July 21, 2014 One advantage of being able to park a car in the studio is the use of same for isolation.

July 21, 2014 Oh boy. The lynch-pin, the keystone, the side-two opener (if this was an LP record) is coming together for this project I've been working on all year. I got to play big quarter note figures on high-hat and ride...

July 15, 2014 Just listened to a live performance of Pink Floyd's The Great Gig in the Sky. It's the song with the wailing chick singer. The live performance was terrific. It made me think of opera. This "aria" is a challenge for rock era singers the same way that opera is for other singers. The idea of recreating something from rock's repertoire kind of got me thinking. We listeners can be very critical when it comes to this stuff. If the wailing chick part had wandered very far from the recorded version (even if it had been technically superior) we would have been let down. It's a difficult thing to do, to keep it fresh AND repeat the past. The project I'm working on now is a little different. I'm attempting to create rock songs that might have been but never were- referencing guitar sounds and drum patterns and vocals from earlier times, but putting them together in new ways. Which, when you think of it, is all that's been going on with rock music for the past 20 years or so. It's kind of nice to have been there when the whole thing happened the first time. It's led me to believe that it can still happen. Rather than just go over and over the rock (or blues! or folk!) repertoire, I think it's possible to throw this stuff together in new ways. Damn, I love rock music!

June 22, 2014 Fresh paint in the workshop. In addition to that, there's a new arrangement. I've got the mixing desk against a wall now, you can see it on the right side of the photo up top there. This has helped me to get a better bass balance in my mixes. I am vaguely aware of the reason for this- something to do with audio- but it's worth the sacrifice of not facing the performers when tracking.