123016 After enduring months of
sass and shaming from
Dave and Thomas I finally
invested in some quality
guitar and mic cables.
122916 Thomas had another go
at bass (fretless Percission
and Music Man Stingray)
for White Girl, Gardenaire
and Three Bells.
Need to buy Allen sticks
for Monday. 5B-7A.
122816 Thomas had a go at bass
parts for White Girl and
Gardenaire. Michael
came by and we ate
tacos.
122616 After trying every gimmick
I could think of to occupy
a moment in White Girl
I finally settled on just a
classical guitar and piano
and I like it super much.
122416 "juiceboxberries" Similar Artists
list on iHeart Radio:
David Gilmour
Dave Lee Roth
Mountain
I don't know whether to
laugh or whimper or wheeze.
122216 Scheduled time with Thomas
next week to record bass for
White Girl and Gardenaire.
122116 Michael and I pawed through
the fragments of songs we
have saved up to see what
is worthy of pursuing.
Re-cut all of the guitars in
White Girl to my satisfaction
only to discover that a mic
in the room wasn't completely
muted so there is significant
bleed because I used the
monitors instead of
headphones. Still, the
arrangement of the song
is complete and I only
need to up the quality
of some of the parts.
121916 Big boxes of guitar tracks
on White Girl. I am in the
removing spices stage of
arranging the song.
121816 Still dry humping White Girl
trying to create sparks.
121716 Smashed two ideas together
and What a Day for the White Girl
is born.
121316 Her Bows on Pandora Radio
121016 The juiceboxberries cover
has magically re-appeared
on Pandora. Long live
magic.
120916 Michael and I spent the
evening listening to
songs and making notes.
Both took a couple of
stabs at drunkenly
bellowing parts during
the outro of Trash Bag.
120716 The chalky little turd that
is my muse gave me
enough words to finish
Gardenaire today. Added
better vocal takes on
Three Bells, Gardenaire
and Trash Bag Launderette.
120516 Focused on getting some
good takes of the Trash
Bag Launderette intro
with the new verse.
Patrick Meagher is going
to be mixing and mastering
the next album.
120416 Gardenaire, Three Bells,
Trash Bag Launderette &
Blue in the Veins sent to
Allen.
120316 "juiceboxberries" and
"Her Bows" now at
Mills Record Company
in Westport.
http://millsrecordcompany.com/new-releases-1125-mills-record-company/
Added loads of guitars
to Three Bells.
Set up a basic template,
cover image and fonts
for the alternate album
title.
Always enjoy watching the
JMLP Similar Artists list
on Pandora Radio evolve
as we add albums:
Similar Artists
Temples
Angels & Airwaves
888
The Delta Riggs
Brad Laner
120116 Cut some Blue in
the Veins vocal tracks
with the new lyrics,
made the Three Bells
arrangement match
my latest revisions
and re-sang the intro
to Trash Bag Launderette.
I've been getting lyrics
in the middle of the night
lately. Got a verse for
Launderette on the 30th
and 3 verses for Blue
in the Veins last night.
Sleep would have been
nice but some people
can't sleep and get
nothing in return for
their suffering.
113016 Dave played around with
bass parts for Gardenaire,
Three Bells and Trash Bag
Launderette.
112816 Lathered more meat upon
Gardenaire, Three Bells and
Trash Bag Launderette.
112616 Fleshed out Gardenaire and
sent Dave a copy to use to
develop a bass line. Then it's
off to Allen for drum consideration.
Going to try to finish Three Bells
next.
...and worked on Trash Bag
Launderette instead.
112416 Had a little challenge today.
Gardenaire was built from
some bits I recorded in Houston
on a MacBook. I guess when
I imported them into Pro Tools 12
the session defaulted to 44.1 kHz
instead of 48 kHz, which is what
I use for everything else. So,
when I would exit a Gardenaire
session and load something
else Pro Tools would freak out
about the difference and I
would have to continually exit
and restart. How could I
convert Gardenaire to 48 kHz?
I tried creating a new session
at 48 k and then importing the
44.1 project. This fails because
the import screen (and this is
a well-documented issue) is
longer than the computer screen
and if you attempt to resize it
it disappears. Went for a walk
to think about it. Came back,
opened up Gardenaire, launched
the Save As process and
discovered that it had an option
for the frequency! Worked
like a charm. Rock and also
roll.
112116 Added a moog solo to
Gardenaire.
112016 Back from a short trip south.
Took one of the old MacBooks
for Garageband and a half-sized
classical guitar to write with.
Got the guts of Gardenaire.
111116 Made a new project out of the
old NowHere ending and fleshed
out a new little guitar ditty. I'm
starting to feel juicy again.
Saving some time today to explore:
Indian Run - Spindrift
Everything Happens for the Best - Dick Flood
Going Nowhere - The Nukes
Tid Tom Ta Lai - Man City Lion
Floating on a Cloud - Christopher Blue
Poo Yai Lee/Green Onions - Louis Kennedy
Suppanahong - Johnny Guitar
Brave Awakening - Terry Reid
Dont Worry Tracy - Christopher Blue
Close to Me - Charles Manson
Dreaming Casually - Little Willie and Thee Midniters
You Said I'd Never Love Again - Faye Tucker
Baroque #1 - Ultimate Spinach
Nom Sami Mai - Saknatee Srichiangmai
110916 Physical CDs available at cdbaby.
The moment you find yourself believing that somehow
you can survive this, visualize how happy Ted Nugent
is right now.
110716 Physical CDs mailed off and should be available
online in a few days.
Working on resurrecting Windy, Starting by
striking the intro and upgrading some of the
inserts.
110416 CDs should arrive today. CD release party tonight.
"Her Bows" should be up on Pandora in a few
weeks.
