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Session 2 is today for the "Rich/K.L." joint project. We continue to work on our first choice of collaborations from "the olden' days." The question of the day is: will we do any recording today? I am impatient to get to that, so I have to be careful that I don't try to rush it. I think Rich may be more on the side of caution, so that's good. But what I think about is our likely schedule; we'll likely ony be meeting mostly every other Saturday, with some exceptions. That means every minute counts if we want to get anything out into the wild before 2030-ish.

As I've listen to the 1983 rehearsal recording ‐‐ over & over & over ‐‐ I have fervently confirmed my selfishly bias opinion that it's a really, very good song. I don't believe I'm being egomaniacal when I say that I think had this released in the early 80s it could have very easily hit the Billboard Top 40, maybe even the Top 10; and I sincerely believe it could have even hit #1. I'm not sure it has that kind of potential hit power today, but maybe it could put a dent in one of the other Billboard charts, "Adult Contemporary" or something. Of course, we'd have to have the ability to get it to a marketing place to even be noticed by the world at large, which takes a marketing budget and networking like we'd have if we were signed to a big label. That's really not a probability. In my mind it's still a candidate as a single, though. Millions may never hear of us or the song, but I have had people on the other side of the country and the world listen to some of my music, and that's something.

More woodshedding on that bass solo.

I've listen to the 1983 rehearsal recording ‐‐ over & over & over ‐‐ as I've worked on the bass line. Really it's been the work to refresh and get down the bass solo. I opened the WAV file in Quicktime, set it on "Loop," and listened to it repeatedly, attending closely to the bass work. Anyone hanging around might have been quite annoyed: "Jesus! Do you have to play that over and over and over and OVER!?"

I also redid that clip of just the bass solo section slowed down. The first one was too muddy because I pumped the bass end too much and cut too much high end, with the theory that I'd hear the bass better. That original was also slowed down to 50%, which turned out to be a little too much. I didn't change the EQ on the new version, and I only slowed it by 30%. It's much easier to follow. I had that on Loop in Quicktime all night Wednesday into yesterday. I also have the bass work I do under the guitar solo late in the song; that also was put into a clip, slowed down, and redone for better sound quality, and at -30% as opposed to -50%.

I'd spent some time on the bass work, especially the solo, for the last week or so. Yesterday it was a big focus, and I kind of have the bass solo down; I've figured out all the notes, but I'm not sure it's practiced up to a decent performance level. I guess I'll find out today.

Now, I head to Rich's for round 2. We have much of the day to play.

I arrive at 10:00. We should be off and running by 10:30-ish.

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THE WANT, WILL, AND HOPES OF THE PEOPLE:

SESSION 2:

Migrating the stems of the rehearsal demo recording from my 24-Track recorder to my laptop.

Session 2 of the Rich/K.L. joint effort is wrapped. Though not a surprise, I was disappointed that we didn't do any official recording yesterday. We did record but it was a demo for each of us to woodshed with.

Yeah, we have not arrived at the place where we're ready to lay tracks down for an official recording. I wrote yesterday that I kind of had the bass solo down. So, I have it kind of down, but still have work to do. That's one of the purposes for the demo that we did record yesterday. We recorded Rich's rhythm guitar and my bass line, but I dropped out during the bars where the bass solo goes, so I can work out that damn thing.

One thing I noticed when I listened to the raw recording of the bass was that the low notes had some distortion. I haven't dropped the two stems into Logic Pro X and done any processing, but perhaps when I do I can do some equalization on the low frequencies and fix this issue. I played this on my Viola bass and ran it through my Bass Ten Graphic EQ, then my Bass Chorus Pedal, and direct into the recorder. I got a bit of a hot signal on the bass in my headphones, but I thought it was just the signal in the phones because the meter didn't read hot on the recorder. There's a chance that the graphic EQ pedal is the culprit. I've noted this to examine when it's time to record in earnest.

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A BASS SOLO, LAUNDRY, THE ZOO, & AN ART MUSEUM:

On the hike on Saturday.

Working on the bass line, last night.

Saturday, before I mixed and mastered the little rehearsal demo Rich and I recorded on Friday, I took advantage of the sunny and relatively cooler day to take a hike at Sweet Arrow Reserve. I mention it here because while I was there, beyond replenishing my soul as a hike does for me, I also mentally worked on composing the bass line under the guitar solo late in our first joint-project song.

I'd already taken one part of that line from the '83 rehearsal recording, and during our session on Friday, I'd come up with something new for the first portion of the section. Hiking, and then yesterday, I worked out something mostly new for the last portion, loosely based on what I'd done in 1983, but I made it a little less busy to keep it out of the way of what, at this point, is slated to be a guitar solo; it may end up being another instrument, though guitar is a strong choice there.

Yesterday I created a rehearsal demo for myself that is only the guitar part, so I could rehearse the whole song on live bass without competing with the recorded bass, which is distorted, anyway. Having created the guitar only demo, I spent the afternoon and evening rehearsing what I already had down and honing the bass solo and bass line under the "guitar solo." Meanwhile, doing some task swapping, I took a break every now and then to take a load of laundry to, or fetch one from, the apartment complex laundry room.

I gained some good ground on both the bass solo and the section under the other solo, and I augmented the rest of bass line for the song just a little, by adding subtle adornments and variations. I'll have to rehearse the whole song more. I've gained ground, but I haven't quite arrived at the destination.

There may be some music worked on in the evenings, but during the day, today and tomorrow, I'm doing recreational vacation stuff. Today, I head to the Cincinnati Zoo for the day; tomorrow I'm going to the Dayton Art Institute. I haven't been to the Cincy Zoo for five years. It's been more than a decade since I've been to the DAI; and that was during a work conference where I barely browsed the collection.

Of course, the Dayton Art Institute isn't The Met, or the AIC, or The Getty, (though I haven't been to the latter), but DAI is still a damn nice art museum, and it's been too long since I've truly perused it's galleries.

Likewise, the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens is a fine zoo. When I vacation in cities, I like to visit the zoos in them, if they have one. I certainly haven't been to a lot of zoos, and why I didn't drop into the Central Park Zoo when I was in the park several days in a row in 2019, I don't know, but of the zoos I've been to, I rate the Cincy Zoo one of the better ones.

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MOVEMENT ON THE FIRST HISEY/STORER SONG:

I'd love to write here that this past Saturday Rich and I laid some tracks for the first song for our joint project, but, as the icon above tells you, we did not. However, despite some pretty bad run-throughs early in the session, we did get good ones in later.

Though I'm not as 100% comfortable with it as I want to be, the bass line is mostly working for me now. I actually got through the bass solo a few times at pretty close to perfection ‐‐ probably not at the level where I would have felt it was a good take, but were I to have played it like that during a live performance, I would not have been unhappy. On the other hand, I'm not wholly satisfied with the last few notes of the alternate bass line under the probable guitar solo section, but that's a minor point that will get fixed sometime this week, maybe tonight, when I am definitely rehearsing.

We are doing another session this coming Saturday and I am far more hopeful that we'll officially start recording then. We may just lay Rich's rhythm guitar and my bass line, but I'm thinking that we're ready. The big issue, technically, is that I need to be sure that I can get a track of my bass on my 24-Track that's not distorted; when we recorded the rehearsal demo I had that problem. I'll trouble shoot it sometime this week before the Saturday session.

Rich and I have also had a discussion about some of the further instrumentation for the song. The song has what's more appropriately called soft-rock verses and the chorus, and the bridge to it, is more rock. Rich plans to add a second rhythm guitar part with harmonic chords that fill out the guitar chording during the verses.

