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Showing posts from February, 2010

And That's What It's All About

Yesterday evening marked the final group recording sesh for the project. As we finished in epic style with a yet-to-be-named original composition, I was gently reminded about who is at the helm. All along, this album has been and still is fraught with challenges and problem-solving. And most would say, "That's life." Although this is true, more and more my perspective is becoming, "That's grace." It's by grace that I am challenged because I am never given more than I can bear. It's by grace that I meet with problems because I am never given more than He can overcome. I am once again very grateful that this project has not been entrusted to me and my care, but rather has been a journey and a sculpting tool. In the end, I don't know what the other members of the project will say. (I've been seriously considering filming some footage to produce a YouTube documentary about the experience.) But for me, this last six or so weeks has been nothing

Vern's Exit Interview

 Vern Mullins gives his thoughts on the final three songs that he recorded for the FBR project.

Overdubs from Outer Space

  Aaron and Ben putting in a few late night hours to add "space" to the album.

Sonic Arithmetic

One thing that has improved with time on this project is the flow of ideas. This weekend's rehearsal and recording sesh's were no exception. This was the first of two weeks of trying to squeeze in three songs each, so I knew we'd have our work cut out for us. The three songs for this section were a soulful adaptation of the Negro Spiritual Were You There? , Brian T. Murphy's arrangement of Out Of The Deep I Call , and the Christmas classic, O Come O Come Emmanuel . Our rehearsal was comparatively brief and was dampened by foul moods and the closest thing to drama that I've seen during this project. I was not overly positive coming into last night's recording, therefore. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised by our nearly obstacle-free evening. We managed to nail down Were You There in three takes , which quickly lifted spirits. Out Of The Deep I Call proved to be a nostalgic trip for several of the band members, and ended up resembling something between S

Aaron Robert Interview 2

 Aaron Robert summarizes the music, goals and purpose of FBR.

Evan Schubarth

  Evan (former drummer of Wake The Giant ) shares his perspective on writing versus session playing.

Rebuilding is Hard to Do

2:30am last night found me almost falling over at the mixing desk. After four hours of slaving away, I was successfully able to restructure the Cubase file for I Need Thee Every Hour from scratch. Aligning random audio clips with no grid to guide me was unpleasant, but I'm glad that none of the recordings were harmed in the whole debacle. Even thought I was not excited about the work or staying up past 2am, it was helpful to re-examine the song from the ground up. I am already processing some ideas for a slight deviation from the original rough mix that is posted on the website .

Windows 7 is Not My Idea

So, some will undoubtedly think to themselves that I am quite daft after they read this post. I myself am inclined to agree wholeheartedly. The entire Far Beyond Rescue project is being produced on...drumroll....wait for it...a PC . I know all of you sonically savvy types were prepared for me to give you the spec's on some sweet Mac machine with 18 Tb of HD space and 100 million Gb of RAM. But that sadly is not the case. Call it budget, call it ghetto, it is what it is. I haven't upgraded my rig to Mac yet, and last night, I paid the price. The fact that the price was a corrupt Cubase Sx 3 file does not exactly make my day. In the midst of troubleshooting, I also discovered (much to my chagrin) that I have multiple frame rates going on. For those of you who are lost in my techno babble, it's kind of like forcing your computer to handle a fast file and a slow file and make them run at the same speed. It bogs down the machine and does mean things to how your puter processe

Interview with Ben Higgins

 Ben (former guitarist for The Fabulous Hot Finks ) shares his perspective on the creative side of his guitar licks for the project.

Interview with Aaron Robert

 Aaron Robert reflects on the musicians' work thus far and the overall group feel of the project.

Three to Get Ready

So after a week off---for a WEDDING !!!?? What in the world??!?! One of our musicians asked for a few days off. We had no idea until he returned that it was because he was rushing off to get married !! While we are celebrating with him, I became a bit concerned because he married a woman from not just out of town , but out of state ! This means that in two weeks, he's moving away. Yikes. It will be very sad to see him go, not simply because he's a friend, but because he also happens to be a very accomplished addition to the project. Of course (like everything else on this project), God intervened in a wonderful and most unexpected way. One of the initial invitations for this project had gone out to my friend Anthony Montoya, who had temporarily dropped off the radar. Well, wouldn't you know, I get a "random" phone call and v/m from him the day of the rehearsal after I got the news...and he wanted to be a part of the project . I called him right away and told him t