town.."

I worked today on starting to record the real guitar parts for "This Town's Not Big Enough (for You and I)".  It's always a bit challenging to work on guitars this quickly, right after blueprinting the track, and it's frankly a bit easier to do if you have an opportunity to play around with melodies during the blueprinting.  Because that wasn't my approach, it's been fairly slow going and I didn't get to finish the main guitar part.  I'm hoping to get back to it tomorrow and also work on some of the minor guitar parts that I already have worked out in my head.

I did try a different mic'ing approach today, one that I saw online earlier this week, and it seems like it's not all bad.  Mic placement is pretty fascinating and it's amazing how much an inch left or right will make to the overall sound quality.

Other than that, I don't have much to report.  My left eye is so far hanging in there, which is good.  I also got to finally watch the movie "Infinity Pool" last night and I was quite enthralled with it.  I haven't seen many movies this year as of yet but this one quickly rises to the top.  For anyone that likes a film like David Cronenberg's classic "Videodrome", I'd highly recommend checking out Brandon Cronenberg's "Infinity Pool" (and if you've never seen "Videodrome", well, check that one out as well).

Old Ways

I was hoping to sleep in this morning, especially since I woke up so early the previous day.  I kind of thought that I'd go to bed early last night but somehow the night seems to wake me up unless I'm completely beyond exhausted.  In any event, I was disappointed to look at the alarm clock and see that I actually awoke around 7:10am, mainly since one of my two cats decided that it was time to get up.  The thing about young cats (or cats in general) is that if you get up at 6:30am one day they more or less think that's the new norm.

I actually had a pretty productive day, although I didn't work on any of the things that I thought I would.  I decided it was time to revisit "Yet I Tried for You", the song that I worked on with Seth Tiven of Dumptruck that's been collecting dust for quite some time.  I've been arguing with myself what exactly to do with this track.  I originally wanted to do a 4 song EP, of which I have the 4 songs, but then MWP stepped into the mix and so I was debating about rerecording the track with him, and then thought differently of that, and so on.  My latest thought process is actually to go back to the original plan of the 4 songs and not do them with MWP, and instead come up with something totally new to work on with him.  We'll see if this thought process sticks.

I hadn't listened to the song since Seth sent me his completed guitar track.  It was a bit of mess because his track did not completely line up to the grid in my session, and why I don't know, and so I had to do a bit of digging to figure out how to make it work.  I guess I had finally gotten it lined up but burned out after that since that's where I had left off.  I listened to the track today, started working on how I'd use Seth's parts, and then just started messing around with harmonies, etc.  Needless to say, I still like the track quite a bit and it sounds pretty damn good, I think.  It really only needs a couple more things and is completely done, now that I've put the harmonies down.  I'm thinking I might get the other 3 tracks in motion drum wise.

Next, I decided, since I was already in mix mode, to open up the Defrost Nixon song "Scapegoat" which is one of Cameron's songs that I had been fighting with for quite some time.  I finally got the drum replacement to work about 2 weeks ago but there were a few vocal ideas I wanted to try out before sending him my progress.  So, I messed around with a small harmony and an effect vocal that I think is kind of cool.  Of course, he may not like it, and it's ultimately his call since it's his song, but I like to try this kind of thing out and see if it flies.  More often than not, it does.

After that, I made a few more changes to "Across the Desert" after listening to it last night.  It's getting better but there are still a few hurdles.

And lastly, since most of the day was already gone, I decided to attempt getting the dreaded last few redo phrases down for "Only With You" which is the latest thing that's been holding up the finishing of the "Mirror Land" EP.  This EP is of course so overdue that it's disgusting.  I can't even begin to tell you how much I want this thing done and over with.  Ironically, though, this EP is almost a record of my entire mix learning so far, since I started working on it so very long ago and then I have to keep updating the session with new mix techniques, etc.  It's been a real b*tch of a project but, if nothing else, it's a living testament of everything I've learned thus far.

I'm now debating if I'm going to go back upstairs and try to work on something else.  Hmm.  As much as I didn't work on any new music today, I'm kind of pleased to maybe make some positive progress on this older stuff laying around.  I'm anticipating that I won't be able to wear headphones for most of June and all of July so it would be beyond amazing if I could get at least one of these EP's wrapped up mix wise in the next 2 weeks.  It is possible...fingers crossed.