110316 Her Bows now on YouTube, Spotify and
Slacker Radio.
110216 Got together and ran through Three Bells
several times live. Shannon showed up
and we retired to the piano with Dave's
stand up bass and ran through Carly
Simon songs.
Michael pointed out how similar
the colors for the album artwork
of "juiceboxberries" and The Uncle
Devil Show's "Terrible Beauty"
are. This pleases me.
110116 Allen Johnston coming on Jaunary 3rd
to record drums on the 3rd album.
Her Bows now
available at Amazon.com
Her Bows now available
on iTunes.com
...and no, I don't have an issue with Billy
Corgan. Billy Corgan's Cadillac just sounds
awesome together, it rhymed with the
gibberish that was holding its place and
he does happen to be a popular music
rebel who ended up doing pretty well
financially. It wrote itself.
103116 And we have liftoff.
Day six of waiting on the review results
for digital distribution of Her Bows. It
took just 3 days for juiceboxberries.
102816 Player and store
for Her Bows now
up! Physical CDs
available in about
2 weeks.
Already lobbying for "Trashbag Launderette"
as the title for the 3rd album. Current
response from Forlorn Petunioideae
is frosty.
102716 You can listen to Her Bows and
Billy Corgan's Cadillac here and
here.
I always forget how long the CDBaby
Digital Distribution process takes to
finalize. It took 4 days for juiceboxberries
so we are probably looking at Her Bows
being dumped on the planet by 11/01/16.
102616 Final master in hand and uploading the
songs to be printed. If I can get the
artwork done today this little monster will
be leaking onto the web by the weekend.
102516 Now that I am about a day away from
pulling the trigger on this album I am
getting cold feet on the artwork. I sent
a PDF to Graeme Walker for feedback
yesterday and he helped me with
some justification issues. Just
wringing my hands now over the title
font.
102416
Track 1 "Her Bows"
0:00.000/4:38.980 (4:38.980 runtime)
Track 2 "Juno Contacto"
4:38.980/7:54.231 (3:15.250 runtime)
Track 3 "Billy Corgan's Cadillac"
7:54.231/12:21.826 (4:27.594 runtime)
Track 4 "Jacob's Ladder"
12:21.826/16:21.575 (3:59.749 runtime)
Track 5 "nothingood"
16:21.575/21:13.187 (4:51.612 runtime)
Track 6 "Pool"
21:13.187/24:41.704 (3:28.517 runtime)
Track 7 "Cleo the Liar"
24:41.704/27:48.240 (3:06.535 runtime)
Track 8 "Maryland Mansion"
27:48.240/30:25.837 (2:37.597 runtime)
Track 9 "NowHere"
30:25.837/34:14.464 (3:48.627 runtime)
Track 10 "Ordinary Guy"
34:14.464/36:47.991 (2:33.526 runtime)
Track 11 "Corky Finds Something"
36:47.991/38:49.237 (2:01.246 runtime)
(38:49.237 total runtime)
Graeme Walker is giving me
some 11th feedback on the
CD artwork.
102316 Got mastered album back from
Thomas. Gave it one run through
today. Will listen s'more tomorrow.
102116 Waxing nostalgic listening to the
nearly completed 2nd album. We
started writing and rehearsing songs
for Her Bows in early December of
last year (with Allen recording drums
for Windy and Corky on New Years
Eve) and finished with Ordinary Guy
on October 7th. I've learned so much
during the making of this album. Corky
was started on the MacBook using
Garageband (the same setup we used
for juiceboxberries) so I had to learn Pro
Tools 12 and a lovely variety of plug-ins
during the making of. I think it was more
fun to make because we were starting to
get more comfortable with the writing and
recording process. Less flailing around.
Listened several times to the tracks in
sequence to get a feel for how the album
will flow. Thomas is now working on the
mastering.
Got the track sequence for Her Bows from
Thomas:
Her Bows
Juno Contacto
Billy Corgan's Cadillac
Jacob's Ladder
nothingood
Pool
Cleo the Liar
Maryland Mansion
NowHere
Ordinary Guy
Corky Finds Something
102016 Worked up a guitar solor for MTTROM.
Single mixing adjustment from last
night's session sent to Thomas.
101916 Listened to Her Bows mixes with Dave
and Michael. Dave had a run at bass
on the temporarily named Michael to the
Right of Me.
Purchased the Vahalla Vintage reverb and
like it. Room and Plate will follow.
101816 Paris and Thomas have talked me into
getting te Vahalla Plate, Room and
Vintage reverbs.
101716 Played around with some vocal ideas for
Michael to the Right of Me.
101616 Added an M-Audio SP-Triple Keyboard
Pedal with Sustain, Soft, and Sostenuto
Functions to the studio. Pretty sure I'll
only ever use the sustain.
101116 A horrific escalation of tinnitus symptoms
after spending most of the day under
headphones. Going to take a break
for a week and then ease back into aural
abuse.
101016 Listened to the latest mixes with Thomas.
We're very close.
Played around with Hashtag Laundromat
for a few hours. Added piano, drums,
acoustic, tamby and some scratch
vocals.
100916 Pick up a copy of juiceboxberries in
Japan for just ¥ 1,400.
100816 Ran into Dennis Jones at
a party. Dennis recorded
one of my early bands at
Hear Hear. My first time
in a studio. He recorded
us on 4 track. Tape.
With a spring reverb.
Added Slate Digital
Trigger Platinum Drum
Replacement Software
to the JMLP studio.
I'm just old enough
that I'm still uneasy
about spending
money on something
that you download vs
something gleaming
and blinking in a rack.
