Wednesday, May 30th

Question: Why the lack of updates?

Answer: Here's what I've been doing...

- listening to a mix
- taking notes on tiny changes that need to made
- making said changes with Coop
- burning a CD of the updated mix

Now imagine doing that about a million times! Actually, it's only been about 7 times but you get the idea. We've tweaked vocal EQ's, guitar EQ's, levels, effects, the way tracks start and finish and about a dozen other things but we're finally there! The CD will leave for mastering this week, as will the artwork. I'll have the CD cover up on this blog by tomorrow - it's looking incredible (thanks to Lyndsey and Bryon's help).

I've been enjoying singing along to they CD with my kids, which is an amazing experience in and of itself. It's sounding fantastic and I can't WAIT to get it out to the church...

Tuesday, May 15th

This was our first day back on the project after my week in Orlando with my wife's family from Canada (eh?). Coop sat down with and we listened to what he had done on all of the tracks. I was listening mostly for the way he had EQ'd everything and the tones he's come up with. It's sounding AMAZING!

The intimate moments are intimate, the bass and kik drum are thunderous and warm, the drum kit sounds like a million dollars, the vocals sound pure and the electric guitars sound classic! Tomorrow we'll start going through each song, section by section, and working on levels together. This whole process is so much longer than I thought but this project feels special. Coop's excited about it, so am I and we want it to be the very best that it can be...

Saturday, May 5th

Today was all about clarifying my mixing desires and agreeing on a philosophy. It was the precursor to the final mixing stage. I also had to drag in my guitar gear to re-record a couple of simple electric guitar parts that were out of tune. Sometimes those kind of things slip through in the earlier stages of the project when you've been going for 6 hours already and you just want to be done for the day!

This means that all the recording aspects are completely finished and Coop will start the mixing process while I'm out of town next week at Disney World!

Friday, May 4th

Back at it! We hit the studio for 6 and a half hours today and worked exclusively on keyboard parts. We've got Killers-ish synth riffs, soaring strings, intimate cello, grand piano and violins happening on different tracks. We've worked really hard at not being predictable and not simply throwing stuff in there just for sake of adding something. Coop's been great to work with as far as letting me know when I'm adding something that doesn't need to be there. The old adage "less is more" always rings true for song arrangements. Everything has to have a purpose and a place. It can't compete with another instrument or vocal and it has to have it's own "space" in the mix. We've only got one more song to finish up keys on ("Worthy of the Call") and a couple of rhythm electric guitar parts that are out of tune that need to be re-played. So that's the plan for tomorrow afternoon, then Coop will be mixing while I'm out of town next week. He'll be sending me MP3z to listen to and I'll be emailing him my thoughts throughout the week.

Almost there...

Wednesday, May 2nd

We're definitely in the stage of the project where it's just work! Today I listened to the first rough, rough mix of the album on my iPod and took meticulous notes on every part of each song. I'm listening for anything I don't want, anything that's out of tune and anything that's missing. It's tedious but it's the type of work that makes a project sound really good when it's all done. Check out the scan I did of the song sheet for "Star Maker" below and you'll get an idea of what I'm doing...

Wednesday, April 25th

We were planning on finishing up the keys today but we decided to do some pre-mixing work instead. This means basically going through all the songs and doing the first round of cuts (taking out the parts we know we don't want , which could be a guitar part, a background vocal etc.) We labeled all of the tracks and burned the first rough, rough mix of the songs for me to review.

Coop has to take a break for a week to work on a PBS project, so we'll pick thing sup again late next week. I'm honestly really looking forward to having a week's break!