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.