We`ve been stuck in a san fran layover for hours. Exhausted. Dying to go home.

In Love with God

The other day, i went on a walk and started wondering if I am in love with God. I got very sad in that moment, because a flood of emotions came over me when i realized how much i missed God in that moment. and how much i struggle to trust Him. it surprises me when i stop in the midst of all of my busyness. i suddenly realize that God is present. and it makes me sad to find that i have not really fallen into that opportunity. the opportunity to live and breathe and exist in the depth of God's love.

I have been hurt in life. I have been let down. And i know that there are oceans of depths to work through with God because if it. We may not outwardly blame God for the bad things that happen to us. But most of us have to admit that when it comes to trusting again, God becomes the object of our distrust.

The band and I are in Winchester VA today. We played at Creationfest in Shirleysburg, PA today. We played 2 and 1/2 songs and it started to rain so we had to stop the concert.

On the way here we had way too much time to sit there in the plane to think and to pray. This trip has left me with a lot of time to recognize how hungry i am for God. That in the midst of my "distrusting" there is a cry in me that won't give up. It cries to connect at a heart-level and be completely vulnerable and honest. I found myself on the plane, just talking to Him. Sharing my pains and pleas. Asking that He redeem what was lost and all that i strive for. Asking that He open the doors and bless this season with abundance. Asking that He take my heart and wrap it up in His.

I am in love with God. It may be full of tender points and distrusts. But as love never fails, we never give up on each other.

It's Not Carpel Tunnel

For most of my adult life, I have been a bit on the intense side. A result of my “intense-ness” is called RSI in my wrist. RSI stands for repeated stress injury. I know that sounds rugged and tough like an avid rugby player’s condition, but it is actually a condition that comes from working on the computer…using the mouse and such. And after reading a book called ITS NOT CARPEL TUNNEL SYNDROME, I learned that a huge part of RSI is related to a personality that is more high strung, high stressed, and uptight. So my wrist hurt already…that made me feel even better. Thanks for the self-esteem book I paid $6.95 for. Plus shipping.

I took matters into my own hands. The stress part will have to be left up to God and this journal to figure out how to slow down, calm down, and live and more relaxed life-style. If there were a Barns and Nobel quick-pick called RELAXING FOR DUMMIES, I would be redeemed, healed, and set free. Unfortunately, nobody has thought of writing that book yet. Until they do, I had to consider the physical side of the problem. Too much typing, wrist moving, and mouse clicking.

I thought of getting one of those programs where you talk and it types while you talk. Unfortunately, that’s difficult to do when you work on music and the singer is singing the lyric, “Oh, baby baby, do it to me all night long.” So I moved on to tackle the wrist moving problem by doing a few things. First, I got TWO trackballs. I put a wrist guard on my right wrist to keep me from moving it. I put a make-shift pad on the wrist with an elastic band on the wrist so I can roll the trackball with the pad on my arm instead of my fingers. And the left trackball is to give my right wrist rest at times. The circular silver thing you see in the middle is for scrolling. In addition to that, I rigged a mouse on the floor for me to click with my foot. The mouse is embedded in a soft pad.

So at this point, you either think I’m a genius, a serious dork, or just plain freaky. That’s okay, either way, I can still keep working and I can patiently wait till that book comes out.

Until then, keep in touch with this blog. We’ve started tracking drums for the new album.

Subcouncious Drinking - Vibraphone Sampling

SUBCONSCIOUS SELTZER WATER CRAVING
I’ve been craving and drinking seltzer water. It used to be soda, but I stopped drinking super sugar-filled sodas. Now when I drink a soda, I get a headache (hmmm, maybe I was better off before). Anyway, I love seltzer water now. As I was drinking it today, I suddenly had this flashback of being a kid. In that memory, I realized that my dad used to drink seltzer water when I was young. I remember tasting it and thinking, “why does dad like this stuff? Its disgusting.” At the same time, I thought it was cool he drank it. Well, for some reason, I guess I haven’t seen him with a seltzer water since my child-hood. But do you think that had some subconscious influence in me craving it?