Speaking of racks,
I almost bought a
used Roland GP-100
because GFS used
one all the way through
"12". It then struck
me that we didn't
use it on "Sleepnovox"
because it had died.
Reset shopping cart.
100716 Ordinary Guy
handed to Thomas.
Future moments to
celebrate: completion
of mixing, completion
of mastering, CDs in
hand and digital
submission.
100516 Added one last
Ordinary Guy vocal
take and have the
files ready to go to
Thomas on Friday.
100416 Added an Ordinary Guy
vocal take.
100316 Got a decent vocal take
for Ordinary Guy. Wasn't
happy with the tube preamp
settings so will have another
go tomorrow and then off
to what we in the business
calll "Post Production" or
"Thomas."
Thomas is having a difficult
time replacing the piano
parts with the new samples
because they have already
been slip-edited and/or
automated. This makes
it challenging to import
and lineup the new parts.
Fortunately it only
involves 4 songs.
100216 Since we are about done
with Her Bows I began the
process of adding some
of the ideas that I had
on my phone to Pro Tools.
We already have about 8
songs in various states of
undress so it's not going
to take long to come up
with another 10 good
ones for our third album.
More Ordinary Guy vocal
takes. Thomas may have
to build this syllable by
syllable.
100116 Met with Thomas. Gave
him NowHere and talked
about mixes.
Paris told me to get the
Native Instruments
Alicia's Keys sample
package for piano. And
I did. Big memory hog
but the samples are nice.
Converted the pianos in
Billy Corgan, Juno Contacto,
Jacob's Ladder and Cleo
the Liar.
093016 Had a bit of a cookout
with most of the key
players in attendance.
Everybody signed off on
the alternate NowHere
ending. Will give that
to Thomas this weekend.
Artwork has also been
approved.
092716 Three more Ordinary Guy
vocal takes.
092616 Got the recording of
the machinery from
Dave and it fits better
than I had dared to
imagine. Or something
like that. Nice fit.
Going to track a few
more vocals for
Ordinary Guy today
and then hand this
albatross off to Thomas.
This will just leave NowHere
and it's mystery ending as
the last problem to solve.
092516 Becoming more
sure-handed with Illustrator
and the album cover is
looking more like an
album cover.
092416 Now that I'm responsible
for my own product I
recall with new eyes
Paris hastily cross-fading
and consolidating regions
before Thomas could see
them during the Sleepnovox
sessions. That little trick
resides somewhere
between wearing a padded
bra and changing your test
score from a B to an A.
092316 Sent Thomas notes for the
mixes. Had a few more runs
at Ordinary Guy and the end
of NowHere.
092216 Dave recorded some clanky
and hissy machine sounds
that we want to use in
NowHere.
092116 Set up Her Bows as a new
project with DiscMakers so
that I can test my work as I
learn Illustrator 10. Have
created the jacket and CD
artwork and added text
and everything looks good
so far,.
Listened to the NowHere
ending over and over and
finally threw up my hands
and just cut the swing part
and tripped out the ending.
Now I have to sell it to my
associates.
I want to try some voice
doubling on the lead for
Ordinary Guy at the end
of the week.
092016 Thomas printed (vs bouncing)
me new mixes of the
stuff he's finished and it is
amazing. The difference
between printing and bouncing
is amazing and his work is
amazing.
Dave feels like the swing
part in NowHere may not
require a team of Super
Friends to make it work
so I will play with
re-cutting some drum
takes over the next
few days so that we can
get it to Thomas.
091916 Recorded drums for an
idea I had and a B part
for Three Bells. Tried
some more Ordinary
Guy takes but the
work over the weekend
was better.
091716 More vocal takes for
Ordinary Guy. Hit the
128 audio tracks maximum
and had to go on a
killing spree.
091616 Still trying different vocal
approaches to Ordinary Guy.
Thomas plans to have mixes
for Pool and Billy Corgan
early next week.
091516 Fresh box of juiceboxberries
CDs arrived.
091416 Dave had a gig so Michael
and I spent the session
going over album cover
mock-ups. Agreed in
principle on a title,
cover and back cover.
091216 Worked some more on the
Ordinary Guy vocal. That
song will be ready to go
once I get a good take,
leaving NowHere and its
swing part at the end as
the last song to finish.
091016 Did some album cover mockups.
Kristen ITC for JMLP and Vijaya
for the title both using #DDD771
and Mangal for the 2nd option
using #D7E0E9 for JMLP and
#F6F9FD for the title. Toying
with Her Boys, NowHere and
nothingood as titles.
090916 Thomas came by and recorded
a piano part during the Billy
Corgan outro and a bass part
for Ordinary Guy. He took
home Billy Corgan for
mixing. Two to go.
090716 Dave had a go at the verses
Ordinary Guy and added a
a few more bass passes to
Billy Corgan. We listened to
some of the finished mixes.
Thinking this album could be
done by Thanksgiving.
Dave left a microKORG
at the studio. Look out.
090516 Did another 3,000 vocal
takes on Ordinary Guy, a
song challenging my Three
Blind Mice comfort zone.
Finishing up Jacob's Ladder
to give to Thomas tomorrow.
That leaves Ordinary Guy,
Billy Corgan's Cadillac and
NowHere to tidy up before
mixing.
090416 Sent off a current version of
the swing bit at the end of
NowHere to Dave Bostwick.
090316 Rachel and Shannon added
backing vocals to Ordinary Guy
and Jacob's Ladder.
090216 Ordered another pile of CDs.
090116 ...and Pool delivered to
Thomas.
Thomas brought over a mix
of nothingood and we talked
about it. I played him Pool
and Ordinary Guy.
Re-sang Pool and added
some harmonies to Jacob's
Ladder.
