All recordings done as of Monday Oct 4 2009 were recorded digitally using the following…

Hardware used for tracking-

1. Dell Vostro 1520 laptop computer (7200 RPM hard drive) 4 gig of mem.  Core 2 duo processor.

2. Presonus Firebox sound card (via firewire) (4 audio inputs 6 outputs, midi in and out)

3. Peavey PV8 mixer (4 channel with 2 stereo to boot)

Instruments and amplification

1. Fender Strat electrics (rhythm and lead)

2. Peavy Bass (recorded direct to board)

3.  Line 6 guitar amp AX2/212 [for rhythm and lead guitars (used line out)]

4.  Guild acoustic guitar

5. Yamaha DTXtreme drum kit

6. Audio Technica 4033 Mic (for all vocals)

Software

1. Sonar 8 Producer Edition (main DAW)

2. Reason 4.0 (synthetic sounds including piano and pads)

3. Addictive Drums ( Audio software synthesizer that produces the sounds for the actual drum hits of a live drummer.)

4. Various plugins for the mixing process including Sonitus compressors and EQ’s Amplitube SVX VST (for bass toning and tweaking) Waves shuffler (for stereo widening used on the pianos). Sonox EQ and reverbs, kefir audio tool for loading impulse responses, a couple impulse responses from guitar hacks original 3 pack, CSR reverbs, and others that don’t come to mind at the moment.

Many of you will not understand a word of this but I’ll explain it anyway and then copy and paste the solution into some of the recording forums I hang out on…

What caused the problem (I think)…After mixing down my softsynths I deleted the midi tracks and the softsynth tracks and track folders from the project.  I don’t remember if I even closed the program Reason before deleting the tracks.

I opened the Synth Rack in Sonar and noticed that all of the softsynths that I had used were still in the rack and so was Reason.  I decided to delete Reason from the rack and try to load it again…BAM! Working like a charm

I told you all it would be something simple didn’t I?

I hope no one took my last blog (Recording One Source) the wrong way, after re-reading it earlier it seems that it may come across as if I don’t want people asking me “When will the song be finished” or “When will the CD be finished”…. I may get annoyed but I also realize that people are only asking because they really want to hear something and they are truly interested in our music.

There is a bit of a buzz that has been stirring for quite a while now and people are anxious. That’s very encouraging and I would never want to suppress that type of energy.  Go ahead ask everyday, send e-mails, call me at home lol!  I’m glad you all are interested!

Last night I became a bit paranoid about the Tell A Different Story project…  and the program issue.  I was beginning to worry about the project taking even more time.  You may sense the frustration in that post. Nevertheless there is some pretty informative stuff there concerning the creative processes that are involved in recording and it gives a more intimate portrait of the One Source experience.

When I get frustrated I will find something to help release that energy…Music, writing or sex lol!  It was too late to plug the guitar in, and we have sick babies in our bed, so I began to write.  I apologize if anyone was offended I only needed to vent.

Things are looking positive again, and I look forward to working more on Tell A Different Story tomorrow.  After that Tyler and I will begin recording and laying down the foundation for at least 5 more songs.  It is becoming clearer and clearer how to approach the projects and how to time manage them.  Things should progress even more quickly now that we have a formula for the recording process…I will discuss this in more detail later.  It’s midnight gotta go.

David.

Every day someone is asking me “When will you have something to listen to?” or “When will your CD be finished?” So I have began updates on the process and where we stand. I am posting these updates on our Facebook page.  http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/One-Source/238095160181

The song Tell A Different Story has been in the works for months… It is near completion and should be finished in a few days.  As for our other material, we are far from complete. The long wait has been attributed to many factors.  Number one - The need for the proper resources to record a project of this size (we have 7 members).  (More about our setup and recording equiptment in another blog).

How Did We Get Here?

We all agreed before  recording to allow me to produce and engineer the project.  “Why not go into a studio?”   One Source is a band that is comprised of working class individuals who have no experience in professional studio work (including myself).  For many of the members,  it is their first experience in a band.

The amount of time that it would take to record a project of this size professionally would be very costly.  We could settle for a less than professional studio, but the final results would be just as less than professional.  I have listened to a thousand demos recorded in  nearby studios at a cheaper rate (it’s really not that much cheaper) and they just plain out SUCK!

Our choices were obvious, either pay out the buttocks for a really great quality product produced by some great Nashville or Atlanta studio, or give me a shot at it.  I’ve been playing around with digital home recording for several years and had some experience at recording with analog equipment since I began playing music in the late 80’s (old four track cassettes and reel to reels and such).  I’m not schooled or trained by any means but I have a bit of knowledge in the subject.

Since none of our band has any studio experience, it made since to me to allow them to learn the processes and get an idea of what would be expected of them in a for real professional  studio situation and environment.  It also gives me the opportunity to experiment and expand my knowledge of home recording which will aid us in our creative ventures.

Are We Sure We Are Heading In The Right Direction?

Many will disagree with this approach (especially big time studio engineers and producers). I would totally love to have a great studio engineer/producer record One Source but imo we are just not ready for that experience at this point.  Many of these songs are still being developed and going through the fruition stages.  One Source learns more and develops more every time we play the songs, and when we record we are finding that we are actually honing and shaping the songs into the way they should sound.

With a professional studio, you are paying by the hour… sure they will allow you to work with your songs  they will even help you and pull the best out of you…but you are still paying by the hour, and then, you have time constraints, traveling, lodging, etc etc.  It could add up to a very costly adventure very quickly.

