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NO COVID FOR ME:

On Wednesday it was nice enough that I had my first time with the desk and laptop on my terrace this calendar year. As you can see from one of the photos below, I had to be burdened with a working lunch ‐‐ it was so inconvenient!

I'm quite happy to report that my COVID test came back negative, though I'm sorry to report that I now am back in the actual office for that ol' rent-payer.

Back on my patio office space, this past Wednesday.

The view from my patio office.

MORE MOMENTUM IF STILL NOT AT LIGHTSPEED:

I have yet to mix or master any of "Medley: 1) The Death of the...; 2) Memories of the Times Before; 3) Memory's Endbit; 4) The Death of the... (reprise)," but I have loaded the individual tracks for "The Death of the...." into a new Logic Pro project. I probably won't get to any mixing until tomorrow evening.

EIGHTY-NINE FLASHCARDS:

Working on one of the 89 flashcards for tomorrow's U.D. Law gig

Since my COVID test came back negative, I am still on to participate in the trail law class for U.D. Law School tomorrow morning. The photo on the left shows me at my actual office space in my apartment working on notes for the gig. Specifically, I'm working on the flashcards of the facts of the case and of my particular character. I used 89 index cards to make the flash cards.

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Got it Saturday afternoon!!

THE TREE SAP IS STILL FLOWING:

The mixing-board window in Logic Pro for "The Death of the...."

I did not get to that on Saturday evening as I had planned, in part but not wholly because of learning of the passing of Kip Moore (*see below). But to some extent it was because of that. I found myself surfing facebook for memorials and comments about this terrible event. I also composed the words that appear below in this blog post, and posted them that night on fb, with what's below slightly revised from that fb posting.

Yesterday morning I did begin the mixing process for "The Death of the...." I placed some things on the stereo pan and I group together various things into audio buses. The first bus is the two stereo tracks for the drum kit: one panned all the way left, the other all the way right. The second bus has the two piano parts: one, I guess the main one, panned slightly left, what could be called about 10:30-11:00; the second piano part mirroring that pan but on the right at about 1:00-1:30 on the arch. The last bus, #3, is the two string synth parts, one panned flush left, the other flush right.

The other thing I did was balance the volume between each two items in each bus. Then I threw in some EQ on one bus (bus #1/the drums), as well as some Low-pass and/or High-pass filters wherever needed. Lastly, I added some reverb to bus #3, where the strings are grouped together.

Yesterday evening, when I began to attend to the tracks that do not need to be sent to a bus, the ones that will be dealt with in the mix as stand-alones, I found that I did, indeed, need to send one more to a bus (#4). There was one pop in the recording of the bass line that cannot be filtered out. I had to add a track then drop in a duplicate of that same bass note from another part of the bass line, to replace the spot where the pop occurs. I place the duplicate note in the right spot, then silenced that note with the pop on the main bass track. Then I sent them into bus #4 so I could manipulate that bus as one track, as with the other bus tracks.

To finish the night I attended to the three solo parts, and once having done that, I balanced the volumes for everything: drums (bus #1), pianos (bus #2), strings (bus #3), bass (bus #4), low horn (solo #1), flute (solo #2), and; high pan flute (solo #3). And I, as far as I know, placed everything on the stereo pan for the whole instrumental.

I have a mix, but it's not likely the locked mix. I'll scrutinize tonight and I am sure I'll be tweaking. I might get to the finished mix tonight, but I doubt that I will want what I first hear when I sit down with Logic Pro this evening.

The mastering won't happen tonight, I do know that. I may drop the bounced stereo WAV file into the mastering project for the medley as a whole. But I won't be doing any actual mastering until the rest of the medley music joins "The Death of the...." in that mastering project.

The main bass track, then the bass insert track (one note), followed by the track for the bass bus (bus #4)
Yesterday morning, balancing the volume for the two tracks in each of the original three audio buses.
All the tracks for "The Death of the...." in the tracks window of the Logic Pro project.

THE WITNESS IS EXCUSED:

PINCH HITTING IN THE BOOTH:

It was pretty easy going. There are very few sound cues, a total of 17 commands for 11 sound files. Internally there are a few at the start of the show, then the music out of Act 1, then the music into Act 2, then just a few more cues at the very end.

I had plenty of time to do work on my laptop. I might have even worked some on today's blog post ‐‐ just maybe.

Kip Moore

Saturday evening, the facebook post by a theatre friend delivered the awful news to me about the passing of Kip Moore. What a terrible loss. I only worked with Kip directly twice. Once on stage in the Beavercreek Community Theatre production of Next to Normal, where unfortunately he had to drop out of the production to attend to his mother's failing health. I also was the sound designer for a FutureFest 2017 production that Kip directed, The Puppeteer, by Desireé York. In both instances Kip brought a stellar-mass of warm positivity into the room whenever he was there. He was always pleasant and courteous. He was soft-spoken but there was great strength in him, it emanated from his presence. And man I did love watching ‐‐ and hearing ‐‐ Kip on stage! What a voice, what a talent. But more so, it was his lovely, gregarious, kind demeanor that was the big magic of Kip. He and I were not close friends at all, I did not know him well, yet, he would greet me as if we had been close friends for years. I think he did that with everyone. He was sincerely glad to see everyone he met, knew, or was only slightly acquainted with. You just knew that big, beaming smile was nothing close to disingenuous ‐‐ he really was happy to see you. Kip was a very gentle, gracious, loving human being, and a great testament to his impact on the world he inhabited is that I, someone who didn't know him all that closely, am compelled to write some words about his untimely passing. Rest in Peace, Kip, rest in peace.

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AIN'T NO GREMLIN STOPPING ME!:

My next goal was to get the individual tracks for the rest of the medley ‐‐ which are all one recorded performance: "Memories of the Times Before/Memories Endbit/The Death of the (reprise)" ‐‐ into a new mixing project in LPX. Then I wanted to at least pair up the tracks that get sent to the same audio buses, get each of those tracks placed in their positions on the stereo pan and get the sound balanced within each bus grouping.

HOWEVER, after I imported the newly-rendered WAV files of each individual track into the LPX mixing project I discovered an audio glitch. There were a couple notes from the very intro of the vibraphone part that were on every audio track when I had exported each track out of the original mixing project in Final Cut Pro X.

*Remember that before I finally sat down to learn how to use Logic Pro X, I was mixing and mastering in FCPX, which didn't yield as good of results.

Those notes were split apart in FCPX for special treatment and were so thin on the FCPX timeline that I missed them and thus didn't mute them when I was importing other audio tracks, each which were supposed to be the only sounds activated. Those feral notes were activated with all the other audio tracks I rendered. I had to go open the old FCPX project and re-export (i.e.: re-render) all the individual tracks, this time with those errant vibraphone notes muted. Then I was able to import the new WAV files into the new mixing project in LPX.

BUT THEN!:   As I started to work on the damned mixes, I discovered another £#¢|<||\|@ audio remnant that I'd missed! There was a modder frickin' split-out bass note that again was so thin on the FCPX timeline that I missed it. I had to go back and re-render all the WAV files from FCPX and then import them into the LPX mixing project one more @#$%&!!! time!

This time I was excruciatingly careful to check the audio before I rendered, actually listening to the whole length of the first musical piece (the drums, left track), before rendering. As you'll see in the next paragraph, I should've been more vigilent....

The damned bass-note remnant in the Logic Pro mixing project for "Memories, et al."

....I SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE VIGILENT BECAUSE!:  After I had re-rendered all the WAV files for the parts, one more time, and imported them into LPX mixing project, yet again, I realized that I had once-mother-truckin'-again left that vibraphone remnant in some of the tracks. It was on everything that was re-rendered after I'd re-rendered the vibraphone track, and thus I had not muted that little split-out section of notes ‐‐ I missed them again because of the narrowness. The good news is that the tracks with this remnant are all supposed to be silent at that point, anyway, nothing is being performed, so I was able to just mute them all during that portion. At least those errant vibraphone notes don't play with any other sounds on any of the fresh tracks.

Wednesday night I finished up the rough mix, which was pretty close to the finished product, at least in terms of stereo pan and volume balances. The only filters I had placed on anything was reverb on the vocals and the strings. But I'd EQ'd nothing, nor done any other audio manipulation. However, I knew that though there might not be a lot applied, I would have to do some EQ work to clean up a bit of muddiness, to get a cleaner overall sound.

I also could hear some low and high hiss in some of the tracks, so I knew I'd have to apply some low-pass and high-pass filters on some tracks, as well.

Last night I got to work on that finessing. I tweaked the volume balance on the overall recording and well as adjusting some things on the stereo pan. I also did the EQ work on some tracks, both to punch up some sound quality and to help eliminate some the low end and/or high end hiss on some of the tracks. Of course, I utilized the low-pass and high-pass filters, too, for that same purpose. I did put Limiter filters on several tracks just to cut the peaks off at -1 db, since some tracks have a few spots that were peaking into the red.

It's doubtful this phase of the mixing is done yet, there's more volume and pan tweaking to come, I am sure. There will likely also be some compression placed on one or more tracks, though I am learning that usually not much is necessary. I haven't placed any linear phase EQ on any of the bus tracks, but I noted last night that I might want to at least slightly EQ the drums ‐‐ the linear phase EQ is recommended for bus tracks as well as when doing EQ work on a stereo bounce in the mastering phase.

