Blog

Haven't been doing much recording wise. Lots of practicing. But I looked at the web site and realized I really had to do an update. I have the pages updated (to a certain extent) on my conputer but haven't migrated them here yet. And that is simply because they aren't fully updated even here. Just half measures. So I guess I will start going through all of this and updating and fixing what I can, when I can.

This is what happens when you are busy. No blog notes (here anyway) for almost a year! And I have been busy, Not one but three Bëker releases! In fact I still haven't even come up with serial numbers for the last 2. So in May Places that Don't Exist was finally finished and released. But after the show I did in April I started going in a different direction, and decided I really couldn't do the Places that Don't Exist album live for a while. Instead I wanted to work on songs that could be played on a much smalled set-up. Jon1000 also asked if I would be interested in doing a split, and i thought why not? So we released the split in July, three Bëker recordings and four Jon1000 recordings. But I was already working on more new material. And soon I recorded four more songs and released the ep Where Art Goes to Die. I hope to do some shows, and then move back to other projects, there is at least one I want to get back to....

I spent alot of the summer fixing and re-recording Softbox stuff, then I started playing some Bëker stuff and today I finally made that list I was talking about in the last entry. Recording has been difficult because I have not been able to fix the timing issue. I bought a Firebox because I thought maybe a small 2 channel device might work, but there are still timing issues. So I think that is what keeps putting me off on any recording. It's frustrating to record something and then have to piss around putting it back in time to the click track. So there are 3 projects that are near completion and none of them are getting finished. The Softbox, Starchain, and Bëker albums are pretty much in limbo till I finally decide to do something about it. Merry Christmas I guess.

I finally listened to the Starchain material and realize there is still alot to do. I will have to make a list, but for sure the guitar for Speaking Part and Wraiths is not finished. Blah.

I wasn't going to do anything, but in the end I decided to do a slide solo for a Softbox song that only has a demo. It took about 20 minutes and then I decided to record 16 more bars of a regular solo. The slide solo is probably fine the other solo will have to be re-recorded, but at least the jist of it is there. It's a song that I probably won't really work on till late this year or next anyway.

I was just listening to songs when I decided to try to record a solo for Where will you be. I like the solo, but not sure if it is a great take. I wanted to try to get the chorus as a clean electric guitar but I just couldn't get it. So it is looking like the starchain project only needs distorted guitar on Wraiths and clean or classical guitar on Where will you be. There might be a few other things, but that was all that I think is needed. Oh and Vox for a few.

Hmm been a while I guess. Yesterday I finally fixed the guitar in Everdark, it just needed some little edits. I did a bit of fooling around with the other Softbox tracks and I think, performance-wise everything is done except the drums. Now to do a bit if pre-mixing. Today I fooled around some more with many things and I think I finally finished the slide guitar for Hero of Tulum. Not a bit deal, but at least it is progress.

Over the course of the day I managed to do vocals for Everdark, and the few back-ups for Trapped. As usual there was just too much noise going on, but I eventually got it done. Now I just have to check and see if they are worth keeping.

All I could hear was the bad guitar part in Everdark, so I re-recorded 2 little parts. It was late and I really didn't have much time, so I literally did 2 takes of the first part and one of the second, and a whole crap load of editing. And unless I hear anythying really bad, I am semi-officially finished guitars for Drain.

Made time to re-record the acoustic for As the World Dies. That is all.

I have been ridiculously busy the past several weeks. Today I finally had a bit of time, although I was interrupted often. I did the edits for Everdark and tried to fix the guitar parts that were bothering me. In the end I'm not entirely sure I fixed it. It's better than it was, but maybe not perfect. I'll have to listen to it a few times. Then I added a clean part to As the World Dies and the final parts to Venture. This was done during different parts of the day, with the first bits at around 3pm and the last fix around 10pm. If I keep the guitar parts for Everdark I will be officially finished guitar. I then had an idea so I recorded about 3 minutes of something mostly in 6/8.

Working a night today so I went to finish what I started yesterday. I finished moving everything in 1 bar. I tried going out 1 bar but it didn't sound right. I had to move the tempo changes and all of the stuff recorded so far. It was a chore. I found out the settings for recording had reverted back to some old nonsence and that fooling around cost quite a bit of time. Once that was done I fixed the main vocal for the word 'water' spliced it in and then recorded the harmony vocal. I mixed it down to a mp3 and popped it on my player with only moments to spare. So Venture SHOULD be almost finished. I just want to add one more guitar at the end and possibly some feedback at the beginning. Now to work.

