A New Workflow 

It’s 5:14 am. I’m going to try to finish this post before I have to go upstairs and get ready for work. 

About two weeks ago, I realized it was best for me to go to bed and wake up as early as possible while still getting 7 hours of sleep each night. 

Hence me at 5:14 am working instead of 11:15 pm. 

I actually prefer this. Working on things first thing in the morning gives me the quiet and focus I need to work efficiently before everyone else wakes up and the day actually gets going. 

Plus, working first thing in the morning rather than at night means I'm fresh rather than worn out from a day of work and family. It also means I can work a LOT on the weekdays, so when the weekend rolls around, I only need to work a couple of more hours to hit my 10-hours-a-week mark. 

Before, I could only work sporadically in the evening during the week. This meant I would have a lot of hours to work over the weekend, which was very stressful and hard to do because of my work and family obligations. 

Going without sleep was also a bad strategy since I became very grumpy and agitated and wore my health down thus becoming less productive. 

So, how is this new strategy working out? What do I have to show for myself? 

#1: Mixing and Looking for a Mastering Engineer 

We had our weekly mixing session on Friday, 11-15. We put the final touches on the mix for Our Town, but we spent the bulk of the time sending out messages to potential mastering engineers. So far, we haven’t heard back from any of them yet. 

#2: Culling Photos from Photo Shoot

I realized my workflow for selecting and editing the Landrum photos was inefficient. Before, I was working from the top of the list to the bottom, stopping to work on photos that I thought were good. First, the original number of photos were overwhelming. Second, because of the large number of photos, I was stopping to work on an OK photo when they were even better photos further down the list. Therefore, I decided to cull and sort the photos first before I start editing again. 

#3: Vocal Practice 

Vocal practice was an area that I had been neglecting these past few weeks. To be more efficient with time, I have been practicing vocals on my commute home 3X a week. My vocal accuracy average last week was 85.73% with a practice vocal range of E2 to D#3. My goal is 90%. An insight I had with singing more accurately on pitch is to be as wide and as open as possible with everything: my jaw, mouth, vocal chords, etc. This seems to be helping. Although, at this stage, I think I need an actual vocal coach to help me truly improve as a singer. 

Conclusion

It's 5:40 am now. Time for me to go up and get ready for the day. In closing, I feel good about what I've accomplished and where I am going. Consistency has gotten me this far and consistency will get me where I need to go. 

Until next time. 

-Theron

Accomplishments? 

Difficult to list out what exactly I have accomplished these past few weeks. My current lifestyle mixes and mashes my hours and days into an indiscernible blob. Still, in the potato salad of my near past, I can pick out a couple chunks of progress. 

Chunk #1: Final Mixing Done? 

Had a mixing session on 10-28 and on 11-8 and we pretty much finalized the vocal effects and overall mix for Our Town. Overall, sounds really good. However, there are a couple of times at the start of the song where I enunciate, "save" poorly, and it sounds more like, "bathe". That's something I'll just have to live with. Completing this record, releasing this record, actually FINISHING this record is my most pressing goal. Therefore, having some poorly enunciated words is just the price I have to pay. The vocal effects chain that we figured out for Our Town is hopefully a set up we can apply to the rest of the songs in the album and just adjust according to each song. 

Chunk #2: Photo Editing

I've been going through and editing the photos from our mixing meetup in Landrum. Below are some samples. Shout out to my wife for suggesting that I lay off the effects since they were making the photos too dark. 

Reflecting Back & Looking Forward

Progress has been slow and hard-fought. So slow and so hard-fought that completing the remaining work can seem too daunting. However, I've come so far that quitting isn't really an option. The only way through is forward. 

Until next week. 

-Theron

Still plugging along on mixing. Hurricane Helene held us up for about a week. For the past few weeks, we have been working on finding a good FX chain for my vocals, and I think we've almost found it. 

Just gotta keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused. 

The big thing that happened over the past few weeks was our in-person mixing weekend from Friday night, September 13 to Sunday morning, September 15. It was very productive, but the mixing still isn't done. In fact, we have filled out a google doc with more mix critiques after after listening to the latest mixes. To be honest, it's an overwhelming job that never seems to ever be finished. 

However, the only thing to do is to keep grinding, keep striving and to stay focused. 

Again, nothing momentous has happened over the past two weeks. Just some more tiny steps to get us closer to the main goal. Mainly mixing sessions and trading mixing feedback back and forth on Discord. We finished working on The Cave and moved on to Supper's Set where we developed a really cool string part. Our goal is to finish everything by September 13th because we are going to have a big in-person retreat that weekend to finalize the mixes on all of the songs before we send it off for mastering. That's less than a month away now, so I am starting to get anxious that we'll actually finish all that we need to do in time. The only way to get it all done is to keep grinding, keep striving, and stay focused. 

