The Studio @ Audio West

There are a few impossible things I used to imagine growing up. Joining the NBA, dating Natalie Portman, attending Harvard, working in a Sony-level recording studio and becoming a rich person before retiring to some tropical paradise.

Seriously, when you're this tall ^^, it
gets super boring super fast.

I never joined the NBA because by my senior year in high school I'd realized basketball wasn't for me, despite being hunted down by the school's assistant coach. I never did get to date Natalie Portman, which is okay because I wasn't really interested and later found myself dating an international extreme sports athlete instead O.o. When it came time to go to better colleges, I met the dean of Harvard's theology school (very classy gentleman) and refused his invitation to attend because I didn't think the degree was worth 30 years of debt whose payback rate was the equivalent of house payments. On a really nice house. I've been exposed to upper class living long enough to realize how blissfully content I am living in a nice apartment instead of a home that's too big even for me. A lot of childhood dreams have either morphed into something more realistic or been met by an unexpected twist of fate.

Finally putting this beast to use on a flat surface was tear-jerking.

And while I'm not working at Sony (and frankly, I have no desire to,) it just so happened that yesterday fate was kind enough take that second to last dream and offer me a great opportunity to work in the nicest recording studio I've ever been in (yes, I've seen all of BYU's recording apparatus and I'm sorry, as far as sound goes Audio West takes the cake). You'll recall the freak miracle the other day that led a David Bowie tribute band up north to call me up and invite me to become their sound-engineer, computer technician, background vocalist, etc etc. Well as I said before the group is tight, and now tighter than ever. The lead in the group was so impressed he bought a sizable amount of time to practice and record at Audio West and holy shlamolie.
What an experience. It was so nice being in a space
where I didn't have to compensate on my software with ten
thousand different sound effects to coax a believable
reverb and tone quality out our band's recording.

Avoiding the commercial music program feels justified.

Our leader, 'Tom', and I are going to parse through the audio, do some mixing and mastering over the next few days and see what we can start making together on the sound engineering front. Promises to be a lot of fun.











And thank you person, for letting me use your basketball picture. By Steve Lipofsky Basketballphoto.com - http://www.basketballphoto.com/basketballindexz.htm, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41413717

Changes to the Store

I've been inspired, like many have, by Radiohead.  Their music so deliciously accentuates and emphasizes their lyrics and accompanying themes without sounding forced or preachy, as if writing music were merely a matter of placing notes and words into appropriately adjoining slots on a piece of staff paper. They've been nothing short of a delight over the years, not only for their unique sound and particularly well organized music, but also and perhaps especially due to their relentless insistence that they create and handle their music their way, with no exceptions.

Thom Yorke's darker themes appropriately lit by navy blue.

Despite difficulty in recapturing some of their confidence after their split with Parlophone (and some roof collapses along the way), their sense of individuality and creativity has risen, rather than plateaued over the years, and their desire to maintain that sort of momentum in writing became apparent after they parted ways with their parent company and attempted to deviate from their more regular pattern of recording and writing. 

The ball is actually a virus afflicting most users
with irrational sarcasm and reckless hate.

Admittedly, this is increasingly common in the world of music, as artists see less and less use for their work to be advertised by a gluttonous company sapping 90% or more of their revenue in lieu of the powers that be online, youtube, reddit, etc; moreover, excellent music hardware, software and education has never been more accessible, with companies catering to every class and walk of life. 

Already boasting a considerable base of support from their earlier years and continuing their now atypical trend of philosophical perusing, Radiohead some years ago, unbeknownst to me, had decided to release an album titled 'In Rainbows' and rather than release it exclusively in retail, they made a downloading service allowing fans to pay any price they chose, including nothing.

There's something magical about downloading this
from wiki-commons.

The point of this in-cohesive ramble being, I've decided to remove the price tag on my downloads. Since I haven't figured out a pay-what-you-want system, it's all going to be free. 

Also, still working on not three, but four or five different songs now and I'm in the middle of a move, the end of school, figuring out four different work schedules (for four different jobs), tying up loose ends at BYU and so forth. In short, things will move a little slowly for a bit, but by about May I should be moving along at a strong pace again.

Cheers!