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STILL NOT ON TRACK AS I WANT TO BE:

The rehearsals of the revised chord progression for my R&B song were once again stalled a bit, delayed, whatever word you want. Chalk it up to life stuff, other obligations, things like that getting in the way, you know?

But I have been on the Legato III refreshing myself on the song as well as trying to change up how the chords are played to get something that is more interesting and might even make me a better keyboard player than the barely-adequate one that I've been ‐‐ yet I suspect I'll still be light-years away from being a "keyboardist."

Nevertheless, I've slipped in a bit of rehearsal on the chords. Since I'm trying to punch up how the chords are played, I've been doing a lot of work at a very slowed-down tempo to try and do some work with my left hand that is beyond what I have ever done. Then, of course, I'll bring it up to tempo when I can play it at tempo. Having never had even one formal lesson on piano, I have absolutely no true coordination between my two hands and I can't come close to any sort of independent movement between the two. So that's my goal: to get something more interesting happening with the piano part. It will still be something probably not exceeding what a reasonably practiced twelve-year-old can do, but I hope it'll be sone kind of good step forward for my ability. It's like the bassline in the one section of "Backward in Time," the one that took me WEEKS to conquer.

Before I started rehearsing the song I imported the new drumkit tracks into the song project on the Tascam 24-Track. I say tracks in plural because, as is standard, the drum kit is in stereo, on two tracks, with some pan‐mix for the various drums, cymbals, etc. But before even doing that, I cleaned out all the tracks in the song project in the recorder: the original drumkit tracks, the spoken guide track, and the four piano parts.

I also had to redo the spoken guide track since the addition of the new chords in the progression changed where all the sections start and stop. After cleaning everything out I imported the new drumkit part and the new guide track onto the 24-track.

NEW ADDITIONS TO MY MUSIC/SOUND EQUIPMENT:

My new ART Tube MP Studio V3 Preamp

My new Whirlwind 10-band Bass EQ Pedal

The motivation to get these now is that I'm consulting on the soundwork for The Guild's production of Dial M for Murder and both are needed for a daisy chain between a wireless mic in the greenroom and the theatre's mixing board in the tech booth. But right after the show closes, both pieces of equipment will go to their real home to next be employed in the recording sessions for my 25/26 Music Adventure. This isn't the first time I've bought something new for myself that first made a detour to a theatre production. Years ago I bought a set of wireless phones for myself, and one of the two units was a prop in the Guild mounting of Belles, by Mark Dunn. There have been a few other times my personal purchases first hit the stage before going home.

Ultimately the graphic EQ is another supplement for my bass guitars, another enhancement for shaping tone. I had one back in my youth. I still have it though it's not in great shape. It was one of a few guitar pedals from last century that I intended to try to repair during the COVID shutdown, but that project never got off the ground.

The preamp is intended to boost the volume for both mics and my bass guitars as I run them into the 24-track recorder. Sometimes the signals on these are much weaker than I like. The preamp will also come in handy in live performances ‐‐ IF such were ever to come about, that is.

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AMBITION VERSES MOTIVATION:

To be confessionally honest, I have barely rehearsed the R‐&‐B song's piano part. The ambition's there but I'm finding it difficult to muster the motivation.

It's an amalgam of two things. First, I have been struggling with what I self-diagnose as a low-grade depression, which has led me toward often going down a YouTube rabbit hole of reaction videos, both of younger people experiencing mostly music from my youth, or people reacting to episodic TV I like (Stranger Things & NCIS, especially). It's also induced me to sleep a lot. The other ingredient is procrastination, because, let's face it, I'm a bit intimidated by the work ahead of me to come up with, AND PLAY, this "interesting piano part" that requires me to improve as a ‐‐ (clears throat) ‐‐ piano player.

But I have taken action on this task. I went into the Logic Pro project that is specific to the drumkit track and I have rendered four WAV files with the spoken guide track mixed with the drumkit. Each WAV file is at a different tempo (speed): 50%, 75%, 90%, and 100%. The purpose is to play back these tracks so I can play along on my Legato, working on the piano part, trying to create that more interesting variation of the chords that will have me more than simply playing the piano part like it's a keyboard version of the rhythm guitar. Obviously, I'll start out at the 50% tempo and work my way up to full speed.

We'll see how long it takes me to avoid the YouTube rabbit hole and get my ass back to business.

On the other hand, I have recently come up with some other song ideas: snippets of lyrics and theme, as well as some concepts for the musical composition. I came up with at least the idea for a song, earlier today, as a matter of fact. Also, I still need to work on lyrics for the R‐&‐B song, which I have not done for a while.

ANNOUNCING THE CAST:

The Cast of Light Sensitive
CHARACTER		ACTOR
Tom Hanratty		Frank Maranje
Lou D'Marco		Jim Hagan
Edna Miles		Kerry Simpson

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STILL ON TRACK, STILL NOT AT ROCKET SPEED:

Another variation of basically the same photo.

There has been rehearsal of the main chord progression for my R&B song, but it still ain't sailing along. I'm on my Legato III piano, in the "electric piano voice" mode, which sounds a bit like a Rhodes piano. I'm still playing along to the drum track that's at 50% tempo, that's playing back in Quicktime player on my MacBook Pro, through external speakers. I'm trying to punch up the chords by adding little note fills to transition to each next chord. Since I ain't "Mr. Prodigious Pianist Guy," it's a.....paced project. But I'm hopeful I'll master it at 50%, then graduate to 75%, then 90%, then full speed; then it's record time.

THIS AFTERNOON I STAND WITH FUNCTIONAL DEMOCRACY AND THE CONSTITUTION:

What is a dark factor is that I, and everyone else who will attend, need to be mindful that we could be in jeopardy of being arrested, accosted, perhaps even seriously injured by law enforcement, especially from the federal level (can you say ICE?). We need to also be conscious that any of us could be injured, perhaps even fatally, by other U.S. citizens who are opposed to our opposition. It's not ridiculous to also recognize the potential for a death by the hands of one of those law enforcement agents. This far bad end is certainly at really low odds, but, again, such things can't be completely discounted.

It's happened in this country's past and we now have a party in charge of the federal government that is actively setting the stage for its supporters and its agents to go down this road, to do violence against American citizens that show disapproval of, and resistance to its policies, rhetoric, and actions.

Again, I don't know if there's a big chance of any of these bad things happening in Dayton, Ohio, but it's foolish to dismiss the idea out of hand; and I'm betting we could see some of this somewhere in the nation. And if people get hurt today, there are government leaders who will applaud and some percentage of the American population that will openly celebrate. That's where we are in the U.S.A.

I'M PROBABLY GOING TO A SHOW TONIGHT:

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I WAS ONE OF THE ESTIMATED SEVEN-PLUS MILLION:

An aerial view of a good portion of the few thousand at the Dayton No Kings Rally last Saturday. I did not take this and I do not know who to credit.

Heather Cox Richardson stated in a social media post that, nation-wide, "[c]onservative estimates put the turnout at somewhere north of 7 million, all peaceful. These were not the radicals that Republican talking points raged about. These were average Americans, seniors, parents, students, Americans of all political persuasions, all peacefully saying 'we love our country and we support the Constitution.'"