Again, nothing momentous has happened over the past two weeks. Just some more tiny steps to get us closer to the main goal. Mainly mixing sessions and trading mixing feedback back and forth on Discord. We finished working on Desperation's Ballad and moved on to The Cave. Michael Depp also finished the piano to Supper's Set. (I still need to go back and listen to that.) Our goal is to finish everything by September 13th because we are going to have a big in-person meeting retreat that weekend to finalize the mixes on all of the songs before we send it off for mastering. That's about a month away, so I am starting to get anxious that we'll actually finish all that we need to do in time. The only way to get it all done is to keep grinding, keep striving, and stay focused. 

Again, nothing momentous has happened over the past two weeks. Just some more tiny steps to get us closer to the main goal. Mainly mixing sessions and trading mixing feedback back and forth on Discord. We finished working on Alone and moved on to Desperation's Ballad. Our goal is to finish everything by September 13th because we are going to have a big in-person meeting retreat that weekend to finalize the mixes on all of the songs before we send it off for mastering. Even though it's still over a month away, I am starting to get anxious because in addition to mixing, we have some other finishing touches to complete. We just gotta keep keep grinding, keep striving, and stay focused. 

Again, nothing momentous has happened over the past two weeks. Just some more tiny steps to get us closer to the main goal. The main thing was another mixing session and trading mixing feedback back and forth on Discord throughout the week. We finished Gone for now and we are currently working on Alone. It's all sounding quite good which has given me hope for the rest of the mixing process. Just gotta keep putting in those reps so that my dreams can become reality. #SIGMALIFE

Again, nothing momentous has happened. Just some more tiny steps to get us closer to the main goal. The main thing was another mixing session. We picked a song to do a semi-final mix on so we can use it as a template/reference for the rest of the songs. The song we picked was Gone and we are almost done. It's sounding quite good which has given me hope for the rest of the mixing process. I'm fully back on my grind. Putting in those reps so that my dreams can become reality. #SIGMALIFE

In the past two weeks, nothing momentous has happened. Just some more tiny steps to get us closer to the main goal. Another mixing session. I created a really cool promo pic using a picture I took from my backyard one morning. You can see the before and after below. That's about it. I was on vacation last week, so I wasn't able to do much then. This week it's about getting back into the grind again, so that I can keep dreaming and stay focused in order to achieve the final result.

Another week's gone by and exactly what's been accomplished, I don't know why. I do know why actually, but they're little personal goals for my own musical and artistic development. As far as Crystal Gazer proper, we actually didn't have a mixing session this past week and that troubled me. I think we as a group figured out a good work flow and schedule moving forward though.  

Just have to keep grinding, keep dreaming and stay focused in order to achieve the final result.  

Another week's gone by and exactly what's been accomplished, I don't know why. I do know why actually, but they're little personal goals for my own musical and artistic development. As far as Crystal Gazer proper, we just had another mixing session and that's about it. It's all adding up though. 

Just have to keep grinding, keep dreaming and stay focused in order to achieve the final result.  

Another week's gone by and exactly what's been accomplished, I don't know why. I do know why actually, but they're little personal goals for my own musical and artistic development. As far as Crystal Gazer proper, we just had another mixing session and that's about it. It's all adding up though. 

Just have to keep grinding, keep dreaming and stay focused in order to achieve the final result.  

Honestly, I question the whole point of writing these posts, since no one really reads them. Oh well, I am a creature of habit, and once I start something, it's hard for me to stop. We have had a bit of a heated debate as to how to actually finish the mixing of this album. I am open to hiring an outside person, but Adriel seems totally opposed and wants us to finish the job ourselves. He has a pretty cool idea of renting a cabin and spending a weekend finishing the mixing. That's not a half bad idea, actually. Only time will tell how it actually all unfolds. 

Just have to keep grinding, keep dreaming and stay focused in order to achieve the final result.  

These past two weeks were slow weeks for Crystal Gazer. Hopefully, the coming weeks will be more productive. 

Just have to keep grinding, keep dreaming and stay focused. 

This past week was a slow week for Crystal Gazer. Just a short mixing session. Hopefully, this week will be more productive. 

Just have to keep grinding, keep dreaming and stay focused.