All that Fazz

My eye appointment this morning at the crack of dawn (well, to me, at least) went almost exactly as I had predicted:  there's currently no retinal tear, keep an eye on it (pardon the pun), and let them know if anything changes.  I swear that I could write the scripts for doctor related dramas.  As much as there isn't a tear right now, it could happen at any moment...but maybe not, if you're lucky.  Yes, it's very comforting.

On the plus side, my eye dilation didn't last all day so I was able to get back in the studio.  In fact, I think the tech actually missed getting the whole drop in my eyes, and given the situation I wasn't about to complain.  I have no idea why they have to give you so much of the fluid if they only need to look in your eye for no more than 30 minutes.  It seems absurd to be blind for hours when you only need 30 minutes worth.

I continued working on blueprinting "This Town's Not Big Enough (for You and I)" and spent a good 2-3 hours on it.  In the end, I think I got it all down and I'm liking the overall feel of the track.  I did an interesting bridge part that has a certain James Bond theme sound to it, and then over the top of that I wanted to play something very iconic Morricone styled, rather "Hang'em High" like but not exactly that riff.  The part I came up with sounds pretty good but it was interesting since it required that I stretch my fingers, from index to pinky, over 6 frets.  Given the fact that I have trigger finger going on in my pinky, it was an interesting thing to do but somehow I managed.  Of course, this is just the demo version but who knows...I might just use this part going forward.

It's pretty cool returning to the world of the Jazz Machine material and so far I'm really liking it.  Ironically, though, I'm still fighting internally with the actual name "the Jazz Machine".  I feel like I'm not doing myself any favors with that name, and basically anyone not into instrumental or jazz is immediately turned off by the name, and then true jazz people are equally annoyed since I'm not playing actual jazz (I tend to call this stuff "fazz" or fake jazz).  Maybe it should be the Fazz Machine?  No, that sounds kind of idiotic.  I don't know...I'm still pondering.  If I can come up with a better name, I may still rebrand it.

I also finally revisited the song "Across the Desert" from the "Lost Weekend" remix.  This is the track that I've had the most difficulty with remixing so far and I wanted to see if any of the newer techniques that I've more recently learned will help me out with the overall sound.  I think they helped a bit but I won't know for sure until I listen to it later.

It's hard to believe it's already Wednesday (sigh).  With only a few days off left, I have to really start thinking about what else I'd like to get out of this week.  Summer isn't looking too terribly promising for getting music done considering my Moh's procedures, eye issues, and everything else, so I really need to give this some thought.

We're in Manchester

No luck on getting an eye appointment today but I do have an appointment tomorrow morning at 7:20am.  Now, I usually don't get up that early on work days so...  Nothing like setting your alarm during your time off but, then again, it's for a pretty damn important cause.

I got off to a late start today, mainly with being on the phone to the doctor's office and other things.  It's pretty hard not to focus on an eye issue when you see it constantly.  Still, what can I do, and I must trudge onward, no matter how difficult.

I had a pretty good practice session today and I'm finally playing more up to speed.  My trigger finger is so far cooperating enough that it's not limiting me.  I have found that I need to keep that finger (and hand) pretty much in a half grasp shape all day long, or at least that seems to help.  The more flat you keep your hand the worse the issue seems to get.  Of course, when I'm asleep, I can't completely control my actions so there's always a bit of pain in the morning when I try to flex it.  Still, it's not getting in my way so far, thankfully.

I finished working on the bass for "Younger Days of Manchester" and just got done listening to what I've got so far on my stereo.  I'm pretty pleased and I think I got exactly what I was going for.  I don't know what it is about this song but it's been stuck in my head pretty much since I came up with the raw idea about 2 years ago.  It's really cool hearing it finally become real.  Next up will probably be the solos and such on that track but I'm not sure when I'll actually do that yet.

I also started working on the next song called "This Town's Not Big Enough (for You and I)".  I really like that title, and the song had a certain "Ghost Town" Bill Frisell vibe to me when I came up with it.  Since I had almost no time to prepare going into this recording week, this song still needs to be completely fleshed out and I usually don't spend recording week time doing these things.  I made a bit of progress on it but I'll have to revisit it tomorrow and see what I think.  I'm thinking I'm going to do a weird bridge in the track, maybe add some sound effects, etc., but nothing is for sure yet.

