Dave Short

I have been mixing/remixing inside. Two tracks had vocals I recorded back in January, so I got those mixed. So I have nine songs with vocals recorded that have been mixed. That leaves five songs that still need to have vocals recorded. This probably will not be until Christmas break, because I really don’t have an opportunity to record vocals in my dorm room.

I found this really neat program called Synthfont that allows you to play a MIDI file with various SoundFonts or VSTis, which is something I’ve been searching for for years. I just downloaded it today, but it looks like I may need to re-render my tracks with it. In the past I’ve used QuickTime, but it throws in reverb that basically bugs me and, as far as I can tell, one cannot deactivate. Synthfont seems a little bit buggy, but it has a neat ‘Render to File’ option that does exactly what I want.

I’m going to install Windows XP on my iMac to dual-boot. I feel kind of dirty doing it, but I need a lean, mean copy of XP for recording and mixing, and it seems like it’ll be easier to dual boot on my Mac, with Boot Camp and all. Apparently, my year-old PC is too slow to play my mixes smoothly, with all the software I run on it. I would use GarageBand on the iMac for mixing, but it’s just not ‘there’ enough to do what I want. If there was no limit on the number of AudioUnit effects you can use with it, I might try it. I’ve mixed stuff with GarageBand in the past, but it’s been a real pain.

I’ve been working on the album art for inside. It’s going to be the same type of packaging as Pick Your Poison was. There will be a color, eight-page booklet (probably from CDPrintExpress) with lyrics and art. Without giving too much away, I’ll reveal that I’ve been browsing the Morgue File for some of the art that will be in the booklet. It should be pretty thematic and cohesive, if all goes well. I’ve been using Scribus for the layout, since for the past decade or so I’ve been using Adobe PageMaker 6 for Mac OS 9.

I think that inside will be available freely online, with PDF files for the artwork. I’ve used so many free tools, artwork, SoundFonts, and programs that I feel I should give something back to the world of free software/media. The album will also be available for purchase (those CDs will cost me money, after all), although I doubt anyone will buy it. 😉

It’s been almost two years in the making, but not because of endless toil — quite the opposite, in fact. I just couldn’t find time to work on the damn thing.

inside is its name. It’s not as political as Pick Your Poison, and it has a lot more character songs. As with every album I’ve recorded, this one sounds better than the last one.

I just got vocals for 10 of the 12 or 13 songs recorded, and hope to do the last few songs sometime soon. Look for a release sometime in early summer.

Tracklist:

1. I Miss You
2. Temperamental
3. Mary’s Plea
4. Compass Swings
5. Here There Be Monsters
6. Get Away
7. Written Off
8. Fret
9. Soap
10. Torn
11. Polarize (maybe)
12. A Glut of Food
13. The Highway

There might be some MP3’s available in a few days.