She also wrote of the national count, in her Letters from an American: "G. Elliott Morris of Strength in Numbers partnered with Atlanta-based science newsroom The Xylom to estimate that as many as 8.2 million people turned out [Saturday] to oppose the Trump administration."

The Dayton event was peaceful and problem free. I personally wasn't aware of any counter-protestors, much less any who created trouble. My concern of potential trouble, even bad trouble, turned out to be for naught, though I still think it was a legitimate concern. I'm most grateful that, as far as I am aware, there were no bad incidents anywhere in the nation, nor in any of the No Kings rallies of solidarity that happened in other nations. And I don't know about you, but I was gratified to know that we have allies beyond our borders who are fully aware of our grievances and stand with us.

As for the national count, I'm guessing for every person who attended a rally, there were maybe fifty to 100 who didn't for one reason or another but wanted to ‐‐ that would put the number of discontented Americans at tens-of-millions, if not hundreds-of millions. I'm going out on what I bet is a thick, strong limb to guess that there are a lot of old-school Republicans who really wanted to attend though they didn't. I spoke to a couple of Republicans at the rally. One of them said he was now considered a RINO, though the truth is, in his words, "the GOP is now being controlled by the real RINOs."

Here's the write-up about the Dayton event, in the Dayton Daily News:
"Area protesters join nationwide ‘No Kings’ movement"

And here are a few dozen photos I took at the rally:

Former Dayton mayor, Nan Whaley

Poet, author, and bluesman, Jim Dwyer, leading the crowd in a rendition of the folk song "Which Side Are You On," with verses updated by Jim to reflect our current politcal climate.

The march, heading from the Oregon District back to the Courthouse Square

A little footage of some of those "radical, extreme-left, American-hating Antifas" engaging in "negative and violent behavior!"

I'm posting this here, even though, as of the time of posting it's also at the bottom of the page, I want it here, too. It's quite relevant to last Saturday, as relevant as it was when it released last July 4. It's not "For What It's Worth," or "Power to the People," but I am happy with it.....mostly

I DID GO TO A SHOW SATURDAY NIGHT:

Since my afternoon at Courthouse Square was a positive event, and I, nor anyone else, was arrested or detained by ICE, and neither I nor anyone else was injured or killed by a fed or a right-wing extremist, I was able to come go back to Dayton Saturday evening and attend the Don't Tell Comedy show in the Oregon District. For those who don't know, the location and the line-up of comedians at Don't Tell Comedy event are kept secret until the day of the show. The line-up is actually never revealed until the show is in progress. And only the ticket holders are told the location.

Saturday's show was at The LightHaus. It ran about ninety minutes. It featured six comics:

The host, Kyle Kemper (IG: @kemper_kyle) Alexis Massey (IG: @_alexismassey) Nick Osman IG: @nickosman1 Mark Perkins IG: @markperkinscomedy Tony B. Cruz IG: @TonyBCruz The headliner, Raymond Jackson IG: @raymondjacksonjokes

I don't know if Kyle Kemper is the Kyle that its website credits as having started Don't Tell Comedy, and though I did offer him kudos after the show, I did not ask. His set suggests he's a native Daytonian, and I know this is a nationwide entity, with shows in more than 200 cities, so maybe not; but then, it may have been founded in Dayton for all I know. Most of the comics were Daytonians, with the exception being Cruz, who is from Columbus. These are newer stand-ups and they are sharpening their teeth. Jackson, the headliner, was far more polished, and his set was longer, maybe thirty minutes. He's clearly been in the game longer.

I had a good time at the show. There were about twenty in the audience. It was an enjoyable night out. I'm on the email list, so I'll likely attend more shows in the future.

Kyle Kemper	Alexis Massey	Nick Osman
Mark Perkins	Tony B. Cruz	Raymond Jackson

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AN ALBUM LATER OR AN EP NOW? (OR) I'M LOOKING AT CHANGING THE PROJECT NAME BACK:

I'm still working on the electric piano chords for the R&B song and it is a slow process. Remember, I have the chord progression, I'm now trying to work up an execution, with some little note frills that will make it more interesting than just chords on the downbeat. And because I'm not Elton John and have absolutely no pianist's training, whatsoever, it's a laborious task. But I have been working out some little note fills from one chord to the next, and have been noting on paper what they are. So far I haven't come up with any Rick Wakeman-like brilliance, and won't later, either, but at least it's going be something with more flare than I started with, if just a little.

You five regulars will know that I've been working on this on my Legato III, playing along with a drumtrack that's on playback in Quicktime player on my MacBook Pro, running through external speakers. I'm still rehearsing ‐‐ and working out the better execution ‐‐ with the drumkit track thats at 50% of the full tempo. I'll probably graduate to the 75% track soon. This all just proves I am not a musical virtuoso.

Now I'm looking at the fact that I started this album project, in earnest, in December of last year. In the past ten months I've finished two songs; two songs that come to just about 11:30 of music for an album that will be anywhere from 50:00 to 1:10:00 in length. Granted I have three instrumentals I've recorded over the past few years that are slated for this album, and they are an additional 13:30; The R&B song is going to run about another 4:30. This leaves me with another 30:00 to 40:00 of music to record after I finish the R&B song, and I may get that done before New Year's Eve, or I may not.

I'm contemplating putting all, or most, of the music I have finished on an EP. I say "all, or most" because I'm not sure if "Backward in Time" fits the musical tone and aesthetics of the other music ‐‐ the three instrumentals originally composed and recorded for promotions for Dayton Theatre Guild productions, and the newer Winter season ballad, which I have slated as a single to be released the end of next month (well, probably an edited version with a sightly different mix than the full-length version).

If I put the three instrumentals and the long version of the Winter season ballad on the EP, that's just shy of twenty minutes. Then I'd release the single version of the Winter season ballad by itself with a music video. That is, if I go with releasing the shorter version. I may shortly consult a few people seeking feedback on what seems the smarter marketing: a 7:00 single or a 4:20 single. As an indy recording artists who isn't likely to make commercial airwaves where shorter is better, 7:00 for a single might not really be an issue; "Just One Shadow" is 6:00, and the music video is 7:11; of course, that single wracked up no sales and has had almost no streams.

Yeah, I'm a major Pop Idol!

Regardless of which version of the Winter season ballad I put out as a single, I do plan on that music video. I need to soon start giving time and energy to that. I only have a vague idea of what I want the video to be. There are few ideas. The one I like most is probably not feasible, because I don't have the resources or the budget. It may end up being a lyric video, but there can still be interesting visual aspects. I've thought about stock footage as part of the mix; that will call for a budget, too. There's also the question of whether I use the 4:20 or the 7:00 version for the video. I could put out the 4:20 as a single release, with the longer version on the EP, and also use the longer version for the music video ‐‐ IF I release the shorter version, at all. I don't know, yet, but the decision and action need to both happen soon.

The bottom line is that this "25/26 Music Adventure" is quite possibly going to revert back to the "2025 Music Adventure" as I shift the immediate focus away from an album, that is clearly a ways off, to an EP that I can have released in the not-to-distant future.

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NEW RELEASE COMING SOMETIME SOON:

So, I have quickly moved from "I'm contemplating releasing an EP" to "I've decided to release an EP." And I'm going to release it as soon as I can. The playlist is 99% decided upon. It will be the three instrumentals that have been recorded over the last few years and the Winter season ballad that I recently finished; and I will very likely add one more song, already released.