More tomorrow.  I need to go to bed so I can get up when the rooster crows...

A Find

I had another good day of mixing, working mainly on "Effects of Connection...", cleaning the tom tracks and other odds and ends.  Cleaning tom tracks has got to be the most mundane task of all recording tasks, and it's enough to make you want to gouge your eyes out after awhile.  Because of this, I pretty much never do more than 2 tracks of this nature in a day because I don't think frankly I could handle it.

"Effects..." is coming along well but I won't get too excited until I listen to what I've got on my stereo.  I think I've got a good mix going, though, so I guess we'll see.  If I have what I think I have, I may be able to wrap up this EP sooner than later.  I've said it before but I'll say it again...I love the Focal monitors, and they're truly night and day from what I had before.

I then had it on my agenda to revisit an older song of mine that I couldn't remember if I had actually recorded it last year.  After a bit of digging, sure enough, I did start the recording and decided to give it a listen.  I quickly applied some of the reverbs and EQ that I've been working on as of late and I felt like the song sounded pretty solid, at least as a starting point.  Now, what I'm going to do with this track is a completely different question...

It was then that I found a folder called "Live Acoustic" on my Mac.  Now, I've seen this folder before, mind you, but I always thought it contained the live acoustic tracks from my handheld recorder that I threw together one year as a so called Christmas Gift to some friends.  Upon going into the folder, though, it wasn't that at all...it was a series of 7 tracks that I recorded via ProTools in my basement using good microphones...AND all live.

So, I quickly applied some of my modern mixing approach to the track and I nearly fell out of my chair because...well...it sounded damn good!  I was in complete shock.  I barely even remember recording these tracks, to be honest, but I remember driving around in my car listening to them back in MN for a brief time.  I doubt I ever let anyone else listen to them, or maybe two people may have heard them at the most...not sure.  They were probably done not long after I switched to ProTools, especially based on how I had the sessions setup, and quite possibly to familiarize myself with using it.  So, after hearing one of these songs sounding fairly stellar, I went to the next one...and the next one...and the next one.  It was then that I asked myself, why have I not used/released these tracks?!  The thing that really got me was that they're live tracks, albeit live acoustic, mind you, and they still sound pretty great overall.

I'm going to bounce these songs to a flash drive this week and give them a whirl on my stereo as well.  If they sound as good as I think they do, and that's only with about 1-2 hours of fiddling with the whole lot, I may just release them as downloads on my Bandcamp.  Needless to say, I'm hopefully going to have somewhere between 2-4 mini releases fairly soon.

Next week I'm going to plunge head first into blueprinting the new Jazz Machine album tracks.  I probably won't solely work on these during my week off but I'd like to get as far with them as possible.  3 of the tracks are demos that I did right when I was finishing up "...Miss You Most..." so they've been sitting around for a little while.  I also stumbled upon a demo for a song idea, in a completely different folder, mind you, that's based around some loops that sound very Joachim Cooder-ish and hence I named it as such.  In revisiting it today, I'm pondering if I could use this on the new Jazz Machine album.  It's not what I originally intended, mind you, but could be doable, and if so it would be quite different.  I guess we'll see.

Mix Me

I finally got around to digging into some mixing this weekend which was a welcomed thing.  It's funny...the more I go along, the more I actually like mixing, and I guess it's just a matter of getting more comfortable with the process, understanding the wide scope of what you're trying to achieve, realizing your options, etc.  After dabbling with having Peele work on "Effects...", I'm not sure that I'm even going to consider outsourcing any mixing in the near future since I feel like my mix for the song is better than what he had.

I've made a decent amount of progress on drums lately and I purchased two pieces of software that have so far really helped.  Fiddling with them this weekend proved both interesting and kind of fun, and the whole process now shows a lot more promise than before.  I'm also poking around for different mic techniques for recording my guitars.  It's amazing how, if you read 3-5 articles, everyone will tell you something completely different, and sometimes even completely contradict one another.  No wonder this stuff is hard to get your head around.