SAMPLING THE VIBRAPHONE

I took on the tedious side of music making today by sampling the vibraphone. I have a new appreciation for samples that I use without thinking about how much work it took to go into them.
Samples are short recordings of the individual notes of an instrument. In this case, I had to record 48 vibraphone notes on my vibraphone which includes all sharps and flats of 4 octaves. You can buy samples recorded by other guys, but a 4 octave vibraphone is super rare, so I’m pretty privileged. For each note that I record, I have to record that note at different velocities. In other words, I have to hit the note soft, medium soft, medium hard, and hard. A good piano sample will have 8 different velocities for every note! This makes 192 recordings. Too bad I can’t get each one on the radio and collect royalties for each one.

This was as boring as heck. And after recording the notes, I had to chop them up and import them into Kontakt (yes, this is spelled right for the Germans). This was a lot easier than I thought. I found out you can just grab all four samples at once and drag them into the note you want. It automatically puts the velocities in for you. (for specs on equipment go to bottom of page)

This keyboard looking thing is called a MalletKat. It’s basically triggers, the individual samples I recorded.


FORESTRY BECOMES FLY READY

Why did I do all this? For one reason…so you people out beyond the west coast can hear the new sound of Future of Forestry. We have a bunch of events we are flying to instead of driving, and you can’t put a 4 octave vibraphone in your overhead compartment. I’m bring the sound of my vibraphone everywhere now, even to Düsseldorf Germany this December!


Specs for the vibraphone sampling and playing:
royer 121 ribbon mics with chandler LTD-1preamps
DI - Avalon 2020 preamp
Controller - Malletkat
Software - Kontakt 2
Abletone Live – to run the program and control things live on labtop

Should I go into construction?

This week has been a major week of moving and studio building. Lots of wood cutting, measuring, dry-walling, insulating, and messing up so that I can do it all over again. The cool thing is that I’m finding that I look so dang good in safety glasses that maybe I should go into construction anyway and forget this whole music business thing. That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing all week. Zero hours of music and long hours of construction. I’ll be blogging later about some specs on what I worked on for those who are into studio stuff.

Meanwhile, I thought I would bring attention to the heart-beat behind my success in life and music. Especially in the spirit of father’s day, I must say that I would not be where I am today without my parents. Despite the fact that I would have had difficulty coming into the world without them, they have been my support through every stage of the game. Even as I am a grown adult now, they are determined to give and serve with every bit of energy they have.

I moved into my new place and studio last week, and my dad mentioned that he and mom wanted to come help us get settled. So for 3 days straight they came and helped do all the grunt work. My dad helped me do all the construction and woodwork stuff. He brought his fun toys and woodworking gadgets out. There was a moment as we worked that he paused and said something like, “Hey, this is really neat that we can do this now. We couldn’t do this when you were young.” I asked him why not. He said, “Because back then I was too particular to get it perfect and you were too impatient to try.”

It’s funny, I’d like to think we met in the middle. That he eased up a bit on the perfection and I grew a bit more of an attention span. But I think that was just his nice way of saying that I’ve grown.

My mom is the arch-nemesis of weeds. My dad and I kept telling her to stop so she wouldn’t die of heat stroke and we get charged for domestic labor slavery, but she insisted on breaking her back over the weed infested yard.

So for those in my past who have ever thought even for a second that I possibly was a jerk, you can be justified now in light of the fact that I have put my 63 year old parents to manual labor without pay for 3 days (it’s true they are 63). This however is a perfect example of parents going over the top. I wonder daily how I can give back to such loving parents. I have the feeling that the only true way to attempt that is to somehow strive to love others the way they do…maybe someday one of my own.

Humility – The artists sharpest learning tool

FUTURE OF FORESTRY RENDITION
This is a painting called “last green tree” by Donato Giancola . I was fascinated by how this is the closest visual representation to Future of Forestry that I’ve ever come across. C.S. Lewis’s poem called “The Future of Forestry” comes to life in this graphic painting where the beauty of a last surviving tree is contrasted against the cold grey stone and metal of a futuristic metropolis.