Whether he's playing that second guitar during the chorus section, I don't know. But I do plan to add some bass chords for the bridge into the chorus and the chorus sections. The bass line, as you see from the pic and movie above, is played on the Epiphone Viola Bass, using the Bass Chorus Pedal for a portion of the song. During the chorus section I'll play the Epiphone Embassy Pro Bass with the Overdrive/Distortion pedal to enhance the rock vibe. It's not inconceivable, though we haven't formally talked about it, that we'll be bringing in another guitarist to add a third rhythm guitar part, as well as that "probable guitar solo."

MY TWO-ACT REVISITED:

Of course, the predominance of what I've been doing is slashing things, i.e.: dumping my little darlings (my new, kinder, gentler term for killing little darlings). That means there's been slight revising of some things left over where things were cut, in order to keep those passages making complete sense. Usually that's meant changing a word or changing the tense, etc., of a word. Though in a few cases I have added a small amount of new material or a new word, not necessarily a synonym, either. And in at least one case I moved a passage to the opening. I want to get a more powerful opening to the play. I fixed it a little by moving that passage, but I think I'd like it stronger, still.

The big thing is this: my play is in a large manner a play of exposition, more so exposition from one characer to another, revelations that the characters get from each other. It's a lot of the foundation of the play. If it's done right it can be action. But making it action and not simply awkward exposition, or something annoying or boring, is a serious challenge. A lot of what I'm doing to "dump my darlings" is ask myself these questions:

does a characer need to know this information or this detail? or does the audience need to know? if the audience needs to know, is the exposition being done in a natural way that is a productive, logical part of the story?

There are more places than I'd like, I must confess, that could not get a "yes" to some or all these questions.

A WEEKEND OF GREAT THEATRE WORKS:

Every single one them was a damn good play.

The winner was Chagutok, by Vince Gatton. This was his second entry at FutureFest, having been a finalist a few years back. I kind of know Vince from the last time, after we realized in a conversation the first time that he, also being an actor, is a friend of Margarett Perry and has been directed by her many times; Margarett has directed me twice at the Human Race Theatre Company; coincidentally, she's directed him there once, too.

The other four plays were:

dess, by Dominic Finocchiaro ‐‐ another returning playwright and a previous winner. Beyond that, Dayton Theatre Guild will be producing Dominic's play, how it feels to fall from the sky, this coming 2026/2027 season. Pockets by Linda Ramsay-Detherage ‐‐ also another returning playwright and a previous winner Vichy, by Barry Slater At the Broken Place, by Paul Colemann

The adjudicators were:

Peter Filichia ‐‐ a longtime FF veteran Tatiana Godfrey ‐‐ FF newcomer Johnathan Hogue ‐‐ FF newcomer Helen Sneed ‐‐ the other longtime FF veteran Emily N. Wells ‐‐ returning to FF

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RICH HISEY & K.L.STORER HAVE ACTUALLY TAKEN A LARGER STEP!:

Rich in his Fender Strat guitar, during the recording session Saturday in his music studio.

Rich's music partner in that same session, on his Epiphone Viola bass.

A doppelgänger for Rich's music partner, adding a chorded bass line to the song, yesterday in my apartment on his/(my) Epiphone Embassy Pro.

I'm thrilled to report that this past Saturday Rich and I DID lay official tracks for the first song of our joint project. For technical reasons we used my newer Tascam 24-Track recorder as opposed to Rich's older model of the same recorder. Essentially, his machine needs legacy hardware, such as a much earlier USB cable for importing/exporting sound files. Plus, as illustrated below, it gives me a more convenient opportunity to add instrumentation and vocal work at home; it was possible the other way, but that involved said importing and exporting of sound files from one 24-track to the other ‐‐ possible, but a bit of a minor pain.

At Rich's, Saturday, we first recorded a click track, using the mixing board for Rich's Roland TD 516 electronic drums. Then we laid down Rich's main rhythm guitar on his Fender Stratocaster HSS and my bass line on my Epiphone Viola. We got Rich's on take 3, but I did another take on my bass.

However, even after that fourth take, I still wasn't satisfied with my performance, so I re-recorded the bass line at home yesterday. I got it in one take. There's actually a couple imperfections in the performance, one, a very minute error in the bass solo that no one else on the face of the planet would notice, the other is an erroneous deviation from the bass line I've composed, but it's not a musically technical error, I just played the wrong flourish at one point.

I also added two chorded rhythm bass parts yesterday, using my Epiphone Embassy Pro and, for both parts, my Boss Overdrive/Distortion pedal, with different settings for each part.

The first of the two, as I wrote in the last blog entry about this joint project, is to rock-up the chorus sections of the song a little bit. I also played a subtler chorded part during the verse-chords section that we're allotting for the probable guitar solo, but I had the pedal off and plucked the strings with my fingers rather than using the pick. That part took 9 takes to get a full take I was happy with. Some of the takes were not the whole song, just recording a particular section, but I usually count that as a new take unless it's a very, very small re-do, say a few seconds or so.

The second Rhythm bass doesn't show up until the last minute or so of the song and is also ran through my DigiTech Bass Whammy Pitch Shift Bass Pedal, bumped up an octave. I plucked that part with my fingers, too, but it's not a subtle performance and the overdrive/distortion is much heavier than for the other bass rhythm part. That was one take, but seriously, it was a very easy part and only lasts eight measures.

Our next session at Rich's is scheduled for Aug 15, and the goal is to at least record his drum part for the song, using his Roland TD 516 drum kit. The thing is, Rich has never played drums on this song. Back in the SeazonWind days, last century, he was on rhythm guitar and another member of the band, Ron Dunn, was on the kit. Rich has to compose a drum part. Today I'll be mixing a rhythm track demo with all instruments thus-far recorded as well as the click track, which will be mixed prominently up front. I'll send that demo to Rich so he can work on his drum part before the 15th.

Also, if we're lucky, there'll be at least one vocal track added during that Aug 15 session, that being Rich's backing vocal. In the meantime, since that session is just shy of two weeks away, I plan to record my lead vocal and my backing vocals at home before then, most assuredly this week, and probably some of them, if not all, tonight.

I'm sure we'll discuss further arrangement ideas for the song. I want to discuss bringing in the guest guitarist and what style of solo work we want from that musician. And who knows? we might start work on the next song. We had a brief discussion at the end of the session Saturday about what we'd do next. I'd proposed we do the first song for his solo project but he thought we should do the other top choice for our joint project. We can start work on that and come back to the first song when additions are ready, we don't have to completely wrap one song before working on another.

MAYBE K.L. COULD TAKE SOME STEPS AGAIN ON HIS OWN SOLO JOURNEY:

Since I'm on the subject of solo projects, I haven't worked on my new album for over a month, so I plan to go back and give the vocal parts for the R&B song another shot. That, too will likely be this week. Let us hope that I can finally give the song the lead vocal it deserves....

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It's probably time to start working on another piece for the album lineup. Whether that's pulling up one of my compositions from oh-so-long-ago or working on something new, is up for grabs. But it's time to be proactive about new material for the list.

DESPERATELY SEEKING FREDDY MERCURY'S VOICE ‐‐ (HA!):

AND LET'S WALK BACK TO THE PAST FOR ANOTHER STEP FORWARD:

It's also time to get back to mixing and mastering this album from the 1980s. I worked on the first song for one session during my Artist's Retreat ‐ Staycation July 2026, but I have been neglecting this, too.

I still have reasonable hope for a 2026 release date for this work which has been patiently waiting for four decades. That only can happen if it's mixed and mastered; and it's a double album, with only the first track having received any mixing, and no mastering has been done.

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TWEAKS AND FEET FORWARD:

Over last weekend I played the rhythm-track demo I'd mixed of the Rich/K.L. song we're currently in the midst of recording, for me to both rehearse my as-of-then, yet-to-be-recorded vocals and to further scrutinize the stereo mix, as is, looking down the road to the final mix. That mix had bad balance between my three bass parts and Rich's rhythm guitar. His guitar was getting a bit buried and it needs to be more prominent. So I remixed and remastered it, again rendering versions both with and without the click track and emailed new MP3s to Rich. I'm still not sure about the mix, or that the chorded rhythm part works as well as I (we) want.