Many bands spend months in the studio to produce that great CD that you just stuck in your CD player, here is a prime example from one of my favorite bands Alice In Chains.  This is an excerpt from their website updating their “now” newly released album….

Monday, April 13, 2009

As most of you who have been paying attention have already figured out, the new Alice In Chains album is finally complete. We’ve been in the studio since October, and since it all began we celebrated 6 major holidays, elected a new President of the United States, crowned new World Series and Super Bowl champs, endured fires, earthquakes, & blackouts in and around Los Angeles, took a 2 1/2 week break to go to Australia, and to cap it all off, William & Jerry finally euthanized their beards.

link to the article here…

http://www.aliceinchains.com/content/?cat=3&paged=4

 Great albums are not recorded in a day! As you can see above the serious players spend some serious time in the studio.  I’m not a mathematician, but I’m pretty sure from Oct. to April is 7 months! Also consider that these cats have been a band and have been recording professionally for many years, they also don’t have regular jobs to do  every day and the limitations of an ordinary person…I think I’ve made my point.

Final Comments

Ultimately, pro/signed bands like Alice have the backing of a label/record company who will foot the bill for the time spent in the studio while all of these creative processes are growing and expanding.  The One Source team doesn’t have this type of resources (YET!) but we still want to produce the same type of magic that would go into a creative studio experience of this extent.

Once we capture this type of magic we are sure that someone will recognize our abilities as a songwriting team and invest towards the expansion of these creative abilities.  The One Source team is a songwriting team that is unique and fresh in it’s approach to writing. One Source songs could easily be performed by Pop,  Country, and even Christian or Rock artists.

The magic or chemistry is absolutely and positively present in the One Source experience.  Capturing that magic and delivering that experience is the challenge.

Releasing the One Source recordings is a very difficult task for me since I see the total package and not the work in progress.  Never the less we are closing in on the release of Tell A Different Story My personal pick for the song with the most potential, and I’ve used it as the guinea pig.  This project may not be a National release where thousands/hundreds of thousands of people may hear it… but in many ways it feels that important to me…And I find myself treating it that way.

There, now your in my head…

 David.

Basically, here’s the problem…I want to add strings (synth pads) and cellos (synth)  to the last mix that I saved in Sonar (my recording DAW).  I am using a program called Reason to make the sounds played by the midi (keyboard) controller.  Reason is a software synthesizer program (I will do another blog on how I record our music later, it is very interesting to say the least).

When I try to open Reason in Sonar the option to select it is grayed out, in other words it is not available.  I can start a new recording project and open Reason with out an issue, but for some reason the program is (all of a sudden) unavailable for this project (Tell A Different Story).

I’m sure it’s something simple and I will will figure it all out shortly.  If not, I have to go back to my last save (back up) of the project and start over from there (assuming Reason will open in it).  I will update again as things unfold.

Peace,

David.

This blog was started to bring awareness to the Ron Paul campaign for president campaign.  I wrote a song for the campaign and made a youtube video for it also (I would post the link but it’s pretty embarrasing now lol!)

Within the same week that I released the song/video-I wished I had never written it, not because it was a bad song, or because I didn’t believe in what I was saying but because I became aware of the energy behind it and the oppositional nature that only gives the  opposition strength.

I also had plans to share excerpts from a book that I was working on… The God That We’ve Created …But again, I recognized that while the content to me is truth and  feeling compelled to shout it from the rooftops, the nature of much of the writings were oppositional in nature.

I’m keeping the title, but will approach the writings from a much different angle and hope to present them in a way that provokes thought and not anger lol!  This will be harder for me than you will ever know because I love to start a good fight when it comes to religious BS!  Hahahah!

What does a guy do when his two favorite subjects are politics and religion (outside of his gorgeous wife and making music of course!!)

Currently the story that I am telling is centered around my family and the music and friends that I make music with (One Source) I love my life as a husband and a father and that is my main purpose in this time space existence.  I hope to continue this blog in a way that will develop and grow this life experience and share my love of teaching and writing while sharing parts of this experience with my friends and anyone else interested.

David.

At this point in my life I am choosing to focus on more positive things that make me happy. Politics only frustrate me and make me angry.

The politcal posts will not be deleted, and I don’t  disagree with the opinions I have expressed… It is just - finished.

David.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE2koICsJgo

Here are a couple of videos of my candidate for president “Ron Paul” addressing the Federal Reserve powers and calling them out to explain how they intend to fix this problem (they don’t intend to) I (and many others) declare this the greatest fraud committed upon the American people in our history.

My solution is to reclaim our “Constitutional” right to coin and print our own money…. print a 9 trillion dollar (plus) paper bill and tell the Fed Reserve to shove it up their ass “there’s your money your paid F-U!!!”

Then we can return our monetary system back to a sound currency and release our working class people from nearly a hundred years of slavery.

Liberty concerning the individual is simply the right to do what ever you choose as long as it doesn’t harm or violate another’s individual rights, these rights are natural rights that we are born with such as the right to life ,the right to privacy, the right to own property or simply the right to be left alone.

Since the foundation of our country our rights and freedoms have been under attack and more and more we see our freedom depreciate under the hand of big government policies and subsidies. We in America are no longer a “free society” at all but more and more we are moving into the form of a “police state” where we have to have government permissions (permits) for everything we do. As a matter of fact many countries that we consider “Socialist” societies enjoy much greater freedoms than American’s do.

This little video expounds on that idea and explains this philosophy very well.