Merry Christmas! (New Free Stuff)

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has had an amazing time with their family’s and getting to know Jesus a little closer this Christmas.  I’ve been hanging out with my inlaws, and (you don’t hear this everyday) had an awesome time.  It’s a reminder every time I see them about how much I married UP.  Any of you guys relate?

In the spirit of the holidays I’m uploading a few things for you.  The first is another free track to download and enjoy.  This is a strong candidate for Track 01 on the album – it’s a tune I wrote on the acoustic guitar called “Wonderful”.

For those of you who are particularly interested, I’m including our mixing notes from the first listen-through for the two songs we’ve shared with you so far: Here & now Wonderful.  Enjoy!

Wonderful.mp3 –  to download, right-click and select “Save as…”
“Here” Mixing Notes (.doc)
“Wonderful” Mixing Notes (.doc)

P.S.  Drop a line in the comments and let us know your thoughts on “Wonderful” & the mix notes.  YOU have direct influence on this project!

Mixing is hard.

That’s probably a pretty obvious statement, but we are in what to date is easily the hardest part of the project so far – the mixing stage.  Here is where you have to put your ego aside.  For almost 2 years now we have been recording and building this project, and now we get to tear it all up and decide what needs to be changed, altered (read: reverb, chorus, compression, etc.) or taken out completely.

The good news?  With today’s technology, anything can be changed.

The bad news?  With today’s technology, anything can be changed.

It’s a painstaking process, that involves dying to self for sure — I mean, it’s bad to hear that your vocals sucked at 2:24, right at the pivotal moment of the song… but it’s even worse to leave the bad vocals in there for the rest of time!  It’s amazing what a little well-placed compression or reverb will do, and I make no apologies for tweaking the tunes so the product you hear is the most excellent possible.

If you haven’t had a chance yet, download this song – you’ll be amazed at how different it sounds post-production (after the mix).

Sometime in the next couple of days, I’ll include a glossary of terms for those of you who aren’t musicians and are curious what all these funny phrases are like “post production” “Verb” “compression”, etc.

In the mean time I need to go back to work – so leave us a comment.  Do you have a craft / art?  If so, what’s the most painstaking part of the process in your opinion?

Tim