I’m in the middle of doing a mix for my good friend Robert Boynton’s band. As I’m sorting through this rather large and complicated mix, it occurred to me that here I am working in a computer format completely in the box, with super high resolution, powerful editing and sound shaping tools and it’s all running on a machine that’s several years old. I might add that it’s doing all this on 4 gig of RAM and working perfectly in real time without a hiccup.

I grew up learning from the time I was a very young child, how to cut and edit tape with an xacto knife, learning recording and mixing of music from my father who always had a recording studio in the house. While I was growing up, my Father had a harmonica band, and would frequently record at the house. I used to play harp with them and there’s some old recordings I need to dig through some day that we made.

My point is that while I’m working on these huge mixes with computer assistance, my history goes back to those early days and all the lessons learned from my Father. How good do I have it now with the powerful tools at my disposal? Really good. I can remember how much went into capturing a 3 or 4 piece Harmonica band and how the entire floor was covered with cables all for a 2 track stereo recording. How hooking up large tape machines together and using a patch bay to run the edited reel onto a large master reel as a “Final Mix”

Just wanted to share a small snipit of gratitude I felt today for my Father who taught me so much about what I currently do now. I know my Father would absolutely love the tools I’m using now and would be amazed at what they can do. 

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Hi folks and a Happy New Year to all!. We’ve been busy here in the studio, and are already kicking the New Year off with a whole host of things. Some I can chat about, and some you’ll have to wait to hear details about.

All kinds of new things going on in the studio. We’ve been doing lots of Skype sessions utilizing it for interviews, shows, podcasts, etc. right into Protools. If you’d like us to produce some content for you, don’t hesitate to ask us about how to best approach your next project.

Lots of musical projects have also been filling the schedule. We’ve been busy mixing and mastering projects, working on some musical session work and have also been working on a variety of my own musical projects. I’ve been working through the remixing of Songs in the Key of 7, and finishing up some unreleased material to boot.

The preproduction of “Back to Myself” is still moving along. Coordination continues with the other musicians on the project. Eric Sands has been coming up with some great bass lines and has been eagerly waiting for more material to work on. He’s going to be a great addition to the whole album offering a variety of fretted and fretless tracks.

I’ve also begun the preproduction on a series of Local Music Podcasts for all of Southern Oregon. The “Defiant Digital Local Music Podcast” will feature music from all over the Southern Oregon region, and so far the response has been great. I’ve got great music from all over the Southern Oregon region and folks keep sending more every day.

I also edited, mixed and mastered a new LIVE comedy show for Lizz Winstead, comedienne extraordinaire and Co-Creator of the Daily Show, and you can pick it up on her website here: http://www.lizzwinstead.com

I promise I will do more blogging this year. Last year was a horrible year and I hope to never have to go through all the things that happened last year ever again. This year has already begun in a much more positive fashion and I hope it continues to move right along.

Would love to hear from all of you! What kinds of projects are you looking at completing this year? Take some time to share below and thanks so much for reading the blog, again, I promise I’ll be more on top of writing this year.

Bye for now..

A

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Hello all,

Well, I’ve moved the blog to a new location and working with a new Word Press design to see if I can eliminate some of the issues that I was having with the last format.

I hope all of you are finally enjoying the beginning of Spring wherever you are. It’s not too “Springish” here yet, but I think it’s trying. It continues to tempt us with some beautiful sunshine later in the afternoon, and it is my hope that it will get better each day till we’re enjoying the classic Southern Oregon weather.

I wanted to keep you up to date with some of the projects we’ve been undertaking as of late. It seems that the Winter was the perfect time to build some new websites, develop some New Media strategies and help to bring some of these powerful tools to other things I’m involved in.

The World Kobukan Federation, of which I am the Secretariat General, has been growing and finding its’ feet. I’m so happy with being able to bring Martial Artists from all over the planet together in one place to share in Budo. I’ve been Producing a new series of Podcasts for the WKF, some of which can be found on the WKF website by clicking the banner below:

These have been a great opportunity to utilize not only the new media technology of the podcast, but also being able to use Skype as a source for high quality recording of interviews. I was able to use Skype to connect with Master Ronnie Colwell over in the UK, and do an interview with him right from my studio using a great high quality recording app that I got for Skype that takes all the muss and fuss out of getting a Professional quality signal.

It separates the audio streams and allows me to put my voice and his on separate channels that I can then merely strip out and tighten the edit up to compensate for any internet lag that may happen during the course of the interview or that will happen with varying connection speeds. I can run the audio stream through my mic chain, and it sounds as if the other person is sitting right here with me in the studio.

Also, I launched a new community website for my town:

It’s a great opportunity to bring a variety of services to the community that I live in and help to bring it closer together. I’ve been hearing all kinds of complaints from folks who have been using craigslist around here, that the community flagging has gotten out of control. 

I have had a few instances that I’ve posted something and it’s been immediately flagged for no reason whatsoever. So I started the Grants Pass Community Dot Com website. It’s packed full of information and a complete message forum where locals can post news and information, events, garage sale items, rentals, business listings, local services, a band directory eatery and nightlife reviews and much more.

Something I’m particularly happy with is the Emergency Services Notifications Forum. It allows local Public Safety agencies to post notices of interest to the public. Agencies can post Amber alerts, endangered missing persons, road closures, fire season information and much more. Being that I am a former Law Enforcement Professional, I felt it only fitting to provide the agencies with a great place to share this info with the public that is easy to find.

I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas about this new blog, so please feel free to leave them below and join in the discussion.

Till Next time,

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