One day and a wakeup...(RPMChallenge 2009)

It's here It's Here it's Here (almost!!!)...no, not Santa(!), but RPM2009! I had a total blast doing RPM 2008 and can't wait to get rolling this year. Gonna spend the next 1-day-11-hours (according to the handy "countdown" clock on the right of this page) chillin, relaxin' with my sweetie, raging it up a bit. Then wake up on Sunday AM and get writing! And then get SuperBowlin' (man, if only Plaxico had left that gun at home I might be watching the NYGiants try to go back-to-back, but no such luck).

I'm aiming to complete all the writing during the first week (by endOfDay 7-Feb). Gonna make for a busy week but if I write one song in the AM before day job, and another in PM after day job, I should be golden. This'll leave a few days to nail down arrangements, and then almost three weeks to record, mix, master (as it is), and ship. Last year it took me 2 wks to write, and trying to record/mix/master/ship in the remaining two weeks was hairy...very hairy.
Last night, spent some time updating software (latest BFD patch) and setting up a default "template" in my recording software for RPM tunes. Basically, two audio tracks ready to go, and multiple outputs from BFD (which is my drum "plug-in"). BFD is amazingly powerful with a ton of options - last year I did all my drum mixing within BFD and just sent a stereo mix to the recording software (SONAR), but this year want individual outputs from BFD going to Sonar to allow for a bit more flexibility during mixing. That is, SONAR will see separate Kick, Snare, Hat, etc. outputs. A PITA to set up, but once the template is done I'll be able to reuse it on all the songs.

Anyway, really excited to CHILL the next few days ("day", I guess), and then rock out with my (proverbial) *ock out for the next month! Good luck to my fellow RPMers and cheers to all visiting/supporting RPMChallenge!

(note this is cross-posted to the RPMChallenge site: http://www.rpmchallenge.com/component/option,com_mamblog/Itemid,291/task,show/action,view/id,10037/

Summertime Lazies...open mic's

Ah, September..."sumemer's almost gone" is a few weeks behind us. Took much (most (ALL)) of August off from a music/creativity angle, but it was needed. Back "in training" with acoustic chops and working MLPI into the rotation.

And that rotation will be seen at an open mic near you (ok, near me) in the next few wks. Gonna do a few covers, a few originals, generally have some fun. Ireland's 32 down on Geary has what looks to be a fun Wed nite thing. I'm ansy to play out but the open mic scene doesn't thrill me - maybe it'll be different this time around but either way I'm PSYCHED for it!!

The write way!

Regular Songwriting and Guitar Playing = Peace of Mind.

Some folks work out. Some meditate. Some do religion. Some do drugs. Some hug Redwoods. Some howl at strangers. Some do all of these at the same time.

For me, it's the guitar playing and songwriting...I find when doin' both everything else makes sense. The revealed truths can be harsh sometimes, but that's part of the fun...

...and is great writin' material.

Rock on!

iTunes, MySpace, oh my (and be my friend like Bob Dylan?)

Mile Long Post-It is now available on iTunes. Exciting stuff, as they certainly are the standard of music distribution these days. I think electronic music distribution (of high-quality formats anyway) is a wonderful thing as it saves the resources needed to make and subsequently dispose of cd's or dvd's (or whatever other physical media's on the horizon).

Also spent some time revamping MLPI's MySpace page - have six tunes up and turned off the "autoplay when visit page" feature - kinda pisses me off when I visit other websites that do that so I'm restraining. Highlight here is that I'm (apparently) now friends with the one and only Bob Freakin' Dylan. Six degrees of separation get closer all the time. Anyway, come on by and link a tune or friend on up MLPI!

Treat me right

So finally gettin' around to some acoustic treatments for the studio. This is to make the rum a bit less "muddy" sounding, and let me better hear what I've recorded and am mixing. Looking mostly at Auralex products, and they actually offer a free service to analyze your room and then advise which of their products to buy. Why not - I'm givin' it a shot, although sketching the studio is taking quite some time 'specillay with my lame handwriting ("measure twice" would be wishful thinking!). Currently workin' Craigslist and Ebay (post if you have some available :-). Next up's gonna be some new monitor speakers - been using Mackie HR824's and while they're fun to listen to, I'm not really hearing what I think I need to - especially with how vocals "sit" in a mix. Considering Adam A7's or Dynaudio BM5a (I think they're called), but wanna do the acoustic treatments first while I still have the HR824's so I'll hear the difference on spkrs I'm used to.

But for now, there's a sidewalk sale with two acoustic guitar's available about to start...gotta go...

RPM Jukebox; MLPI Unplugged...

So what could be better - well, almost as good as anyway - as scorin' MLPI's debut cd from CDBaby...how 'bout listening to it FOR FREE! The good folks at RPM Challenge have created a jukebox with all this year's participants. Check it out http://www.rpmchallenge.com/jukebox then click the Library tab and do a search on "Mile Long Post-it". Cool, eh? While your there, check out some of the other cool and interesting stuff RPMers cranked out in February.

Still spreadin' the gospil of Mile Long Post-It to friends, co-workers (like it or not :-), and on the web. Kinda on the fence of just how much promo I wanna do on this before moving onto the next project. I'm a huge fan of this project, but have to acknowledge there are some limitations (29 days that's gonna happen) and I'm thinking I want to save a big promo push for a creation I'm 200% behind (I'm about 110% in favor of current MLPI! - pretty good!).

And also toying with MLPI Acoustic - or is "unplugged" better? Anyway gonna try and sell the idea (few tunes worth anyway) to my dobro pal Ian and see if we can whip a few into shape.

Rock on!

MySpace/MileLongPostIt is up...kinda...

Updated Mile Long Post-It's MySpace page (cleverly called http://www.myspace.com/milelongpostit). Put a quick blog entry pointing over to this one, as I'll be using Blogger exclusively (vs. tryin' to keep up separate blogs at RPMChallenge, MySpace, Blogger...). I was tempted to host the blog at milelongpostit.com, but why reinvent what others have already set up. I am thinking about putting a forum site up though - might be fun, and would be more interactive than bloggin'.

Anyway, mixed feelings on MySpace. Gotta admit I don't spend much time on it, but with it being so popular, I "gotta be in it to win it" I guess. Also figure since it's free there's really no excuse not to - heck, any avenue to get these tunes heard is a good one.

Now who do I send "friend" requests to...