If all goes well, I could have a mastered version of "Medley: 1) The Death of the....; 2) Memories of the Times Before; 3) Memory's Endbit; 4)The Death of the.... (reprise)" before the weekend is over. I might even have moved onto the next song on the slate, which is "Identity."

Just three more songs after "Identity." and we got an album mastered!

The OSX Finder folder for the Logic Pro X bounces, with the new bounce for "The Death of the...." at the top.	The sound files in the timeline for the FCPX version of the mixing project for "Memories, et al."	The newly rendered "Memories, et al" sound files in the new LPX mixing project, before the bus groupings were created.
Tuesday night, not long before I discover that damned (expletive deleted) bass note remnant included in all the newly re-rendered "Memories, et al" WAV files.
Last night as I further punched up the mix for "Memories, et al."

ON TO THE NEXT DTG SHOW:

I, of course, am doing the soundwork for the show, at least the soundwork that won't be organic sound created by the cast members.

EE-GADS! IT'S APRIL 8!!:

Guess I know what part of my weekend will be about....

....along with a few million other U.S. citizens....

....Of course, there will be those who wait one more weekend....

....And those, too, who'll wait until Monday, April 18....

....THAT is not going be me....

....Seriously.

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HOW I SPENT LAST SATURDAY AFTERNOON, EVENING, & NIGHT:

This past Saturday the agenda was for me to do some mixing and also, I hoped, some mastering on the medley for the album, maybe even get it done. Then the plan was to do my 2021 taxes.

That was the agenda.

When I sat down to eat lunch, right before I would get to the music stuff, I decided to watch the next episode in my queue of Amy Sherman-Palladino's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Technically, it was a re-watch of Season 3:Episode 1, so I could have a fresh, clean watch of the whole Season 3 in the near future.

I know not everyone subscribes to the Amazon Prime streaming channel, so may not be fully aware of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. It's a well-done, light dramedy with great writing from Sherman-Palladino and her husband, Daniel Palladino. The stellar cast is led by Rachel Brosnahan as stand-up comic, Midge Maisel and Alex Borstein as her manager, Susie Myerson. Among the others in this strong cast are the incomparable Tony Shalhoub, as well as Kevin Pollak, Jane Lynch, Luke Kirby, whose portrayal of Lenny Bruce is compelling, and the late Brian Tarantina as Jackie, the MC at Midge's home club; Tarantina also played Bootsy on Sherman-Palladino's Gilmore Girls. I like TMMM quite a bit, hense the error in judgement to fire it up for watching during lunch on Saturday.

The idea was that while eating I would "re-watch Season 3:Episode 1, so I could have a fresh, clean watch of the whole Season 3 in the near future." What happened was I watched the whole rest of the series up to the end of Season 4, thus burning up the rest of my Saturday ‐‐ no mixing or mastering, no taxes done.

I heard the song of the Siren of the Binge Forest and I could not resist!.

I can further hear her, somewhere off in that forest of new, original streaming content, and of libraries full of seasons of shows from my youth and past adulthood, as she warms up her voice for her aria about the first three seasons of Strangers Things, in anticipation of the arrival of the fourth season, which comes closer and closer on Netflix.

Tuesday night, after I woke from a nap, and sat down to eat my dinner before a mixing/mastering session, I contemplated turning the TV on during my meal, then decided that was maybe a bad idea.

IDENTITY FOUNDATION GETTING LAID:

As far as I know, the mixing and mastering of "Medley: 1) The Death of the...; 2) Memories of the Times Before; 3) Memory's Endbit; 4) The Death of the... (reprise)" is finished. I have moved on to "Identity," which is the album opener. "Medley..." is slated to the penultimate spot in the album line up.

I finished mastering "Medley..." Tuesday evening and loaded the 23 individual tracks for "Identity" into Logic Pro Wednesday night, then began the mixing.

Before I got started with any mixing for "Identity," I had to reload everything back into the mixing project. I had used the import command for the first track, "Drums left," but I dragged and dropped everything else in, including "Drums right." Then I found that the left & right drum tracks were not synced. I tried manually syncing them but even when visually they looked synced up, on playback they were not. I concluded they were at slightly different speeds. I'm not technically knowledgeable enough to know why this was, but in hopes of fixing the situation, I deleted all the tracks, then used the import command to bring them all back in. That put the two drums tracks into perfect stereo sync.

My next move, which is standard, was to determine what tracks I knew I would send to buses, then do that. As of Wednesday night those were:

• Drums left & Drums right to Bus 1 (Drums)
• Back vocal 02 & Back vocal 03 to Bus 2 (Back vocals)
• Horn 01 (Barri), Horn 02 (Trumpet), & Horn 03 (Cornet) to Bus 3 (Horns)

"Identity" is the one song on the album with a guest musician, that being the afore-mentioned Mr. Bernard.

After making those three bus groupings, I listened to only the drums (Bus 1) and added equalization, but just a slight amount, bumping some of the low end a little, and a bit of the high range a little more, but still not significantly. That night I also started in on the main bass line, but I called it a night shortly after giving the track a solo listen, and went to bed contemplating a few things, including applying a High-pass filter and the likelihood that I'd do at least a little bit of EQ adjustment.

Last night, I finished at least the initial treatment on the mian bass part, then moved onto the piano. After adding in the piano, one of the things I did was balance the volumes of the bass line and the piano against the drums. My tact for a while has been to keep the drums volume up in the mix by lowering the volumes of the other instruments and any vocals. This prevents a situation where I have to bumped the volume of the drums too high when I get to the final touches on the mix. I probably will be pushing the volume of the drums before I'm done, but if I keep it on top of volume balance during the mixing process, by keeping everything else below it, that inevitable increase will not be to the point that I am pushing the drums volume into the red zone where that loudness distortion and volume clipping occurs.

Tonight the plan is to at least add the main chorded rhythm bass guitar part, which I probably will not send to a bus with the other chorded bass part. But, we will see. There's a chance I'll get to the synthesized bass line, as well, tonight, especially since I don't have to be at the rent-payer tomorrow morning.

Mastering "Medley: 1) The Death of the...; 2) Memories of the Times Before; 3) Memory's Endbit; 4) The Death of the... (reprise)."
Mastering "Medley: 1) The Death of the...; 2) Memories of the Times Before; 3) Memory's Endbit; 4) The Death of the... (reprise)."		Listening to the playback of the mastered "Medley."

The virtual mixing board in Logic Pro, with all 23 tracks and the, thus far, three buses.

The beginnings of mixing "Identity," Wednesday night.

The LPX channel EQ window for the "Identity" main bass line	Mixing the "Identity" piano. Note the empty dinner plate in the background.

HEY! "BEFORE DEADLINE" IS "BEFORE DEADLINE":

Okay, so, part of that statement is still true. I won't be one of those "who'll wait until Monday, April 18."

I am, however, one of those who has waited that one more weekend, as we know from my confession above about binging The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel most of the day last Saturday.

So, tomorrow will be that absolute Must-Do day for my '21 taxes.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S READING IS SOON UPON US:

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MORE CLARITY ON THE "IDENTITY":

Friday night I added the main chorded rhythm bass part right underneath the piano in the mix, favoring the left side of the stereo pan. Then, as I knew was a possibility, I did create another bus group by putting them together, specifically for simultaneous volume/gain manipulation.

Saturday morning I added all the 6-sting electric rhythm guitar parts (from David Bernard) into another bus, and I added my second chorded rhythm bass, which was there to fill in a section where there is no guitar work from David.

About noon, I broke for a hike at John Bryan State Park, mostly because I wasn't happy with my blood pressure reading that morning, and a nice rigorous hike always brings those numbers down. Then, in the early evening I did my taxes, finally *(see below).

That night, I tweaked the whole rhythm section, adjusting volume balances, tweaking EQs, etc. Then I added in the synthesized bass line, which has a couple little solo spots in the song during the interludes between verses 1 & 2, and verses 3 & 4.

Yesterday morning the lead and harmony vocals were added, grouped into another bus, mostly for consistant reverb, by applying just one reverb filter in the bus, for both. Then I took another noonish hike at John Bryan State Park (if you think Saturday mornings BP readings were high), then headed off in late afternoon/early evening for Easter dinner with my family. When I got home, later in the evening, I tweaked both the lead and harmony vocals, both volume balance between them and overall against the rest of the mix, plus some adjustment to the reverb. I ended the mixing session by adding the backing vocals for the chorus sections, again in their own bus with heavier reverb than the lead and harmony vocals,

Tonight I'll add the "horn chart," a trio of three horn voices from my Yamaha PSR-180 electronic keyboard. The last thing to add in will be David's solo work on guitar, which if I don't get to tonight, I should get to it tomorrow night.

Then, after what I'm sure will be some amount of tweaking of the mix, it'll be mastering time, then, I hope before the weekend, I start mixing ‐‐ re-mixing, really ‐‐ the instrumental, "Icebergs," the one that covertly started this whole project, back in Autumn, 2019.

Most of the "Identity" rhythm tracks (minus the electric guitar work) in the Logic Pro Tracks window, on Friday night.	Saturday afternoon interlude at John Bryan State Park after mixing in the "Identity" electric rhythm guitars in the morning.	Saturday evening, tweaking the volume for particular moments in the main bass line.
Yesterday afternoon interlude at John Bryan State Park after mixing in the "Identity" lead and harmony vocals.	Tweaking the "Identity" lead vocal, last night.	The reverb window for the "Identity" lead and harmony vocals bus.