The first thing to do, which I did last night, was to slightly remix the long version of the Winter season ballad. I also expected that I might have to slightly remaster the recording, but with the exception of pumping the volume, I did nothing to the finished master recording.

You see, as I've listened to the master, in recent times, I've wanted to alter the mix, mostly having to do with the volume balance of various elements in the recording. That likely meant also a slight altering of the mastering, especially the intensity of the Exciter. But after I did the slight remix I found the mastering that was in place still works, save for the master volume issue.

I also will need to normalize the overall volume levels between the different songs on the EP songlist. I doubt there will be any remixing of any of the three instrumentals, but they will all have to be normalized to balance with the Winter season ballad, which is technically remastering, but with master volume being the only dynamic changing from before.

As for the song I may ‐‐ probably will ‐‐ add: I have been considering for a long time a remix of Burning Bridge. It would not be edited into a shorter version, I just want to remix some of the instrumentation to get a different feel, maybe even more of a rockin' feel. I think the song rocks pretty well as it is, but I'm thinking about a different approach that brings those faux rhythm guitars more into the forefront. I'm at least 90% sure it'll be on the EP line-up. So, you may have one title from the EP, already.

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WHAT'S IN A LINE-UP?:

Wednesday night I normalized the master volumes for each of the tracks for the EP. Last night I fine-tune the levels for a closer match. I also brought the volume level for the single version of the Winter season ballad into conformity with the others. And I suppose that in a sense, I remastered it further by using Logic Pro varispeed to bumped the tempo by 15% ‐‐ which dropped the play-length down from 4:18 to 3:36, not including the silence at the end of the track.

I'm now working on the 2025 remix of "Burning Bridge," and making good progress; I'm heading toward the remix concept I've conceived. I'd been thinking for a while about ideas to meet my goal. One of the things I've already done is tweak the EQ for the rhythm bass parts (i.e. faux "rhythm guitar" parts). Like I've stated in an earlier blog post, I decided to bring this "rhythm guitar" section more into the forefront of this mix. I also pumped the volumes and changed the placements in the stereo pan for most of the "rhythm guitar" section as well other elements, and I may not be done with those pan changes. I'm also seriously considering using varispeed to bump the tempo of this version, too, as I did for the single version of the Winter season ballad.

As I've listened to the playback of the normalized tracks, all together, I've wondered if one of the instrumentals may be a little out-of-place on this specific EP playlist. Just like "Backward in Time," the particular instrumental doesn't seem to fit the feel and mood of the rest of the line-up.

The other contributing consideration is that if I cut that one I'll have a playlist with two instrumentals and two songs which have vocals and lyrics, and I like that symmetry, especially since it keeps the EP from being instrumental-heavy.

As I'm getting this EP together for what I hope is a release as soon as possible, I have the parallel task of getting the single and its music video together for, again, release as soon as possible, actually, even sooner than the EP.

I've started seeking images and footage for the video; that's a venture that needs much of my present attention. I'm looking at stock footage, video of snow scenes, and right now, unless I take a trip somewhere north of my part of the country, there are no snow scenes for me to go out and shoot. This means I'm dropping some money to purchase the licenses for such footage, and it may run me a few hundred dollars. I have a certain amount of snow-scene stills that I've taken over the years, and I'm hoping I find a treasure trove at Creative Commons; plus, I have a few photographer friends that I'm betting have some nice pics of wintery stuff. But I want video in the video.

Now I just have to decide if I'm putting the video to the single version or the longer, EP version of the Winter season ballad.

JOHN MULANEY, 2.0:

Yeah....I spent WAY too much for a ticket to see one of my absolute favorite stand-up comics, John Mulaney for the second time. I had to borrow from my line-of-credit account to cover the ticket. But I'm in the middle of the second row at the Taft Theatre in Cincinnati, which is comparable to where I sat the first time I saw him at the Schuster in Dayton in 2022; so, I'm telling myself that it was worth it.

Despite needing production money for the forthcoming music releases and the music video, I dropped a few hundred for this seat.

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A FEW STEPS BACK TO GO MORE STEPS FORWARD:

If you're one of the five who may be regulars, or semi-regulars, here, or if you happen to be someone who knows me, you won't be shocked that I've decided I need to remix and remaster both "Burning Bridge (2025 mix)" and the Winter season ballad. In my efforts at normalizing the volumes of the four songs on the EP, and at a louder overall volume, I find that in both these cases I've pushed the gains too much.

Both master-recording WAV files are on the verge of being too hot, i.e.: they have the subtle beginnings of loudness distortion and clipping. The push of the gain also makes both recordings a bit dirtier than intended, in other words, there is too much overall distortion, especially on "Burning Bridge," and both have an almost blanket muddy sound. I want them both to be cleaner. The only thing that should be dirty in either song are those chorded rhythym basses in "Burning Bridge."

I reworked this and the other in the mixes and the mastering. Beyond a more conservative use of gain, both for various stems in the multi-track master projects as well as the final master recordings, I also tweaked a lot of EQ, and some amount of stereo pan.

ADAM Audio D3V 3.5-inch Powered Studio Monitor Pair

However, there's been a short hold before starting the remixing/remastering of those two songs ‐‐ and possibly the single version of the Winter season ballad. Earlier in the week, one of the speakers in my external monitor set for my MacBook Pro blew. I have another set but the speakers are not as good. I could mix and master using my headphones, but honestly, the pair I have are not good enough for that use. I just ordered a new set of better speakers, a pair of ADAM Audio D3V Studio Monitors, from Sweetwater. At some point soon I'll buy a studio-quality set of headphones, but the new, studio-level external speakers are the priority.

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NEW TOYS, *TOOLS*:

Last blog post I wrote of how I'd blown one of the speakers in my exterior monitors for my MacBook Pro, which is what I use for all my audio editing and processing. That's where Logic Pro X and GarageBand are, the latter which I use exclusively for drumkit programming and for some MIDI instrument voices. It's also where Show Cue System (SCS) is, inside the VMware Fusion emulator where I can run Windows®. SCS is Windows-based software for doing sound-cue programming for theatre sound-design.

My new ADAM Audio D3V Studio Monitor speakers set up in the usual workspace.

In the immediate present, the need for new monitor speakers is for the 2025 Music Adventure, which has recently morphed more accurately into the "2025 EP Project," though I'm not going to bother officially retitling it such. I have remixing and remastering to do on that project, and quickly; and as you'll see below, more of it than I originally thought. But, again, in the long run, the need goes beyond just the Adventure, the EP project.

At any rate, as I wrote on Oct 28, I ordered a pair of ADAM Audio D3V Studio Monitor speakers from Sweetwater. They arrived Wednesday and that evening I hooked them up. They sound great, but I wasn't getting the volume I want. The real culprit for that is my MacBook. Its inherent volume just isn't terribly robust. So I went fishing to see if there are apps out there to boost the laptop's volume. I found one. It's called SpeakerAmp: Booster and Equalizer. I didn't even download the premium version; I installed the free version and I have more than enough volume boost. I also left the equalization flat, which is relevant to the 2025 Music Adventure entry below.

