I’ve started writing this retrospective each year to disabuse myself of the notion that I didn’t get shit done each year. It helps. Goals from last year: 1. Finish writing the first draft of third book in the Arcane Underworld series. Done! And several people who are not prone to blowing smoke up
Scene: My dad’s study/music room, which is furnished with some top-notch recording equipment. DAD and ME are sitting there, each with a pair of headphones on, attempting to get his recorded vocal and guitar to sound right. DAD: The voice sounds too thin. Why doesn’t it sound warmer? ME (twiddling EQ knobs): How’s that? DAD:
These are highly idiosyncratic and personal, so likely don’t work for everyone, but these are the rules I live by: 1.) If I need more than 22 tracks to say something, I probably can’t say it. 1a.) Recording guitar tracks in stereo is almost always a waste, barring unusual use of effects. 1b.) That goes
Every year, I look back and think, “I didn’t get shit done this year!” Sometimes that’s accurate. Other times, that’s more a result of failure to step out of the day-to-day frustrations and look at the broader picture. And also a result of having unrealistic goals, I suppose. In any case, this year, I started
Got my grubby mitts on a handful of very nice microphones for the evening, and I thought I’d do a quick test using each as a single front-of-kit mic to get a feel for them. I placed all four mics in roughly the same spot about five feet from the front of kit. Not super
I started learning drums on a very nice set of Roland V-Drums (a TD-12), often running the midi output through BFD 2 to get better sounds. I thought that was more-or-less fantastic. Then I had a jam session with a real drummer, so I miked up a crappy kit a buddy left lying around at
Some reviews
Premonitions is now out making its way in the world. Here are a few of my favorite reviews so far: Library Journal (starred review!) RT Book Reviews Fresh Fiction Reader of Fictions