I thought I had enough time after work, and I actually felt like getting something done today. But by the time I figured out what needed to be done, I was no longer alone and there was too much noise to record. As it turns out, there is only the harmony left on Venture, and one little fix in the center quiet part. Then a small bit of editing to move the start of that part either 2 bars after the last part or 4 bars, because right now it is 3 bars and that is just not right. Maybe when things quiet down a bit I can try to do a bit, if I'm not too tired.

I have been really busy doing other things but this is ridiculous. I still have to buy stupid decent headphones, I have done without them, but it would help. First I pissed around with my new toy, a Boss RC-1 loop station. Then, I REALLY wanted to get something, even something little done today. So I opened Everdark and re-did the clean solo at the end. I recorded it with the other Ibanez, you know, the pale green one. I also quickly did a bit of editing, so there are only a couple of things that need to be fixed. One is a quick little bit of guitar in one of the harmony sections, and the other is to remove one of the eat, kill repeat parts. Then it will finally be ready for vocals. Oh and I listened to the vocals I recorded for Venture. Most of it sounds fine, just need to do a couple of fixes and harmonies and death vocals, or maybe I did those too. Hmm can't remember and I obviously missed an entry here. Hopefully I will have time to finish Venture and maybe Everdark. Hopefully tomorrow.

Listened to what I recorded yesterday, and everything sounds good so far. Recorded the death Vocals for Death Spawn as well. Made mp3s for my player and finally edited As the world dies. So I think my vocals are done for these songs. Death Spawn, As the World Dies, Under a Midnight Sky, and Trapped. I have a couple harmony parts in Trapped and that's it, so I guess Trapped isn't quite done. I really want to re-do the acoustic for As the World Dies, but later.

So today I recorded vocals for Under a Midnight Sky and Trapped and one little fix for Death Spawn. Didn't have time for anything else.

Well that kinda sucked. I mean sure, Christmas, then holidays, but I didn't expect to be domant for so long!! I have been practicing, mostly keyboard stuff, and I finally bought some shitty headphones so I recorded some vocals for Death Spawn today, nothing to crazy just the clean vocals, but I do hope to get more recorded soon. I have talked to someone about hosting the Bëker show, but no word on that yet. And that's it, that's all folks ...

This is just an update, I did some vocals on Oct 30 for As the World Dies, but I honestly haven't listened to them. The Softbox project is in a funny limbo place, and at first it made me angry but I guess it is just the way it is. I broke my headphones so I haven't been able to do anything else. I am thinking about doing a Bëker show, but it is just thinking so far.

I should have been learning songs for an upcoming show. Instead I recorded bass for the last 3 Softbox songs. I should probably turn my attention to the starchain project or else I will start to record vocals for this as well (which I really shouldn't, yet). Sadly my schedule is quite busy for the upcoming week.

Put new bass strings on tonight. Recorded Bass for As the World Dies, Stillborne and Everdark. I may have more in me later tonight, I feel strange and edgy, not really in a good way. Yesterday I brought the guitar tracks and the templates over to Todd's but there is only 2M of space left on the hard drive! I hear a few little things that I should fix, but I think I will have to make a list. Recorded bass for Have a Nice Day and Death Spawn then got mixes of the new stuff.

Finished getting the guitar and the templates ready. That's all that got done today.

Today I wanted to finish the clean guitar. I tried to take my time and be objective but it really is my weak suit. So it is done and I hope I don't hear too much that I want to redo later. I decided I should get the guitar tracks ready by mixing them into single mono tracks (to remove the editing stitches). I like to keep the old structure file so I can go back if I have to but in my haste I accidentally erased the old file for As the World Dies. But I have the guitar tracks ready for all except Venture, Under a Midnight Sky and Trapped. I started on Venture and decided I would finish it tomorrow. If I get really ambitious tomorrow I might try some guitar for the starchain songs. Still so very much to do.

I decided I had to accomplish something this morning. I opened As the world dies and completed the clean guitar tracks. The first one was difficult and is made up of serveral short takes. The second was mostly one take. But that's all I had time for, although before I did try and play with the syncing to make it a bit better.