RELEASE DATES ARE ON THE NEAR HORIZON:

You know from above that I got new external monitor speakers for my laptop, the ADAM Audio D3Vs, which arrived Wednesday and I took for a drive that evening.

The D3Vs are studio speakers and I can testify that they sound great. But I did run into a couple not-so-great things while trying them out. First, of course, as I related above, was the volume issue, solved by getting the SpeakerAmp app to boost the volumes on my laptop, and that works like a charm.

The second issue was that most of the 2025 Adventure master recordings sound muddy through these speakers, based mostly on there being too much low end and too little high end in the recordings. So, beyond the reworking of gain on "Burning Bridge (2025 mix)" and the long version of the Winter season ballad, I need to do far more remixing and mastering, which I suspect is going to include a lot more gain reduction and clearly a lot of adjustment to EQ, probably all the way down to the stems in the multi-track Logic Pro projects.

I know, by the way, that the low-end heaviness is in this 2025 adventure's recordings because I've listened to other recordings as comparison from my library of commercially released music and from stuff on YouTube, and it all sounds just fine with a good balance of EQ. So the problem is the audio engineer for this project; he's a bit more of a novice than he'd like, you know. But I suppose he's slo-o-o-o-wly learning.

Since it will release first, so is the priority, the remixing/remastering overhaul began last night with the single version of the Winter season ballad, but I only had to remaster. I'd tried that first, to see if I could get a satisfactory sound without going back into the multi-track master to tweak things, and I found that in this case I could. There is a slight sibilance in the lead vocal but I have elected to live with it.

I rendered an intermediate master recording then imported that into a new Logic Pro project simply to render a final mastered recording with a bumped-up volume. It was an experiment that worked and will be even more helpful as I deal with the recording with the bad low-end muddiness that needs addressed.

"Burning Bridge (2025 mix)" is next, as I move on to the EP, which I'll get to after the single release is ready to go.

---

Earlier yesterday, in the afternoon, during downtime while I was attending to a task at The Guild, I went hunting for stills and stock footage for the music video for the single release.

I found a few good photos from my library of my own photography, but most of the images I scavenged were "stock photos," in the quasi-technical sense, from Creative Commons.

Then I found some almost perfect footage at the website envato, where I bought a month's membership to download the licensed footage. The footage isn't precisely what I was looking for but it's close enough to work quite well. I may look other places for more stock footage.

After I remastered the Winter season ballad single, I created the cover artwork (the thumbnail) for the music video's YouTube posting. From that I made the cover art for the digital single release of the song, with some slight alterations for the format.

I'm contemplating making the official video as also the lyric video; if not, I'll make a separate lyric video, probably with less moving parts, visually. Either way, I'll be back in my graphics app, Corel Painter, making graphics of the lyric lines. I sometimes do text there instead of using the text feature in Final Cut Pro X, because I can get something tailored uniquely. It's how I did the lyric text for the "Backward in Time" music video.

Ya know, I've had the Motion app for a long time, it was bundled with FCPX when I bought it, and I've yet to utilize it. Beyond a lot more ways to present text in DV movies, there are a lot of effects in there I've not only never used, I don't even know what's available for my use. Maybe with this coming music video‐‐‐

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FIRST THINGS FIRST:
Let's not be blowing off the local elections. We are in this monumental Constitutional crisis in part because of the results of local elections. Many of these bad patriots who are stomping on the rule of law, who are assaulting the Statue of Liberty, who embrace, invite, and invoke this Third Millennium, American, Neuvo Fascism were first elected to city councils and school boards and trusteeships. They were state senators and representatives. I did my part, to the best of my ability, to thwart any more of these bad players from being in the game.

THE RELEASE IS AT HAND:

Last night I began editing together the Winter season ballad single's music video in Final Cut Pro X. I got to the 59-second mark, with a few seconds at the start before music begins. The single is 3:46. It was a couple hours of work. I'm trying to be as reasonably close as I can be to illustrative of the lyrics at any given moment with the images chosen to accompany them. I'm also trying to not reuse any image (still photo or movie footage) anywhere in the video, but I may not be able to avoid it before I hit the 3:46 mark in the song. I may have to do it a few times. I could go hunting for more stills and footage, maybe. I might have the time to do so and still get the DV movie to a locked edit in time to post with the single's digital premiere.

I'm still not decided wholly on whether or not I'm adding lyric text to this "official" music video, or creating a separate lyric video. It's still a 50-50 proposition. I have started looking on YouTube at some how-to videos about using Apple's Motion, but I've barely begun that process. I could still get enough of a grasp to add lyric text to this video in time, but it would definitely be a novice, beginner's use of the app's possibilities.

The release date is not too far off. I'm thinking either ThanksGiving Day, or the next day, November 28. The date will be in cement at some point today because I'll be sending the WAV file and the artwork for the single to CD Baby today. Probably at lunch. So, when filling out all the info, the release date is kind of required. I'm not sure yet about the release date for the EP; it'll probably be mid-December.

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ON THE LAUNCH PAD

At lunchtime yesterday I uploaded the WAV file and cover art for the Winter season ballad single to CD Baby and did all the processing ("paperwork" and payment).

As you can see, the digital release date will be Friday, November 28, the day after ThanksGiving.

I'm still looking at a target of mid-December for release of the EP. At this point the plan for that is for a physical release (CD), as well as a digital one.

November 28 is also the premiere date for the single's music video. Work on that in Final Cut Pro X continued last night. I'm now at the 2:00 mark, having gained another minute, with 1:58 of that two minutes being the music. If this progress is consistant for each editing session then I'll will surely have a final cut to upload to my YouTube channel well before Nov 28, even considering the addition of lyric text. As to whether I put lyric text on screen in this version or not is still not decided. I will still continue to look at how-to vids at YouTube for using Apple's Motion for the lyric text, whether it's for this video or a separate one, the latter which I'd also like ready to upload on Nov 28.

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MORE GROUND GAINED

After last night's session, my editing of the single's music video in Final Cut Pro X has me now exactly 3:06 in, which means there are only 42 seconds of the song left. It's obvious I'll have the final cut ready way before I need to upload it to my YouTube channel.

That would include adding a text overlay of the lyrics, which I am still on the fence about, whether I do it one of the ways I have in the past, or if I learn how to do it with Apple's Motion. The lyrics are going to be an issue in terms of the November 28 release date either way, because if I don't put the lyrics to this video, I'll create a separate lyric video, as I've written before; and I want that video to be ready when the single drops, as well. But it would be a much simpler video.

This main video, lyric text or not, will also be longer than the length of the song. I'm putting credits at the end, most especially the photography credits for all the stills I used from Creative Commons. I did the same for the "Just One Shadow" music video, and I always put the copyright notices, for the song, the recording, and the DV movie.

NEW SUB-PAGE AT THE ARTISTIC WORLD OF K.L.STORER

At the moment those ventures are only about releases of recordings. There may be a day when there's something there about gigs, ya know, live performances. It's not off the table, but I can't see anything in the near future. I haven't performed live in front of an audience as a musician for almost forty years. If I do it any time in the future, it's going to be with a band. You just don't throw a band together to play live, not if you want the band to be worth seeing, and more importantly, hearing. The players need to get to know each other, need to jell as bandmates and fellow musicians, and need to seriously rehearse their live show. So, no, no live gigs for me any time soon.