083116 Michael and I listened to
the balance of songs to
be mixed but the important
thing is that he actually
said "...jazz, to the point
of stripper."
Thomas dropped off an
extended version of Her Bows
to audition. It's growing
on me.
082716 Another session working on
Pool. Getting close.
082616 Spent some time trying to
sex up Jacob's Ladder. I
don't think that I succeeded.
Also spent some time
working on Pool and think I
may have gotten closer to
improving the chorus.
There is that moment, at the
height of deconstruction, that
panic sets in and you wonder
if you should try to refill the
hole you just spent an hour
digging. I kept digging.
082516 Added more vocal takes to
nothingood and whisked it
off to Thomas.
082416 Dave and I listened to mixes
and decided that nothingood
and Billy Corgan's Cadillac
were ready to send to Thomas.
We talked about how the
swing part at the end of
NowHere isn't working and
he suggested getting some
proper musicians together
to record the bit and set
the wheels in motion. How
neato is that?
According to Pandora, similar
artists include:
Angels & Airwaves
888
The Delta Riggs
Brad Laner
"To start things off, we'll play a
song that exemplifies the musical
style of Johnny Marie & the
Lonesome Petunias which features
punk influences, mild rhythmic
syncopation, mixed minor & major
key tonality, a vocal-centric aesthetic
and slide guitars."
082316 Did a few more vocal takes on
Pool with the tube pre-amp.
Also tried some alternate takes
on the chorus. Still need to iron
that out and a percussion bit
that is annoying me.
082216 More vocal takes for Pool,
Ordinary Guy and Billy Corgan.
Added fresh acoustic guitars
to Billy.
082116 Shannon added vocals to
Three Bells.
Thomas has the first 4 mixes
ready to sign off on.
Added loads of harmonies to Three
Bells when I should have been adding
loads of chords and verses. Or
finishing the 6 remaining songs for
the 2nd album.
082016 Added some slide guitar ideas to
BIlly Corgan and created a demo
session for Three Bells.
081816 With the keyboard and Pro Tools
working in harmony I had yet
another go at tightening up
the end of NowHere.
And here is what finally worked:
Disable the Unknown device
Power off computer
Unplug computer
Plug in computer
Power on computer
Correct device found
One variable that may have been
critical: I originally had a multi-USB
port adapter in-between the keyboard
and the USB port that I removed
for troubleshooting purposes.
Apparently Windows wanted to
see the adapter???
081716 A couple of days spent wrestling with
what appears to be a common problem.
Suddenly, after working for months, the
M-Audio Keystation 88 Pro is no longer
recognized. I either get the malfunctioned
error or the device unknown error. I've
dealt with this before but apparently did
not document the solution. Schmer.
081316 Shannon added harmonies to parts
of Ordinary Guy and Billy Corgan.
081116 Physical CDs are now available. Check
out the Links page for retailer options.
BTW, these are not CDRs or Pro CDRs.
These are proper CDs produced at
DiscMakers.
081016 Michael and Dave recorded harmonies
for Billy Corgan's Cadillac and the
bridge in Ordinary Guy.
Someone complimented the backing
vocal arrangements on juiceboxberries
yesterday, and I realized that we
haven't done a lot of band harmonies
on the 2nd record. So, tonight...
080916 Submitted We Don't Do That and Falstaff
to Pandora.
080816 More vocal takes for Ordinary Guy, Pool
and Billy Corgan.
080716 More vocal takes for Pool and Billy Corgan.
080616 Thomas starting on Her Bows in earnest.
080516 Physical CDs sent to distributors.
Took a picture of Dave recording bass
for "Ordinary Guy" and realized that
nearly every picture of him on the
site is with the 76 Percision. This
despite the fact that he shows up
every week with an armful of bass
options.
080416 Still waiting for that magic moment when
someone other than a team member refers
to our organization as JMLP. Michael
Jackson taught us that sometimes
you need to start your own fires.
080316 Juiceboxberries is now available in the US.
080216 Juiceboxberries is now available in Russia.
Still re-working Pool.
080116 Ratdrangea. There is your band name,
debut album title and opening track.
073016 Tore Pool a new one. Note to future self,
if there are mutinous cries from your
comrades you can revert to the version
from 07/29/16.
072916 Talked for a bit tonight about what we
should put on the 2nd album. Thomas
is already working on Corky, Maryland
Mansion, Juno Contacto, Cleo the Liar
and Her Bows so that just leaves 5
songs. We decided to go with
Jacob's Ladder (just need to comp bass)
NowHere (EQ swing section)
nothingood (all good!)
Ordinary Guy (comp bass, sing a few
more takes)
Pool (try live drums and substitute
guitars in middle of song with something
else)
That will leave Billy Corgan's Cadillac,
You Should Be Dancing, Windy, Heron,
Dingus and Minor Dingus as starter
meals for the 3rd album.
072716 Dave tracked bass parts for Billy Corgan,
You Should be Dancing and Ordinary Guy,
formerly One Million Chickens.
Got new mixes of Corky, Cleo the Liar,
Juno Contacto and Maryland Mansion
from Thomas.
072616 Digital Distribution process launched.
Horrors. Loaded Billy Corgan's Cadillac
into Pro Tools and it errors out. Apparently
it was corrupted when the power went out
yesterday. I had a day old backup but
lost a few things. Fortunately I remember
what they were and they are easily
re-created.
072516 CDs ordered. Estimated delivery
date is August 3rd. Got started on
the digital distribution. Just waiting
for the ISRC codes.
072316 Today is Upload the Album to be
Printed Day. A little intimidating
as my colleagues in Girl for Samson
have always taken care of this
stuff in the past.
072016 Hair is gone and artwork is done.
The printers and digital distribution
are the only thing standing between
me and pennies a day.