Our next session is today, later this morning, and the plan/(hope) is that we at the very least get the drums laid down. Last night, I recorded my vocals for the song, at home. You can read a little bit of detail in the next entry here. We may lay Rich's vocal today, too, maybe, if there's time and he's ready. There's a chance I'll give the chorded rhythm bass part another go today, with a different approach I've been thinking about.

A "YES," A "NO," A "GYMNASTIC" OUTLINE:

I also can't help suspecting, as I have many times in the past, that there could be a psychological aspect to me developing a sore throat just when it's time to seriously sing, at least a harsher sore throat than the chronic situation I've been in the last few years. It seems to have often historically happen when I'm cast in musicals; although there's frequently the factor when I'm in musicals that I'm singing more in the short term than I do regularly in the general time period, meaning, I'm working out my voice and throat much more-so than usual, which could fatigue and irritate my throat and vocal chords.

Currently, I am frequently doing the straw phonation exercises, a little lighter when the throat has been sorer, but still doing them. So my vocal ability isn't what I guess can be called, "cold." And I did finally attack most vocals on the agenda.

Last night, at home, recording the lead vocal for Hisey/Storer song #1.

Last night I recorded my vocals for the first Hisey/Storer song. Again I came to painful terms with the fact that I had much better vocal capability at twenty than I do now. Some of the high notes, that were a breeze four decades ago, were a struggle last night. And I did not finally achieve them with the smooth strength of my youth. I won't list the litany of reasons from this time in my life again.

I recorded the lead vocal; that took ten takes, specifically because of the challenge of parts of the chorus section. I also recorded two other parts: my backing vocal, taking over for our old bandmate back in the day, the late Ronny Lingus. I also laid a track of an ad-lib type vocal toward the end of the song. Both those vocal were each done in one take. The irony of my backing vocal is that it's actually higher than the troublesome notes in the chorus, but I'm singing the backing vocal in falsetto, making the notes easy ‐‐ I don't want to sing any of the chorus in falsetto for the lead vocal because it dilutes the impact.

I ran out of time to finally give the R&B song for my solo project another try. I'd doubt the "no recording" to the right would not still be there; or if it was gone, I still be reporting that none of the takes were satisfactory. If I had trouble with the chorus of the Hisey/Storer song, it's a sure thing I'd have more trouble with this one.

As I wrote above, the straw phonation work has been going on. It's pretty much every weekday on my morning drive to work as well as on other drives other times during any day of the week, and at times when I'm not even in my car. I actually got an email from someone that I don't know, Jane, who visited the site and read my blog ‐‐ I know! ‐‐ who asked for details on my straw phonation routine. I suspect Jane had used "straw phonation" as a search term and my blog page was one of the search results. I gave her a detailed response. Then it occurred to me that I could put that information here for any of you five regulars (and other visitors). So here is what I'm currently doing in my straw phonation exercises:

First scale	Ascending four-beat notes from low in my range to the highest note I can achieve, each note a step or two higher than the previous one.
Second scale * when not done in straw phonation, I sing "Ha Ha's" with an emphasis on the H consonant, opening the back of my throat as much as I can	Quick quarter-note up-and down scales of root-chord triads (root note, 3rd note, & 5th note), starting at a low chord then moving up one step until the I sing the highest 5th note I can. Examples (These all below middle C): A-C♯-E-C♯-A*, B* / B-D♯-F♯-D♯-F♯-B*, C*/ C-E-G-E-C*, D*....... *: the last two notes of each scale being half-notes
Third scale * when not done in straw phonation, I sing "Ya Ya's" with an emphasis on the Y consonant, again opening the back of my throat as much as I can	Slower descending scale, starting at highest note I can achieve, with seven notes, the first moving down as follows: 1st note / down 1 step / down 1/2 step / down 1 step / down 1 step / down 1/2 step / up a fifth step *(also the 1st note for the next descension) ‐‐ I continue until I've hit the lowest note I can achieve, regardless of where it is in the scale. Examples (starting in the octave above the middle C): F, D♯, D, C, A♯ ( or B♭), A-E/ E, D, C♯, B, A, G♯-D♯...... As you can see, each scale is one-half step key down from the previous
Vocal sirens	The British website, Vocalist, describes vocal sirens, on its page dedicated to the exercise, this way: ...At its core, the vocal siren exercise involves singing a smooth, continuous glissando from your lowest note to your highest, then back down again. It's akin to a vocal rollercoaster that covers all the peaks and valleys of your voice, effectively warming up the vocal cords, enhancing range, and improving your sense of pitch.... I start at my lowest possible note and go up, not necessarily as high as I can, but certainly a bit more than and octave, then back down. Then I start a few steps up for tme bottom and repeat a least three times. Then I start as high as I can and swoop down then back up, several times, starting a few steps down. I also try to make the transition into and out of falsetto smooth and unnoticeable; if I fail that transition, I do that siren again until I've succeeded.
"That Would Be Something"	I vocalize the verse melody to this Paul McCartney song. I start in a low key then repeat multiple time, moving up a step, or several steps, each time, until I hit my highest note. Listen to the song to hear the verse melody I use: "That Would Be Something"
"Ram On"	Another McCartney song I do the same thing with the verse melody as with "That Would Be Something." "Ram On"
"A Lighter Shade of Pale"	Here, rather than the vocal melody, I do the melody of that classic organ part that is at the beginning of the song, as well as elsewhere in the recording. The melody covers such a broad range of scale and offers a great opportunity to practice many nuances of vocal control. "A Lighter Shade of Pale"
Extra scale exercises	I often do these straw phonations in my car. Very frequently it's in my morning drive to the rent-payer , and the time works out well. I am usually done with "A Lighter Shade of Pale" just about the time I'm pulling off the freeway close to the university. But I do do the exercises at other times on occasion. If I have more time on a drive, I'll add things, with or without employing straw phonation. One other exercise I have been doing lately is is a short series of arpeggios, usually three notes, at the top of my range, for a few purposes: To gain more support for notes in my upper range To strengthen my ability to stay on pitch ‐‐ and to successfully hit pitch without fishing To possibly gain a higher ceiling to the top of my range I also do all the exercises above without use of the straw. Where I do the "Ha's" and the "Ya's" explained above for the second and third exercises above. I also do both those exercise scales singing the alphabet, exaggerating my enunciation to get my lips and tongue warmed up. And I do the two McCartney songs sining the lyrics. "A Lighter Shade of Pale" I might sing with la-la's, ah's, or oohs, or some mixture. More so, I do many of these before I go on stage to act in straight plays, especially the alphabet scales. Of course, if I do a musical or other theatre production where I'd be singing, a predominance would come into play, if not all. Unfortunately my appearances on stage haven't happened as often as I'd really prefer and may just take a downward turn to more infrequency, due in some respect to my revived commitment to music, as well other less joyful reasons. Just to demonstrate my underwhelming knowledge of music theory, I have no doubt that there is a specific name for every scale I have described above, but I have no clue what any of those names are.

THE MOVEMENT YOU NEED IS IN THE BUS:

I returned to mixing the first song on the Heart Walks album. It was some involved and rather tedious work of moving things back and forth on the stereo pan, mostly during the long ending of the song.

I didn't finish in the first session, which was exclusively pan mixing of the track with the drum kit, because doing the stereo pan programming in Logic Pro X isn't done in real time, especially if you're being exacting about when the movements happen and where on the pan you want the edges of your span of movement to be.