There will be a new page focused on my acting at some point, too. Probably in some strong fashion, more-or-less, an actor's on-line résumé in many ways, but more than just.

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ANNNNNNND MORE GROUND GAINED

The music video for the Winter season ballad single is tantalizingly close to a final cut. Last night I got all the way through the song and started the credits at the end, after the song's fadeout. I may still insert some imagery in the last thirty seconds or so of the song.

I also have to go through the video and inventory all the Creative Commons photographs I used, so I can list those and properly credit the photographers. That's not something I can do at lunch at work because the Final Cut Pro X movie project is on my Western Digital Thunderbolt Duo 4tb External Dual Hard, and I'll need to look in the FCPX movie project at the index of clips used to identify the exact photos and photographers; I didn't use every single photo I pulled from Creative Commons; that hard drive is not something I bring to work, so I'll have to do that at home; but it's not like I don't have a window of time.

I'm still not decided on putting the lyrics on the screen for this music video, but last night, after watching what I have finished, I'm leaning in favor of putting them in. As to whether or not I employ Apple's Motion for that task is a "Stay Tuned" proposition.

---

Since I know the track listing for the forthcoming EP, I've begun work on the artwork for that release, meeting the specs from CD Baby and CD Baby Manufacturing. That, despite that I have not done the remixing and remastering of the four songs yet.

But I've finished the icon for the digital release, and the front and back covers of the CD case, which will almost assuredly be a digipak as opposed to a jewel case. Both the digital icon and the CD front cover artwork are based on the art for the single that precedes the EP's release, even though the single is a different version of the same song that will appear on the EP. All I have left is the artwork for the CD (the disk) itself; and I pretty much know what I'm going to do; it's a pretty decent bet I'll get it mostly or completely finished at lunch today.

Without thinking about it, I also created a thumbnail graphic for a YouTube video, which won't be needed because there won't be a music video of the EP, though there may be music videos for a couple of the songs on it. I am seriously thinking about an expanded version of the music video for the single, to accompany the longer version of that song on the EP. I'm also considering another song from the EP as the next single; but I'm getting ahead of myself. Making the thumbnail was productive though, because I was able to pirate from that to get the CD's front cover art.

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CLOSING IN ON GETTIN' THAT NEW MUSIC OUT:

The music video for the Winter season ballad single is now UBER-tantalizingly close to that final cut. I have gone with that lean toward adding the lyrics as text to this main, official DV movie, and I chose to not attempt it with the Motion app. Though I am going to put time aside to learn Motion. For this I created the lyric text, line by line, in Corel Painter then superimposed the images (lines) over the appropriate footage, a process I've done quite a few times before. I'm not quite finished with this process; I have the last verse and the final chorus to still add lyrics to, which will happen today.

Also, I did add imagery at the end of the song to enhance what I'd already done. And I finished out the credits at the end, adding the names of those whose images I got from Creative Commons. The music video will make final cut today.

Yesterday morning I wrote that it was a "a pretty decent bet [I'd] get [the EP CD's disk art] mostly or completely finished at lunch." I won that bet. Now, all the artwork for the EP is finished save for one image. I have the thumbnail for the digital release, the front and back covers for the digipak CD case, and the art for the top of the CD disk, itself. All that is left is to add a UPC barcode to either the front or back cover of the digipak, after CD Baby provides that barcode graphic to me. I did still saved all the art to PDF format and it's virtually ready to send to CD Baby Manufacturing when it's time, after I've re-rendered one PDF with the added barcode. It needs to be time to send very shortly, too, if I want the CDs in my hands by a mid-December official release date.

But, of course, as you five who have been following along know, before I can send the material for this release to CD Baby, I have to remix and/or remaster the EP's four tracks to address the low-end overabundance in the EQ of the recordings. Some will need more attention than others, but they all need some love on this front. Fortunately, I have just started a four-day weekend, and that should be enough time to get this job done and start the process to get the EP release out, as well as its predecessor, the single.

So, stay tuned! I may soon announce the EP release date!

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LOOKS LIKE A FINISHLINE UP THERE:

The final cut of the music video for the single version of the Winter season ballad was arrived at on Saturday and I uploaded it to my YouTube channel on Sunday, though it's not published yet and won't go live until the single's November 28 release date. Or maybe I'll publish a day early on ThanksGiving Day; that idea has occurred to me; we'll see.

I'm more than pleased with the music video I have. The stock footage I used from envato and the stills from Creative Commons (essentially, if not technically, stock photography) all worked extremely well to tell the story of the song. I didn't get an absolutely perfect match of footage and still images for my vision, across the board, yet my vision was met. As an aside, unlike my first two official music videos ("Just One Shadow" and The Night Before the Night Before Christmas), I make no appearance in this one.

A few days back I discussed a thought about doing a music video for the longer version of the Winter season ballad, that which is a track from the forthcoming EP, where I'd do an expanded version of the single's music video. I've been mulling that over and I'm thinking rather than expanding on the shorter version I may create a different DV movie, using the same footage and still photography, with possibly new footage I shoot myself. Local conditions would have to meet the thematic needs for me to shoot my own footage as source material, so we'll see ‐‐ as I write this there is a layer of snow on the ground outside, which is the condition to be met, and I am on vacation today, but I have more pressing matters to attend to *(see next item). This is Ohio, so when I have the time to go shooting we could be in an Indian summer spell with the snow mostly or completely gone at that moment. But, regardless of that, essentially, the thought is to repurpose the source material I have, and any new material, and get a quite different music video for a reasonably, if subtly, different version of the song. Once again: it's a "we'll see" situation.

Yesterday I started the task of remixing and remastering the four songs on the EP, to rid the finished master recordings of those various levels of overabundance of low-end in the EQ. I started with the two that needed the most attention. I dealt first with "Burning Bridge ‐ 2025 mix." Next was the long version of the Winter season ballad. I got both those in shape and normalized against each other. Today I'll do the two instrumentals and normalize each against the Winter season ballad. These need much less work, so getting them done today is not a challenge.

If I get the EP master recording finished soon enough today, I can execute the process for its release ‐‐ send the audio files and all the artwork, for the digipak and the CD disk itself, to CD Baby and CD Baby Manufacturing, and fill out them forms. Again, all I need for the art is the UPC barcode, which CD Baby will provide, and probably quickly. So I'm hopeful I'll possess the physical CDs by that targeted mid-December release date. Though, realistically I don't need the CDs in hand when the digital version releases; but I'd prefer it.

That EP release-date announcement is much closer!

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THE RELEASE DATE IS FIRM:

My endgame for the long weekend was pushed down the road twenty-four hours due to the infamous "unforeseen circumstances."

In Tuesday's blog post I wrote that on that day I planned to remix and/or remaster the two instrumentals, then normalize each against the Winter season ballad. Yeah, well, that didn't happen.