Michael and I worked on something
we cooked up a couple of weeks
ago and Billy Corgan's Cadillac for
the 3rd album.
071916 Got the artwork revisions back from
Carrie. I think we found a font for
the title we like. Sent back a text
mod and a request to remove an
vintage, errant human hair that
apparently was on the slide,
narrowly avoiding a butcher cover
controversy.
071516 E-mailed font revisions for cover art.
071416 Artwork in hand awaiting a handshake
before calling it done.
071116 Added a few more vocal takes to
Her Bows and got it packed up and
ready to go to Thomas for mixing.
Got a new version of the masters
for Juiceboxberries from Paris to
listen to.
071016 Sent Carrie the text for the back
cover.
070916 Taking Cleo the Liar to Thomas for
mixing. That's 4 of 10.
070816 I have mastered tracks to listen to!
070716 Track order for Juceboxberries sent to P.
Little Something
We Don't Do That
Falstaff
Sultan Eyes
Industrial Debris
Tambourine
On
062916 Dave tracked bass parts for One Million
Chickens. Paris sent the last mix of
Tambourine so we are down to track
listing, artwork and production.
062716 Have mixes of Corky and Maryland Mansion
back from Thomas. Taking him Juno
Contacto tomorrow.
061816 Listened to mixes with Michael. We
were talking a little about the artwork
when he abruptly decided that he
liked the mouse cover more than the
cake.
061716 Got the lastest mix of On and Tambourine
from Paris. We are a sign-off and track
order away from having this thing mastered
and printed.
060916 Paris sent me a mix of On. He did
amazing things.
Gave Thomas Maryland Mansion to mix.
Contacted someone about doing the artwork
for Juiceboxberries.
060816 Played Michael the One Million Chickens
demo.
Patrick is starting on the last song
(On) for Juiceboxberries.
060116 Dave tried some noodling bass parts
on the fretless during the outro of
Her Bows.
053116 Re-worked the outro to Pool. Gave it
new guitars. Probably needs a new
bass part.
I've had a string of chords and a melody
sloshing around in my head that I
finally got down in demo form.
Throw-away title of One Million
Chickens as a temporary nod to the
Cincinnati Zoo incident.
052816 Thomas is nearly done mixing Corky
and Paris has just about finished
mixing Tambourine.
I want to make a video for
We Don't Do That. I have a fistful
of Canon DSLRs that shoot video
but wonder if a dedicated video
camera would be better. Trying
to identify any human resources
that I may have to assist in
making this happen.
051816 Michael and I worked on the
piano for the swing section of
NowHere. Dave came by and
had another go at bass parts for
Her Bows and Maryland Mansion.
Determined that those two songs
are ready to go to Thomas.
051216 Working out some issues that
are the result of recording with
Pro Tools 12 and mixing with
Pro Tools 11.
050316 Handed off On and Tambourne
to Patrick and Corky Finds
Something to Thomas.
050216 Finished prepping On and
Tambourine for Patrick to mix.
042916 Changed the bass and drums in
Tambourine. You just can't give
me a song back to before it's
done because I will dick with it
and dick with it thoroughly.
042816 Replaced some vocal harmonies
in Tambourine. Got the
new laptop loaded up for
Thomas to start mixing with.
042616 Listened to Jue Box Berries
mixes with Dave, Michael and
Shannon.
042516 Worked on the rough mix of
Tambourine. Have most of
the instruments sorted out.
Just need to check the vocals
and I can turned it over to
Grand Master P.
042216 Sent Patrick some mods for
Industrial Debris and Brought
a Little Something Down.
Played Thomas most of the
songs from the 2nd album.
Hope to start sending him
tracks to mix by next weekend.
042016 Michael and I listend to Patrick's
Juiceboxberries mixes and
the bulk of the current album.
Picked up some equipment that
will get Thomas started mixing the
2nd album late next week.
041916 Patrick sent me mp3s of the
5 songs he mixed. Listening
wtih Dave and Mike tomorrow
night.
041216 Worked on the NowHere outro.
Michael and I reviewed some things
and worked on his 2 songs.
041116 Re-recorded some of the vocal,
piano, drum and bass parts in On.
Somehow we lost a bass track in
the B section. Tried a few more
vocal takes in Her Bows.
040616 Dave added a bass in the bridge of
Cleo the Liar and in the bridge of
NowHere. Michael showed me
a new idea for a song. That now
makes Michael to the Left of Me
and Michael to the Right of Me.
040216 Rachel tracked vocals on Cleo the Liar,
Jacob's Ladder and Maryland Mansion.
040116 So much to do so why not come up
with another ditty? Cleo the Liar,
born this day, 2016.
Annoyed by a Pro Tools quirk that
has kept me from mixing On and
Tambourine. Let me tell you about
it now. I have been recording this
album at 48k but the two Juice Box
Berries songs 44.1. This means
that every time I load one of them
Pro Tools has to be restarted, and
then restarted again when I load
one of the new songs. Did the
Save Copy In option that Paris
taught me to convert them to 48k
and it seems to have worked without
any glitches.
033116 Worked s'more on Jacob's Ladder.
033016 Renamed Fried Fruit to Jacob's Ladder.
Replaced vocals with fresher versions.
Had a listen to On and gave the tracks
meaningful names. A little painful
listening to everything dry. Poor Paris.
Listened to some guitar solo ideas
that John McConnell sent for the
outro of Pool.
032816 Worked on Fried Fruit vocal parts.
032716 Picked up Steven Slate Drums. I'm
learning that you can spend hundreds
and thousands on home studio
enhancements and nothing in the room
changes.
Rachel coming over to replace sampled
vocal parts in Her Bows.
