Recent acquisitions

In my ongoing pursuit of the ability to record drums well, I recently picked up a second Delta 66 sound card. I was considering picking up a Delta 1010 (or similar unit from another manufacturer) but it occurred to me that the "Delta Panel" had dialog buttons and settings for up to four Delta cards. After some quick research on the M-Audio site, I realized I could easily add a second card to the system; after trolling eBay, I found one cheap - and bam! Now I have 8x8 analog I/O with (presumably) 4x4 digital. I haven't tested it fully to make sure the machine can actually handle that much audio at once, but I intend to do that soon.

In the meantime, I've also been filling out my late 80's Pearl Export kit; I've just added an 8" and 10" tom, and the requisite hardware to mount them to my stands. I've now got a pretty good prog kit, with double-bass pedals and such. The drums sound pretty good; I've got them tuned up well, and even have built some sound baffles to help keep the reflections to a minimum.

I've also been snapping up mics for the drums; I got a couple of the Audio-Technica "Kit-Pak" sets, as well as some clips to attach them to the rims. I'll use my Oktava pair as overheads and might consider using one of my large condensers for the kick if the AT kick/low tom mic doesn't have enough "oomph." I know that it will take me some time to get the hang of recording drums, but the eventual goal is to be able to invite players over to record tracks in my own studio. I'm getting there!

Session: 8/4

Last night was a good session. We have been working on "Awaken the Man," and last week was mostly a lyrical exercise - and while we didn't get a LOT done last week, at least we cemented the concept a little better, and mapped out the song's eventual course - now it's just about filling in the blank space, lyrically. It's got a very unique approach to its theme, and I look forward to finishing up the words to this one, which will be an interesting personal journey for both of us.

In the meantime, musically we had the original Mellotron intro and verse/prechorus I'd written based on Josh's progression a couple months ago, and then about half a dozen different bits and pieces that had come to us over the last several sessions. These other song "scraps" were scattered along the tracks, making for a visual and aural puzzle that was beginning to get a little overwhelming. So last night we weeded out the "weak" parts and started fitting the disparate "keeper" sections into the song structure, so we could begin to figure out the musical jigsaw we'd created.

As of last night, we now have about 7.5 minutes of steady music - with plenty more to come. It's obvious that this song is destined to be our longest epic song yet - it has a lot of lyrical and musical ground to cover before it gets to the finish line. It should be a very interesting (and hopefully enjoyable) adventure getting it there.

Awaken the Man, Redux

Last night was one of those partly frustrating, partly very good writing sessions. Mark's computer(s) started acting up again, and it was causing him a lot of anxiety and consternation (look it up). He seemed to have sorted it out in the end, but it was somewhat stifling to the creativity.

Computer problems notwithstanding we did manage to nail down and finalize the lyrical concept for Awaken the Man. The idea hit me a few days ago and when I brought it to Mark yesterday he seemed to dig it. As predicted, it looks like ATM will be another epic, with FOUR verses. The first verse and pre-chorus are done, and we made significant progress on the second verse last night.

So in the end, progress is being made and I suspect the writing of this song will start to pick up.

Slow Night

Not the most productive session last night, but some progress was made. We started going through some archived material to see if anything fit in Awaken the Man. Mark found something I wrote a few years ago that he thinks will be a good chorus, and I came up with a very heavy (well, heavy for us) section I hope to use to completely throw the song in another direction. We then added another small section that Mark came up with. It's headed to a nice place so far; we just didn't have the total embrace of the Muses last night. I suspect that this song is going to be hard to finish because it's the last song we're planning for the CD, and therefore we'll probably scrutinize it more than the others. Just my feeling...

No session tonight... :-(

Josh is away this weekend, so we're not getting together tonight. We'll see if I have the resolve to spend that time putting old stuff up on eBay. It's a real drag, writing "good" auctions, but it's GOT to be done... with the buying spree I've been on lately, I really need to liquidate some items to replenish my bank account!