ONE WEEK FROM TONIGHT

I now have the new version of the script for the staged reading of Shuann Baker's screenplay adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Clearly, as well as mixing/mastering for my album, a lot of my time this week goes to studying the script. Of course, we are reading, so I don't have to be off-book, yet I still need to be strongly familiar and comfortable with my parts before rehearsals, which are this Saturday and Sunday.

The reading, is, of course, one week from tonight.

NOW I CAN BUY THAT MULTI-MILLION-DOLLAR HOUSE IN THE HAMPTONS!:

.....Or maybe not

Another year where I took the standard deduction because I did not have income as an actor, so no business deductions.

I get money back, but it ain't like I won the MegaMillions lottery.

The Hamptons will have to wait.

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ALMOST A COMPLETE "IDENTITY":

For "Identity": Monday night I added the "horn chart" to the mix. Again, that's a trio of three horn voices played on my Yamaha PSR-180 electronic keyboard, which can be taken for virtually a toy synthesizer, and yet I have made great use of it during the recording of this album, as well as have I made some good use of my Yamaha PSR-12 keyboard, which is an even simpler instrument. With some strategic equalization using the LPX Linear Phase EQ plug-in, and a smidgen of reverb, the horn chart works quite well in the song. I must admit I tweaked the EQ a bit on Wednesday evening and enhanced not only the whole mix but the sound of the horn section.

Tuesday night I added in guest artist David Bernard's 6-string electric lead guitar solo work. There are several individual bits to it, guitar licks that talk to each other, if you will, which lends well to some good placements across the stereo pan, though I corralled them to more of the center region, with nothing too far left or too far right, and some elements dead center in the pan. Of course, I sent all the elements to one audio bus. By the way, the lead break is a nice little piece of work from Mr. Bernard and it suits the song perfectly.

There was no mastering started Wednesday night. I spent the session tweaking the mix, adjusting EQ on instruments and vocal work, adjusting volume balance, and in a couple cases, moving some instruments, or particular sections of those instrument's performances in the stereo pan. This was mostly about getting a cleaner mix with more clarity for individual parts, and to get closer to the feel for the song that is in my mind. I did not finish the process Wednesday night. I went to bed knowing a few things specifically that I needed to tweak and expecting I'd tweak things I hadn't identified yet.

Unfortunately I have to report that I am yet to get to the mastering phase for "Identity." Last night I did the tweaking I knew I needed done, which included bumping the volume of the drums in the chorus section, and doing the same for the lead and harmony vocal during the choruses. I also adjusted the volume on the synthesized bass, throughout the song, both up in some spots and down in others. I also decided to adjust the EQ on the piano part, as well as the chorded bass part right under it, enhancing the high end and subduing the low end for both; this gives them a bit more clarity in the mix, which was the goal.

I think all that is left to do is to slightly push the volume on a trumpet solo at the end of the song, then I'll be ready to master the thing. That should happen tonight.

Listening to playback of the nearly-finished mix of "Identity," Wednesday night and then last night.

REHEARSAL IS JUST INCHES AWAY:

We are in rehearsal tomorrow and Sunday for the staged reading of Shuann Baker's screenplay adaptation of Midsummer Night's Dream. Getting familiar with the script and both my characters has been my other artistic venture of the week. Again, since it's a reading, no one needs to be off-book, but not going into rehearsal doing a cold reading is a better plan than looking at the script for the first time in rehearsal.

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AN ALMOST MASTERED "IDENTITY":

"Identity" mixing is finished ‐‐ probably.

Friday night, I bumped that trumpet solo up in volume as I said I would, did a slight EQ adjustment on the lead vocal, then moved on to the mastering. I'm not quite finished. I didn't work on it yesterday, but will today before my Midsummer rehearsal.

REHEARSAL IS UNDER WAY:

I spent some time yesterday afternoon, after attending the Board of Directors meeting for DTG, and after a nice lunch with several of my fellow board members. I first went to Hills & Dales MetroPark and walked with the script, but the wind was a little too pusht and it got annoying, so I went back to The Guild and did my private rehearsal there, to prep for that first cast rehearsal. This evening is the second cast rehearsal, then tomorrow is Game Time!

Here, by the way, is the ensemble cast in alphabetical order:

Grayson Baker Sandy Bashaw Charlie Cromer Emily Eliasen Alex Foor Rick Good Patrick Hayes Tim Lile Roni Locke Marshal "Dancing Elk" Lucas Scott Stoney K.L.Storer Tess Talbot Jeremy Weinstein

At The Guild, yesterday afternoon, studying the script before rehearsal.

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I DID SAY "ALMOST" AND "PROBABLY":

Volume meters during the second mastering session for "Identity."

Last night, after I got home from rehearsal, I listened to the WAV file of the mastered version and I heard something that I feel the need to address. The drums, which do need to be bumped in volume during the chorus, bump up too abruptly, calling undue attention to that bump. I will have to go back and make that volume increase much more gradual. I'll have to do that in the mix, then remaster again after that. Also, I do find the vocal to have a bit of a harsh tone that I might try to address while in the remixing process. But I don't think I need to do anything else different in the mastering process; I can apply the exact settings for Linear Phase EQ and volume, etc.

The second, and last, rehearsal is under our belts.

The staged reading is tonight.

I believe we are ready....

A public reading for a new screen adaptation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream will take place on Monday, April 25th at 7 p.m. at The Loft Theatre in downtown Dayton. The reading is open to the public and free to attend. The adaptation is set in Appalachia during the 1800s, and uses Appalachian dialect with the original Shakespearean verse. "Shakespeare's words performed with this dialect are really beautiful, as it turns out," says local filmmaker Shaunn Baker who adapted the screenplay and is working to get the script produced as a feature film. "It's a rougher sound, closer to the Old English the play would have been performed in originally. A very different experience from hearing the story in the more traditional ‘heightened' dialect we typically associate with Shakespeare. My hope is that the roughness of the Appalachian culture and accent will make this adaptation much more accessible to contemporary audiences." This project is generously supported (in part) through an Artist Opportunity Grant funded by the Montgomery County Arts & Cultural District and administered by Culture Works. The reading is free to the public The Loft Theatre 126 North Main Street Third Floor Dayton, Ohio 45402 The cast, in alphabetical order: Grayson Baker Sandy Bashaw Charlie Cromer Emily Eliasen Alex Foor Rick Good Patrick Hayes Tim Lile Roni Locke Marshal "Dancing Elk" Lucas Scott Stoney K.L.Storer Tess Talbot Jeremy Weinstein

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FORWARD IS A MOTION, RIGHT?:

Yesterday, during lunch at work, actually, I did a quick and slight remix, then remaster of "Identity." I bumped the drum volume in several spots and more specifically made that drum volume increase into the choruses more gradual, as I said I would. I also tweaked the EQ on the vocal to ease that harshness to the tone that was bothering me. In the remaster I adjusted the Exciter settings to pull a bit of treble harshness out, too.

Then, I decided that the master of "Cozy Cottage" could stand to be far less trebly in overall tone so I went in and tweaked both the EQ and Exciter settings for that one, too.

Now it's time to move on to "Icebergs!"

IT'S A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S WRAP:

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AND NOW WE'RE ON AN ICEBERG:

Both duet instruments have been added in: the organ solo line and the "trombone" part, the latter via my Yamaha PSR-180 keyboard. The duet parts haven't been balanced much against each other or against the rhythm section, yet, and no plug-ins, including EQ, have been added to either; to be honest, I'm not sure either needs anything to punch them up.

On the bass line, I added the Logic Pro flanger effect plug-in, using the plug-in on the computer since I never did repair my old analog flanger foot pedal and have yet to purchase a new digital pedal. The bass in the original mix, done in Final Cut Pro X, (the mix that was heard in the now-pulled music video and that was featured in the trailer for the DTG production of Alena Smith's play, Icebergs*), is not flanged. As I was dropping it into the new mix, Tuesday night, it struck me that a little flanging might enhance this bass line, and I think it does. I've only applied a slight amount to it, and it works.

Last night I tried an experiment where I duplicated the bass line on another track, minus the flanger effect, pushed that all the way left in the stereo pan, with the flanged version all the way right, so the flanging effect was only there, but the bass was still ultimately in the middle of the mix. But, it didn't work as well as I wanted, so I nixed the idea.

There are still some things to add: the two string parts, one, a voice again from the Yamaha PSR-180, and one, a voice from the Williams Legato III piano, In the mix, again, one will be left, one right in the pan. There's also a second bass line, playing the hook riff during the vamp at the end of the song, underneath and to bolster the main bass line. Then, of course, there will be quite a bit of tweaking of many aspects of the mix, I am sure.

But I won't get to any of that tonight, as I have tickets to see a play, which I'll discuss in the next blog post. I would guess that I won't get to the mastering of "Icebergs" until Saturday at the earliest.

*) click here to see the Icebergs trailer, for the rather crude original mix/master of the instrumental.

Last night, mixing "Icebergs" in the infamous ‐‐ or, perhaps, not famous at all ‐‐ K.L.Storer Bedroom Home Mixing Suite Setup (i.e.: my laptop and some external speakers at the computer desk in my bedroom).

