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.
26 April 2007 at 14:31
Nasty thought… mix science and music — get a job making those ‘incapacitate troops/crowds’ with sound machines for the government/military.
Neat thought… mix science and music — certain beat rates (alpha, beta, delta levels) ((very low)) can be put into / mixed with ‘white noise’ (typically rain but others work) to induce ‘brain entrainment’. This also falls into the bi-aural brain sych theories ‘out’ there’ and researched in the past. (Robert Monroe did some for the military — trying to induce states ideal for training/retention. Others have worked with what is called hemi-sych to induce meditative/trance states and ‘focused’ states. Perhaps you can research brain cycles/bi-aural cyclic levels which would be helpful in negating seizure conditions?
28 April 2007 at 11:32
That’s not a bad idea. Except, I can’t find any information on jobs there, and it’s located in the completely wrong part of the country.
Thanks for the idea though
28 April 2007 at 17:22
I know the owner/president of a company in Florida. She started researching bi-aural & brain wave entrainment while looking at aids to sleep. She didn’t like the ones she tried (nor the bizarre high pricing) so she got the equipment and made her own. Now sells internationally… if nothing else, she has lots of info linked throughout.. so you can read up on the theory behind it all… and the papers/journals that back the science.
http://www.immrama.org/
28 April 2007 at 17:34
Just came to mind… one of the news collectors had an article of a woman who is hyper sensitive to electromagnetic radiation — television, cell phone (microwaves), magnetic fields generated by equipment — even the wires in the walls.
Now, I had heard and met folks who are hyper allergic… even perfumes, deoderants, etc. can set them off into nasty breathing difficulties. Contact does nasty skin damage.
Where this is meandering to… wonder if Carrie is electromagnetically sensitive? Has there been an increase in cell phone or ‘plugged in’ appliances at the same time as the increase in seizures? Just a thought… and easy to make a ’safe zone’… a do it yourself Faraday cage.