I ended up back working again on both "Burning Bridge ‐ 2025 mix" and the long version of the Winter season ballad because I'd come to have multiple issues with both. However, I did come out of the ordeal having learned some things, one of them being especially important

It's that "Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men" concept, with a big heaping dose of "help" from that danged production gremlin. At least that's whom I want to blame. First of all, and I hate to admit it, but through no fault of the gremlin, I didn't start to work on the music until late afternoon. The plan of this man ‐‐ (or is it mouse?) ‐‐ was to get started on the slight remixing, if any, and remastering of the two instrumentals by mid-morning, or right after lunch at the latest, then make sure all four pieces were normalized to comparable volumes, and a consistent volume between them at a decent level of loudness; for me that means louder. The last actions, of course, being uploading all the mastered sound files and all the artwork to CD Baby and CD Baby Manufacturing, and filling out the forms for the release. But here's what happened:

Late afternoon, Tuesday, when I finally sat down to do the work, I first opened the previously mastered WAV file for one of instrumentals, to scrutinize what I might want to change about the mix, the overall EQ, and to also compare the volume level to the two songs I thought I was done working with. Specifically I was going to compare it to the Winter season ballad. I noticed right away that the instrumental's master recording seemed a bit louder than that for the two songs I already had done for the EP. I didn't even notice mix or EQ issues because I instantly focused on the volume. What's more, that instrumental's volume was more to my liking.

So, after pulling up the "finished" master for the Winter season ballad to verify that I needed to normalize its volume up to meet the instrumental, I opened it's mastering project in Logic Pro to boost the volume. That's when I SAY that the g0|)@#$%!! gremlin popped in to screw with me. I could not get the song louder. It was the same with "Burning Bridge." I'd up the volume and the gain, in various places in the mastering projects for both songs, and repeatedly render new WAV files that would not get louder than a certain level that was not as loud as I wanted. Not only could I not increase the volume, the rendered WAV files didn't sound right. The mixes did not sound as they did in the master projects. I think the word I'm looking for is "subdued"; the rendered mixes sounded subdued. It was frustrating, to say the least, even more so because I had been able to render much louder mastered sound files of both the instrumentals in the past.

To say the truth: I. WAS. GETTING. PISSED. OFF! That yelling and cussing you all heard coming from southwest Ohio on Tuesday evening was me. The cackling was that g0|)@#$%!! gremlin.

At some pont, after some frantic searches on the web that gave me no good answers or solutions, I discovered the problem. When you render a multitrack recording to a stereo or mono sound file (the app calls it "bouncing"), there is a Yes-or-No option you can choose called, "Normalize." That was on "Yes." I don't remember choosing it and clearly in the past I've render WAVs, etc., with it not on Yes. But, Yes was chosen. It was that g0|)@#$%!! gremlin, that's who did it, I'm telling ya!

The other issue was, afer I got volume and sound quality that I liked, I changed my mind about some of the mixes for both songs. I thus went back in to both master projects, tweaked the mixes and again remastered and re-rendered final mastered WAVs of them both.

And, so, it goes, that Veteran's Day 2025 was not about me getting all the music master-ready and then sending everything to CD Baby to get the ball rolling on that mid-December release. It was me redoing these first two songs. In spite of the delays, I was able to get the two instrumentals mastered and everything volume-normalized yesterday evening. I did no remixing for either of these tracks, I only fiddled with the mastering.

Though it was virtually twenty-four hours, exactly, after my target goal, I uploaded the sound files and art work to the appropriate legs of CD Baby, and completed the appropriate forms for each division. The EP's release process has begun.

The release-date is December 15

That the digital format will be available to purchase from such places as iTunes on the 15th, and all or most streamers will have the tracks, that I am certain of. Whether or not the physical CDs make it to me by that date is more of a question. The estimated delivery is sometime between late November and the first few days of December, but, we are moving into the Christmas season....

Well, the 2025 Music Adventure is winding down. Had it stayed the official title for the new album project, then it would still be going strong. In fact we wouldn't even be at the halfway mark ‐‐ and it would have stayed with its brief renaming of "The 25/26 Music Adventure." But when the EP is out, with the exception of promotion, a probable music video for the long version of the Winter season ballad, that possible second single from it in early 2026, and that associated music video, the adventure is almost concluded. The rest of December has me in crossover from one project to the next; or if you're cinephilia-inclined, I'm in a lap dissolve from one scene to the next; the next being, obviously:

There are those other recent song ideas and concepts, too, as well as the songs from the WayBack Machine, i.e.: the titles I wrote in my younger years, back in the stone age of the 1970s & 80s.

AND SPEAKING OF "2.0":

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BACK ON TRACK:

After more than three weeks, during which I focused on what became the virtual wrap-up of The 2025 Music Adventure, I'm now back working on the piano arrangement and performance of my R&B song, now a part of this ALbum 2.0 Project. Not only am I back in rehearsal, attempting to elevate how I'm playing the main, electric-piano-voiced keyboard part on my Legato III, but I'm going after finishing the lyrics, too, both exactly what I told all of you I would do NEXT.

The keyboard part I've come to have worked out with the Legato's Rhodes piano-like voice has turned out to be less elaborate than my ambition. That's partly because of my frustration over my poor skillset on the keys, but also because of what I am determining the song needs. For one, I'm probably going to simplify the "Rhodes" part even more and transfer what I've worked out to an acoustic piano voice where the fill notes will have more sonic impact.

Meanwhile, I have the first verse of lyrics completed. There are two verses to go and still holes in the chorus where I've only had four of the needed seven lines for quite a while.

I have lyrics and/or music started for quite a few new songs, too. Over the weekend I got an idea and wrote a couple lines down. I have snippets of more than a half-dozen others, as well, some reaching back to cabin vacations during the COVID pandemic period.

I also had a pretty good idea a few days ago, but I didn't write it down and it's lost, maybe temporarily, but lost for the moment, none-the-same. I only remember it vaguely, and I do remember liking the idea, but that's it. It's like when you wake up and you know you just had a really great dream but for the life of you, you can't remember a thing about it, or at least most of it. And I just got an idea inspired by this: "Paul McCartney Joins Music Industry Protest Against AI With Silent Track." I don't know exactly what I'm gonna do, but some vague concepts have already hit me.

The five regular visitors, and perhaps a few other folk who read this and know me, may know that with the exception of my nephew, David Bernard's guitar work on "Identity," I Paul McCartney/Stevie Wondered the Virtually Approximate Subterfuge album, playing all the other instruments and doing all the vocals. I could add Dave Grohl and a few others to that DIY album list. The point here is that for this album I want to bring in other musicians, especially for specific songs. I've already had a conversation with one and I have some other musicians in mind to approach.

There's a song I wrote in my head a couple years ago at work that I would like to have at least two acoustic six-strings on. I worked out the chords I'd heard in my head on the piano, but if a piano ends up in the recording, it probably won't be prominent. There are other songs I have specific ideas for guest musicians to play on, too. And though I wouldn't say I have all the specific musicians in mind, once again, I do have at least a few specific people to approach.

In relationship to new songs and guest musicians, in a lot of the cases there will likely need to be a demo recording for said musicians' uses. And despite the imagery in the icon to the left, those demos will be electronic sound files, most probably MP3s. However, for some songs that will end up on the album, the cassette tape image is more than just a symbol as they are material from that 1970s/80s WayBack Machine of songs I wrote in my late teens to mid-twenties, more so the latter. I have some cassette demos of those that I'll digitize and clean up as much as I can. Maybe I'll use Peter Jackson's machine-learning program. Those tapes are not in the greatest shape, but I can probably get a decent enough quality that both I and any guest musicians can utilize them. Myself, I will need them to help me remember some of the chords and chord progressions. Hey, I haven't played most of these songs for over four decades!