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EIGHT-AND-A-HALF DOWN, ONE-AND-A-HALF TO GO:

The remixing and remastering of "Icebergs" is complete ‐‐ with that old, familiar caveat that I reserve the right to go back and adjust this or that later. I finished it off late yesterday afternoon after a great hike at a new place *(see entry a little further down) and a late lunch, **(see photo just below).

Later in the evening, yesterday, I started the remix of "Chilled October Morning," and have it at about 90% complete. I mixed all the instrumentation. All that is left is to work in the vocal track then do all the tweaking, then move on to mastering the remastered version. I should finish that one off this evening, and might even get started on the last song, the remix/remaster of "Into the Blue Dawn." Then, believe it or not, with the exception of a final normalization of the volume levels between all the songs, I am done engineering the album.

The next step is to finish off the artwork and some text for the album booklet, deal with a couple legal issues, and then it may actually be time for Virtually Approximate Subterfuge to release.

Mastering the instrumental "Icebergs" yesterday afternoon in my bedroom editing suite.
A little late lunch outside before the sound engineering for the day.

SCOPING OUT THE NEW THEATRE SEASON:

Thursday, I went to the Human Race Theatre Company to scope out the 2022/2023 season, which was revealed at a special presentation in the early evening. Mind you, I did not attend so much as a potential audience member, (though I’m sure I will be such for more than one show), as I did as an actor scoping out the season for roles that I might be typed into. The Generals are coming in less than a month, and I will certainly be there!

Here's the Race's 22/23 season:

Grounded, by George Brant Deadline, by Douglas E. Hughes Who’s Holiday!, by Matthew Lombardo A Soldier's Play, by Charles Fuller Barbecue, by Robert O'Hara Indigo, Music & Lyrics by Scott Evan Davis, Book by Jay Kuo, Lorenzo Thione, & Scott Evan Davis

There are a few shows I know I won’t be a candidate for. Grounded is a one-person show (OPS) that features a woman, I would assume in her 30s or 40s. A Soldier's Play is a one-stop on a national tour, so is obviously already cast. Who’s Holiday!, with Alex Sunderhaus reprising her role from last Christmastime, is another OPS featuring a woman. I have research on the other titles to do.

As for the other technically professional companies in the area (i.e.: non-Equity but still offering pay, even if only a stipend), I haven't looked at their 22/23 seasons yet, but who knows, I may see a title or two that catches my eye.

A couple of the shows we have up next season at The Guild have my attention. I also haven't looked closely at the seasons at the other non-professional theatres, yet, but I hope to also see something, or some things, there piquing my interest.

THUMBS UP:

I enjoyed Incident at Our Lady..., especially the performances by the cast: Christine Brunner, Cecily Dowd, Mierka Girten, Lizzie Huelskamp, and Jason Podplesky.

It's a pretty funny script executed well in this production. Kudos to the playwright, the director, the cast, and the production team!

RIGHT IN MY BACK YARD!:

I did it with Oakes Quarry Park, which is not finished figuring into this. I drove by the entrance for a few years before finally investigating to discover it's a very nice little close-by respite. Enter, Pearl's Fen, the entrance, which I have been driving by for a couple years. I paid little attention. I saw a little parking lot and somehow made the assumption it was a lot for the house next to it, a house that I concluded was a small winery. Don't ask me why I deduced that. Finally, a few weeks back I noticed the sign that had the word "fen," which I know means land that is, or is similar to, marshland. Also, I finally noticed, right behind the parking lot, a wetlands boardwalk.

It ultimately took me a couple weeks to check it out, but yesterday, as I was contemplating where to go take a hiking break before I got to the mixing and mastering discussed above, this park came to mind as something close by, and that would be new to me.

I expected that it would be a brief walk on the wetland boardwalk. What I found is that there's actually a nice, reasonably expansive hiking trail. I got a good forty minutes to an hour hike in, and could have spent longer there. I also discovered that the Pearl's Fen park butts right up against the Oakes Quarry Park *(see me looking into Oakes Quarry in the photo just below). One can actually cross between the two, which I briefly did yesterday.

So: a new place to add to the local hiking trips.

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FINISHING A "CHILLED OCTOBER MORNING" ON A COOL MAY NIGHT:

Then, as I've written before, I have to finish the album's booklette, which means a certain amount of graphics work and most importantly the liner notes essay I intend to write.

There's also a publishing and copyright issue that needs to be attended to but all in all, the release is actually close by!

Mixing and mastering "Chilled October Morning," last night.

NUMBER TWELVE AT THE END OF THE MONTH; IT WAS INEVITABLE:

On May 31, in Knoxville, Tennessee, I will attend a Paul McCartney concert for the twelfth time. Technically, it'll be for the eleventh time, because the first time, May 27, 1976, it was Wings on the Wings Over America Tour at the now-defunct Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati. But, come on. No offense to Denny Laine, but he was not who I was there to see, nor were the other bands members who weren't the main bass player and primary lead vocalist.

As you can see from the image on the left, and the schematic of the arena, below, I have a pretty decent seat. We're not going to discuss how much I paid for that seat ‐‐ Floor section A, Row 8, Seat 3. Let's just say, as I posted recently on facebook, concerning this ticket: I have a leg and two arms for sale, if you know anyone who's looking.

Last time I saw Paul, June 1, 2019, almost exactly three years before the upcoming show, I had a VIP Hot Sound ticket that gave me a lot of perks, the best being that I got to attend the sound check. That was a total of $1600. I paid more for this ticket, and besides the good seat on the floor, there is none of those other perks, including sound check. I can't imagine what the VIP tickets on this tour are going for.

I held off buying a ticket for this show, with the Knoxville show being the closest to where I live in south-west Ohio. The tickets for this tour are on that newer flex-pricing system, where the ticket prices fluctuate based on demand. I was hoping to abate the sticker shock by waiting to see if the fluctuation fluctuated down to numbers that weren't so painful, but the better seats were gradually disappearing, and I have a rule now about my attendance at live concerts, well, live performances of any kind:

If I can't make out facial features on the stage without the assistance of a jumbotron screen, I am not going.

So, I patiently, then impatiently, waited for prices to flex down, and though there was occasional downward movement on some prices, it was mixed, it was minimal movement, and the "facial features" seats did not seem to be flexing at all. But I didn't completely give up hope.

I even planned my spring vacation to accomodate the off-chance that I could make the concert, that at some point, perhaps close to the date, the cost of what I consider an acceptable ticket would be at an acceptable amount. I've booked myself into a cabin in Hocking Hills for the weekend before the concert, followed by two nights in a hotel, in Knoxville, 400 miles south of the cabin, on the night before and the night of the concert, on that chance that eventually I would see numbers that would work for me.

Yet, I have been mentally preparing myself for a vacation in the Knoxville area that might not include an evening at the Thompson-Boling arena. One thing I did was buy a ticket for Zoo Knoxville (aka: the Knoxville Zoo), which I could get to, concert or no concert, and have plans to research what else there is to do in Knoxville, even despite that now I have something to do on the eve of May 31. I'm sure they have an art museum and may have other sights worth my time. But the plan was to fill out the two days there even if I did not have a Macca ticket.

Beyond the two days in Knoxville, I've reserved four nights at a campsite at Norris Dam State Park, not far from Knoxville, for after I check out of the hotel. My big research there is bear safety, and I ain't kiddin'! The park is square in black bear territory and I am camping ‐‐ and hiking ‐‐ alone, so I need to be as knowledgable and diligent as can be. I am not looking to be on the receiving end of a bear mauling.

Yes, I planned a decent vacation down there even without the Paul McCartney Got Back Tour as part of it. But how bummed would I have been if I was right there and not seeing the show? It's likely I'd have been quite bummed. Thus, I spent what I cannot argue against being maybe too much money on the ticket.

Why would I pay so much this time, more for a non-VIP ticket than I paid for the 2019 VIP ticket, when what I'd paid for reasonably decent seats for the last several tours before that were in the neighborhood of 12.5% of what I paid for this new ticket? Why do that?

On June 18, Paul turns eighty years old, and it's not a secret that he's lost a lot of the range and control of his singing voice. The last several tours his voice has been gradually deteriorating. It is not anywhere outside the realm of possibility that this will be his last tour.

People have been saying it since he started touring again in 1989. I've heard it numerous times over the years while waiting in a merchandizing line at a show:

He's gettin' up there, man! This is probably his last tour. No way he's doing this much longer, no way! He's just gettin' too old to take the rigors of the road.

Paul has shown no signs that he doesn't have the stamina for the road. He certainly showed no such signs in June of 2019. He was still doing a three-hour show with no visible fatigue at the end of the night, and is doing three-hours a night on this new tour, as well.

In Indianapolis, in 2013, the woman sitting beside me was in her mid to late sixties. After the first encore was done, well over two-and-a-half hours after the show began, and the lights on the stage were dim but not going completely out, and the arena house lights were not coming up, she said to me, "He's not coming back out, is he?"

Knowing the set list, I said to her, "Yeah, we still got about another ten, fifteen minutes or so of music left."

The woman was flabbergasted. "My lord!" she said, "He's older than I am! It's almost 11:00! How in the world can he do such a long show?"

I jokingly attributed his vigor to his vegetarianism, but that truly is a thought that may not be too far-fetched.

