20 September - EP News

I'm pleased to announce that the EP has been mastered, and we are on schedule for the October release. All that remains now is uploading the files to Bandcamp, finishing the artwork, and sending the files off again to have a short run of promo CDs pressed (burned, duplicated, whatever the kids are calling it these days). And then getting in touch with various bloggers, fans, followers, and reviewers, here and overseas. Okay, so yeah. The work is never really done.

19 September - Counting Down

The trio has a practice session this coming Monday evening. As mentioned in a previous post, our final public performance will be Saturday, October 17th. So we'll get together this week, and then again on the Monday and Friday right before the show. That'll do. We've been playing these songs for well over twenty years, and it's not like we need to learn how they go. We're just gonna polish things up a bit before putting them on display one last time.

13 September - EP Update

As of today, the recording is done and I am ridiculously happy. Did the final two guitar bits and some mixing earlier today, took a break and then reviewed all five mixes. Pretty sure we're set to bounce them down and move on to mastering.

9 September - Pedalboard Update

Ordered another Pedaltrain Nano board, as I quite liked the first one I'd bought. It arrived yesterday, and I got it organised this afternoon. The top board in the photo is the new one. It is also the more basic of the two. Tuner, distortion, a simple reverb, and an old no-frills digital delay.

The pedals on the lower board allow for more variety, as they all offer several layers within each effect. The tuner is essentially the same, but the next pedal in line here is a bit different. Designed to work primarily as a clean boost, it can also function as a dirty boost or even a standalone dirt stage. There are three flavors of gain available. The reverb pedal offers eight forms of reverb, including two types with modulation (tremolo and a chorus/vibrato sort of thing that ranges from subtle to seasick). Lastly, the digital delay on this board features a tap tempo option, and can also be set for measured repeats. Oddly enough, even though this board is more complicated, it's ideal for acoustic-electric use, simply because the gain pedal on this one can be set for a clean boost and actually used. With the other board, the dirt pedal would be superfluous to requirements in an acoustic setting.

I leave a little extra space between the tuners and the other pedals because it means I am less likely to accidently mute myself onstage by activating the tuner pedal with the edge of my shoe. Yes, this has happened. Yes, the arrangement illustrated here seems to have solved the problem.

6 September - More Vocals

Recorded all the vocals to another song yesterday, and am very pleased with how everything sounds. Just need to add the fancy guitar bits, and this one will be ready to mix. The first three have been, so we're comfortably on schedule to finish the project in time for an October 2nd release.

3 September - October Set List

After a considerable amount of thought (factoring in the amount of stage time we'll have and which songs would best represent the cream of our vast repertoire within that period), I have come up with a damn fine set list for our Studio 30 show on October 17th. I have sent it to my bandmates for their approval.

What? Hell no, I'm not posting it in here. Come to the show.