032616 I'm going to have a go at mixing
On and Tambourine from the 1st
album. Starting with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btj1GDXK0XI
Worked on words and melody
for Fried Fruit.
Learned a couple of Pro Tools
tricks from Patrick:
I moved my session files from
one computer to another and
now have "missing files" errors
that won't go away. P taught
me to load the session,
suffer through the errors, and
then use the Copy function
to save the session as a new
project. The new project
loads without errors.
I run into timing issues when
using too many Xpand2
loops and had been using
bus routing to convert them
to audio files. With Pro Tools 12
all I have to do is use the Commit
option to convert them. Worked
great.
032416 Sent Pool off to John McConnell
for some guitarwork at the end.
Played with some melodies in
Fried Fruit (which desperately
needs to be renamed) and
laid out some bones for Michael
to the Left of Me.
032316 Michael and Dave suggested
some changes in Pool, which
I implemented. Dave sang
a harmony in Juno Impacto
and recorded a scratch bass
for Fried Fruit.
032116 Worked on Pool. Added drums
and more vocal takes.
Also re-cut vocals for Her Bows.
I'm having a difficult time with
that one. You can't sing the
word f****d, especially at the
height of a melody, without
sounding like you are
emphasizing it. Please see
Currie, Justin's When Raymond
Comes Around and the word
c**t for more information.
032016 Pro Tools has been blowing up
after I close a file and go to
open a new project or even
exit. The drag is that I have to
reboot the computer. The
normal system returns after
the error but ProTools.exe is
lodged in memory and can't
be removed or re-run. This
might be due to having to
search for missing files
on a few of the projects upon
startup. It never finds them
but everything is there.
031816 Still managed to get some things
done. Took out a drum build
in Dingus that didn't work and
synched up the live drums with
the percussion loop. Added
tambourine to Juno Impacto
and took the bass out of the
intro of nothingood.
Spent the most time on Pool.
Added a guitar, organ,
tambuorine and re-cut all
of the vocals. Tweaked the
tones and effects so that it
sounds more like the demo.
So, I made a list of things
that need to be done for
each song and a checklist
for the day to force myself
to see this though. Then
I saw a squirrel sniffing
around a hole in a tree that
I knew contained a Starling
nest. Are you saying that
you wouldn't have grabbed
a chair and your coffee and
watched what happened
next? You think I'm made
of wood?
Going to make at least one
improvement on every song
today. Hopefully that will
keep me from making up
something new instead.
031716 Worked a bit on converting Pool
from an interlaced stereo WAV
demo to a proper Pro Tools
project file. That just means
re-cutting all of the parts in the
WAV file. That's easy enough.
Getting all of the feels and tones
right is not.
031616 Played the 'tunias Juno Imacto.
Wrote out the 8 "completed"
(Corky Finds Something, Windy,
Her Bows, Maryland Mansion,
NowHere, Juno Impacto, nothingood
& Dingus) songs for Dave to ponder.
Thinking of creating a sample using
Structure Free in NowHere today,
just to learn how to use it. I did. I
replaced an annoying part in NowHere
with samples of the intro and the "shake"
in the verse. I like it.
031416 Re-sang main vocal and harmonies for
Juno Impacto. Also re-cut piano.
031316 Had a run at the drums in Juno Impacto
for the first time on the Mackie. Not bad.
031216 Annoying issue with Pro Tools 12
clipping note duration when quantizing
MIDI tracks. Someone suggested
going to Events and using the Remove
Duplicate Notes before quantizing to fix
the issue. And ta-da.
031116 The lord done bless me with another
chile. World, meet and ignore
"Juno Impacto". So much easier to
write new songs than to finish existing
songs.
030916 The Beatles made me want to play
guitar. George Martin made me want
to record it backwards.
Got the Mackie mixer and the
FireWire card. Didn't take long to
get everybody talking to one another
but now I have to learn what all of
the stupid buttons do.
030516 Got off some decent vocal takes
for Maryland Mansion. Bought
a Mackie mixer and some good
mixing headphones.
030416 Michael worked on Dingus again
today. Dave came by later and
listened to the 2 new songs.
030316 Michael came by a had a few runs
at the piano on Dingus.
030216 Michael came by and had a listen to
Maryland Mansion and Her Bows.
022716 Rachel and Kevin came over to record
more vocals.
022616 Rachel came over and recorded backing
parts on NowHere, Corky, Windy and
nothingood.
Was playing with some melodies and
phrasing for the New Guitar Song demo
and realized that the bits from Pool work
perfectly. Just have to arrange it.
Dear Jimmy or Johnny or whatever,
How do I delete volume automation from
a track in Pro Tools?
Hi. How are you? You can delete the
automation points by selecting a point
and pressing Alt and Delete. Goodbye.
022516 Went through all of the songs on the new
computer and corrected all of the "broken
while moving" issues with the exception
of the missing input errors. Worked on
sequencing Maryland Mansion. Tried
singing actual words to replace the
knock-off bit and still can't best it.
022416 Second Rokit arrived so I unpacked the
stands only to discover that the bases
are too wide to fit in my old configuration.
Additionally, the old stands were made of
wood so they were sturdy enough for carpet.
These wobble terribly so I'm going to have
to find another solution. Until then, they
sit on the floor. *sags*
Spent a long time getting the new computer
to play nicely with Pro Tools. It was handy
having a working set-up on the old computer
to compare settings. Finally whupped it.
Got one of the KRK Rokit 8 monitors yesterday.
The 2nd should wander in today so that I
can return Dave's Yamaha HS8s.
022316 Replaced the M-Audio 49e with an M-Audio
88 key controller courtesy of Steven Brown.