His physical vitality as a man about to become an octogenarian is, I do not believe, the issue. It's his vocal abilities. His singing voice is seriously ebbing. Now, don't misunderstand me. I know I will enjoy the show immensely. Paul's stage presence and showmanship is mesmerizing; and his musicianship is superlative. He'll put on a great show and will compensate well for his waning vocal capabilities. But his vocal health is in unmistakable jeopardy and that is why I believe that this time, "This is probably his last tour. No way he's doing this much longer, no way!" has better odds of being genuinely prophetic. Plus, not to get morbid, but Sir Paul does suffer from mortality just like the rest of us.

Even though I've seen him live eleven times already, and some of them have been such stellar nights that they are virtually unrivaled, even though I find the prices for the tickets to be obscene and only comfortably available for the upper-upper middle class and above, I simply was not willing to gamble that I would have someday known that this was Paul's last tour and I couldn't say I was there.

I, by-the-way, will be more than happy to be wrong about this, as so many have been for the last thirty-three years. Yeah, they started saying it when he was only forty-seven years old. Hell, some people said it '76, when Wings toured the world and he was only thirty-four. Times sure have changed: all the 60's icons still on the road today. In the 70s it was the absurdity of rock stars over thirty, daring to still tour and put out material. Yet, Paul and many of his contemporaries are today accounting for a heavy percentage of annual tour grosses.

There were those, back in the 70s who were predicting that Paul would wind up as some sort of cheesy Vegas act or something equivalent to that. Yeah: they were wrong. And I'm going to see a living legend, my favorite recording artist, and one of my greatest artistic influences at least one more time.

Here is my freshened up "Paul is Live" list:

1. WINGS OVER AMERICA TOUR - MAY 27, 1976, CINCINNATI, OH (RIVERFRONT COLISEUM)
2. THE PAUL McCARTNEY WORLD TOUR - FEB 12, 1990, CINCINNATI, OH (RIVERFRONT COLISEUM)
3. THE NEW WORLD TOUR - MAY 5, 1993, CINCINNATI, OH (RIVERFRONT STADIUM)
4. DRIVING USA TOUR - APR 29, 2002, CLEVELAND, OH (GUND ARENA)
5. BACK IN THE US TOUR - OCT 10, 2002, COLUMBUS, OH (JEROME SCHOTTENSTEIN CENTER)
6. US TOUR - OCT 22, 2005, COLUMBUS, OH (JEROME SCHOTTENSTEIN CENTER)
7. ON THE RUN TOUR - AUG 4, 2011, CINCINNATI, OH (GREAT AMERICAN BALL PARK)
8. OUT THERE! TOUR - JUL 14, 2013, INDIANAPOLIS, IN (BANKERS LIFE FIELDHOUSE)
9. OUT THERE! TOUR - JUL 9, 2014, CHICAGO, IL (UNITED CENTER)
10. ONE ON ONE TOUR - JUL 10, 2016, CINCINNATI, OH (US BANK ARENA)
11. FRESHEN UP TOUR - JUN 1, 2019, LEXINGTON, KY (RUPP ARENA)
12. GOT BACK TOUR - MAY 31, 2022, KNOXVILLE, TN (THOMPSON-BOLING ARENA)

BRING ON THE LACTIC ACID!:

The last time I worked out in the gym, resistance training or cardio, was March of 2020, when the pandemic was first rearing its ugly head. Then the campus where I work essentially shut down, along with the rec center, where I have my gym membership. I was one of the "essential workers" and came into the office a couple times a week for the duration of the shutdown, but the gym remained dark until after the campus began its gradual opening back up. I can't remember exactly, but I think the gym opened back up for limited hours and reduced capacity, with attendance by reservations, a little over a year ago, give or take a few months.

What I do know is that when the gym did open back up, I was not ready to risk going. I'm in my sixties, albeit the earlier half; I have heart disease and hypertension; I'm not precisely immunocompromised but I am certainly in the population of those more vulnerable to serious COVID-19 infection. I got my vaccinations as soon as I could, and since, have had both boosters, and will get further boosters if the medical experts say I should. But the gym has still seemed a dicey proposition to me.

This week, I finally felt secure enough about it to venture back into the gym. I was there Monday afternoon, and it was almost empty, which was actually comforting. The ability to social distance not a problem. Since I'd done my hike at the newly discovered Pearl's Fen the day before, I opted to work with weights. As the screen shot of my facebook post suggests, I was not working with lots of weight. In fact, even with the easing-in weight that I used, the soreness did come and has lasted a couple days. Nevertheless, gym visits are going to be back in as part of my routine. I missed yesterday but plan on going after work today. Though I'll probably opt out on any days the gym is packed.

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THE ALBUM IS SO MUCH CLOSER TO FINISHED:

First, however, I got to the last song to be dealt with. The remixing in Logic Pro X of "Into the Blue Dawn," one of those previously mixed/mastered in Final Cut Pro X and the "last" song to mix and master properly for the album, began Thursday, the 5th. That day, I had a production meeting at DTG, as sound designer for The Old Man and the Old Moon. I was early, so while I waited for the meeting, I started the process for the song by loading all the instrument and vocal tracks into the new mixing project in LPX.

From that evening until this past Tuesday night, I worked on the mix, off-and-on. This past Sunday evening, I thought I had the final mix and even rendered the WAV file to later import into the Logic Pro mastering project. But as I lay in bed that night I decided to tweak just one little thing.

In the individual, original audio tracks for several of the instruments for "Into the Blue Dawn," there is a bit of atmospheric noise, high-end hiss and/or low-end hum. An EQ filter helps greatly in eliminating this noise, but sometimes you also have to employ the use of either a High-pass filter or a Low-pass filter, or both. A high-pass filter lets you cut low frequency sounds while the low-pass filter does the opposite. But one of the problems you can run into is that while eliminating the unwanted noise, you can kill frequencies that also carry some of the sound of the instrument, vocal, or other sound that you intend to use, thus the dynamics of the sound of the instrument (et al) is dulled or otherwise compromised.

My EQ work on the tracks didn't compromise anything much, at least no more than minimally, but the high-pass, low-pass filters did have an effect at the very end of the song. The song ends with a long sustain of the last chord played by some instruments or the last note played by the others. As that sustain dies out the atmospheric noise becomes dominant. So, I used those two filters to kill that noise. But that long sustained ending chord, which I want, was filtered into something very thin and also it dies sooner than I want. Unfiltered it's a good thirty-plus seconds. Filtered it's much less.

I figured out a way to keep that long sustain both longer and more robust. I cut back on the low-pass, high-pass filters and have added some SFX at the end of the song that, as well as virtually masking the hiss noise, also utilizes it as collaboration in another way. That SFX also adds a touch of irony to the song and that greatly appeals to me.

Of course, the story's not over. After I went to bed this last Monday night, I decided that some of the SFX should have reverb applied. So, the next day, first during lunch at rent-payer, sitting at a table outside under the library overhang, I added that reverb. Later that evening, I adjusted the volume level of that stuff with reverb as well as the volume level of the instruments that hold that ending sustain ‐‐ I bumped the levels up a little to make the decaying sustain more effective. It really looked as if the audio work on the album might be finished. After those mixing tweaks on "Into the Blue Dawn," I was able to master it the same night, too.

The next day at the rent-payer, I listened to the rendered masters of all the songs on my head phones, in the order they will appear on the album, while working at my desk. My goal was to both get a sense of what volume normalization was needed between the tracks, and also to scrutinize the feel of the song list, to determine if the order was good or if I might want to shift anything around in the play list. That day, I liked the dynamic of the song order, but as some time passed, I was bugged just a little by one spot, where I ended up flipping two of the songs. Now the four up-beat rockers are evenly paced throughout the album repertoire, and I also split two almost straight jazz pieces from sitting next to each other.

Listening on my headphones alerted me to a few problems with a few recordings. "Just One Shadow," for instance, had far too much low frequency in the headphones. I do know that my headphones are heavier on bassy sound, as is often the case with headphones. It's one of the reasons it is recommended that you don't use headphones to either mix or master recordings, unless you have a set of really good, flat EQ headphones, which I do not. They cost a lot. I am however planing on buying some at some point. What I do know is that I listen to a lot of professionally-produced commercially-released music through those headphones, and they do not have the heavy low-end that "Just One Shadow" was giving me. So, in this case, listening to the master recording through the headphones was a fortunate thing. I needed to kill some low end in the master. I didn't go back to the mixing project to remix anything, but I did pull a lot of the low end (bass) from the Linear Phase EQ in the mastering project. The bigger point is that headphone listening is an environment that needs to be attended to because people listen to music with headphones or earbuds a lot, so that practice cannot be ignored when mixing and mastering.

Another thing I noticed was that the drum kit in most of what, at the time, was the medley *(see below) needed to come down in volume, too, that being for: "Memories of the Times Before," "Memory's Endbit*," & "The Death of the... (reprise)*," all the music that was recorded together. That did need me to go back into the mixing project to deal with. And while I was there I changed a few other things in the mix. I moved the main bass line in the stereo pan from full right in the pan to about halfway to the right. For some sounds, especially those in lower frequencies, the dynamics and quality of them is tamped down if they are too far left or right in the pan. Moving it as I did revived some robustness in the sound of the bass line. I also slightly lowered the volume on the ensemble solos by the horn voices during "The Death of the... (reprise)," as they were sounding a little hot in the mix.