Today I forced myself to record. I recorded the little bit for Death Spawn and fix some timing issues. I also recorded a new bass line, but not the finished one. I then worked on Everdark. I did some editing to fix up the first section, then recorded my new idea for the lead part. At this poitn I do believe all the distorted parts are done so I put on new strings and recorded the clean parts. This is the most difficult one so I wanted to do it first. I even played a bit of a clean solo at the end. It took several hours, but I think the guitar for Everdark is done! I would have liked to do more, but maybe it is best to not get too far ahead of myself. The updated chart is here. Rather than post a new table I am just going to update the table there. After that I looked at the Starchain stuff. Really I don't have alot to do there either, I just have to make myself do it. I have learned something interesting though. When I use the multi-band compressor with the guitar setting on my clean guitar it DOES cause distortion! So I will have to find something else to punch up my clean guitar. Anyway a good day.

Although I have (as of yet) not recorded anything new, I have made a list of things I want to fix for the Drain recording, before I feel the distorted guitar is finally finished. I have a little fix in Death Spawn, and As the World Dies. And there are some timing and other issues in the beginning of Everdark, I may have to re-record some sections. And the little lead instrumental part after the time change I have decided I want to do it in stereo, so I will have to re-record that for sure. So I'm thinking I will do the touch ups on the Softbox stuff, and attempt to finish the distorted parts for Starchain (Hreo of Tulum and Wraiths), put on new strings and start with the clean parts. I am very excited about the Softbox stuff so I may start there. There are only a couple of songs that need clean guitar for the Starchain stuff anyway. I had a few drinks so all I felt capable of doing was some editing. I couldn't seem to get Everdark right, so I opened As the World Dies and fixed 2 little things. But that's it.

Today I finished the guitar for Under a Midnight Sky. I was hoping I might get more ambitious and record some more. (Death Spawn needs 1 little fix) but I didn't. Instead I got the rest of the parts I was waiting for to fix my Hartke 3500 bass head. So I removed tha old parts and soldered in the new parts. Unfortunately my guess must have been wrong as the fuse blew in less than a second. I have one more guess and then I have to either send it to a real repairman or give up on it. And that was my night.

Yesterday I started re-recording the verses for Trapped. Jammed with Todd this afternoon and dropped the 2 guitar parts for Another Time onto his computer. Late in the evening I thought it was time to finish the guitar for Trapped and finished the verses. I realized I would have to change guitars to record the solo so I opened Under a Midnight sky. I realized NONE of the guitar was finished here because I was still thinking of changing the tempo. That was only after I started work on the solos, so I just kept going, and I decided to keep the tempo the same. I am a crappy guitar player so it took a long time to get decent takes (and I may still re-do them if I think I can do better). When I was finished with the solos for that I decided the rhythm tracks could wait for tomorrow. I opened Trapped again and changed guitars. After about 10 takes I decided to call it a night, but the last take was actually not bad. I may keep it, but that's enough for now.

Todd extended the olive branch, and we have been talking again, we decided we will continue to record. The first project that needs to be finished is Table Cage, so last night I recorded a solo and a clean track. I think the clean track may have to be done again, but it is the most progress on that project, in a very long time. As far as Softbox is concerned I there has been NO progress. I am going to leave that unresolved for the moment and we'll see what happens. And although there has been no movement on the Starchain material either, I have a feeling I will get back to that soon too. In the last month I have been practicing alot, mostly guitar and keyboard. And I am starting to get more ideas, which is bad because I have to finish these first! I have over the last several months made good progress on the Drain album, just not in the last couple of weeks. I thought the guitar for both Under a Midnight Sky and Trapped were done, but niether solo is complete and I found out I was playing Trapped slightly different, so I will have to re-record that. And I may have to change the tempo for Under a Midnight Sky. So here is a chart.

Last night I tried to record the slide parts for Hero Of Tulum, I recorded 4 takes but I don't think I got one I liked.

I think I am done the distorted guitar for Something now. I came up with two interesting clean parts that I will have to record later. I opened Hero of Tulum and practiced the slide parts a bit but ran out of time.

Because I need to keep busy, I tried recording a bit of guitar for Something. I did get a couple of tracks that are OK.

Obviously not much has happened in the last week. I got a new hard drive caddy and quickly looked at some of the New Humans Demos for Softbox and the demoes for the Have a Nice Day fan CD. There are some other interesting things there as well, but I won't even worry about that right now. I have been practicing the Drain songs to play. Anyway those songs are extremely hard to play for me, I have to be attentive for the entire 43 minutes of the Drain songs. Between there being more 'lead' parts, harmonies (more pedal stopming), the typical switching between clean and dirty guitar and vocals (possibly some death vocals) I have to think ahead and multi-task a lot. Maybe at some point I will get better at this, but for now it's really difficult. I may have to work out a couple of backing tracks for 2 songs (if we play them live) as I just went too crazy with the guitar parts. Although if this works maybe Invasion (a future Softbox epic) would be possible live. My problem, as always, would be restraint. I had better keep working on it.

