Tonight was final mixdown of one of the tracks we recorded last week in class. I chose the first minute of the first song. Carrie was supposed to be there too, but too many seizures had her out for the count. So I had the studio to myself, which was awesome! I could do what I wanted, not that I had tons of ideas, but I didn’t have to argue or compromise.
The first thing I did was throw the drums on bus 1 and 2, to remember how to do it. I never actually needed it, but it was a good reminder. Then I spent the rest of the time trying to fix the bass sound that some brilliant jackass did. To try to explain, they did a modified instrumental version of Santaria, so it’s pretty mellow. But they had the pre-am too hot on the bass, so it’s overdriven. Not quite distorted, but way too harsh for the tone of the song. So, I tried to cut 1.5 k, which is in the vacinity of the string sound, but it was still too harsh. Then, I eventually found a setting on the effects processor that fattens the sound, and I could live with that. A bit of tweaking with the headphones on to get a realistic bass sound (the room is super bassy), and I was relatively happy. The other thing I did was take out about 5 seconds of piano where Trey did something silly. But you don’t honestly notice it being gone, and it’s a big distraction if it’s in there. But hell, for one take, it was pretty darn good.
In two weeks we’ll listen to everyone’s mixes. I’m sure people will add beats and shit, but that’s not what I’m into. My mix may not be fancy, but hopefully they’ll say the bass sounds good. 
I’m also glad that I was right about the bass being too hot when we recorded. The guys may not have listened to me, but I was right. Another good note is that Tim is giving Carrie an incomplete so she can come in when her meds work and do her own mixdown and stuff. This will allow her to get a feel for things, and without the pressure of other people in the room. I’m hoping by then she’ll be ready to start audio 2 also. We can wait until the fall if necessary, so we’ll see.
I’m going to ask Tim about the local studios around here, and how to go about finding an internship type experience with what I know now. Lately all my dreams are music related, and all the science jobs are falling through. Perhaps I need to balance this all a bit more. Spend some time volunteering if necessary in studios and learning more. And definitely start practicing more. I need more guidance…so I’m going to get ready for bed and try to meditate before I go to sleep. I meditated today for a while, and the more I do it the better I do. So I’ll keep pushing development so I know which way to go.
Things are ok. Not always great, not always bad, but ok. Certainly better than I would expect considering the circumstances. And you know what? I’m more devoted to my wife than ever. That’s definitely a plus.
