Blog Posted

Hey everyone,
I've started this blog in order for you guys to know what recording stuff I'm up to- equally my breakthroughs, frustrations and random thoughts. So here we go, in list form!

-Had my mastering quiz and think I impressed Garver. Basically we had to bring in a couple songs- one that we thought sounded good and one that sounded bad and make them feel like they would belong on the same cd- then we had to do the same for one he had. After I finished he asked me if I was graduating that semester, when I told him I was a freshman he was totally surprised. (songs I chose- girlshapedlovedrug by Gomez-good and Battle for Middle Earth by Air Show Disaster-bad, but I made it better)

-I'm working on a punk cover of "What Goes Around, Comes Around" by Justin Timberlake which is going really well so far, guitars and drums sound nice and crisp- but I still need to redo the bass track and the vocals. We recorded drums through an electronic kit and triggered the snare and the kick using samples- turned out better than I expected, but that's probably because Mariella's an incredible drummer.

-I need to learn how to make my drum sounds consistent when I'm sampling. As the level of the guitar and vocal fluctuate, the master compressor/limiter is shelving the snare hit seemingly arbitrarily and it ends up sounding weak and awkward. (however ironically, extremely real)

-Speaking of which I finished recording and writing my second songwriting class midterm, which I'm really happy with. Once again, drums could be better....it could also use some hi hat and toms which I was too lazy to put in....but I did it all in about six hours so it came out really well for that. I've been borrowing this Marshall JCM 2000 head from my bandmate Alex and it makes guitar sound incredible.

-Got SSL and API Waves emulators the other day and I'm extremely impressed. I don't really know how similar they sound, but I like them regardless...especially the SSL EQ and the API 2500 compressor.

-Put a high quality flash player on myspace instead of their shitty one- drums have life now, it's incredible. (it's hard to imply sarcasm in text so I'm just going to say it) sarcasm.

I think that's about it for now, I have Springfest all day today so if things go right I'll get to meet Saosin, The Chase, Self Against City, etc. Enjoy all, keep checking in.