Parts of the bass line in "The Answer" sound a little hot through the headphones, too. Actually, I'd noticed it through speakers, as well, and had decided to live with it, but I changed my mind. I dealt with it by dropping the volume of everything in the mix so that the bass could stay at the same level relative to everything but not be hot. I also tweaked the EQ on the bass, and again, moved it just a little bit less to the right in the pan.

For those who have heard the full-length version of "Icebergs," back when the YouTube video was still published, you may remember that there is a repeating counter melody going on between two separate string parts during the extended ending of the song. I found those strings to be getting a little hot toward the very end of the song, the last minute or two. In the mix I had gradually increased their volumes so they would take prominence. I remixed "Icebergs" to reduce, but not eliminate those increases. I also tweaked the master to have a gradual slight reduction in the overall volume in that whole ending sequence. The two actions together address that hot-strings issues. I also tweaked the EQ and the settings of the Exciter plug-in in the master project.

The tweaks on "Icebergs" were done after I had begun the volume normalization process for the overall album. I had forgotten that I'd noted that hot-strings issue when I was earlier listening on the headphones. So, when it came up as the third piece to normalize, I did the tweaks first.

I started the whole normalization process this last Thursday, working on it both before and after I attended a rehearsal of The Old Man and the Old Moon at The Guild. It continued through this Saturday morning, when I thought I finalized it with a small adjustment to one track, then continued on until Sunday afternoon. Again, I'd put the the-mastering-is-done probability at 99.9999%, with that allowance for room for me to go back in a change something up until it's too late. I have been making more passes and finding things to work on, mostly at the moment it seems to be volume normalization.

On the subject of changing things: I had started the artwork for the booklet, getting pretty far, having designed all the pages with lyrics for all the songs, but I decided here in the last couple days that I want to go with another design idea, so what I've done thus far is scrapped. The album cover, which has been out there for months is still a go as it is, but I want to do something different for the innards than what I had started. The fact that I altered the order of the line-up would have dictated I go back in to redo at least one page, anyway.

Another change I have decided on is to meld all the separate parts of "Medley" into just being "Memories of the Times Before" with several diffrent movements. "The Death of the...," "Memories Endbit," and "The Death of the... (reprise)" have all fallen to the waste-side as titles and separate compositions; they are now instrumental movements/themes for "Memories of the Times Before" as a whole. Again, this would also prompt a need to alter the graphics for the page that listed the medley.

Today, I have some confidence that the mastering is finished, yet I still allow room for me to decide something should be tweaked. But regardless of these fixes I keep finding to attend to, I see the wrap coming soon and a finish line coming close. It may be safe to predict a June release.

Maybe.

Late afternoon, last Thursday, at the Dayton Theatre Guild, starting the work in Logic Pro X to remix and remaster "Into the Blue Dawn," while I waited to attend a production meeting.
Lunchtime, this past Tuesday, at the rent-payer, adding reverb, in Logic Pro X, to the SFX at the end of "Into the Blue Dawn."
The mastering project in Logic Pro X for "Into the Blue Dawn." It would have been so sweet to say that with this, the mixing and mastering of the Virtually Approximate Subterfuge album was finished. But, alas, it was not quite yet so.

THE MAN, THE MOON, THE SOUND:

I'll be back for at least one more rehearsal this week to watch and take more notes and consult with Director Jeff Sams.

Saturday night I, along with a large host of the Dayton theatre community and beyond, was at the fairwell gala for Kevin Moore, who is retiring as the executive director of the Human Race Theatre Company.

During Kevin's tenure as ED (and during some of that time, also acting artistic director, as well) I have been on The Loft stage in two musicals (Carolyn, or Change and The Fiddler on the Roof), one straight play (the world premier of Banned from Baseball, by Patricia O'Hara), and two staged readings (Gingerbread Children, by Michael Slade, and Shuann Baker's screen adaptation of Shakespear's A Midsummer Night's Dream), all professional theatre gigs. Kevin is absolutely a key player in my landing all these jobs.

I had done about a half-dozen general auditions for The Race before I got on that stage. I did two or three of them for then artistic director, the late Marsha Hanna, a few with her and Kevin, and after Marsha's passing, with Kevin and several others at different auditions. In late summer, 2011, I got a call at work from Kevin. He said he and Scott (Stoney) were talking about me and asked if I could sing. Of course, I said yes. He then said there was a role for me in Carolyn, or Change and asked me to come in to sing for Scott, who was directing. If Scott liked my singing I was in. He said, "We've always liked your auditions and haven't been able to place you, so this could finally get you on the Loft stage." I went, I sang, Scott liked it, and on October 10, 2011, I went to my first professional theatre rehearsal. Now, I had gotten a few callbacks before that, mostly decisions that Kevin had made, though the directors for the shows did not find me their first choice after the callbacks.

And Kevin cast me in Gingerbread Children, which was a good experience for several reasons including that I met and worked with director Margarett Perry and I met and spoke the words of the late Michael Slade. Doing that reading put me on Margarett's radar and gave her more of a knowledge of my abilities beyond the audition I'd do for her for Banned from Baseball and a role that she would cast me in..

Now let's go back to one of those auditions before I was ever cast at HRTC. I am pretty sure I've shared this story in a past blog entry, but still, one year, I auditioned for Kevin and Marsha, and during my first of two monologues I went up, and the text was notcoming back to me. Kevin allowed me to step out, take some time, regroup myself, then come back in a have a do-over. That doesn't happen terribly often ina professional setting. As Marsha said, later, when I had her for an acting class, "If it had been New York or Chicago, that would not have happened, but here, we felt we could do it." I will always remember that kindness from Kevin and Marsha.

So I am one of many people who are indebted to Kevin.

Cocktails before the dinner at Kevin's Farewell Celebration.

NO BEARS LIVIN' IN THEM THERE WOODS:

In preparation for my upcoming vacation at the end of the month, I recently called Norris Dam State Park to talk bear safety, mostly to enquire about protecting my food stores. The staff person I spoke to said that the park has no resident bears and she hasn't heard of a sighting of a bear passing through in several years. She said the big concern for food protection will be the raccoons, but, living in southern Ohio, that's already something I know about.

I must admit though, concerning this no-bears-in-the-park news, it's weird how, as relieved as I am about virtually no chance of my having a bear encounter while I'm down there, hiking alone ‐‐ because, let's be honest, that was obviously the bigger concern than a food raid by a bear ‐‐ still, I am also a little bit disappointed that there's hardly any chance of my spotting a bear from afar.

By the way, in my research on bear safety one of things I discovered is that you are required to stay at least fifty yards from a black bear. Let me assure you, that is not a requirment that I would have any problem adhering to if the occasion were to arise.

*As I've stated before, in defense of these sort of entries that don't seem to be related to "Things Artistic": First off, everything that happens in the life of a person who's attempting artistic endeavors is relevant to said endeavors. And, second, who's blog is this?

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SHOOTING FOR THE LOFT STAGE AGAIN:

My audition program was two contrasting monologues. One I've used several times in the past, at HRTC as well as other places. That was the light. comedic one. My dramatic one was new to me. One reason I did the one I've used before is because it's a good one for me and one of the auditors is new, Emily Wells, the new artistic director at The Race. Tara Lail, Creative Producer, has heard it before, I think at least twice, but, I was more interested in Emily hearing/seeing it.

My DV movie audition is not the slickest, most professional video to be submitted there, I am sure, but, there's good lighting and good audio and that is the game. I also did the whole program ‐‐ both monologues ‐‐ in the same take, rather than having a cut, because that's how it would have happened had I been there in person. We won't discuss wether or not there was more than one take.

Reading a script, on the front patio at my apartment, looking for a new audition monologue.

Still on the patio, making my signature flashcards to memorize the new audition monologue I'd chosen.

A still frame from the DV movie audition submission.

TECH WEEK IS IN SWING:

My schedule has been so weird and tight recently that I barely began to work on sound design for the show until this past Saturday, you know, the day before Tech Sunday, which is when the sound design needs to be finished and ready to test? It isn't the first time I've been in this predicament so I didn't feel any stress, though I will say that my blood pressure was a little higher than normal on both Saturday and Sunday, pushed just slightly into the elevated level.

The tradition of my bringing my sleeping bag and other over-night stuff was in force. I was literally at The Guild for about 32 hours, from our monthly board of directors' meeting on Saturday morning, until I finished making adjustments to the sound design in the Show Cue Systems (SCS) software after the virgin, full-run tech rehearsal Sunday afternoon.

After lunch with fellow board members, the rest of my Saturday was about the sound design, gathering and building sound, then programing the show into SCS. Dry tech was scheduled for 10:00 Sunday morning, so the sound had to be up-and-running by then. I finished the programming at just before 2:00 a.m. then unfurled my sleeping bag and called it a night on a couch in the greenroom.

This, of course, is the reason I did not make an in-person appointment for the 22/23 HRTC general auditions which were held this past weekend. Looking at my schedule coming into this last weekend, I knew the weekend was going to be about sound designing and that it was better if I took the pressure of the generals out of the weekend equation, so I shot the video audition, instead, during last week.

There were, of course, adjustments to be made after Sunday's tech run. I needed to push the volume on some sound cues after hearing them competing against the music score, which I didn't hear in the mix until Sunday. I actually had to increase the volume a several sound files by processing them in Logic Pro X to get a volume through the sound system that works. And I have to curate another sound for a particular SFX, because what is in place just doesn't sound right in the theatre space.