In that first session I wasn't getting the results, the moviement, that I should have been. I was not getting the audio to move as for to the right on the stereo pan spectrum as it should have been going. It made no sense! When it was getting late and I stopped for the night, I realized the issue. I was working with the primary track; for reasons I won't go into, I'd sent that track to an audio bus, which was where the master control for the track's pan placement is. During that first attempt at manipulating the pan placement of this instrumentation, the bus placement was fixed all the way through the song on its original spot, what I'd estimate is about 30° to the left of center on the pan curve. That fixed master placement was preventing the sound from going much further right than center of the mix, regardless of how far I tried to send the placement to the right on the pan. So, Session 2 started with me putting the whole primary track back at dead-center and programming all desired pan movement with the bus. That worked.

During the second session I also mixed the pan for the track with the vocal and adjusted a lot of volume and gain levels. The mixing of first song is not completely done yet but it's close. I might just be reporting the mastering of Heart Walk's opening song sometime in the near future, maybe after tomorrow (see next).

SUNDAY "TO DO" LIST:

Unless something comes out of the session today with Rich that demands my attention tomorrow, I think there are a few things I want to dedicate as much of the day to as I can.

First off, I want to finish the mixing for the first Heart Walks song and master that damned thing. Maybe I'll even get started on Hearts Walks song #2.

That ambient music album simply needs to be slightly remastered. That should take less than an hour. I could have wiped this off my plate months ago. So......tomorrow. And perhaps it can be released in the relatively near future ‐‐ whatever that means.

Lately the godess muse of songwriting has been quietly whispering in my ear: "You have a lot of great song ideas started for your new album, Love; don't you think it's time to flesh one or two out? It's a lower priority than the mixing/mastering for the other projects, but it's on the list for tomorrow.....

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THE DRUMKIT, THE BASS GUITAR, A PIANO, AND WHO WILL THE GUEST MUSICIAN BE?:

Mr. Hisey on Saturday, working out his part on his Roland TD 516 Electric Drum Kit.

Well, the "plan/(hope)" for the Hisey/Storer project on Saturday was that we'd add to the recording sessions for our first song. That did not happen, yet, it was still a productive day in Rich's music studio.

The big hope had been to lay down Rich's drums. But, Rich has been plagued with, you know, all that life stuff, so he hasn't been able to give it the attention it has needed.

Remember that when we did the song back in the 1980s, Rich was never on the drumkit for it; he was on guitar. In 2026 he needs to workout a drumkit part that he is satisfied with, using a few things the original drummer, Run Dunn, did but making the part his own ‐‐ kinda our little low-scale version of Anika Nilles taking over for "The Professor," Neil Peart, on the current Rush tour; not that either Rich nor Ron would put themselves at Neil's or Anika's level . Rich had only been able to get to it twice since our previous session, due to confines of his schedule.

So, Saturday, after we figured out the best way to get the rhythm track, including the click track, into his PA system for playback, he spent some time rehearsing and working on the part. His feeling, and mine, too, is that he pretty much has the part down. But he wants to refine the execution, a desire I certainly understand.

The other hope was to potentially lay down Rich's backing vocal on the song. That didn't happen, either. Between now and our next session, woodshedding that and his newly-composed drumkit part is his homework assignment, plus, probably an aspect of the next item here.

We spent the first part of our day, then some time later, discussing the arrangement for song #1. I expressed my thought that maybe the chorded rhythm bass part I've already laid down didn't work as well as I'd wish, and Rich agreed. I threw the possibility that I'd record another chorded rhythm bass part using a different approach. We did listen to a mix with the part lower in the mix, and it was much better, much more fitting. There are parts of it I do want to keep but I still may give another part a shot, and the two might be blended together. We also talked about other possibilities.

A big one that I brought up and then Rich said he'd thought about, too, was adding a piano. I suggested that Rich play it, for a few reasons: 1) it puts him on another melodic instrument on the song; 2) it helps even out the equity of our involvement; 3) it's a great and perfect opportunity to fire up his new toy/tool, his Yamaha Montage M8X Synthesizer, which we discovered on Saturday has a pretty nice stable of acoustic piano voices. We talked about how the piano should be a little lighter during the verse sections (the jazz oriented sections) but fuller during the chorus sections (the rock oriented sections).

There was brief talk about bringing in a guest guitarist for the song. It would be a player that can honor both the jazz and the rock aspects of the song. We didn't discuss any who or any when, but we both are in agreement. I'd mentioned it in a text earlier in the week and jested that I wondered if Larry Carlton would be available ‐‐ full disclosure: he won't.

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We also did a little bit of rehearsal work on the second song that is slated for the joint project. This one is a pure rock-song collaboration. Rich was on his Epiphone Special SG, I, on my Epiphone Embassy Pro.

The previous sentence was, in no way, a paid endorsement nor product placement for the Epiphone guitar brand nor the parent company, Gibson Guitars .

We'd done a little work on song #2 in our early sessions, mostly to the effect that we realized we both needed to relearn parts of it and, naturally, that we both have forty-some years of rust to scrape off. There were still a few spots of uncertainty in the song's structure for both of us on Saturday, and it's clear there's woodshedding to be done. Though we didn't discuss it on Saturday, it's a given we're bringing in a guitarist for this one, too; we need a shredder. Even I can't achieve that with my faux-guitar trickey on bass that I have employed in the past and will in the future, not without serious, bullshit postproduction trickery; I may manipulate pitch to get the effect of a guitar, but I'm not going to create a "performance" I can't actually do. If I can't play it, I'm not using studio trickery to create a performance that would need a better musician that I am. I know it's done, and that is a sin against real musicians and real music, and total disrespect for the audience, and I ain't going there.

HEART WALKING & A JOB COMPLETE:

The Logic Pro X window for the mastering project for Heart Walks' opening cut.

I did finish mixing the album's opening song, and I mastered it. This mix is the "full version," i.e.: the album version, which runs 15:32. Yep, if it were released on a vinyl LP, which it won't be, it'd be most or even all of a side. I will edit and master a shorter version; I'm not sure how I'll be using it, but I'm guessing that short version will be about 4:00-5:00.

I had somewhat hoped I'd gain some ground into mixing the sophomore song on the album last night, but I ran out of time. I'm not sweating it. I'll likely start working on that mix sometime soon, maybe this week.

The remastering of the ambient music album took a little longer than my max estimate. I gave it one hour, tops; it took ninety minutes. Why I didn't take this damn thing out months ago, hell: a few years ago, is beyond me. The fricken thing was created twelve @#$#@#$ years ago! But, it's mastered now.....I hope; so now it's time to create some album art, start prepping for a release, and get the gameplan together to actively, directly get the cuts in rotation on at least one streaming service with such ambient recordings as its niche.

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STILL A PRODUCTIVE DAY:

This past Saturday, Rich and I almost met our goal of recording his drum part for our first song of the project. We recorded one take but he was not happy with it and didn't want to give more takes a try at the time. He didn't think he was ready yet. As discussed here before, when we did this song with the band all those decades a go Rich played the guitar, the instrument he was on when we wrote it. Our bandmate, Ron Dunn, was on the kit. Rich had never worked out his own drum part until recently. Now, in this third millennium, He isn't yet completely comfortable with his new drum part. He's just recently worked the part to his satisfaction and it hasn't soaked into him yet. We're now targeting our next session.

Despite that the one take of the drum part has been scrapped, we still had a productive day. The mission when I got there was to figure out how to get a nice, robust stereo pan mix coming out of the control module for his Roland TD 516 Electric Drum Kit and into the stereo tracks (in this case, tracks 13/14) of my Tascam 24-Track recorder. I'd done a little research before the day but hadn't fully found what I was looking for: that pan mix from the drum's stereo outputs. I decided to just refer to the printed user manual when I got to Rich's. It still took a couple hours or so to finally get to the correct place in the drum kit's programming, after some less-than-fruitful excursions on YouTube to sites that almost, but not quite, answered the question, and more than a few sites that came nowhere close, plus navigating a less-than-transparent user's manual. But with some guesswork at deciphering the manual, we finally came upon the area where we could place each individual drum and cymbal voice on the stereo pan spectrum where we wanted it ‐‐ I should say, where Rich wanted it, because, even though I suppose I am the "producer," it seems appropriate that the drummer get the say on the stereo mix of the drums.