I also think I made a decision about "Yet I Tried for You", the song that I worked on with Seth Tiven.  This is the one that MWP wanted to basically throw out and then rerecord in a pro studio, and to be honest that just didn't sit well with me since it's actually one of the best sounding recordings I've gotten so far.  And so, I think I'm going to NOT put that on list to work on with Marty, and instead I'm thinking I'm going to release it as yet another 2 song EP, possibly backed with a newer song called "Gettin' By" which is kind of an off shoot of the Wrecking Ball album.  I'm going to instead think about writing 1-2 new tracks for the Marty project so that I can preserve what I've got so far.  The beauty is that "Yet I Tried for You" is fairly far along in mix quality so I just need to work through Seth's parts in order to make the track sound rather full and then possibly add a couple simple elements to fill it out.

In other news, I guess it finally all caught up with me...I have multiple spots on my head and face of skin cancer.  Ah, yes, I always knew this would come back to bite me.  I've probably had about 1-2 dozen really bad sunburns in my life where most of my head was burnt, normally due to something not of my own fault, like going to lunch with coworkers and having them decide to sit outside...and not having a hat available.  Yeah.  I'm apparently going to spend every Wednesday this summer at the dermatologist's office getting these removed and it sounds like it's going to be a real blast, meaning scarring, etc.  If nothing else, I'll probably look more tough once it's over.

Also, I just got word that my white with black trim Rickenbacker is finally done and I need to pick it up this week.  I'm curious to see what it looks like for the guy working on it made it sound like the color match and finish repairs would be completely unnoticeable.  I'll post a pic if I remember.  As for my amp head, it's still sitting in the shop in MN and I've had a heck of a time getting Jeff at Savage to get this both fixed and back to me.  Luckily, I wasn't planning on using it for my upcoming recording week.

The TV in the family room also finally took a dive back in early March.  After waiting 5-6 weeks for it to be repaired, and watching an old 40" in the meantime, the TV was deemed not fixable and so I had to spring for a new one.  The only good news is that the resolution on the new TV is considerably better than the previous, as is the sound through the speaker, but I now have an old non-working TV sitting on my patio since it's not exactly easy to get rid of a 65" TV.  Luckily, it's a flat panel and you barely notice it.  You'd think as a society that we'd have a better method of getting rid of and/or recycling these things but...  It has been nice getting back to regular "movie nights", though, and they just weren't that great when having to watch the 40".

Poking Around

I'm happy to report that I'm finally poking my toe back in the musical waters, although I have yet to really get back into the swing of practicing guitar and such.  This year really got off to a bad start for me and so I'm now trying to 'right the ship', as they say, and slowly get my head back in the game.

I did do some mixing at long last this past weekend.  Peele, the professional guy that was going to mix "The Effects of Connection" for me, completely flaked out and apparently has decided that it wasn't worth his time in the end.  I must say that my experience thus far with "professionals" hasn't really been much better than with amateurs; in fact, I think it's been worse, at least on the follow-through.  So, I guess I'm going to be mixing that track after all, and I did quite a bit of work trying to get the drums to sound decent for that's really the weak link on the song right now.  By midday Sunday, I felt like I may have made some real progress with the drum triggers, and I actually had purchased a new plugin to try back in February for this very purpose that I finally got to try out.

Apart from that, I just need to keep at it.  I have a week off coming up very soon, only a month a way, where I was going to start recording the new Jazz Machine album but it's quickly becoming a bit in jeopardy, especially if I don't start playing regularly.  I'm also having a lot of issues with my left hand due to trigger finger mainly in my pinky which so far does not want to give up.  I had it originally in my middle finger a couple years ago and it more or less just went away after awhile, maybe after a year or so?  My pinky doesn't seem to want to give in and it slightly affects my third finger as well.  If this continues, I may have to go to a hand specialist and get it worked on because it's really challenging to play sometimes.  I also cracked up the jazz guitar books this weekend, tried out a couple chords, and the wacky and sometimes ridiculous jazz chord fingering is nearly impossible when 2 of your fingers won't cooperate.

I'll try to write a bit more later in the week, perhaps non-music related.  I've had a lot of ideas but just not a ton of time.  The TV in the family room also finally completely crapped out and so I had to plunk down the funds for a new one; ah, unexpected expenses, let me tell ya.

Break

In other news, you may have noticed that I've been quiet for a few weeks.  Something personal occurred, and I try to make it a point not to share overly personal details online.  Needless to say, it was a trying and depressing 2-3 weeks but things are starting to calm down again.