This past week we edited the ninth song on the album which is, "Homecoming?". Michael had a really cool idea for the buildup that we started working on and will finalize in the next phases of the mixing process. We also started editing the next song which is, "Supper's Set." That song has a really cool piano part that Michael recorded on the piano in his man cave. The part has a nice indie, lo-fi vibe. However, the initial performance isn't quite up to par, so he needs to re-do it. I'm staying strong with my own personal goals working consistently each week on my singing, bass playing and deepening my knowledge of music theory. Day by day and week by week, steady and consistent work adds up to big results over time. 

Just have to keep grinding, keep dreaming and stay focused.

I almost said everything I needed to say in the previous post. In addition to the revised resolutions for Crystal Gazer, I've also instituted some personal goals revolving around improving my singing and keeping my bass skills sharp. I want to be ready for when it's time to track for the next album. And speaking of the next album, I've already started planning for the second album. While we go through the tedious process of editing and mixing, I figured that I could go ahead and work on the second album.     

As always, keep grinding, keep dreaming and stay focused.

Week 12 also means that 2024 is a quarter of the way done. Therefore, it's a good time to do a status check on our 2024 resolutions. 

Resolution #1: Finish Mixing the Album

Yes. We are making steady and consistent progress although not as quickly as I would like. We have gone through and edited 7 out of the 11 songs. However, editing the songs is only one part of the mixing process. Will we actually finish mixing this album by the end of 2024? Yes, I believe so. Although, at our current pace, it may take all of 2024. 

Resolution #2: Track the Piano Parts for the Album

This is Adriel's job and so far, he's fiddled around a bit with the song, "Homecoming?". That's one song out of the 4 songs that need piano parts tracked. 

Resolution #3: Have the Album Mastered 

I hope we can accomplish this in 2024. However, you can't master an unmixed album. Will mastering be a job for 2025 instead of 2024? We shall see.  

Resolution #4: Release the Album

Similar to what I wrote above, you can't release an album that isn't mixed and mastered. Again, something that may be for 2025 instead of 2024. We shall see. 

Resolution #5: Maintain the Weekly Blog for Another Year

Yep. I'm faithfully doing this with no missed weeks. Some weeks may be later than other weeks but I'm doing it. 

Resolution #6: Do a Band Photo Session 

Eh. Again, we shall see. My main objective is releasing the album, so if band photos don't happen in 2024 (or ever), I won't consider myself a failure. Some good photos would be nice but not essential. 

Resolution #7: Develop the YouTube Channel and Add 25 More Subscribers 

Something I'm just crossing out completely. I was putting the cart before the horse by worrying with YouTube and video-making. Who wants to subscribe to the YouTube channel of a band with no completed music? Crystal Gazer Cinema is a great idea, and the video for The Things We Do To Get By looks awesome. However, it's a LOT of work, and my limited time can be better served in other areas. Crystal Gazer Cinema is something for a later time. 

Resolution #8: Improve the Band Website 

Eh. This really depends on if the album gets released this year or not. The website as it is is serviceable with the music being in its present state. 

Resolution #9: Personally Put in Approximately 606 Hours of Work

I'm changing this resolution to, "Personally Put in Approximately 12 hours of Work per Week." I had this elaborate plan where I added a little bit more time to my weekly work schedule each month ending with me putting in 14 hours a week by December. However, with my current life situation, 12 quality hours of work time each week is very challenging. Therefore, instead of adding an unnecessary stressor, I will just stick to putting in 12 quality hours of work each week. 

Resolutions can help a lot to keep you on track to actually complete what you set out to do. However, setting a resolution does not necessarily set it in stone. Sometimes a resolution needs to be modified or even scrapped in service to the larger goal.    

The main thing is to keep grinding, keep dreaming and stay focused.

Still editing the album song by song and making slow but steady progress. Still just a bit more than halfway through all of the songs. Still trying to figure out the whole music publishing and music business side of things. One small step forward in that area is that I decided on using Songtrust for our music publishing administrator because it seemed like the best overall. 

Here's to another week of grinding, dreaming and staying focused.  

As I wrote previously, nothing really earth-shattering to report. Still editing the album song by song and making slow but steady progress. We are more than halfway through all of the songs now. Still trying to figure out the whole music publishing and music business side of things. 

Here's to another week of grinding, dreaming and staying focused.  

Again, nothing really earth-shattering to report. Still editing the album song by song and making slow but steady progress. Also spent some more time trying to figure out the whole music publishing thing as well as how to set up an LLC. Researching seems to lead to more questions than answers at this stage. Oh well, just keep pressing on. 

Here's to another week of grinding, dreaming and staying focused.  