Recording Rich's drum part.	Me, pretending I'm a sound engineer.	Listening to playback.
Close-up of my Tascam 24-track.	This is what the back seat of my car looks like on Saturday mornings when I'm about to leave for Rich's. What's back there? you ask ‐‐ both my electric basses, my Ampeg bass amp, a mic stand, bags with sound cables and cords, all my bass guitar pedals, microphones, extension power cords, one power strip, my guitar cleaning kit, and both my Tascam 24-track and eight-track recorders. All I used Saturday, by-the-way, were the 24-track and a few sound cords. But it all comes, just in case it's needed.

I'm also going to re-record my lead vocal for the song. The one I already laid down is not terrible, but I can do better. The harmony vocal I've done will be kept, but I did a third vocal during the ending of the song that I'll probably re-record, as well. Plus, at the session before last, Rich gave me a note that my bass solo is just slightly rushed, getting a little faster than the song's meter. Considering that there are also a few other admittedly minor flaws in that performance that I could do better than, I'll be re-recording the bass line, too. Like before, I'll do all this at my place.

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but this Hisey/Storer project is the making of an EP release with probably five songs, maybe six. I suggested it be an EP rather than an album because, given the schedule for our sessions, which is typically every two weeks for about five or six hours at a time, if we went for an album-length release it wouldn't be coming out until we were both pushing our ninetieth birthdays. I can guarantee you that the EP won't be out in 2026. There's also taking into account that we'll also be doing work on The Rich Hisey project, and on my Album 2.0 Project; all taking up real estate in these same bi-weekly sessions.

We also had a little bit of discussion about a specific BMI issue that's been in the air for quite a while, dealing with our songwriting collaboration. It's an issue that has been on-going since "Memories of the Times Before (Pt. 1-4)" off my Virtually Approximate Subterfuge album, and it needs to be resolved before we release our EP because that will be dominated by songwriting collaborations. Something else that needs to be looked into is whether or not we need to have a separate account at CD Baby for the band release(s), or if we use our existing accounts for our solo work for the band ‐‐ or, "the duo," to be technical.

There was also slightly more discussion about bringing a guitarist in for the first song, as well as at least some of the others we'll be doing for the EP.

OLD PICTURES OF THE BAND YOU DON'T KNOW:

After the recording session ended Saturday, Rich brought out a photo album of pics from our past days in SeazonWind, you know: last millennium? There are beaucoup of great. blast-from-the-past photos in it. I borrowed it to scan most of them. Here's a sampling of some of pics I like a lot. Most if not all the photos were taken by one or the other of Rich's sisters: Debby or Gina. I suspect more were taken by Debby.

SeazonWind was not a "garage band," per se, because we didn't rehearse in a garage. Well, we did at first, but we soon moved into Rich's bedroom, so we were a "bedroom band." So, many of the photos you'll see here are from his bedroom, on the second floor of the Hisey residence on North Harbine, Avenue, in East Dayton, Ohio. The three right above are from the bedroom, as are most of the rest below. That's me on my first Epiphone cherry-red Embassy Deluxe bass and Ronny Lingus on his Gibson SG six-string. Look at me, being all young and with an actual head of hair.
A closer look at my first Embassy bass.	Rich, on drums, then guitar, from a rehearsal that took place much later than the one for the first four photos here. I'm sure this was during a rehearsal for a gig we had coming up in August of 1983 at a now defunct bar named Nardos.
The late-70s, East Dayton answer to Rush: SeazonWind ‐ Ronny, Rich, and me	Me, "Mr. Rock Star", during the same Nardos rehearsal period.
Clearly the same rehearsal as the previous photos of me. This time on the keys.		Yep: "Rock Star Boy."
Rich on drums at the same Nardo rehearsal.	The Nardos-gig era SeazonWind. L-R: Ron Dunn, me, Rich, and Ronny. And doesn't this look like a photo for the back of a vinyl LP cover?	The last SeazonWind gig, circa 1985, maybe 1986, at a fund raiser for the Dayton Young People in A.A. committee. There are two guest musicians. To the far right is guitarist Jerry Crone. On Drums is Tim Armstrong. I'm in the middle on bass. Ron Dunn is next to me on guitar. Rich is far right on keyboards. Sorry, there are no close-up photos from this gig.
One more pic from the last gig.	This is a ticket from SeazonWind's very first gig, featuring the original three members, at Rich's and my alma mater, Wilbur Wright High School. Note the obscenely extravagant prices. There are photos but they were taken with a point-and-shoot camera, and with them being just shy of fifty years old, the prints are not in great shape. I tried to doctor the quality, and they got a little better but still are not good images.

The front and back of the program we made for the Nardos gig. It was either designed and created by me or by Rich's sister, Debby. It looks like it's mine, mostly because I think it would have looked a bit better, certainly more polished, if Debby had done it.

Didn't I say it? Here's a little mock-up of the back cover of a hypothetical album by the SeazonWind of 1983. The song titles, by-the-way, are from actual songs written by various members of the band. The producer's name is a combo of two of the great producers of the 60's through the 80's. How many of you can guess those two producers? And note that on this mock-up I've put my third-millennium iteration of my name rather than my twenty-something version.

ANOTHER PROJECT ARRIVES:

As for The Rich Hisey Project, it looks like work has begun on it. Rich gave me a four-track cassette recording of a song he wrote and recorded in the mid-80s. The assignment was to digitize the four tracks by recording them into a song project on my 24-Track recorder. He wasn't sure if there were or weren't any bounced items.

Thus far, the recording has his Fender Rhodes electric piano a Moog synthesizer, either his Memorymoog or his Micromoog. He also multitracked several vocals. That all sits on a rhythm laid by his Roland Drum Machine. Rich's hope was that more can be added to the recording to fill it out. I, however, believe the audio is not of the greatest quality, and there is some pretty obtrusive tape noise. My suggestion was that he treat it as a demo, even if he decides to add to it.

There was another song on Rich's cassette tape. Another four-track master recording. Rich had forgotten it was there. I also captured the tracks for that one. It turns out it was his reinterpretation of a hymnal.

FIXING A SMALL ERROR:

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A SNAFU & A WORKAROUND: There's been a little bit of a monkey wrench thrown into the machinery of virtually everything I do. I've somehow lost access to my MacBook Pro. It's not accepting my password, and I was not keying it in incorrectly. I had the option of inputting the recovery key; the only problem with that is that I don't know what the @#$% the recovery key is! The Apple Genius Bar tech couldn't help me without the recovery key. My only option was to have the laptop's harddrive wiped clean then dump everything back on from my latest Time Machine backup, and that was an admittedly viable option. It might have worked. The thing is, though, the laptop has been on the verge of crapping out for a while now. It seemed inevitable that I let it go; I do have months-worth of backups of all my files ‐‐ that includes the local copies of all the website material. But, instead of trying to give my current MacBook another chance, I'll be ordering a new one any time now. I'm just waiting for the transfer from my supplemental retirement account; yeah, I had to do that, for the third time this year! Earlier it was medical and auto-repair expenses. I'd rather not raid that account again, but virtually everything I do depends on me having a functioning computer, so it's really the only turn on the road for me to choose. They told me at the Apple store that delivery would be at least three weeks from ordering it, and it might be much longer. In the meantime, I've copied a whole slew of relevant files from my Time Machine onto external harddrives that can be read by my rent-payer laptop, which, yes, I am allowed to take home. It's a Windows™ machine, so I'm not editing the website, thus this blog, with my preferred BBEdit, but rather with my Windows™ alternative, EditPad Pro, which is what I used prior to going over to the Mac side back in the early twenty-first century. Honestly, EditPad Pro is not a bad software, at all. I do like BBEdit better, but it's not the current option. Unfortunately, I won't be working in either Logic Pro, for music, or Final Cut Pro, for movies, including music videos, because I have no ready access to either app. My plan was to use a Mac lab on campus, but no computer labs there have either program, any more. I know at least Final Cut was once on the Macs there, I edited there, but the software is gone now. There are no pressing DV movie projects right now, but any mixing and mastering of songs is on hold for several weeks. I can't even put together a good demo of anything. Any tracks recorded for any of the current active projects will be staying on the Tascam 24-Track recorder until the new Mac is up and running.