Last Saturday afternoon, building a sound effect.

Dinner break, later Saturday.

Saturday evening, programing the cues.

My personal laptop, pulling DV movie footage from one of my HD camcorders, into the movie project for the Old Man... trailer, in Final Cut Pro, at the rent-payer, while I attend to work-related duties.

I shot the promotional trailer during Monday's rehearsal, then essentially missed rehearsal last night to edit the DV movie. I was at the rehearsal, but I was mostly off in the greenroom editing. The TV monitor was on, and I did check on particular moments, but, overall, my focus was on editing the DV movie. Usually, I'll take a vacation day from the rent-payer, the day after I've shot the promo, to edit during the day, but since I am on vacation for a week, starting Friday, I really couldn't skip a workday yesterday. Plus, my budget of vacation leave days is pretty tight this summer and I didn't want to burn another day, or partial day.

However, I did bring three of the four cameras to work on Tuesday, and transferred the footage from the cameras to the Final Cut Pro X project while I was doing my work work. I grabbed the footage from the fourth camera Monday night at the theatre, as that camera is used as the monitor camera for the lobby and greenroom TVs during a DTG show run, and I wanted to leave that camera in place ‐‐ and yes, I did shoot that footage from the "monitor camera" perspective..

It was my standard four-camera shoot, but I did not do any hand-held camera work for this one. Usually, I have three cameras on tripods and I carry the fourth one, so I can move with it, dolly in and out, truck left or right, or pedestal up and down with the hand-held unit. However, I did not want to have my focus be shooting footage Monday night; I needed to concentrate on the sound design needs, especially since I was lossing one night of attendance at a tech rehearsal, and most especially since I will not be on scene Opening Night, nor any of Opening Weekend, or the second weekend, for that matter. For this show it's only four tech rehearsals for me to tweak the sound work. Once Final Dress is wrapped, that's is. That is my last night to make adjustments. Plus I won't be readily available over the first weekend if a sound problem arrises, because I'll be in Hocking Hills this coming weekend, and cell service will often be spotty. So, I needed to just set up the cameras on tripods, hit "record" then go attend to sound.

I didn't use dialogue from the script in this trailer, anyway, it's all MOS footage over show-appropriate music, so all we needed was a nice series of shots with interesting, compelling movement; as this is the promotional trailer, I didn't have a need to edit together a coherent montage, which would have told a story; the promo DV movie's mission is to pique interest, not reveal the plot.

By the way, I did not finish editing the video last night. That will happen today, probably at lunchtime at the ol' rent-payer. The trailer for will likely be up at the DTG YouTube channel, as well as posted on our DTG facebook page, and at the website, later today.

THEN THERE IS THAT 0.0001% INPROBABILITY PART OF THE EQUATION:

"100% Definite" − "99.9999% Probable" = "0.0001% Maybe Not So Much"

I'm going back, to the mixing level for all the songs. I'm going to lower the volume of each individual track and I'm also going to pull a bit of the low-end frequencies down, at the track level. I don't really think I need to adjust any of the placements in the stereo pan, but, you never know. I will be doing these adjustments in the existing mixing projects in Logic Pro X. I'll master everything from scratch, creating new mastering projects in LPX.

The false finish of the mastering was over a week ago. I have not dealt with the album project since I made the decision to redo it all. First, I've had auditions and sound design things to attend to; second, I needed to step away for a little while. I may start working on remixing/remastering while I'm on my upcoming vacation, which starts Friday, though I have no delusion that much will get done. Still, it's not impossible that the album could be released before the end of June, but July seems a better bet.

MORE AUDIENCE MEMBERSHIP FOR ME THIS SUMMER:

After Sheryl, next on the agenda is the 2022 annual installment of the Dayton Playhouse's FutureFest new play festival, July 15-17. This is the first in-person production since 2019.

August 18 is the first of two more stand-ups. I've loved all Mulaney's stand-up specials that I've seen, and I think I've seen them all. You can see from the image on the right that I'm in the second row for the added 10 p.m. show.

Technically, this one's in autumn, but it's close enough to call it part of the summer festivities. I'm seeing Lewis Black live for the second time. My seat's not quite as close for Lewis as for John, but, still, ninth row isn't bad, at all.

Of course, the big thing, for all these events, Paul McCartney through Lewis Black, and my other vacation stuff, will be to be COVID-safe! There's an incredibly strong chance I'll be wearing my N95 mask, especially in crowds.

SPECIAL EVENT:

In the spirit of collaboration with the Dunbar 150 project, which commemorates the upcoming 150th anniversary of the birth of the native Daytonian and African-American poet & author, Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Guild will host a one-person show, written and performed by Oni Lasana.

The details are in the promo poster, to the left.

On-line tickets are available for $11.00 at daytontheatreguild.thundertix.com.

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AAAAAAAAAND ‐ I'M OFF!:

My truck, loaded with firewood for at least SOME of the trip. There's probably still room for other stuff in there....

Soon as I post this, I'll start packing to head out on Spring Vacation 2022. I am, of course, running late, but, so what?

Last night I bought forty pieces of firewood from a local farmer for twenty bucks. You can see them loaded into the trunk of my car on the right. It's rained lately and much of the wood is a little damp, but I figure being in the trunk with heat build up will dry it out. There's also the concern that when I get to my cabin in Hocking Hills it'll rain all or part of the weekend, interfering with my evening campfire plans, but, we'll see. There's a chance of rain all damned weekend, but, what-a-ya-gonna-do?

There's some chance of rain in the forecast for my Tennessee leg of the trip, too, which causes me concern for my visit to Zoo Knoxville, as well, and more importantly, my four-night stay camping at Norris Dam State Park. But at least it looks like it'll be sunny when I set up camp. I also know my tent handles rain well, so as long as it's pitched already, the possible "PM thunderstorm" on Thursday, June 2, won't be too much of a problem.....well, except that Id rather it didn't rain on my camping trip.

Well, enough of this. Time to pack and hit the road.

Click here for the promotional trailer of the show

Last night's Final Dress indicates that those who venture to The Guild to see this show will not be sorry. It's really a very charming show, executed quite well by cast, band, crew, and designers (even that sound designer).

If you live close enough or will be in the area on any weekend between this one and the weekend ending on June 12, you should come see this.

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NO WORK DURING VACATION:

Now that I am "back to the grind," I'll get to remixing and remastering, most likely tonight.

SOUND TECHING & ENGINEERING:

Ms. Lasana already has her sound design plot. I will create a sound cue program in Show Cue Systems based on her design and using her sound files. Then I will be the sound tech for the performance.

REALLY....IT WON'T BE LONG:

All I gotta do is some photo processing, and then some prose writing about my Spring Vacation 2022, then, there'll be at least one accounting of the week, in general, as well as a special accounting of Paul McCartney at Thompson-Boling Area on May 31.

*(Okay, well, I have a bit of photo processing to do).

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COOL LITTLE ACTING GIG COMING UP:

I've just been solicited and have signed up to be involved in a Playwright Race at the Dayton Art in the City festivities, in conjunction with Human Race Theatre Company, the first weekend of August. More details to follow.

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SOME PREPRODUCTION SOUNDWORK FOR THE UPCOMING SPECIAL EVENT:

Doing the initial soundwork for Doin' Dunbar as 'Lias' Mother.

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MY LITTLE HIATUS IS OVER:

Thus far, for "Identity," I've done an over-all volume tweak, bringing everything down in their channels then upping the master, stereo-out volume. The goal there is to keep any track (instrument/vocal) from ending up too hot (distorted) in the final mix. I've adjusted the EQ for a few instruments, especially taming the low-end frequencies. I started with the drums, taking out some low-end and slightly enhancing some higher frequencies in the EQ. I did some adjustments and tweaks to the bass guitar volume, such as bringing up the volume slightly on bass fills, and again, I took down the low end frequencies just slightly. I did the same EQ adjustments for the piano and the chorded bass that sits under and boosts the piano. Unfortunately, I have to forgo work on the project tonight as I have a commitment that I have to attend to.

To recap the overall action being taken on the music: the Virtually Approximate Subterfuge album was originally hoped to release about August of 2021. That did not happen. I was not done recording when August rolled around. Then I set my eyes on pre-Christmas, say the first or second week of December. Again, nope. Next it was before the end of this Spring that we've just left. That goal was almost achieved but then, as some will know, I was unhappy with the master recordings of the album, and I chose to step away, take a little break from the project for a few weeks. Now, of course, I have returned to it.

I'm not sure how fast the progress will be, thus, I'd guess it's likely my upcoming Summer Staycation 2022 *(see below) will absolutely be about moving the album project toward completion and release. Whether that will entail finishing up the remastering before moving on to the rest of the work to get it to release, or it just means dealing with that post remastering stuff, remains to be seen. I suspect remastering won't be done before I hit the staycation, and I am not allowing myself to stress about that.

But, really, August, 2022 needs to be a HARD deadline for release.

The stereo frequencies volume analyzer window for the whole "Identity" mix, and the bass guitar channel EQ window.		A Gary Katz wannabe, listening to playback of the mix after the thus-far tweaks have been made.

