His Mind, His Memories, His In Your Face Interface

Here it is, the one, the only, M-Audio Fast Track Pro:

Mic's Came In!

The mic's I ordered have come in! The recording can resume after having to take a few days off from tracking. The micropnones include two Audio-Technica Pro-37's and an Audio-Technica AT2035. Here are some pictures:



















I also received word today that the audio interface I ordered has reached the distributer and was shipped to the store today, and thus it should be in my possession within the next few days. Needless to say I am quite excited.

I used the AT2035 to record some tracks tonight through the preamp I've been using for the rest of the recordings so far and am already really happy with it. It is easily the best microphone I have ever used. It is super sensitive while running very quiet.

I also decided that it was time to show off the guitar I bought a month ago specifically for this recording process. It is an Epiphone Sheraton II.




As a side note: I saw one of my favorite performers for the first time last night, Jason Lytle, formerly of the band Grandaddy. When I say favorite I really mean it. This guy really speaks to me. It was an amazing performance. I picked up his new album and I can't stop listening to it. It is a little more laid back and mellow than the Grandaddy stuff, but it is so desperately sad that I literally have to choke back tears at times when listening to it. The album is called "Yours Truly, The Commuter" and it is on Anti Records. You should own a copy.

Lyrics.

Some of the tunes I've been working on are brand new. Some of them have been floating around for a while missing parts. Most of the time those missing parts are lyrics.

Tonight some of those lyrics came to me on a long late-night drive home.

Now all I need are the bridge and final verse lyrics to a brand new song and I will have all the album lyrics finished.

THE BEAST!

THE BEAST, My friends is a Lowrey Organ that I acquired for free many years ago now. I was working the floor at the drum shop and a call came in asking if we would take an organ. I said that the shop did not, but asked the older woman on the other end of the line what she wanted for it. She told me that it was free to anyone who would come pick it up. The following Sunday my Father and I wrestled this behemoth down the steep and narrow staircase of a condo. We narrowly avoided hitting her walls on the way down, and at one point my Father nearly swung the Lowrey into the lady's TV. From then on it has lived in the basement on 2nd St., the basement of my Father's new house where it was continuously abused by his Grandkids-In-Law, and finally in it's proper station in my basement studio, The Communist Day Care Center.

This instrument is being heavily featured on this album and I am having a blast finding all the different tones I can get out of it. Just wait until you hear the bite on "Lazy Sunday"! So without further ado - A pictorial of THE BEAST!


The other day I was working on recording the organ track for "Restocking Fee" and one of the C#'s on the upper manual (keyboard) was sticking. I'd had this trouble before and I decided that I would open up the back of the organ, something I hadn't done before. I figured I would be able to access and fix the key easily and I would get a good look at the electronics, as one of my recent ideas was that I could get in there and do a point to point cleaning so that all the connections would be good and the sound
would improve. This is what I found.

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There is no way I'm going through and cleaning all of that. Not only would it have to be amazingly meticulous and time consuming, but I'm almost certain to knock a wire loose and have no clue of where it came from.

The Lowrey does have a Leslie Speaker as you can see. I thought I'd point that out because it's pretty sweet. It also has a place to connect an external Leslie as well.


Oh Crap! I shouldn't have told them it was a Lowrey! Oh Crap! I shouldn't have told them it was on the album! Oh Crap! I certainly shouldn't have said it was "Lazy Sunday," and "Restocking Fee!" ......It's too hot today.

Website Up And Walking!

Http://DandyLyonWhine.Net

There is now a website. There really isn't anything on it but a photo right now, but it's there. I spent most of last night getting my domain name to link to my web host, and then most of this morning getting Dream Weaver to link to communicate with the site. My main focus right now is on finishing the album, but when I'm done I have to have some place to put it, right?

At the moment I have about eight weeks to finish tracking, mix, master, package and release the album. If I have the ass power to get that done then this is the tentative plan: The expected release date is September 8th, 2009. The album will be released on the website as high quality Mp3's for free. I plan on also releasing a physical print copy in nice packaging and with a second disc of demo tracks from the album for sale at shows and on the website.

The album is currently slated to be nine or ten tracks long. The song selection spans from some of my older work, to newer staples in the live show, along with some new songs and songs that were only played a few times a very long time ago. Right now a collaboration is in the works for one of the tracks with Brainz in '08.

The rest of today will be spent recording. Tick Tock Tick Tock ...

Track 1 Tracked!

Earlier tonight I laid down what may be the final track for track 1. These were the vocal tracks to "The Co. Ink." There are a couple of ways that the mix could come out and that could effect the tracking, so I just finished putting out a couple of rough mixes, and tommorow starts the process of listening to them on different stereos to see what the prevailing ethos of this mix should be. There is also the chance that I may throw a bass guitar track in there at some point, most likely after I aquire a bass guitar.

"The Co. Ink" is a very dreamy track, which is one of the reasons I was able to record it already. At the moment I am still waiting for my audio interface and microphones, all of which should help give a cleaner sound. The hiss that I got on this particular recording however, really adds to the ambiance of the track. I am really excited about this one. It is turning out very well and is a great way to start the project.