Finished lyrics and scratch vocals for Everdark. Part of me thinks I should do the guitar for Under a Midnight Sky and another part thinks I should wait till after the drums are done. So unless I do the guitar, I am done working on the Drain music for at least several weeks. If I get ambitious I will try to finish a bit more on the Starchain music. Or maybe find and open some of the fan CD demos.

Before work I quickly yelled scratch vocals (using the old lyrics) for both Under a Midnight Sky and Trapped. Even though I will keep almost none of this it makes them sound closer to being complete.

Listening to Trapped I think I am going to keep most of it! The solo needs some work but it isn't bad. I guess what I really have to do now is get some words into some of these songs. I guess that will be my task today. Well I made a bit more progress, lyrics for Venture and As the World Dies are mostly solid, and now demoed. So Lyrically I have to finish Everdark and make some small changes to Under a midnight sky and Trapped.

Looks like I missed an entry, not that there is lots to say. I did some recording Aug 1 and finished the first track and did about half of the second track of guitar on Everdark. Today I finished the distorted guitar for Everdark. Oh but I forgot one little fix, hopefully I remember it next time. I did some fixing to As the World Dies, Stillborne and Venture. Some of it was recording and alot of it was moving stuff back into time. Stupid syncing problem. But this is good progress, the distorted guitar is very close to being finished for 5 songs. I keep listening to see if there are mistakes I should fix, but I think I got most of them. I started setting up a fake drum track for Trapped and finished one for Under a midnight Sky. Those are the last two that need distorted guitar. Then it will be clean guitar, I kinda have an idea of what I want to do first. I'm thinking Everdark, just because it has the most work and will be the most difficult, then Stillborne then As the World Dies then Venture and then guitar will be done. But I may go back to the songs for the Starchain album, or maybe not. Just before bed I figured I'd finish the fake drums and decided to try a bit of guitar. So I'm not sure if it's good (I'm not as objective when I'm tired) but I recorded 3 track of guitars and the guitar solo! Now Bed.

So after practicing some more for my 2 upcoming gigs, it was raining all day, so that meant I could easily spend some time recording. Unfortunately as I opened songs to double check all was good with them, well I ended up not recording. While checking As the world Dies I found that my acoustics were just not synced properly, it took a while to get them where they were supposed to be but I don't think I have to re-record them now. I am still uncertain on wheather I should keep the bridge the way it is or not. More thought I guess. I think I am satisfied with the guitar for Death Spawn and Stillborne. After opening Venture I knew I had to go back to the original demo so I could see if there were time changes, and indeed there were. I ended up having to re-open the original demo several times to find things I had missed. But now the version of Venture is synced up to the click track. A huge pain in the ass that thank goodness is now behind me. I will have to do some fixing to the template for Everdark, which amounts to the same thing. I have to insert an extra bar in a few places where I couldn't count to 4. It really messes things up, but I have to do it before I start recording for that song. So after critically listening to Venture I have a few small fixes that I should record, and then just the distorted guitar for Everdark, Under a Midnight Sky and Trapped. I have to take a break for a bit but maybe later I will get a bit more done. I did return to the basement and started Everdark. I was able to complete about half of one track before I was just too tired.

As the 27th turns to the 28th I dropped a new temp bass line on Venture. I was just going to record a bit, but I (think I) finished the distorted guitar for Venture. It is long and it is fast so there were many. many, many, many takes of guitar. There are some wierd things going on with the tempo but I will have to fix that another day. So very slowly I am getting closer on the Drain album.

Tried recording the guitar for Venture but I just wasn't feeling it, I may try a bit more later, maybe. Yesterday I finally hooked up some of the keyboards and played with the MKS-50 a bit. Unfortunately my CS-400 peavey power amp that I thought was working was not. Anyway it has been difficult to find time as I have a pretty big honeydo list and I have 2 fill-ins coming up, luckily one is an hour and a half show so only 14 songs there, the other is a full weekend so about 35 songs there. Maybe August will be better.

Really a sad day for me. The relationship between Todd and I since 2012 has been strained and since his divorce it has gotten much worse. It finally came to a head and we will part ways. So I have been working on guitars for the next Softbox album and have (I think) final guitars for Death Spawn and I finished the distorted guitars for As the World Dies today. I later in the evening did the distorted parts for Stillborne. I have been listening to Everdark, and I like the new parts. It is an almost final version. I will have to redo some of the acoustic for As the world dies as I noticed it is out of time. I will finish the guitar and bass for this and then decide what to do with it.