CAN I DO 2022/2023 AS AN ACTOR, PLEASE?:

I haven't taken a close look at the seasons at the other local community theatres, but that is on the agenda. Of course, in May, I submitted my video audition for the Human Race Theatre Company's generals for the new season, but as I have not been notified of any callbacks, it doesn't seem that I will be appearing on the Loft Stage in the 22/23 season, at least not in a mainstage production. I did express interest in their occasional Monday night staged readings, so that might still be a possibility. But, if I haven't yet been notified of a callback for one of the season's main productions by now, I don't see that it will happen.

I also have run across a few casting calls for short films or indy feature films, but thus far there's been one obstacle or another: I don't meet type, the shoot is a scheduling problem or is located too far away. I am, however, open to doing some screen work; it's been seven years. The last movie I was in was The Tooth Man Cometh, which was shot in the summer of 2015, before my heart attack.

So let's see if I can get cast more than just frickin' occasionally this season.

Meanwhile, here are a few of the headshots from the session with Rick:

Photos by Rick Flynn Photography

MY NEXT TIME OFF:

I'm taking more vacation time during the Fourth of July week, but this time, for several reasons, I am not heading out of town, even to spend time over in that haven of Hocking Hills. So, I have a staycation coming up: "Summer Staycation 2022."

I do have a couple events happening during this staycation: Jim Gaffigan at the Fraze Pavilion on July 5, and Sheryl Crow at The Rose Music Center on July 8. These were initially why I requested the week off. It's a strong bet that I will hike at some local parks more than once during my nine days off. I may also try to fit a couple nights at a campsite somewhere close, maybe.

When I first scheduled the time off I considered spending the first or the last weekend at The Wilds, but even before the budget for my Spring Vacation 2022 blew up ‐‐ mostly due to the price of my Paul McCartney ticket ‐‐ it was going to be cost-prohibitive even with the pre-Paul budget for Spring. A couple nights at a cabin in Hocking Hills was on the table, too. But now, a trip off somewhere would be a little too much for my wounded finances. Then there is an even better reason.

Like I wrote above, getting the Virtually Approximate Subterfuge album to the finishline will be the big focus of Summer Staycation 2022. And again, as stated in the entry dedicated to this subject, August, 2022 needs to be the HARD deadline. Plus, back to the "wounded finances," there are some fees involved with releasing the album, processing and distribution fees for the electronic release, manufactuting costs for the physical CDs, etc. The less I spend on the staycation, the better.

I'd also like to finish coding all of the blog html pages for their new home at klstorer.com so that I can shut down this site where the blog resides right now, ASAP. I need to stop paying for this server space.

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RETIRING MY LITERARY SITE:

I knew when I began klstorer.com that I was going to close down The WriteGallery. That time has come. I had some of my fiction, poetry, and essays there, including one on-line chapbook of fiction and poetry, and all that work will end up here. I regret pulling down all the work by the hundreds of other writers, but I did not want to migrate all that to the new site, which has a different focus and mission; plus, I'd have to get clearance from the authors and in many cases that would be difficult if not impossible. Although there are a few short stories that I've thought about adapting to screenplays for short films; one in particular that is perfect for the format. If I can contact and work out a deal with the writers, perhaps I'll still have a relationship to some of that work.

About half the blog pages still have the old look because I wanted to close the old site down before I could completely udate every blog page. "Work In Progress," you know.

A BRIEF RECESS, A "PLANCK TIME," IF YOU WILL:

After last Wednesday night's session of remixing/remastering "Identity," I have not returned to the project. Honestly, I've been dealing with HTML code and recoding to shut down the old site and get HTML docs at least a minimal of ready to be at this new site.

I have a sound gig later today, *(see the Dunbar performance wrote of below), but I may try to do at least a little more work on the remixing of "Identity" when I've posted this blog entry.

No photos today....

In the spirit of collaboration with the Dunbar 150 project, which commemorates the upcoming 150th anniversary of the birth of the native Daytonian and African-American poet & author, Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Guild will host a one-person show, written and performed by Oni Lasana. On-line tickets are available for $11.00 at daytontheatreguild.thundertix.com.

MASKS RECOMMENDED Wearing a mask while visiting our theatre is recommended to help ensure the health and safety of all our audience members, cast & crew members, and volunteers. Please be safe, Dayton Theatre Guild Board of Directors

WHERE'S SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT WHEN YOU NEED IT?:

It hit the news yesterday, as in this article: "Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame announces 2022 inductees." The four inductees are Jim Brown (of Springboro Community Theatre), Dawn Roth Smith (Dayton Playhouse), Harry Woosley (X*ACT: Xenia Area Community Theater), and, uh, one of the board members at DTG, one who might have some direct connection to this blog and this website and all the nonsense that I do.

So, I was at my campsite on the side of a Smokey mountain, where I had much better cell reception than I would have guessed I would. There was a voicemail from DTG President Carol Finley and she asked me to call her back as soon as I could. Now, there was a DTG project going on at the time that I was working on and some action needed to be taken. I had told someone else involved in it that I would take particular action when I returned from my vacation the following Monday. Since I had made that pronouncement I'd had two further emails on the subject. So, when I got the voicemail my first response was,"Oh, jeez, I'm on vacation

But Carol wasn't calling me in her capacity at The Guild; she was calling me as a board member of the Daytonys/DTHOF. When I called her back, she said, "It's my privilege to inform you that you're being inducted into the Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame."

Um   .   .   .    What?

That's not what I said, but it is the first thing that came up in my head. What I said was, "Wow. That's weird."

Just between you and me ‐‐ since I am pretty sure almost no one reads this blog ‐‐ a little while later, I wept to myself, because, you know, I felt a little overwhelmed and quite touched. For god's sake, they're inducting ME? into the hall of fame?

ME?

RESPITE ON THE PATIO:

And, of course, I had to get some of the traditional selfies of my afternoon.

Lunch on the patio before work on the patio.

Then, work-at-home working.

As the sun moved into the western sky I retreated inside to finish the work tasks.

SATURDAY IN THE PARK:

And, hey! A 13% reduction in my blood pressure!

Here's a dozen:

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MORE REIDENTIFYING:

Sunday I did some adjustment to the synth bass pan in the musical interludes between verses. As well as I did some EQ adjustments for some tracks, again tempering the low end. I also did more volume adjustments, especially bring the rhythm guitars up, those mostly be performed by my nephew, David Bernard.

Last evening, I did more EQ and volume adjustments, this time to the lead vocal and the main backing vocal, those two being tethered together in a bus. Again, I did EQ and volume adjustments to the secondary backing vocals, also tethered together in another bus.

Of course, all this EQ tweaking has been to greatly reduce the emphasis on the low-end frequencies, which takes an unwanted boomy-ness out of the recordings. This will be a feature that will run through the entire re mixing and remastering process.

One of the things I recently discovered on this music producer, mixing/mastering learning curve is that sometimes it's wise to pull down the overall EQ for a part, such as the lead vocal, as seen below. In the case of the vocal it gave me the natural quality I've bee striving to get with this one the whole time. This EQ trick is likely to be a normal part of my arsenal from now on.

As for continuing on with "Identity," I still have the horn section and David's lead guitar work to tweak, then I move on to remastering the track. I will be redoing all the songs in album-list order:

Identity The Night Before the Night Before Christmas [remastered]* Icebergs Chilled October Morning Just One Shadow [remastered]* The Answer Burning Bridge Cozy Cottage Memories of the Times Before Into the Blue Dawn

*) Yes, it is technically true that everything is being remastered, but "The Night Before the Night Before Christmas" and "Just One Shadow" both have mastered versions already released as singles and the "[remastered]" label on the album versions will distinguish between the two versions. In fact, at least CD Baby and Apple Music/iTunes, if not other entities, require remastered releases to have that designated label so that a different item number can be assigned.

The EQ window for the "Identity" lead vocal, showing the overall pulldown of the EQ frequencies

DUNBAR AT THE GUILD:

With the exception of Dunbar's well-known poem, "Sympathy," Lasana's show is made of Dunbar's work written and spoken in the southern black dialect of the nineteenth century. She closes her show with "Sympathy" in fun manner that involves more audience involvement.

As for running the sound cues, there was a bit of an on-the-fly aspect to it, but I managed. Our afternoon "rehearsal" was a rather informal, hybrid dry tech/cue-to-cue, and during the show some of Ms. Lasana's line cues were altered from the script, so I had to be vigilent. But, it all worked out fine.

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NEW "IDENTITY," ALMOST COMPLETE:

I finished the remix of "Identity" Tuesday evening, by once again tweaking EQ and volumes, this time for the horns and then my nephew, David Bernard's, lead guitar solo. When it was done, listening through the headphones I still got a little boomy-ness but figured I could address that during the remastering.

Last night I all but finished the remaster. More EQ adjustments, as well as adding in two gain filters, one for the overall mix and one for the sounds placed at left and right of the pan ‐‐ just a slight push on that one to give a small boost to the stereo dynamics of the mix and adding just a sliver more stereo separation. I also, of course, applied the Exciter filter, to gingerly brighten the mix.

This morning I listened to the mix in my headphones and there is not that unwanted boomy-ness; the mix has good clarity and brightness to it through the phones; plus, I am hearing all the instruments in the stereo mix well; nothing is buried. Before I render the final mixed-master, I am going to try to up the LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale), just a bit. Right now that overall number is sitting at about -14. I am going to try to get to -10, if doing so doesn't give the song any volume distortion ("hot sound").