ART, MUSIC AND HUMILITY

My wife is in an elite art school called Watts Atelier in Encinitas (painting of this monk is by the founder and teacher Jeff Watts) I describe them as “elite” not because they are arrogant, but because they come from a purist approach to art. They waste no time standing in tight circles bantering about the question, “What is art?” They don’t study paintings called “Lame Black Dot on Boring White Canvas” and feel better about themselves when they reach some higher level of enlightening because they can appreciate the black dot more than the person standing next to them. Instead, they focus on the tradition of skilled painting and drawing found in representational art.

I was fascinated by the story of a guy who is attending the school who is by profession an art director (let’s call him Bob). Bob works for heavy hitter illustration companies (like Dreamworks or Sony or something). His job is not to craft art himself, but to craft the artists who are making the art. In other words, he is commissioned to critique them in order that their work will improve. Bob is the art director of most of the teachers at the my wife’s art school. They entrust their art to Bob’s critical eye. He looks at their work and with extreme knowledge and experience tells them how the painting translates, what works, what needs to be fixed.

In spite of Bob’s vast knowledge, understanding, and credibility to the art community and to all the teachers at the art school, Bob has no clue how to paint. He has chosen as a complete beginner to take art classes from the teachers that he critiques for a living! I can only imagine what torture this is for him. Being a professional art director and critic, looking at your own work and simply cringing. I try to fantasize what that experience would be like in my own terms: with my years of musical background and understanding, I pick up a guitar and have no clue how to play it. All I hear is crap coming out of the instrument and I want to smash it into a thousand wood splinters.

I thought about the kind of humility it takes to do what Bob is doing. Or for that matter, the kind of confidence it takes. He is so secure in who he is as a critic, that he feels no embarrassment in front of his teachers (the ones whom he directs). Tam told me that he conversed with the art teachers in one moment helping them, critiquing them, giving them perspective and advice, telling them what was wrong with their rendering, and they were eager to learn. In the next moment, he had a paintbrush in hand and his teachers began instructing him.

HOW THIS RELATES TO MUSIC

This is the kind of humble child-like learning that makes great musicians and great people. I have known all sorts of musicians. I know this one guy who wanted me to mentor him. So I spent some time with him. But the more time I spent with him, the more I realized he was set on trying to impress me, show me what he already knew. It was a real pain in the butt to be honest. Not because he didn’t have any knowledge, but because people who want to impress more than learn exhaust me. The many musicians I have known who really progress, who really grow, are the eager ones who are constantly asking questions.

That by nature is a fun thing to do. When I’m around people doing pro-tools or tweaking a compressor, I’m asking a million questions. The funny thing about it is that people LOVE being asked questions. I almost never find someone who is like, “Look bro, I’m way to important to help you.” People like being an expert at things. When they are asked questions, it makes a subtle and loving statement that you admire them.

I never took any music engineering or mixing classes. My learning experience came from never letting someone do something that I didn’t understand. All the producers and engineers I worked with were bombarded with my questions. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do today without them.

Here’s to Bob and his openness to learn. May we learn from his humility and desire to grow and discover.

Moving/Studio Acoustic Set-up

Welcome to the new FOF studio!

For those who have been looking for blogs lately, I apologize, but I have been much too busy with moving. I am learning to appreciate the many people out there whose bodies are conditioned for manual labor. After moving my entire house and studio for the past 6 days, there are aches and pains in unspeakable places.
It has all been worth it though.

This is a picture of how it looked before i got started. I’m very eager to get recording, but the studio still needs some work. Such as:

1) Building a vocal booth
2) Assembling the amp isolation booth (build in my last studio, needs assembling)
3) Gettin a small Neve console – I plan track drums in this studio instead of renting another one
4) Working on aesthetics - gotta make the walls look cool and hang guitars everywhere
5) Baffling/sealing the window (to totally seal out sound)
6) Building sound absorbers

STUDIO ACOUSTICS - ABSORBTION

You can use almost any room as a control room. Lurssen Mastering in LA (I’ve used them for some mastering) just uses a square room in an industrial building. Things that make it possible though to have their ideal acoustic situation:

1) Some brick walls – solid walls mean no resonance (walls vibrating at a certain frequency)
2) Speakers placement – they have the luxury of putting their $200,000 speakers very far away from the wall. Speakers close to the wall mean a lot of low frequency buildup
3) Sound absorbers – both on the ceiling and walls

What I have done is similar but on a very small scale. Speakers are 2 or 3 feet away from the wall. And in some of the corners, I have placed bass traps (Auralex) where the walls meet and behind the speakers (sub) where the wall and floor meet.