Again, nothing really earth-shattering to report. Still editing the album song by song and making slow but steady progress. I didn't work on video editing at all last week, and instead set up our CD Baby account and started plugging in the information for the album release. This week, it'll be more editing, more work on CD Baby and also researching how to copyright an album and register as an LLC. 

Here's to another week of grinding, dreaming and staying focused.  

This week WAS a lot smoother sailing since everyone was healthy again. Therefore, it was a lot easier to put in my 11 hours and 30 minutes of work especially with my school taking Friday off for President's Day. Again, nothing really earth-shattering to report. We are currently in the editing stage, and, so far, we have finished editing 3 out of 11 songs. I am still making progress on video editing. Although, it dawned on me that I'm spending a lot of time on video editing when there's still a LOT to figure out with the release of the album such as copyright, publishing, distribution, etc. Once I finish the current video I'm working on, I'll put video editing on the back burner in order to focus on those more pressing concerns.

Here's to another week of grinding, dreaming and staying focused.  

It was extra tough this week with my wife and youngest child getting sick this weekend, but I still managed to put in 11 hours and 30 minutes of work. Therefore, this past week was not smoother sailing. Nothing really earth-shattering to report. We are making progress on mixing, and we are currently in the editing stage. I am also making progress on video editing, although learning DaVinci Resolve is slow and frustrating. Overall, slow, boring and consistent progress is being made which, in time, will yield to incredible results. 

Here's to another week of grinding, dreaming and staying focused in order to achieve those incredible results. 

It was tough this week, but I again put in a solid 11 hours and 15 minutes of work. It was tough due to us getting back home from New York City in the middle of the week which caused me to start clocking my time in for this week later than usual. Hopefully, this coming week will be smoother sailing, although I will be upping the time to 11 hours and 30 minutes of work starting this upcoming week.  

Here's to another week of grinding, dreaming and staying focused 

A bit late for this week's blog entry, but for the fourth week of January I again put in a solid 11 hours and 15 minutes of work. Last week, it was especially challenging to get my 11 hours and 15 minutes of time in since we had to leave on a trip to New York City on Saturday morning which meant I had to get most of my hours in before we left. It was a big challenge, but I still managed to put my time in which means that I got just that much closer to achieving my goals. 

Here's to another week of grinding, dreaming and staying focused 

For the third week of January, I again put in a solid 11 hours and 15 minutes of work, so I'm still holding strong with my New Year's resolution. We also had a weekly band meeting on Wednesday at 9 pm, so we are still staying consistent on that front. As a personal accomplishment, I finished the first draft of this video. It's not publish-worthy yet, but it was complete enough for me to share with the guys to get their feedback. A hard and busy week for me in my professional life still couldn't stop me from putting in my 11 hours and 15 minutes, so I'm proud of myself for my continued grit and determination. Grit and determination got me this far, and grit and determination will see me across the finish life.   

Just gotta keep grinding, keep dreaming and stay focused 

For the second week of January, I put in a solid 11 hours and 15 minutes of work, so I'm holding strong with my New Year's resolution. We established a weekly band meeting every Wednesday at 9 pm. Previously, the day and time for meeting would vary each week, and I personally didn't like the uncertainty caused by that inconsistency. I also strongly feel that having a consistent day and time that we stick to, no matter what, will lead to greater productivity overall. We also started doing things a bit differently. I came to the meeting with a prepared agenda, and we worked through it just like you would at your job. I also think this was very productive. It kept us on point during our time together and gave each of us clarity for what we individually needed to work on for the week. Also, knowing that at the next meeting you will need to give a progress update motivates you to actually work, so you're not empty handed.   

Turns out the humdrum, workaday practices you do at your job also work quite well in music. 

Who knew?  

Keep grinding, keep dreaming and stay focused 

For the first week of January, I spent most of my time writing the previous blog entry. It was crucial that we review our many accomplishments for the previous year and also look ahead to 2024 and the work that still remains to be completed. 

Keep grinding, keep dreaming and stay focused

For this entry, I reflected back on our accomplishments for 2023 and also made resolutions for 2024. 

Accomplishments for 2023

Accomplishment #1: Finished Recording Vocals for the Prodigals Album

This was an immense challenge for me personally, requiring a tremendous amount of effort and patience. Michael Depp, the guitarist, gave me the critiques and encouragement I needed, so that the final vocals of Prodigals will have only the slightest amount of pitch correction in very few places. 

That, I feel, says a lot in today's music world. 