I had been in the middle of re-recordings and mixes but I'll be damned if I remember what the heck I was doing.  It'll probably take me a week or two just to get my head around everything again, plus I haven't really picked up a guitar in all that time either.  Meanwhile, my pinky finger issues have gotten significantly worse and it's starting to get alarming.

In other news, I did have a meeting with MWP (Marty) about 3 weeks ago.  It was a good talk but slightly contentious, mainly because I apparently misunderstood what he was looking for with the tracks that I was prepping for him.  He always talks about "demos" and the lightbulb finally clicked for me this time.  You see, back in the day, bands often would record entire albums as "demos" first, give them to producers and the record companies, etc., and then they'd go record the actual album that we all know and love.  He kept calling my actual recordings "demos" and it was slightly irking, to be honest, but now I get it.  And so, with the "Yet I Tried for You" EP that we're more than likely going to do together perhaps this year, I'm going to use his approach, basically recording a demo version of the 4 tracks first and then we'll record the real deal in a studio.  It's honestly not my normal approach, and I instead usually follow the approach that I learned from Seth Tiven where you lay down "scratch" tracks first, flesh out the format, and then record "real" parts over the scratch tracks.  This ends up being the real album and you basically work from your original sessions, although you basically re-record the main parts.  It's a different way of thinking but I think I'll just go with it and see where it gets me.

This whole demo thing is kind of strange, though.  Why record in a studio?  Well, I'm asking myself that as well.  I guess I'm just curious to have that experience, and also I want to know how much better a project will come out in the end.  I'll more than likely never do it again just based on the proposed cost (astronomical, to be frank) but I'm sort of dying to know how much better/different a professional product of mine would sound.  In many ways, though, it goes against my core belief that we should be getting more great music from all over the world due to the home studio revolution...and yet somehow we're not, and music has simply tanked instead.  It's all so very odd.  I guess we'll see.

Duh!

I, the self proclaimed opsimath, believe I may have just had yet another breakthrough.  It's no secret that I've been struggling the most with recording and mixing electric guitars and I'm sort of wondering if I just found one of the "tricks".  I say it that way because I have learned that most things in life aren't inherent skills but literal tricks of the trade, and if you don't know them, you're fumbling around in the dark like a lunatic.  When I find one of these things, usually on pure accident, I almost literally squeal with glee.

I also usually punch myself in the head repetitively since these things are usually a "duh!  Why didn't I think of that before?" kind of thing.  Tricks are like that, after all.  I guess you could say that I've been turning tricks (heh, heh).

I'm supposed to be recording today but I've so far gotten fairly caught up in mixing and such.  I was ultimately trying to determine if I needed to re-record the guitars on one of the Wrecking Ball tracks, and this is where maybe the light bulb finally went off.  My initial 2 mic guitar tracks from who knows when (2014-ish?) really don't sound great.  My first question was whether they don't sound good due to potential clipping, an issue I've had here and there in older recordings and hence I usually just re-record.  This one doesn't really sound like a clipping issue, and it doesn't seem a be a phase issue either, which more or less just tells me that the sound itself a) isn't dynamic enough or b) maybe the correct or best choices weren't made in terms of pedals, such as overdrive, distortion, etc.  I believe these guitar tracks fall into the latter.

I get some of my best and most brilliant light bulb moments when I'm NOT working on music, ironically, and in talking this out over the past 24 hours it occurred to me that I should investigate using the amp simulator plug-in's.  First off, do I own any?  Yes, in fact, I own 2, and I had to track those down first.  Next, does this guitar part have a direct signal?  No.  Hmm.  Initially, I thought this was an issue, but what the hell...just run it as a buss off of one of the 2 recorded tracks and see what you get.

It was about here that the 'duh' moment hit me.  I've been saying for so long that a lot of the guitars that I hear on recordings sound SO big and I have no idea how you get anywhere near that wall of tone.  Well, maybe it's not 100% but this technique seemed to get me at least a good part of the distance, and voila...not only do you have a bigger sound, you can totally manipulate a pre-recorded sound to some degree, and it's completely variable since you can adjust the plug-in however you want.  Duh.

I'm not going to get too crazy but I actually think this may be one of the biggest game changers yet for me, and there have been quite a few lately.  If nothing else, I think it'll greatly cut down on re-recordings, provided that the raw tracks are in decent shape.  Now, if only I had thought to try this years ago...  It seemed like cheating, and maybe it is...but then again maybe that's the "trick".  Who knows.