Defrosting those Nixon Recordings

Well, it finally happened...  I actually worked on what I'm SUPPOSED to be working on over the weekend!  It's a miracle!  Yeah, well, I'm nearly 2 months behind now, unfortunately, but so far things have been going quite well.  Working on the Defrost Nixon tracks is a very different experience versus what I have been doing for the past few months, mainly because the recordings are a bit fuller with content and also have full on drums.

I decided for whatever reason to start from the back of the album and work my way forward.  This is mainly because the last song, "Our Satellite's Collide", wasn't really "polluted" yet with my old mixing techniques.  Almost all of the tracks on the album already have cleaned up drums and a bit of organization simply from doing many hours of work on them about a year or so ago so that's an advantage at this point.

In general, it's always a weird experience cracking open the vault on something that you wrote and recorded over a decade ago.  You never quite know what you're going to find inside the casket but for the most part, so far at least, I've been fairly impressed with what I have to work with.  I think the album will come out sounding pretty good overall and I can honestly say that, even if I had tried to do this mixing 2 years ago, it probably wouldn't have sounded as good.

Yesterday, I mainly plugged away at "So Much for That", another track that I previously had issues with but walked away from this session feeling rather pleased with the overall sound.  This track does have Trigger 2 drum replacement on it, and working with that program is always a bit of a headache, but it really does add a lot where it needs it.  Today, I started working on "Semaphore on All Fours", probably my favorite tune on the album and also the longest, and just working on mixing the bass and drums alone took me over 2 hours.  The thing I'm enjoying about this so far, though, is that it gives me the chance to work on songs that are fairly clean, meaning I'm not picking up on a half mixed song and then trying to continue in that vein.  In fact, I've recently learned that it's actually sometimes better to just scrap everything you had previously in regards to reverbs, compression, etc., and simply start over using the knowledge that you now possess.

I also did two new rounds of the "Mirror Land" EP, of which I'm pretty happy with the results so far.  I finally listened to it via my stereo through headphones, a usually crucial moment that reveals tons of issues and such, and I found almost none.  Could this EP finally at long last be wrapped up in the next couple weeks?  I know my fingers are crossed on that one.

The downside is that I didn't get to work much on the artwork for "The Effects of Connection" EP.  I do have the two main photos done, I believe, but I still need to mess around with the titles and such.  Believe it or not, that's what usually takes the longest, not to mention other weird odds and ends.

Overall, I'm pleased with my progress but seriously could use a couple four day weekends to catch up.  I've got a week off on the horizon, my usual Memorial Day week off, and I have to start getting my head around what I plan to work on during that time.  Work, work, work...

Stick This in Your Photoshop

I actually did zero mixing this weekend.  That's right, zippo, zero, negative-o, etc.  No, I'm not happy about it but it's how it goes sometimes.  I instead worked on the artwork for "The Effects of Connection" which yielded few results since I spent much of the time fighting with Adobe Photoshop.

Photoshop is one of those programs that's easy to see why someone would get paid a large amount of money if they know it very well.  It's SUPER powerful; knowing how to do anything in the program, however, is akin to making a sturdy structure out of mashed potatoes.

To make it even worse, Photoshop has "simplified" the process over the years, adding in supposed "short cuts" and such.  The problem is that, if they don't work, it gives you absolutely no information on the why it doesn't work.  I've also found the help screens almost more confusing than not using them.  Maybe it's just me...I have an intuitive brain, and we all know that these things are now made for the non-intuitive brain, so it's hard for me to understand that method of thinking, if you will.

So, after sitting at the computer and literally swearing at the screen and Adobe for a few hours (every expletive under the sun plus a few creative ones), I got little else done.  I also needed to work on the yard, one of those tasks that I deem as the bane of my existence.  Call me nuts but spraying weeds and cutting grass seem to me to be the most pointless activities any busy human being could possibly ever have to do.

At the end of the day, I think I have my two main photos ready to be placed in the templates but I guess we'll see.  I'm hoping to get the CD's ordered within the next week.

Back to the Grind

I've been hard at work on the "Mirror Land" EP at this point since that's the next "monkey on my back" that I need to have removed.  It's been interesting so far because the tracks have transformed quite a bit from what I had even a few months ago.  I will say that learning how to use delays on tracks really was a game changer for me and I can't believe I didn't know to do that sooner.  For UA users, I swear by the Cooper Time Cube plugin and now use it pretty much all over the place.

I've also finally started working on the Defrost Nixon album.  I'm now officially about a month and a half behind on it, which isn't the greatest, mind you, but it is what it is.  Add to it that work has been pretty taxing lately and then I've had more Mohs done at the same time, it's been hard to really focus and move forward.

Speaking of which, my doctor keeps reminding me that I apparently used "the strangest excuse ever" to reschedule one of my Mohs procedures last year.  Now, mind you that pretty much 98% of my Mohs areas are literally on top of my head, and last Labor Day I ended up rescheduling because I realized that one of the procedures was going to fall during my week off for recording and such.  When I record, obviously I need to use headphones, and if I have this huge bandage and/or sore area on my head, well, it seemed obvious to me that I'd get nothing done.  I therefore thought I did the smart thing and rescheduled but instead was read the riot act.  Well, my doctor still thinks my reasoning was "bizarre".  It doesn't sound unusual to me but I honestly don't know how else to explain it to her.

I've only just begun working on Defrost Nixon but I chose to start from the back, the very last track that I worked on via recording called "Our Satellite's Collide".  I really love this track but I had totally forgotten that I had some completely experimental bits on the recording.  I saw a small group of muted tracks and was like, "hmm...what's this?"  It ended up being a weird morse code like alarm sound on one side while I used a small megaphone on the other to blurt out mission control like commands.  Needless to say, it made me laugh quite a bit.  I didn't mute them again since I thought maybe, just maybe I can find a way to use this.

I also need to work on the artwork for "The Effects of Connection" for the CD's but I simply didn't have the energy to do so this weekend.  That's what happens when two small furry creatures (cats) wake you up at 6:20am on a Sunday.  Ugh.

"The Effects of Connection" Released

I'm happy to say that "The Effects of Connection" EP has indeed been posted for sale on my Bandcamp site.  I'm actually quite pleased with how it came out and I will honestly say that it sounds much better with the additional month's worth of tinkering versus if I had released it the first week of March, as originally planned.  Also, Rare Form Mastering did a great job as always with the mastering on it as well.  You can check it out here:  https://johnathonwilde.bandcamp.com/album/the-effects-of-connection-ep

Full steam ahead on "Mirror Land" of which I've already resumed work on.  I feel like I may have finally gotten a pretty good grip on doing my vocals in mixes; it seems I need 2 de-essers and specifically placed within the chain.  The downside is that it's now thrown everything else off in these mixes so there's a bit more to work on there.  I'm hoping to wrap this EP up at least by the end of the month while also simultaneously starting work (albeit a month late) on Defrost Nixon.