Accomplishment #2: Bought and Built a Reliable Computer 

My old computer just couldn't meet my needs for music and video production. Therefore, I sacrificed my birthday and Christmas gifts for the next few years in order to purchase the parts for a super-fast and super-powerful PC. Adriel Kinnunen, the drummer and producer, was kind enough to come to my house and spend the day assembling it for me. This new computer has been a game changer in increasing the speed and efficiency of my work flow. 

Accomplishment #3: Created and Designed the Band Website

I remember at the tail-end of 2022 creating the first iteration of the Crystal Gazer website on a crappy free WordPress site. Very early in 2023, I moved to Google Sites and purchased the crystalgazerband.com domain name from Google Domains. During the summer of 2023, I did a lot of work building and designing the site to get it to its current state. While I definitely see room for improvement, I am quite proud for staking out our own little piece of digital territory and having a decent website to share with people. 

Accomplishment #4: Maintained the Weekly Blog All Year 

With the weekly blog, I never missed a week in 2023. It was something I wrote for myself more than anyone else, but it really helped keep me on task with Crystal Gazer no matter how busy and crazy my week was, since I always wanted to have at least some progress to share each week. Also, if anyone went to the site, I wanted them to see that this wasn't a defunct project but something ongoing and with some life in it. 

Accomplishment #5: Made a Solid Start on the Mixing Process 

When tracking was complete, we had a sit-down as a band and agreed on the basic process for mixing the album. We divided the mixing process into four phases, and we were able to almost finish the first phase in 2023. We mainly accomplished this with weekly online mixing sessions where Adriel shared his screen and audio, and we listened in giving our feedback. 

Accomplishment #6: Personally Put in 462 Hours and 43 Minutes of Work

I didn't start tracking my weekly work hours till the second week of February. Therefore, this number doesn't include all of the time I logged in 2023, although it's pretty close. Considering how full my plate is personally and professionally, I'm very proud of the time I was able to carve out. I also learned how to squeeze out an incredible amount of time from even the busiest week. 

Accomplishment #7: Created Our YouTube Channel which Now Has 25 Subscribers

We created our YouTube channel on December 17, 2022, and the channel has come such a long way since then. At first, we just uploaded the demos of Prodigals to YouTube using still shots of album art. From there, we branched out to short videos like this one showing the progress we were making on the Prodigals album. Again, these were just still shots instead of actual video footage. The next step in our evolution was using actual video footage, and this video is one of the best examples so far. We also started an epic video project titled, LOST: A Visual Experience of the Prodigals Album. LOST will tell the entire story of Prodigals using music videos pieced together from public domain footage. So far, the only thing published from this project is this, the ending section of The Things We Do (To Get By), the sixth song on the Prodigals album. We basically finished the music video for the entire song. However, we won't release it until the actual album is released, and we have the videos to all the other songs complete. 

Accomplishment #8: Wrote and Produced Another Song

Over the summer of 2023, Michael Depp felt that the ending of the Prodigals album just didn't have a very satisfying musical resolution. Therefore, he created his own musical resolution. I added bass guitar, and we had our kids contribute vocals with my oldest adding her laugh and his kids adding backing vocals to my main vocal. 

Resolutions for 2024

Resolution #1: Finish Mixing the Album

This is the linchpin of the entire shebang. Our other previous musical endeavors have all petered out in the mixing stage. Therefore, actually finishing the mixing of this album would be a huge psychological boost for us. Also, I feel like the other stages of the album-finishing process will all be much easier once we finish this vital but time-consuming and tedious stage.  

Resolution #2: Track the Piano Parts for the Album

This is mainly Adriel's task. I wrote the piano parts for the album, but I used a free and very cheap-sounding midi plug-in. (Click here for an example.) Since he has excellent piano skills, he will track the final piano for the album. 

Resolution #3: Have the Album Mastered 

This is something that all three of us agree we need to hire out for. We currently haven't decided on a person to use, but Michael speaks very highly of this guy on Fiverr who, for $20, beat a song that was mastered in Abbey Road Studios. (Click here for the video.)

Resolution #4: Release the Album

This is uncharted territory for us. At minimum, we could just throw the album up on a few music-streaming sites and be done with it. However, that would be entirely inadequate for a work that has been years in the making and has required a tremendous amount of sacrifice from each of us. We definitely want to produce physical copies, and some sort of marketing scheme to generate "buzz" and attention is needed as well. I would also like to do some sort of album release show as well. 

Resolution #5: Maintain the Weekly Blog for Another Year 

This duty falls on me, and I don't mind. As I said before, the weekly blog keeps me on track with work for the band and shows that the band is active even when a lot doesn't appear to be happening on the surface. 

