here we are again in florida. this time for a technology in home healthcare pavillion at the electronic house expo in orlando. the response has been amazing and the people can't seem to get enough of grandcare! that's what we like to hear!

the weather is wonderful, although for the past 3 days, we've pretty much been cooped up in the convention center. the conference ends tomorrow at 3pm and on sunday, we'll just spend the day in the pool soaking up the rays!

music has been going...not too fast, not too slowly, but just going. at a steady rate. we have really come up with some great starting ideas for the next album, which is half the battle. nick and i sat in the studio writing together and that seemed to really gel a few of the ideas together. the self-titled album was not as cohesive in that fashion. there were a few songs with complete collaboration, but most of them we both wrote separate parts and then put them together. smoke through it was much more collaboration and working through things while we both sat with our respective keyboards hammering out chord progressions. although the process can sometimes take twice as long, it really proves to bring the best work out of us. sure the arguments over music could be alleviated if we worked separately, but when we really get it, it's all worth it.

this album seems to be going in a similar direction as smoke through it as far as writing goes. perhaps more collaboration even, which is always a good thing.

Anyhoo - it's time for bed soon -- conference early in the morning!!

bye for now!

L:OUT

[np: Information Society - Hack]

Last night was quite the cram session music-wise. I had to put the finishing touches on a remix for a band that's been waiting patiently for many months now. After that it was all Somegirl -- Laura had to lay down some scratch vox for a track, and I had to write a guitar part for the same track. Pretty intense evening that ended quite late. Got to sleep in a little this morning, though... ;)

Last week was an absolute waste. I had some creepy ick that made me insanely tired and unable to muster the energy to work on music. Instead, I took it upon myself to fix or sell my PolySix once and for all... Whew. It's always a little nerve wracking getting up you your elbows in circa 1982 circuit boards and wiring, but it had to be done -- previously the poor beast had been in sad shape. It was pretty much unusable. But I happen to have a junker PolySix I bought for parts way back when -- I figured that between the two keyboards I should be able to make one that actually works.

First off was tuning, which took me a good three hours to do... :P What a pain. I have no idea why the oscillators got so out of sorts. Next came identifying the root of the problem with the board -- turns out that the main OSC controls weren't actually working. A little fiddling with wires, replacing a few boards, and putzing around eventually got the thing working again. Still not 100% sure what the solution was, but I think it had a little to do with a bad connection and the board needing a few minutes to warm up.

So no eBay for the PolySix (just yet).

On Sunday all of my trips to the local Goodwill were finally rewarded -- I picked up one of those goofy brown plastic reed organs for $10. I first ran into these when Brian lent me one to putter around with back in Minneapolis. This one was even better in that it has a knee controller to control volume, so it is a very expressive instrument. I had to crack it open and clean it, of course, and it needed to be tightened up to stop all the air from leaking out. With this done, all I have to do is mount a boundary mic inside the body and viola! Instant reedy fun.

Well, looking forward to getting back to some real EB production before I'm off to Florida for a week. Our next album's sound is still over the horizon... Still working it all out...

this morning was the perfect "wake-up". normally, i have to be very strict about when i get out of bed. i go for a walk every morning at 8am, have breakfast at 830am and then work at 9am. well, this morning, we did not take a walk as planned, but my alarm still was set at the usual time. when my alarm went off (track #3 on massive attack: blue lines), i just laid in bed drifting in and out of sleep while the remainder of the massive attack album played. even the puppy stayed in bed later than she usually does. she took the chance to snuggle back under the covers and have her usual puppy dreams where she barks softly in her sleep. it was a great way to start out the day.

Time to actually get some work done!!!

This last week has been crazy productive. Not exactly sure why -- I got the bug something serious. I was in the Blue Room at least three hours a night working on one of the many little projects I have going. I demoed the soundtrack music for the director yesterday and last night I finished up two remixes. In the hopper is another remix, finishing up the soundtrack, and then comes new music.

Looking back, I really can't explain what got me rolling. Part of it is that the Blue Room is finally done and is the best space I've ever had for a studio. It has a very inspiring atmosphere, and all my gear is hooked up in the prefect way to spurn creative juices. It just all feels right. In addition, I've been putting together a bunch of notes I found on recording and mixing in the past two weeks. I've learned a ton of new tricks doing this, and I feel like I've reached yet another level of ability in the mixing arena. That can definitely light a fire under your ass, too...

Apart from living in the studio, I've been watching the first season of The Shield on DVD. A friend passed it along to me, I watched the first episode, and was hooked from the get-go. It's a little more bubblegum than The Wire (another of my favorite crime dramas), but that's kind of nice in that short attention span kind of way. Unfortunately, the friend who lent it to me managed to give me only two of the four discs, so now I'm jonezing. Bastard.