journal

Between trips out to clear off the snow from the driveway I spent time working on the new piece of music. I guess it needs a working title.... let's call it... er... "Still on Hold". I scrapped 80% of what I had before and rewrote everything but the first Theme. Tonight I think I finally came up with something for the B theme that has me satisfied. This one is going slow but inching closer.

I had intended to restring my acoustic and re-track some of the acoustic parts on Counting Stars and finalize the demo. Then I can start production on that piece. But since things are going a little slow with the new piece and I spent half of yesterday removing snow I didn't get to it.

2 other items on the to-do list involve shopping. I am planning on buying some Real Traps to put down here in the basement. I've got some serious acoustic problems in the bottom end that make mixing a real challenge. It is hard to get the kick and bass guitar to sit in the mix right when you aren't really sure what is going on below 100Hz. Also I need to upgrade the virtual piano. At present I'm using a very old soundfont. It has served me well but there have been quite a few improvements in sampling technology in the last 10 years. "Counting Stars" features a lot of piano so if it doesn't sound great then I'll be starting behind the 8 ball trying to make the overall mix sound good. Right now I'm thinking about getting the Synthology Ivory because everyone says that one is great. I'm also considering the Blüthner Digital Model One which I think might sit a little better in a mix.

And I caught my former guitar teacher Steve Canty performing with his band on Saturday. Killer version of Little Wing!