HEADWAY:

Album 2.0 now has two finished songs, as far as the recording sessions. Wednesday I took another shot at that pesky R&B vocal that's been kicking my ass, as well as the backing vocals that I decided could be better. This time I got vocal work that satisfied me. I'd thought about changing the melody a bit, but I didn't. I did change up the backing vocal parts, and I have something that suits the song much better than what I had before. What I had before just did not work at all. The lead vocal took nine takes; backing vocal 1 was four takes; backing vocal 2 was done in one.

THAT'S A PRETTY BIG POTHOLE ON THE WALKING PATH, THERE:

Prior to my MacBook going down for the count, I slightly remastered the opening song because there's a volume balance problem on one of the track stems; Rich's drum kit is overpowered by the main chorded synhthesizer part. Since they're both bounced onto the same track, the only way to really adjust the volume between the two instruments is to use an AI app to split them out into separate stems. I don't have access to such app. I tried months ago with this at an AI service on the web, but the results were crap; and I can't afford such a good version of an AI app, especially considering all the unexpected expenses I've been hit with this year. I decided to play with the EQ of the [mix-master] to see if I could enhance the drums and tone down the synth, proportionately. It's better, not what I'd prefer, but better. I also started mixing the second song, before I lost temporary access to Logic Pro X.

You might notice that the promo graphic for the Heart Walks album now says "The next big release" rather than "Coming this year." It's well into September and I have barely mixed and mastered the album. I've barely begun the second of nine songs, and some of those songs are as long, or longer, than the first song, which is 15:00. One comes in at 25:00. So, the chance of a 2026 release is, not just slim, but a sucker's bet, especially considering this current laptop dilemma.

MORE HEADWAY:

If you're returning you might remember that I think that my lead vocal for our first-joint effort song could be better, as well as taking another pass at the bass line. You five regulars may also remember that Rich had given me a note on my bass solo, that it was slightly rushed beyond the song's meter and that there were other minor flaws in the originally-used performance. Honestly, the minor flaws were mostly things that were not what I'd intended, but were not things any listener could pick up on, but: they were not what I'd intended.

Thursday night I re-recorded the lead vocal at home, but I did so on a different track on the 24-Track recorder. My thinking at the time was that I didn't want to completely eradicate the original vocal in case what i did Thursday wasn't up-to-par; I don't what i was thinking ‐‐ the original vocal has been migrated over to Logic Pro already, so it wasn't in danger. No harm, no foul. I haven't compared the two vocals but I know I was a bit happier about this new one. I do still have issues with it but I think it's the better of the two. By-the-way, it was done in two takes.

At our session yesterday I re-recorded the main bass line while we were also recording Rich's drum part. I did nine takes; none were acceptable. I gave it a shot again at home last night and after 7 takes I got a keeper; again, it was not perfect, but imperfect in a way that I think works quite well.

As intimated right above, yesterday, at Rich's studio, we laid the drum track at the same time as my first three attempts to re-record the bass line. Rich was satisfied with Take 3, so, after six more failed attempts by me on the bass, we moved on to his piano part. He played it on his new Yamaha Montage M8X Synthesizer, and we were satisfied with the first take.

We did a little bit of prep on Rich's backing vocal, and even decided he'll add two backing vocals. We determined exactly what those vocals will be but he didn't feel ready take them on, so I'll be back for a brief session next Saturday to record those. Then all that will be left to add will be the guest guitarist ‐‐ whoever that is.

Rich on drum kit.	K.L. on bass.	Rich on keyboards
NOTE: these pictures were added to the post after I (K.L.) got back my image editing capabilities.

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JUST A GUITARIST AND A LAPTOP LEFT FOR SONG #1:

NOTE: this photo was added to the post after I (K.L.) got back my image editing capabilities.

Saturday, we laid two backing vocal tracks from Rich for the first joint-project song. It was one take for each. Now, in terms of instrumentation, the only thing left to record is the as-of-yet guest guitarist. We decided to wait to approach until we have an interim demo mix for the mystery musician.

Mixing and mastering of that demo can't happen just yet, since I don't currently have a MacBook, thus Logic Pro X. So, no recently recorded tracks get migrated from the 24-Track recorder until that dilemma is rectified.

Next Saturday we'll start work on the second song for the project. These next few days will see me rehearsing the bass line, playing along with the 1983 SeazonWind gig rehearsal recording.

MORE MATERIAL FOR THE ALBUM:

The five(?) regulars to this blog may remember that I have several songs started for Album 2.0, some farther along than others. I actually have one new song finished ‐‐ "new" meaning: 21st century, but it's been done for a decade or so. I didn't record it for Virtually Approximate Subterfuge because I had other music that took precedence over it, and because I want an actual guitar player on it playing at least one, if not two, acoustic guitar parts. The five will also know that I am again reaching back into the 1970s/1980s for some songs I wrote.

With that little set-up of background, the last couple of days I've been working a newer song. I'm not sure when I started it but I know it was after late July of last year because an event of that time plays heavily in the inspiration for the song. I've had the first two lines of the song for months, along with a clear idea of the general direction of the lyrics. I conceived it as blues infused. Keeping that in mind, last night I fired up the Williams piano and started working out some chords and a beginning for the melody. I haven't actually added any lyrics yet, but I've been working over ideas in my head, trying to find the correct rhymes that are not dusty but not too ridiculously obscure, either.

WHEN FINAL CUT PRO RETURNS TO MY HOME:

The back-burner one is for the jazz instrumental, "Cozy Anxious Chaos" off Virtually Approximate Subterfuge. As I was recording that one, in late 2021, and I believe early 2022, I shot most or all of the recording sessions multiple-camera, and I'm pretty sure it was with all four of my Canon Vixia DV cameras. The beauty of it is, along with the other takes, the takes on each instrument that are used in the master are captured on the digital video. The footage has been occupying almost the max memory space on a two-terabyte external harddrive for four years.

Here's a major point about this particular recording and the DV footage of making the recording: over the last few years, "Cozy Anxious Chaos" has been the work off of the album that has had the most listens on Apple Music streaming. I don't know about Spotify or the other music streamers, I'm not getting the reports from them, and I have only checked the reports on my CD Baby account a small handful of times. Not that "Cozy..." is any sort of contender for any of the Billboard charts, or that Ms. Swift or any other major recording artists need concern themselves with that recording or this "recording artist." The instrumental has only racked up maybe a few dozen plays over the life of its release. And it's pretty easy to discern that it's not a lot of friends and reletives since most of the plays have been outside my area, some really far outside. There have been plays in other states, several in different parts of California. There been quite a few international plays, at least one play in China, one in Hong Kong, and in a few other countries. The most interesting one is an occurrence I've noted in the blog before, that being that every few weeks or so "Cozy..." gets played in Copenhagen. My guess is that some Dane stumbled across it on Apple Music and added it to a play list, so every now and then it randomly pops up. But, hey! Somebody likes it enough to put it on a play list!

Okay, so there's no great Monster Hit story going on here, but for something by a guy the world at large absolutely does not know, who has no promotional budget or any real promotional strategy, and for a recording that was not released as a single and currently has no video, that's more hits than I ever expected. The point I'm getting to is that there's clearly something going on with this instrumental. It has some catchy appeal of some sort. I thought quite a while ago I should consider releasing it as another single from the album, which clearly means that I should use that trove of DV footage for a music video. I might also point out that when I was shooting the footage, I also was contemplating a little mini-documentary about recording the song ‐‐ there may even be some footage of me mixing the recording.....maybe.