022216 Got the Dell OptiPlex 3020. Everything
works fine except that it doesn't see the
Behringer. I initially had this issue with the
original computer so hopefully futzing will
address the problem.
Added a scratch vocal with dummy words
to Maryland Mansion and as usual I really
like the performance and am not sure I
can best it. There's something about those
let-me-just-knock-off-this-vocal-idea-for-
reference-later performances.
022116 Instead of finishing the 6 partially-completed
songs I started a new ditty. Maryland Mansion
for now since nobody gave me $10.
022016 Had a listen to a few of the unfinished
Juiceboxberries mixes with Patrick.
Pretty exciting.
More studio upgrades to consider:
Replace Behringer with a Mackie Onyx
1220i FireWire Production Mixer.
Replace M-Audio 49e with an M-Audio
61 key controller.
Maryland Mansion. That's mine now
and you can't use it. Unless you give
me money. Like $10. Or $20. No,
no, wait - don't go! $10 is cool.
021716 Michael had a few runs at the piano
during the outro of Dingus.
021616 Starting to get intermittent stutters in playback
that doesn't effect the recording. Might be a
plug-in but I think it's time to start looking for
a cheap computer to dedicate to Pro Tools.
Thinking Dell OptiPlex 3020 Pentium G3240 3.10GHz
500GB HDD 8GB Ram Windows 7 Pro 64Bit.
021516 Played Michael a guitar/bass demo last week
that I set up in Pro Tools today. This was
another stereo demo in a WAV file from
several years ago. For sketching purposes,
I imported the WAV file into Pro Tools
and hacked up the bits to create an
outline. I thought of Paris everytime
I heard a click where I didn't cross-fade.
021316 Met Michael at Joelle's World of Love Benefit Concert.
Talked to Victoria about coming by and tracking
some vocals.
For Michael and Dave:
Zeta One Theme by Johnny Hawksworthy (1969)
Tried recording some drum tracks
for Dingus. Will try again Monday.
021216 Went to war with Dingus - added a
scratch bass part, piano track and did
loads of editing. Should be in good
enough shape to show the Lonesome
Petunias on Wednesday.
First order of business, make sure that
the instruments are all grouped together
and that the comments are useful in
all of the songs. That little task unearthed
a missing drum track so restoring that will
be added to today's menu.
021116 Yesterday I came up with an intro for
Dingus that I'm now considering giving
life as its own song. That's they way
this shit is supposed to work.
021016 Ate hamburgers for a pre-game meal.
Dave (who shudders everytime he
has to plug something into my cheapo
Behringer mixer) learned and tracked
bass partsfor nothingood.
020916 Kept after nothingood all day. Loads
of editing, added more vocals, guitars
and keyboards. I'm going to try to get
Dingus this far tomorrow so that we
have 5 nearly done pies. Nearly done
pies are better than a sack of flour
and an unopened can of dead fruit.
020816 More vocals and first wave of drums
for nothingood. More outro vocals and
drums for NowHere. More vocal tracks
for Windy and Windy outro.
020616 Lord have mercy. First day recording
with Pro Tools 12 and the Behringer.
Curiuosly, I had all of the same
problems that Bruce did today while
working on NowHere. I also started
to have CPU issues. Now that my
audio tracks are not limited I went
back to using a Bus for effects for
the vocals to cut back on plug-ins.
Finally manged to knock off a three
mic drum take or two and tried some
more guitar solos with the Strat
instead of the Bronco.
Dear Johnny or Jimmy or whatever,
It's me again! I have 2 fresh problems:
1) I'm having trouble getting input and
output from my Behringer XENYX 1204
interface.
2) I'm having dreadful latency issues!
Bruce
Dear Bruce,
1) Check your mixer to verify that the
red "2-TR/USB to Main" button is UP
and that the red "2-TR/USB" button is
DOWN. Also, in Setup>Hardware
make certian that you have disabled
all of the inputs and outputs from the
sound card unchecked.
2) Make sure that in Setup>Hardware
you do not have the Hardware Buffer
box checked. You can tweak the
buffer size at the bottom of the window.
I love you.
Dear Johnny or Jimmy or whatever,
I have a problem with Pro Tools 12.
Suddenly the playback has stopped
working for any of my session files.
I can see the waveforms but the
timeline doesn't move. Also, is there
a shortcut for toggling the Edit and
Mix windows?
No name? That's not very friendly.
Pro Tools wil balk at playing a
session if it doesn't see the
hardware configuration it was
expecting. This could be
because you unplugged an
interface during the session
without going into Hardware>Setup.
Ctrl-+ will toggle the Mix and
Edit windows.
020516 Loaded all of the Pro Tools 8 LE
sessions into Pro Tools 12 and
everything works, all the plug-ins
are there etc. I think I am a
USB expansion device away from
being fully operational. Already
eyeing the entry level versions of
Melodyne - Essential or Assistant.
Comped Michael and Dave's vocal
parts from 2/3.
020416 Bought Pro Tools 12.4.0 Now instead
of an MBox interface taking up a
coveted USB slot I have an Ilok. It
sees the Behringer, which is good.
Will try some tracking tests tomorrow.
020316 Mike and Dave did Lonesome Petunia
vocals on Windy, Corky and NowHere.
Dave had another go at the bass on
NowHere.
Dear Johnny or Jimmy or whatever,
I recently imported some WAV files
into my Pro Tools 8 LE project and
now the waveforms are just a flat
line. I can hear the audio fine, I
just can't see it. Is there anything
I can do to increase the size of the
waveform without effecting the volume
or impacting the other waveforms in
the project? Your fan.
Dear Your,
I get this question all the time. Just
go to Audio Events>Other>Normalize.
You're welcome and please don't
send money. To the wrong address.