SELLING SOAP & FIXING STUFF:

Though I don't exactly have a million-dollar promotional budget ‐‐ in fact, I don't have a promotional budget at all ‐‐ I have created a half-page ad for the EP, to run in the printed playbill for the upcoming DTG production of Light Sensitive, by Jim Geoghan. I didn't include the single because it releases November 28 and Light Sensitive doesn't open until December 5; although I do mention the single in the blurb. I may try to get an ad in for the EP in other local theatre playbills if my wallet can afford it.

Over the weekend I created a subpage for the website to highlight the still images in the music video for the Winter season ballad single. Of course, it won't be posted until the single releases and the music video is published on November 28. In the process of making the page I discovered that I'd left a Creative Commons photographer out of the credits at the end of the DV movie, which is already uploaded to my YouTube channel though it's not live yet. I promptly added the photographer to the list in the description field for the YouTube video along with an apology to the photographer for leaving them out of the credits roll in the actual music video.

THEN ‐‐ DOH! ‐‐ it hit me: the video's not live yet. I can delete this instance of it from YouTube, add the name to the credits in Final Cut Pro X, re-render the fixed version and upload that, all in plenty of time to make a November 28 debut. I'd also previously noted one little image error, which I'd decided to live with, but since I was in there, anyway, I fixed that, too.

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FORWARD:

The rehearsal for the R&B song has morphed into me playing the chord progression for the whole song on the Legato III's Rhodes-piano-ish voice, without any chord-transition fill notes, because, as I've already shared, I think the fill notes sound better coming from an acoustic piano voice. The electric piano part is better as base chord-harmonics. I've rehearsed a bit of that acoustic piano part, too. That one's not at an Elton John-level of prodigious keyboard work, and let's face it, it ain't gettin' there, but it'll at least add somewhat interesting melodiousness.

I am thinking about a third piano part that may be a little more challenging but will be used a bit more judiciously sparsely in the song. Whether I can pull off the part I'm hearing in my head is a question. But right now, the real focus is memorizing all the chord changes in the chord progression of the song, from start to finish. There are some slight variations in each of the verse and chorus sections each time they appear, so I need to get the differences etched into my head and hands.

I have also been thinking about other aspects of the arrangement. I've been contemplating the bass line, which I now have a slightly different concept for than I originally had. I've thought some about the "horn chart," too. That, of course will consist of faux horns, i.e.: Logic Pro MIDI voices played on my Oxygen 61 Keyboard.

As for the lyrics, progress, if minor, has been made, but only some tweaks to that first verse. There have been no additions to the lyrics in the chorus and the second and third verses are still blank.

FIXING THE "FIXING," OR, CORRECTIONS 2.0:

Looks like "2.0" is some kind of recurring theme these days.

So! in Final Cut Pro X I edited the music video for the Winter season ballad single to fix errors I'd discovered. I added the Creative Commons photographer's name to the credits roll at the end. I fixed the other image error I'd detected, that being an image that did not have the correct opacity assigned to it. Tuesday, at the rent-payer, I deleted the version of the music video already sitting on my YouTube channel, in Private mode, then uploaded the newly rendered version.

After YouTube had processed the new video, I watched it. Guess what?: another @&$%$#!! error! I'd love to blame that damned production gremlin, but that little bugger is not the culprit. Nope. I know exactly what happened and it was all me.

For my supplemental webpage that will highlight the stills from the video, in the order of their appearances in such, the page having both the video's versions and the original versions, I needed screenshots of all the still images I used in the DV movie as they are manipulated for the video. That usually means a zoom in and the universal fact that they are all at 75% opacity in order to be tinted blue due to an underlying blue background. To get a clean copy of many of the screen-captured video versions, I had to disable superimposed lyrics over the frames, so the text would not be in the images I captured. But I found that when done capturing, I did not re-enable the lyrics in two cases before I rendered the DV movie the second time.

Thus my second upload to YouTUbe was still a flawed version because a few lyric phrases were missing. I had to go back in Final Cut, fix the fix, re-render again, and do a third upload to YouTube. But before I did that third upload, I watched the newly rendered DV movie several times to be sure I got it all correct this time. If I've still missed something.....I'm gonna be pissed.

I remember in a production class in college that I didn't catch a typo in a lower third text overlay in a documentary video, (which was essentially the final exam for the class), until long after the assignment was turned in. One of the production gurus on campus said to me about that: "That's why there are ADs." When you are your own AD?: that's not a good idea, at least not for me.

MY CURRENT THEATRE TASKS:

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FORWARD IS FORWARD:

The chord progression doc for the R&B song.

My apologies to those of you who have followed much of my blog, if any of you are reading this, [if ANYONE is reading this], but I have to return to a recurring theme here: if I were a proper musician who practiced on my chosen instruments on a regular basis, the text of this post would be different. But I don't practice as a musican ought to, so....

I'm still working on the keyboard part for the R&B song, rehearsing the chord progression on my Legato III. The focus is still on the main, Rhodes-piano-ish voice, but I'm also still doing some work on a couple acoustic piano parts that will be more garnish. I don't know when I'll fire up my 24-track recorder to start laying things down. At the moment, all that's in the R&B song's project on the machine is the drumkit stereo tracks and the spoken-voice guide track. But maybe, just maybe, some recording will happen during this holiday week.

"What about lyrics?" you ask. There has been some forward motion. Another small tweak to the first verse has been made ‐‐ I changed one word ‐‐ and I have one line for the second verse.

CDS REASONABLY GUARANTEED BY THE 15TH:

Got an email from CD Baby Manufacturing that my order for the EP CDs is done, will ship out today, and the estimated delivery date is tomorrow "between 9:15 a.m.‐11:15 a.m." The shipment will be delivered to the rent-payer, more specifically to campus Shipping & Receiving, which is usually where I have shipments sent. I'm on vacation these three workdays of this holiday week, so if the shipment makes it before too late on Wednesday, I'll drive in to get my disks as soon as I know they've arrived. Otherwise, I should be able to get them next week when I return to work. Regardless of delivery and/or pick-up this week or next, I should indeed have them in my hands by the December 15 release date.

Not that I have a clear marketing plan for the physical CDs or anything. But at least the few comps I plan to give out will not have to wait. I'd send one to the local public radio station but that move has rendered no results I'm aware of in the past. The station clearly is not interested in me or my music.

Maybe it's time for me to start figuring out how to sell CDs in some manner besides at live performances ‐‐ those which we know I'm not doing now or any time soon. I could upgrade to vending services with my domain service....