Resolution #6: Do a Band Photo Session 

Currently, we have been meeting virtually to mix the album. Eventually, we will need to meet in person for mixing sessions. While all three of us are together, we will also do a band photo session. While our individual plans for the photo session vary in scope and elaborateness, we definitely won't just snap a few pictures with a smartphone. 

Resolution #7: Develop the YouTube Channel and Add 25 More Subscribers 

As of right now, YouTube is our only social media channel as a band. On YouTube, we can actually build a body of work with videos that we can direct people to. Other social media platforms seem like a lot of work with no lasting benefit or collection of work to showcase. With the limited time we have, time spent on YouTube seems the best bet. Instead of a grandiose goal of 1,000 new subscribers or something like that, I'd rather aim for something more practical and easily attainable which is another 25 subscribers. 

Resolution #8: Improve the Band Website 

The website is in a good state for where we are right now as a band. As we grow as a group, however, with the album release and band photos as an example, the site will have to grow with it. Rather than creating concrete goals to have certain features on the site by a certain time, we'll just let the site grow and develop organically as the project grows and develops.  

Resolution #9: Personally Put in Approximately 606 Hours of Work

The only way the above resolutions are actually accomplished is if the three of us as individuals and as a band put in the work. Therefore, I'm going to start the year putting in 11 hours and 15 minutes of work each week for the month of January and then adding an extra 15 minutes of weekly work time each succeeding month. For example, February will be 11 hours and 30 minutes of work each week and March will be 11 hours and 45 minutes and so on. If I continue at this rate, then I'll be putting in 14 hours of work a week in December. As a result, I'll have put in 606 hours of work by the end of 2024. This year especially, I've learned the tremendous power of having a strong work ethic with your creative endeavors. Just committing to a certain amount of hours week in and week out no matter what. In short, you must prove yourself worthy to the muses in order for them to bless you. 

Here's to another year of grinding, dreaming and staying focused.

For the last week of 2023, I logged another 11 hours and 15 minutes of music-related work. I managed to do that all four weeks of December.  

We did accomplish a solid mixing session after Christmas day. 

I did do some video editing, mainly on the video to Alone. 

I did finally finish my Google Drive cleanup.  

I also reviewed my accomplishments for 2023 and began setting goals for 2024.

All in all, another week of putting in the work. 

Another week of grinding, of dreaming and of staying focused. 

Another week of 11 hours and 15 minutes of music-related work done. 

Well, what did I accomplish this past week? We did NOT accomplish another solid mixing session. We were each too busy and on divergent schedules preparing for Christmas, so we were unable to come together as a group to mix together. Adriel has promised that he'll do another mixing session on his own, so let's hope he'll do that instead of getting sucked into his video game design. ha

Video editing-wise, I started working in DaVinci Resolve for the first time. I began editing the video of a teaching workshop I did last year for my job. I sat down and followed this tutorial step-by-step which was extremely helpful in getting started with the program. I highly recommend. I can definitely see that DaVinci is a superior video editor than Reaper, so it's no question that I'll be using DaVinci moving forward. 

I also did some more work on my Google Drive cleanup. I'm close to being done with that but still not quite done. 

I did film myself playing through the intro bass track to Alone. I did a much better job filming that compared to my previous performance videos, so I think the final result will be really good. 

I did help Michael with some samples on one of his own songs. The main thing I did was cut out the unneeded audio to give the section more space and breathing room. I'm going to do a little more work on it and then leave it in his hands. 

Here's to another week of putting in the work. 

Keep grinding, keep dreaming and have a Merry Christmas!!!

By the time I finish writing this blog post, I will have put exactly 11 hours and 15 minutes in on music-related work. I've been on a streak of 11 hours a week for the past four weeks including this week. I know last week I said that I was going to put in 11 hours a week no more, no less. However, 11 hours a week just doesn't seem like enough and 12 hours a week is calling to me. My plan is to try 11 hours 15 minutes again this week and then do 11 hours 30 minutes the week after. Sort of like upping your weight little by little at the gym. 

Well, what did I accomplish this week? We did another solid mixing session which is fine. However, to be honest, and I may have said this before, the mixing process isn't moving as I quickly as I want it to. However, it's beyond my control, and I'm trying NOT to worry about the things out of my control in order to focus more on the things in my control. 

And speaking of the things in my control, I made a good bit more progress on the music video to The Things We Do (To Get By). Click here to see the video at its current stage. This is the first time that there are no gaps in footage which is a huge step. I also tightened up some of the captions and cuts. There are some changes that I'm not necessarily sure I'll keep like the bondage scene overlay at the 19 second mark. Also, I need to figure out how to keep the aspect ratio consistent throughout the entire video. For this video, I think I'll give it a rest for a week or two, so I can revisit it with a fresh set of eyes. 