020116 Worked on NowHere all day. I
have been wanting to re-employ
some of the Casio SK1 samples
somewhere in the song and finally
started that adventure. Plopped
them at the start (added 8 measures)
and the end. Did several more takes
of the guitar solos and re-sang the
outro.
013116 Starting fresh on the Windy outro.
It was originally built on a very
awkward drum machine pattern
which was critical for the feel of
the song. I tried to replace it with
a very warm live drum sound and it
just doesn't work.
013016 Re-sang everything on NowHere. I
think it's about done. I need to give
Paris a few more takes of the guitar
in the outro, get a good bass and
drum track and this one is on the
wall with Corky. Now I need to look
at what needs to happen to call
Windy soup. Go Google
"call Windy soup". I'm going to.
012916 Had another try at some guitar licks
during the outro of NowHere. Comped
a bass track from Dave's scratch tracks
from Wednesday. Sent an AIF to John
to see if he can come up with anything
to spice up the soup. Or sweeten it.
012716 Dave recorded bass parts for NowHere.
012616 Talked to Paris about where mixing JBB
stood. He feels like he has 3 songs to
finish up before he's done. He reassured
me that he would be able to mix the
next album.
012516 Re-cut vocals on Nowhwere and Corky. Did
some carving on Windy, Dingus and
nothingood.
012016 Have NowHere whittled into an actual song.
Added a B section that needs a glossy bow.
011816 Worked on NowHere most of the day. I had
a dazzling bit of lyrical inspiration but got
distracted trying to bully it into the feel of the
song. Fresh ears tomorrow.
011616 Fleshed out NowHere. Not as good as the
demo but they never are.
Issue: The Audio Device buffer underflowed!
Solution: Load the Dither plugin in front of the
SansAmp plugin.
011516 Steve Neal came by and recorded some
harmonies on Windy and Corky.
Discovered the 32 audio track limitation
of Pro Tools 8 LE. Good news for Paris.
011316 Played Michael and Dave some demos.
Dave recorded some nice bass takes for
Corky Finds Something.
Talked to Michael about using the cake
picture for the album cover and he
was OK with it.
011216 Adobe Illustrator loaded.
Dave is coming over tomorrow to track bass
on Windy and Corky. Steve coming over
later in the week to add some vocals.
011116 Built scratch tracks (drum machine, guitar
and vocals) for Dingus and nothingood.
Tried a few acoustic guitar takes on Windy.
011016 Tracked a few more lead vocals in Windy.
Also replaced the whistling bit in the start
with a pad.
Experimented with a drier vocal in Corky.
010816 Learned a fortunately not-painful lesson
about splitting regions. I had been using
B which makes a split through every track!
Control E is correct tool.
Bought Illustrator 10 for the PC, which is
the same age as both of the dead/unreliable
Macs. Speaking of dead/unreliable Macs,
if the iMac holds up I'll probably use
Garageband and the Behringer to record
drums, since Pro Tools 8 limites me
to the Mbox interface with its 2 channels.
Speaking of the Mbox, I thought one
of the XLR outputs was dead but
discovered in the IO setup in Pro Tools
that it only lets you select one of the
two channels for input.
Going to learn about sends today.
010716 It's step measuring day:
1) I was able to resurrect the iMac. Wiped
the hard drive and loaded a fresh operating
sytem on it. I still lost Adobe Illustrator for
the album artwork but at least I now have
a place to put it when I buy it. I can also
use this to record drums with the Behringer
since there is an issue with the Mbox
interface.
2) Actually recorded some tracks with the
Mbox and Pro Tools. Discovered that there
is an issue between XLR Line 1 and Pro
Tools but Line 2 works and both
instrument ins work.
3) Learned about cloning and moving
regions, changing the time signature,
quantizing and other little goodies.
4) The MacBook Pro, which we used to
record all of Juiceboxberries, is not
long for this world. It's suffering from
one of the most common ailments
for these computers - the inverter power
cable is breaking. The symptom is
that the display works intermittently.
You have to sort of tilt the screen until
you find the sweet spot to get any
output.
Paris: "Recording music with
computers is hard."
010616 I have a few demos that I want to generate
click tracks for so I learned 3 different
methods for determining the tempo of a
song in Pro Tools. One method is Beat
Detective. You highlight a region and use
Beat Detective to analyze it. That is a
conductor on operation.
Another option is to line up the region in
grid mode and use the up and down arrows
to vary the temp until the grid at the bottom
marks the start and end of a measure. In the
3rd procedure you disable the conductor and
Keyboard Focus, highlight the current tempo,
press play and tap the T key along with the
beat.
How do you disable or toggle off Keyboard
Focus in Pro Tools 8? Ctrl Alt 1
will turn it off, pressing the AZ button will
turn it on.
R & T to zoom in and out. This is with
Keyboard Focus off.
Clicking Bars & Beats toggles the grid.
010416 Found some old Girl for Samson Sonar session
files from Dingus that I should at least be
able to use as a guide for its resurrection.
Also found the audio tracks for the demo of
NowHere which features a Casio SK-1.
010316 Loaded the Garageband session for Corky
Finds Something into Pro Tools on the PC.
Todd willing, I'll be starting the balance of
the songs from scratch in PT from this point
forward.
010116 Loaded the Garageband session for Windy
into Pro Tools on the PC and it worked!
Forgot to disable the effects so I will be
repeating it.
Padded Allen's drum tracks and the
balance of the scratch tracks to
import into Pro Tools. Pro Tools
workstation du jour is a Windows 7 PC
using Pro Tools 8 LE and the absolute
minimum memory. Am toying with
the idea of booting the iMac with a
firewire drive and running Pro Tools 9
on it.