I'm a bit on the fence about a single release, and though I'm not counting out a mini-doc, I have no plans, either; the music video is going to eventually happen, though, maybe sooner rather than later.

As we've been working on the first song for The Hisey/Storer EP Project, I've been occasionally shooting DV footage of each of us as we rehearse or record our parts. I'm shooting using my iPhone, which I also used to shoot the "White Landscapes (Lone Version)" music video. Shooting with my iPhone has spoiled me a bit because it shoots in 4K; the 1080p hi-def of my Canons just can't compete. The image quality of the "White Landscapes (Long Version)" is just so much nicer than my previous music videos, which aren't really all that bad, to be honest.

My only regret about not using the Canons is that with those I could do a two, three, or four multi-cam shoot, but I can't with my iPhone because it's my only 4K movie camera. And multi-cam shoots of Rich and I playing would be great, but at least two-camera, because I could get us both as we play together. Rich's basement music studio is too cramped to get us both well in frame at the same time. To get shots of us both at the same time there'd have to be a camera on each of us from different POVs.

Just to be clear, I have no real concept for a music video for this song, just the surety that we'll be doing a music video for the song. It's so probable to be a single release that the video is a given. I can't really say how much of the footage of either of us playing might be used in the music video, but I'm shooting it so that it'll be a choice. But the actual artistic concept? I don't have one.

Yet.

What I do have is footage of Rich playing the drum kit two separate times, of me playing my Viola bass two separate times, and of Rich playing the piano part on his Montage Synth, which is literally the take used in the recording. In terms of either of us actually working on any more instrumentation, I believe that's all finished. The only other such footage that might be shot would of whomever the guitarist is we bring in to work on the song.

Of course, at the present time, there will be no creation of any music video, or video of any kind, at least no editing, since I have no access to Final Cut Pro X and won't until my new MacBook Pro arrives, and that machine can't be ordered until the cash is deposited in my bank account so I can pay for it.

CLEARLY, MACHINE LEARNING'S GOT MORE LEARNIN' TA DO:

That being said, and kind of in the spirit of all that above, I went to Google, which any more I'm not using for any searches, etc., and asked it for the meanings of all the songs I've released publicly. Most of what I got was off target, usually to a pretty big extent. The most accurate, relative to the others, was for "Identity." Here's what A.I. told me about the meaning of that one:

"Identity" is the opening track on the album Virtually Approximate Subterfuge, released on November 15, 2022, by independent multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter K.L.Storer. While the artist has not published an official, line-by-line lyric breakdown for the song, its meaning can be understood through the overarching concept of the album and Storer's personal artistic philosophy: The Album's Theme: The title Virtually Approximate Subterfuge strongly implies themes of illusion, deception, and the masking of reality in a digital or modern age. Placed as the first track, "Identity" sets the stage for this exploration, likely confronting how individuals define, project, or distort who they truly are when navigating a complex, highly connected, yet artificial world. Artistic Evolution and Self-Discovery: On his official platform, Storer highlights a quote by Kurt Vonnegut about practicing art and music not for money or fame, but "to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow." Within this framework, "Identity" functions as a sonic self-examination, an exercise in uncovering inner truths and stripping away societal expectations or "subterfuge" to find the authentic self. You can listen to the track firsthand across several platforms, including YouTube Music, iHeartRadio, and Apple Music to form your own interpretation of its instrumentation and prose.

Most of the facts are accurate, the A.I. analysis is in some ways on spot; but in most: well, No. And boy do I come off like a really brilliant artist, which certainly strokes my ego, but another part of me is asking just who the hell this guy is. Were this a classroom, and A.I. my student, it'd get a C- at best for this assignment....if I was in a generous mood. That's only if I take this one answer into sole account. If I lumped it into the answers for all the songs, ol' A.I. would get a D or D-, maybe an F.

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GREAT NEWS WHILE I IMPATIENTLY WAIT:

There are, as some of you know, key Mac apps that I don't have access to without a running Mac, apps that I need for most of my artsy endeavors: Final Cut Pro for video editing and Logic Pro for audio editing being the two prominent ones; but, Corel Painter for graphics is also important. Until I had a functional Mac, I couldn't use these.

When the "CRISIS" struck ‐‐ and, believe me, I wanted to blame that damned gremlin, and I'm not convinced it doesn't deserve it ‐‐ I took my debilitated laptop to the local Apple store to see what might be done. The Apple Genius Bar tech said the only option was to wipe the harddrive clean, reinstalled macOS, then restored the files, apps, and settings from my latest Time Machine backup. But honestly, as I've written here before, the 2019 MacBook has been moving toward retirement for a while. I've been bracing for the need for a newer one. So I priced the 2026 models, and, well, it's a chunk of money, especially since I looked at one a little bit above the bottom-tier for new ones.

To purchase the new one, I needed to get a sizable distribution from my 403(b) retirement plan, which I've had to do twice before this year, once because of some big-ass, out-of-pocket medical expenses, and once because of big-ass automobile repairs. I requested the distribution over two weeks ago. It was supposed to take about five business days for the money to hit my bank account. After more than a week with no money and no word on progress but the same message at the website the whole time: "We've received your distribution request ‐ We've started processing your distribution request and will let you know once it's complete. This usually takes 1-5 business days." Tuesday, I contacted my rep only to discover that my application was incomplete and the processors did not bother to contact me with this information.

Tha problem was rectified, but now I had an urgent issue. I can't order the new MacBook until I can pay for it. I'm getting an enhanced model, so delivery will be a few weeks after the order date. The next DTG production opens on October 9. I do the lobby movies (the movie about the current production that runs on a loop on the lobby TV before each show's opening curtain). I put them together with Final Cut. With no Mac, I have no Final Cut. The odds are very much against me having the new Mac that in time to deliver a lobby movie edited together on it. My first thought was find someone I know who has Final Cut and ask if I could edit a lobby movie together on theirs. Then I decided to give wiping my 2019 model clean, reinstalling macOS, and restoring all my stuff from my last Time Machine backup. I hoped whatever was wrong would be remedied. After work yesterday I did that and lo and behold the MacBook 2019 is back to pre-disfunction. I have access to Final Cut Pro X ‐‐ and Logic Pro X, and Corel Painter. Plus, thought I started this entry in EditPad Pro, but I'm back in BBEdit as I write this.

The new MacBook is still happening; the 2019 already has one issue that frequently pops up and sometimes is a major hassle: the cursor goes berserk, most probably because of a hardware issue with the underlying workings of the keyboard. Beyond that, the 2019 could crash out and not come back at any given time. But at least I have current access to the three apps that I utilize for a lion's share of my artistic endeavors. And, to that end, not only can I edit DV footage, I have the ability to do interim mixes of the music I'm recording, with or without Rich.

So

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MOVIN' ON TO SONG #2, BUT WAIT....:

The two old dudes at the session this past Saturday.

We got back to, and started our focused work on, the second song for the EP. I'd already rehearsed my bass line, on my Epiphone Embassy Pro, playing along with the 1983 SeazonWind rehearsal recording, as previously, to refresh myself on the exact chord and section changes; did that Friday evening, at home, without the use of my bass amp, which was giving me no output signal. I had to played back the recording at a low volume so I could hear my bass notes with no amplification; fortunately the Embassy has roundwound strings, which give off louder sound when played without amplification than do flatwound strings. (See "Tech Stuff, Part 2" below for more on my amp problem).

The volume level indicator on my 24-track, showing the volume for the song#2 click track. The first track laid down for the song.