I usually crank the system to see how I like it. I use familiar songs that I know are mixed and mastered well. My reference albums are usually not even albums I normally listen to that much. They are mixes though that I trust and that I really know the sonic qualities to. Among those are Audio Slave, Keane (not their new album, it sound terribly bright), Avril Lavigne (mixed by Lord-Alre), Fiona Apple, and older Coldplay stuff. I give these albums short seconds of listen through to see if I hear anything poke out. I can either add more bass traps or more high frequency absorbers (I will blog later about building those).Then later, I might take a sign wave on a pro-tools plugin and sweep through all the frequencies to make sure nothing is totally off.

My main concern is that my sub and bass level is consistent. When I’m mixing, that’s super important. Often rooms with 8 foot ceilings will have a very resonant 70Hz. I try to get rid of that as much as possible with bass traps and moving away from walls. My second concern is slap-back or reflections. Parallel walls take high tones and throw them back and forth. I use anything from couches to bookshelves to foam diffusers to get rid of these. Note that you don’t always have to do it on both sides of the parallel walls. Book-shelves is one of the best and most cost efficient sound diffusers. They sound amazing with a ton of books in them. I once mastered an album with a guy that would get mad at you when you touched one of the books on the shelf because it changed the acoustics. He was kidding.


LIFE IS GOOD

I will be working on the studio a lot more over the next few weeks, so if you are into recording or have friends into it, tell them to stop by the blog. For those who read this but don’t care much about recording, sorry about all the techno-mumbo.

I am very happy to be moving. It was a relief to get out of my old house. This new place has such a spirit of HOPE in it. The few days that I have spent here, I feel my heart and spirit lifting. Just conversing with God. So much joy and promise in a new chapter.

Small Amps/Wife Attack/High Speed Internet

I just bought this sweet tiny 1961 Gretch amp from my friend Pete Kipley. I’ve been meaning to write an article on amps (which I will do later when I have all my amps out). But in the mean time I was pretty excited about this thing.

AMPS – BIGGER IS NOT BETTER

There is the façade in America that “bigger” is “better.” In the case of music and instruments, this is seldom the case. An amp like the one I just bought is sometimes key to the Brit Rock sound on any great recording. I’ve been looking for an amp like this for a long time. Everyone is trying to get that cool U2/Coldplay sound. That sound is the result of class A tube amps like AC30s and such. Lower wattage amps give you that sweet break-up at optimum volumes. A more focused and characterized sound comes from the smaller amps, not the huge Marshalls and Mesa Boogies. The Gretch I just got has a tiny 8-inch speaker. You’d be amazed at how an amp like this records. It looks small, but when recorded it can really hit you in the face. The parts seem to fit in the mix better than a bigger amp that tends to get boomy and muddy. The only time I lean towards a bigger cabinet like a Marshal 4x12 or Mesa is to make some huge rocking distorted wall of guitars in the chorus of a song, never in some solo or riff that I want to have clarity, definition, and character.

MY WIFE ATTACKED ME

While my wife and I were packing up the house, I crossed the line with teasing her. She responded randomly by taking the grape she had in her hand and mashed it into my shirt (just below the shoulder blade) with her thumb. Just like Mr. Miagi from the Karate Kid talked about. “Get squashed, like grape…”


INTERNET ENVY

I got my internet service hooked up for my new house. When I was talking to the cable service guy, he informed me (with a heavy Zoro Spanish accent) that the 1.5 speed DSL that I have been using is only 1½ percent the speed that they are using in Japan (currently 100)! After enlightening me with this esteem building truth, he starts laughing at me. I’m not exaggerating, he was laughing over the phone! A new sales technique that inspires upgrades I guess. Laugh til the client buys higher cable speed.

Those dang Japanese have to be better at everything. While I’m sitting here waiting for my email to download, they are downloading multiple HD movies. Ok, so when it comes to megabites per second maybe bigger IS better.