I played alot of guitar today but recording-wise all I did was put down a scratch track for Trapped. So there are guide tracks now for all of the Softbox songs.

Busy weekend. A few days ago I aquired a new keyboard stand. A big 3 tier monster. I also got a rackmount stand and put my recording stuff into it. This cleaned up the basement alot! Then today a friend just gave me a MC-50 and a MKS-50! I haven't fully tested them but I am very impressed, not that I needed another MC-50 (I now have 3) or a MKS-50 (I have the tiny brother to it the alpha juno-1). So recording-wise I recorded a demo for Under a Midnight Sky, got a template ready for Trapped and worked on some better parts for Everdark. I basically replaced 90% of the middle 4 minutes. If I keep it this way it will be about 10 seconds longer. I will sleep on it and see what I think tomorrow.

I wanted to tackle this yesterday,but unforseen circumstances ... Anyway because I was a bit more practiced, and because my fingers were not quite as soft I managed to get the other acoustic guitar for Excavating Faith in less than 20 takes. I then looked to see if there was anything else I wanted to do on acoustic and opened Where Will You Be. I quickly decided that the acoustic there HAD to be a classical guitar. I did record one quick track of strumming that I may or may not keep. I then did the acoustic part for As the World Dies by Softbox. So the acoustic for both albums is done. Well except for the classical guitar for Where Will You Be. So if I had charts for both albums they would look like this:

After much mental debate, I started recording the acoustic for Excavating Faith. I had planned to do that, and possibly the acoustic for As the World Dies (by Softbox) as well. Well the parts are so difficult I was only able to get one track of acoustic. It took ALL DAY to do that 1 track! Over 40 takes and really sore fingers. There was also a plan to set up guide tracks for the last 2 Softbox songs but that didn't happen either. But it is progress.

Kinda pissed at myself. I just can't seem to get motivated. I have been practicing, but no recording. I decided to move all of the Softbox Drain songs onto the recording computer. I set them up in the new recording program and I guess that's it for now.

I should have started this a long time ago. But I thought that's what the rant would be, instead it is a sometimes yearly announcement. I am almost always working on something music related and from now on I will put it here (instead of the [now defunct] Softbox site, or Softbox forum, or facebook, or the Bëker page or whatever). Another reason is after kinda pissing with the Starchain album I actually made some progress, and wanted to babble profusely about it. I had 2 songs on the computer for this project in a certain halfway state for, well a very long time. Another one is so old, I didn't archive the demo, all I had was a wav. So I cobbled that together about two months ago. The remaining 5 were also quite old and I had to transfer them from an older program to the currnet one. This took some time, but it has been done for several weeks. Not sure why but I have just le it sit. But today I finished the distorted guitar on Excavationg Faith. It shouldn't have taken this long but it did. I'm hoping I feel a little more invested in this project, so I can finish it. The only thing that may be difficult to get done will be the drums, as I don't have any and I'm not sure if I want to even try. Anyway Excavating Faith now needs Acoustic, Bass, and Vocals (and drums). Believe Me only needs drums. Speaking part needs the clean guitar redone and possibly vocals. OH and I will have to find someone to play the guitar solo. No big. Deux Ex Machina need several fixes to the clean guitar, and some keyboard parts, and vocals. Both need drums as well although there is a horrible keyboard drum track for both. Both of those were already works in progress. The remaining four are in different states of incompletion. I have the old recordings for them and the only things I am keeping are keyboard parts, and maybe a few acoustic parts. So why am I pushing myself to get this done? Because I am starting work on the 'lost' Softbox album. These songs will also have to be retrieved from the old recording program. And all seven songs are finished musically except one called Everdark, that one will need some re-working. I am starting lyrics for them finally. I have 2 finished, the first song Death Spawn and another called Stillborne. I copied out the structure for song two, called Venture and will work on that next. It is a long piece, and will probably be quite wordy. There are lyrics for the last 2 as well although I may have to re-work them a bit. I have also been practicing guitar for Softbox songs and pushing my voice as well. I haven't done much singing in the last 3 years and my voice has lost it's endurance and strength. The first day I tried this I couldn't finish Factory because I had lost my voice! But it is getting better every day I practice. There is SO MUCH softbox material that 2 more albums worth is written and ready to go! So I want to get the Startchain stuff done because I am itching to fire up the Softbox machine again. I hope Todd is too. Oh happy Canada Day!