At Saturday's session, Rich was on his Epiphone Special SG, I, of course, was still on my Embassy Pro, and utilizing my Bass Ten Graphic EQ, though I had to play through Rich's bass amp, the brand and model I am not sure about, I hate to admit. We played along with the click track from the control module for Rich's Roland Electric Drum Kit, which gave the quarter notes and a ding on the downbeat, i.e.: the one-count: ONE, two, three, four, ONE, two, three, four....

We kept running into a problem toward the end of the song. Somehow we were both ended up off the down beat, no longer hitting the spot in the chord progression that should be on One; the ding was all of a sudden in the wrong place. My first thought was that we were rushing it and getting ahead; but it was weird that we were rushing it in synchronization with each other. We went to lunch and came back to the investigate issue afterward. Listening to the 1983 SeazonWind recording, we finally realized there is one two-beat measure in there that we'd missed as such. At that point, when we should have been back on One, after allowing for the two-beat measure, we thought those points were Three; we were then thrown off by half a measure.

For a few reasons, I didn't even pull my Tascam 24-Track recorder out of its case. When we lay the rhythm work it'll be better to not have a click track with the downbeat ding because when we get to that truncated measure the ding will thereafter be on the third beat and that'll make it an annoying challenge to follow. I decided I'll stick a click track of just straight quarter notes on a track on my Tascam, and next time we'll work off that. Neither of us felt 100% ready to record our work yet, either. I certainly want to have come up with some interesting fills and garnishes for my bass line before I record it. I did some stuff back in my youth that's on that 1983 recording; I may sit down to figure out what some of what I was doing, but a lot what I was doing back then I want to nix for something better.

Same old dudes, same session.

Late Saturday evening I migrated stems from three different songs from the Tascam onto my laptop for further deployment into the appropriate song projects in Logic Pro X, mostly things that had been recorded after my MacBook got cantankerous and I didn't have access to Logic Pro for a while.

Quite a lot of those stems were tracks laid for the first Hisey/Storer song: my new lead vocal and new bass line, Rich's drum part and his piano part, and two backing vocals from him. Last night I began the latest interim mix that first song. I spent quite a lot of time working on all the back vocals, tweaking the volume balance between them and the lead vocal, and I'm not with those. I haven't yet moved any of the three backing vocals away from center in the stereo pan; that'll likely happen this evening.

Unfortunately, I discovered last night that we'll have to re-record Rich's drums. We need to bring the cymbals down in volume in the mix. They overpower the drums. If I bring the drums up to a good level, the cymbals take over the song. The problem is that the control module for the TD 516 Electric Drum Kit doesn't have sound cord outputs for each individual drum and cymbal. The best it will do is give you a stereo output on two channels. The good thing is that i's possible to mixed the parts of the kit across the pan in that mix, and to adjust relative volumes. But that preliminary stereo mix is what is sent to the 24-track machine, on two tracks. When I'm doing the master mix of the song, if the cymbals are too loud I can't lower their volume without lowering all the drums, too. As I mixed last night, when I got the cymbals out of the way of the rest of the instruments and the vocals, the drums were wa-a-a-a-y too low. It'd be lovely if I could get an individual output for each drum and cymbel so they could each be on their own track in the Tasacam, then I'd have total volume and pan control for each. Maybe there is a way; it probably would involve recording directly to the computer, and I don't like that manner of recording, though I have used it for a few limited situations.

Fortunately the click track is still in the song on the 24-track, so re-recording the drum part will be easy. Our goal for our next session, a week from this coming Saturday, is to record that new drum part and still get the bass and guitar recorded for song number two; it's probably a pipe dream, but that's the ambition.

VOCALS & RHYMES:

Also migrated, Saturday night, from my 24-Track to my laptop, was my latest lead vocal for my solo album's R&B song. I've not yet dropped it into the Logic Pro project for the song, but I can already report that I'm having second thoughts about it. I'll mix and master the song again before I make up my mind, but there's a reasonable chance I'm giving that vocal another try. I think the new backing vocals, also migrated over Saturday night, are good, but I'm not so sure about that lead vocal.

I've worked more on the lyrics for the blues-infused new song. I'm only up to six lines, having added two and revised two, but there's been a lot of time and thought put into those lines. The lyrics are inspired and based on a personal experience, and where I want the song to be more universal than to be just about that matter, I do want it to personally be about that to me. Plus, I'm using full rhymes rather than half rhymes or free verse. I frequently do both of those, but in this case, I think because it's a blues-like song, I want perfect rhymes.

MORE MONKEY WRENCH CRAP!:

Friday, I ordered my new MacBook Pro M5, and that's a "YAY!" But there's a "However," or a "Kinda yay." It's a little bit of a complicated story, so I'll give the expurgated version.

I don't have enough available on my credit card to cover the arm and half a leg that the new laptop costs, so I had to have the funds that have been dispersed from my 403(b) retirement plan deposited to my checking account so I could use my debit card for the purchase. The money was deposited Friday. I went to the Apple website shortly after I saw that the funds were available and I ordered the machine. I'd called my bank just beforehand and got a temporary increase in my daily withdrawal limit so the purchase would go though. That increased limit was only good for Friday until midnight.

But I discovered later in the day that Apple won't charge the bill to me until they are ready to ship the laptop, which won't be for a few weeks. So now, what's going to happen is that the charge will be rejected by my bank, Apple will notify me of this, I'll then have to request the limit increase again then call Apple and have the charge resubmitted. The machine was originally supposed to be delivered to my local Apple store on October 16; it's possible that will still happen, but there may also be delay. At least my 2019 MacBook is functioning well enough for me to still use Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Corel Painter, and BBEdit in the meantime.

PART 2

As for my afore-mentioned bass amp, my Ampeg BA-210, Friday evening when I pulled the Embassy out to woodshed the next Hisey-Storer song, and I turned on the amp and plugged the bass in.......

...No sound....

I tried several sound cords, both my electric basses, and all the different inputs and outputs on the amp, and still got no output signal. A little bit of internet research led me to the conclusion that a fuse blew. Now I need to dig into the user's manual to see if this is a problem I can deal with myself. The big issue here is that I am not exactly Al Borland, I'm more along the lines of Tim Taylor without the delusional confidence. But, if it's simple-and-straight-forward enough, I won't have to pay somebody to do it for me!

WHILE I AWAIT MY NEW LAPTOP....:

The Peaks SMS-20 collapsible music stand that's heading my way.

The Ernie Ball Axis Capo that I should receive today.

Lately I've done a little shopping at Sweetwater. A little bit earlier last week I ordered a new capo because I've misplaced the one I already have, though it'll likely turn up not long after the new one arrives, which is supposed to be today. At the same time I ordered a packet of hook and loop cable ties for my sound and power cords.

Friday, I ordered a couple items that have sat on my Sweetwater wishlist for quite a while. I bought Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro X Studio Headphones; I've needed really good headphones for a while. I also finally got the Boss BF-3 Flanger Pedal, the digital version of the analog Boss BF-2 Flanger pedal that I used heavily back last millenium. The BF-3 is touted to have thicker stereo flanging sound and two new modes for more depth. The Boss site says it has effects "that seem to 'swirl' around the listener," which I assume means the listener is wearing headphones, ya know, like the Beyerdynamic DT 990.

Though it wasn't on my Sweetwater wishlist, I also ordered a pretty heavy duty music stand, since the last few months I have constantly thought about how I could use one. The Dayton Theatre Guild has the same style, which, there, has been used more frequently for dramatic readings, but also for the theatre's occasional musical productions. I like this style of music stand because of the solid platform to hold the material, which for me will usually be lyrics or chords and/or sections written out in words and cardinal numbers rather than scores. Let's not forget lyric sheets.

The carrying bag makes it that much more probable that the stand will become part of the bi-weekly cargo to Rich's house for our sessions. As you can see from a couple of the photos above, I could have used a music stand this past Saturday.

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