The World Keeps Turnin'

There are days when you feel the weight of the things you should do....

I should, and probably need, to lose some weight. I was SUPPOSED to start on this...process...last week.

It...kinda happened.

I have my new Portastudio up and running, I ordered a video tutorial and watched it through, and I feel really confident about working with it, at least in terms of basic tracks. Mixing and mastering isn't going to happen until I have the songs in a place where I'm happy. The nice thing about a (fairly large) internal hard drive is that, the stuff can sit, and I can work at my leisure.

As it is, I erased everything, that I had worked on up to that point, on Saturday morning. I had just finished the tutorial video, and I felt like I could do better. At least make it easier to work with the idea that, perhaps, I could do things like finagle an actual drummer to do the drum tracks, at some point.

My buddy Pauly C. had done some bass work on one track, but it was, literally, days after I had got it all hooked up. I had little to no idea what I was doing. Couldn't even figure out how to do a punch-in for Paul. I felt like an idiot.

I erased it all. Start from scratch, all legit, click tracks and all that fun stuff. It's really clear exactly how much more I can do with this new unit, and how much better I can make my tracks sound when I do get them finished. It's also been nice to come back to songs I'd put together months ago. The new equipment, and honestly, the video training, have emboldened me to think a bit bigger.

Plus, coming back to songs I worked on months ago, I've had new ideas about arrangements, and generally how they can come together. The click track has really opened my mind up about a lot of things in that regard. How much I can move things around , plus, the edit feature on the Portastudio is kick-ass. I'm very positive, going forward.

Plus, I feel stronger, as a guitarist, than I have in a while. I've played in front of people more in the last month, or so, than I had in the 5 years previous. The reaction was good and strong and positive, and it's given me some confidence. Plus, even better than that, I'm actually enjoying how I play, rather than continually comparing myself to how others (who are lightyears beyond me) do. I really feel I'm getting stronger in my own style and attack on the instrument.

It's a pretty big leap. It's also helping define the sound of the Hayoth/TWTU/Whatever The Hell I Call It project. Less buzzsaw metal tone (though it is there), more fat, somewhat fuzzy sound. It's feeling right.

Hopefully, it'll all keep up.