ALMOST BUT NOT COMPLETE OBLIVION:

My weekly artist's report from Apple Music usually shows zeros for both Plays and Shazams, but every now and then I get a hit for Plays, and on a few rare occasions there has been a Shazam or two. I'm sorry to report that there has never been a report of a purchase on iTunes. The latest report, for November 14‐20, showed two streaming plays, one for "Cozy Anxious Chaos" and one for "Roll the Dice." The former is the one I've had the most streaming hits on Apple Music for, but usually in Copenhagen, and I assume from the same user who I suspect has the instrumental on a playlist that grabs it every now and then. But this time it was played somewhere in the U.S.; the city wasn't identified. The latter song, which is the modern-day, virtual version of a seven-inch, vinyl, 45 RPM "B-side", i.e.: was the extra track for my first single release, "Just One Shadow," was streamed in Lisbon, Portugal. So, a jazzy instrumental somewhere in the States and a tongue-in-cheek blues-rock ditty across the ocean in Europe. I suppose there's still no threat to the legacy of The Beatles, nor for Taylor Swift's management team, but at least my music isn't absolutely, completely lurking in the blackest bottom depths of the cold, dark void.

Occasionally, I get reports like this, and I usually don't bother mentioning them, but sometimes I need to remind myself that there are ears out there hearing my music, and more importantly to me, ears on people who don't know me. There may not be many, but they exist.

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I tend to not want to recognize or honor what is termed "The First Thanksgiving" here in the United States, because though it's mostly considered not to be a myth that early European settlers (English Pilgrims) and indigenous people (Native Americans) did gather in commensality to honor and celebrate the harvest and the goodness of nature, we know that the future history of the relationship between the settlers and the indigenous became adversarial and deadly as the settlers became conquerors who wiped out large portions of the indigenous over the latter's audacity to not want to give up their lands and their ways of life. There's also the fact that such feasts date back to long before "The First Thanksgiving" in many different cultures in many different places on the globe including many Native American nations ‐‐ see "The History of Thanksgiving in America." As I've written before, I see this holiday as a celebration of that commensality for its own sake, divorced from a specific historical narrative. I celebrate and honor the gathering of friends and family to focus on whatever sense of gratitude is relevant to whoever sits down at the table. So: Happy ThanksGiving to you and yours! And go ahead, have that second piece of pie!

MAYBE SOME TRACKS GET LAID SOON:

I've been pluggin' along on the keyboard work for the R&B song, all on the Legato. The focus is still the Rhodes-piano-sounding voice part, where the big idea is to get the chord progression memorized, which I think has been accomplished; I now am remembering the small variants of chord changes in various parts of the song. I believe I will be turning on the 24-track recorder tomorrow to at least get the Rhodes voice part recorded. I've again done a little work on the second keyboard part (acoustic piano voice), so, who knows, maybe that gets laid down tomorrow, too. And if it's a really amazingly-productive day for the song, and the album, maybe I'll work out that third piano part and get it recorded tomorrow as well. Though I do have some sound design work for DTG to attend to and probably ought to give it some attention tomorrow.

Progress has been made on the lyrics. I've got the second verse finished, save for any changes we all know I inevitably will make.

CDS IN HAND:

The shipment of CDs of the EP arrived on campus Monday, a day earlier than estimated. It came in the morning and though I was on vacation from the rent-payer the three workdays this week, I would have driven in to get the box that day, but my car was in the shop Monday so I didn't get the disks until Tuesday. But you'll note that was still twenty days before the official release date of the EP.

CURRENT THEATRE GIG:

I did agree to do soundwork for the latest Guild show. It's not a tasking gig at all. It has consisted almost entirely of putting together the music for preshow and intermission, with a little bit of production music, and only a few SFXs in the show, one of those that includes within it the production song that takes us into Act 1. I have had to build some of the SFX's and that's done. I've also finished curating the music and only have some sound-file processing and then the programing of the show in Show Cue System. Opening Night is a week from tomorrow night, and Tech Week starts this Sunday. I'm in good shape, though. I watched a full run rehearsal Tuesday evening which has helped inform me for finishing my music selections for preshow, intermission, and production, as well as adding two SFX cues to the sound plot.

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My new single, "White Landscapes," formally referred to as "The Winter Season Ballad," is officially released today. The music video is also live and you can see it by clicking here.

A longer version of "White Landscapes," with a slightly different mix, is one of the four tracks on the EP that is releasing eighteen days from now, on December 15, and as you see on the right, is titled, Chasing White Landscapes.

And where the single is a digital release only, the EP, as you will know if you saw the last blogpost or quite a few before that, also will be a physical release, in CD format. Right now I have no venders from which to market it, or my past CDs, for that matter. But if you know how to contact me, (see my contact page if you don't), we can do a "backroom" transaction. I think $5.00 is a fair price ‐‐ I believe it's what it'll cost to download it from iTunes. Of course, if there's postage involved, I'll need to pass that along.

Here is the track listing for Chasing White Landscapes:

1. Becca's Lament
2. Burning Bridge ‐ 2025 mix
3. For Loyalty's Sake
4. White Landscapes ‐ long version

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INCHES FORWARD ON MY BRAND OF R&B:

Late last night into early this morning I was still rehearsing the Rhodes-esque piano part, but I'm categorizing this as "in the studio" because I was plugged into the Tascam 24-Track with some hope that I'd actually record the part. I came close to pressing record, but I wasn't completely happy with my rehearsal, though I do now have the chord progression memorized.

It may seem weird that one would have to memorize something that they composed, but that is usually the case, at least if the song is more than just three-chord blues based. This one has thirteen chords and about seventeen unique chord changes over the course if its eighty-plus measures.

I might record that Rhodes-voiced part today, I might not. Tomorrow is Tech Sunday for DTG's mounting of Jim Geoghan's Light Sensitive and I have to spend some portion of today getting the soundwork for that finished and ready for tomorrow. As well, there's some other things relevant to that production that I'll probably work on today. But then, there isn't a mountain of stuff to do for the show and the tech doesn't start until tomorrow afternoon, so it's not at all impossible that I have laid down at least the first electric piano voice part for this song before I walk into the theatre tomorrow.

While looking at the session notes I noticed that I had previously laid a second electric piano voice part, which I don't remember now. And since I cleared all the previously recorded tracks out on the 24-track, whatever that part was is forever lost. I do remember laying two acoustic piano voice parts, one with the Legato III's Baby Grand voice and one with its upright piano voice, and I have a decent memory of those parts. I am rerecording both those, though they won't be the same this time even if I remembered them perfectly. I may again add that second electric piano voice, too, and there's some good chance it'll end up serving the same purpose this time that it probably did then, which, at least this time, will be to bolster the first electric piano voice part in some way or another.

I had also previously worked out a bass line, or at least the main musical theme for one, but I am inclined to throw that out when I get to the bass this time. It had not been recorded yet before. I think I was about to when I was stricken by my late-summer emotional-crisis event ‐‐ that for which is not completely eradicated today. The bass line will be on the Epiphone Viola Bass with its flatwound strings because I want that tone and texture for this white boy's attempt at a Motown sound.

MOVING INTO TECH REHEARSALS:

Showing weekends Dec 5-14, 2025 Tickets on sale...

I also may do a bit of preproduction ‐‐ which would normally be postproduction ‐‐ for the promo trailer, editing together all the elements of the trailer in Final Cut Pro X, save for the rehearsal footage. Principal photography of the rehearsal will be shot during the full tech run Monday evening. If I can fit it in today, I may also put together 95+% of the lobby movie, which will run in the lobby at the theatre before each performance. All that would be missing would be the group cast portrait.

So, one can see why I may or may not get to any work today on the Album 2.0 Project.

click here for the music video

For more information on all my music releases, please visit my music page: K.L.Storer's Music

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