I did track bass for the intro of Alone. However, I came up with another version of the bass part that I want to record to see how it sounds. 

This coming week, the goals are to try the new version to the bass intro of Alone, do some more work on the Google Drive cleanup and do another online mixing session. I also want to film myself recording the intro bass track to Alone and use that video as an opportunity to try Da Vinci Resolve as a video editor which is a pro-level editing software. 

Here's to another week of putting in the work. 

Keep grinding, keep dreaming and stay focused.

This past week was me coming back from Thanksgiving Break to a full week of teaching and work. Therefore, it was harder for me to get my 11 hours of work time in on music. I've made it a personal goal to put exactly 11 hours in each week on music-related work. No more and no less. Most weeks, this takes a lot of self-discipline and sacrifice of sleep. Ha. As a group, we managed to do another solid mixing session. On the music video for The Things We Do (To Get By) I solved the pixelation issue by increasing the fps and kbps on my export settings. Not sure what that did exactly but it worked. Ha. Click here to see the video at its current stage. Not quite finished but close. I'm almost finished with the sample at the end of Gone. I'm done with chopping it up and arranging it to make it fit the section. Now, we are going back and forth on the levels and effects. It's sounding really good and it adds a lot to that section of that song. 

I didn't track bass for the intro of Alone, so that's something I need to do this coming week. I honestly put it off because I wasn't feeling my sharpest the times that I sat down to work. No more procrastination. This week, I will work on it. 

Here's to another week of putting in the work. 

Keep grinding, keep dreaming and stay focused.

This past week was Thanksgiving week but still another week of steady and consistent grinding albeit with some bloating caused by overeating. ha. We managed to do another solid mixing session. I also did a bit of work on the music video for The Things We Do (To Get By) adding subtitles for the lyrics. I still haven't figured out the pixelation issue that I mentioned last week. I worked on a bass part to the intro of Alone as well. Right now, the intro is just guitar and a sample of traffic noises, so it sounds a little thin. I came up with a few bass ideas and we picked what we thought was the best one. Now, I just need to track the final version. I also found a good sample from a news broadcast to put at the end of Gone because that section of the song is sounding a little thin as well. I'm working on chopping it up and arranging it to make it fit that section. 

I got my current interface working again, so I'm not in a rush anymore to buy another one. The one I want can only be bought used, so there was no Black Friday sale to rush my purchase. I'm looking to buy an Audient ID14 since it's the same one that Michael and Adriel have. 

Here's to another week of putting in the work. 

Keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused.

Same old, same old but in a good way. Another week of steady and consistent grinding. Another solid mixing session? Check. Solid progress on the music video for The Things We Do (To Get By)? Check. And here's a rough cut of the video to prove it.  Skimming through the video on YouTube, there's some weird pixelation in sections of the video that isn't in the editing session. Sigh... Another issue to troubleshoot. Some of the content of this video is a bit racy and questionable which is something I've never done before in my music and which may strike some people as inappropriate for an album made by Christians and with an underlying Christian theme. 

However, I would make the case that the content of the song dictates it. Also, in the selection of footage, I tried to pick only what was necessary to communicate the themes of the song without verging on the obscene. Everyone's tastes will differ, of course. 

In other news, I'm having problems with my current interface, so I'll probably buy myself a new one this Black Friday for an early Christmas present. ha 

Here's to another week of putting in the work regardless of Thanksgiving. Although I will give myself a day off on the actual day of Thanksgiving. (Maybe. Ha.)

Keep grinding, keep striving and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Another week of good, steady progress. I could really write the same blog post as I did last week. We logged another solid mixing session, and I made some solid progress on the music video for The Things We Do (To Get By). Some of my time for music this week was taken up by tracking bass for a song for guitarist Michael Depp's own music project. However, I don't begrudge him that time since he's put a lot of time and effort into Crystal Gazer. 

Here's to another week of putting in the work. Keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused.

Another week of good, steady progress. I could really write the same blog post as I did last week. We logged another solid mixing session. However, I jumped the gun last week when I said I almost finished a rough cut of the entire video for The Things We Do (To Get By). Combing through all of this public domain footage is a real beast. Now that a real narrative is starting to form, I'm looking for specific footage now to tell the story, and trying to find it in public domain footage can be like finding a needle in a haystack. The vision of Crystal Gazer Cinema is coming to fruition though. 

Just need to keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused.

Another week of good, steady progress. We logged a solid mixing session, and I almost finished a rough cut of the entire video for The Things We Do (To Get By). Combing through all of this public domain footage has been a beast, but a real narrative is starting to form from all of the seemingly disparate imagery. The vision of Crystal Gazer Cinema, which is to tell the entire story of the Prodigals concept album through a music video for each and every song, is slowly but surely coming to fruition. 

Just need to keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused.

Another week of getting my mojo back. Another good mixing session with the fellas and I also chipped away some more at the music video for The Things We Do (To Get By). I released the clip to the ending of the song a couple of weeks ago which is actually doing quite well on YouTube by our standards. It's about to break 100 views which is the best one of our videos has done which is not a short. This caused me to do some thinking on the videos and "marketing" behind Crystal Gazer. I've come to the conclusion that these artsy type videos fit us a lot better than the typical band promo stuff that most groups do. Therefore, instead of spending my time working on behind-the-scenes and the-making-of-Prodigals videos, I'm going to focus on my grand vision which is to tell the entire story of the Prodigals album through music videos for each and every song, piecing the narrative together with the public domain footage I find. A very ambitious and time-consuming project especially since I haven't even finished one whole song yet. 

Just need to keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused.

The past week was much better. I'm finally feeling myself again and getting back to my normal level of strength and health. We had a really good mixing session and are making good progress in the mixing process overall. We have a much better mix now for the The Things We Do (To Get By) ending video. I also had some syncing issues with my new PC that Adriel was able to help me resolve. Therefore, my new machine is fully functional. 

Just need to keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused in order to reach a never-before-reached goal. A fully finished and released self-produced album. 

The past week was bad. I was only able to put in one hour of work. I was hit with a really bad relapse of sickness this past Saturday. I then, finally went to the doctor, and it turned out I had strep throat which explains why I was fighting this sickness for three weeks and not getting better. I'm taking antibiotics and feeling better with no relapses, so I'm finally getting better for good now. Hopefully, this week will be much better.  

Just need to keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused. 

I was feeling better. However, I got a relapse of sickness this past weekend which knocked me out cold. I'm feeling better now and managed to finish the ending for The Things We Do (To Get By) video. We are still meeting online at least once a week for virtual mixing sessions, so we are still making that progress.

Just need to keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused. 

The only new thing to report is that Adriel the drummer dropped by my house this past weekend to put together a new PC that I bought all the parts for. It runs a lot faster than my old PC which will help a lot with mixing and video making. I got really sick too last week which knocked me for a loop. However, I am feeling better. We are meeting online at least once a week for virtual mixing sessions, so we are steadily making progress bit by bit. 

Things are moving forward. Just need to keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused. 

Again, nothing new to report. Just worked on music for a few hours last week. Had a lot of work to do for my day job. Hopefully, this week, I'll be able to put in more time. 

Again, nothing new to report. Just trying to work on music when I can while juggling all the other things in my life. Getting a bit discouraged since I'm not really making much headway. We are in the mixing stage, and every previous album the three of us have worked on before has always died in the mixing stage. 

Just have to keep pushing forward no matter what. 

Nothing new to report really. Just trying to work on music when I can while juggling all the other things in my life. 

I put in about 7 and a half hours this past week on Crystal Gazer. 

Again, a pretty small amount because there's a lot of things going on in my personal and professional life right now.  

I put some work in on our next video using footage from the old silent film called The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) which is in the public domain. 

I also watched The Lodger (1927) which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and is also in the public domain. I watched it as a treat for my birthday weekend and also to look for clips that I can use in music videos.

So, this past week was not a week of big gains but rather a week of small increments of progress. 

Just need to keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused for the big payoffs. 

I put in about 7 hours this past week on Crystal Gazer. 

A pretty small amount. A lot of things going on in my personal life. 

I didn't really accomplish something that I can document here. 

Some vocal practice. Some bass practice. Working on another video. 

Just one of those weeks where I put in some time, and the final product will come about later. 

But I know that every little bit I put in gets me a little bit closer to the end. 

Just need to keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused. 

I put in about 12 hours this past week on Crystal Gazer. 

That's pretty good considering that I went back to work this week, and I had to go to Greenville over the weekend to take care of a family matter. 

So, what did I accomplish this past week? 

The main thing was finishing the bass part to The Prodigal Returns Resolve. 

While I was away over the weekend, Michael Depp, the guitarist, recorded his kids singing along to the song as well, and I really like the way it turned out. Click here to listen. His children singing combined with my child laughing takes the song to whole 'nother level.

And also, we managed to get over 1,000 views on our YouTube channel. 

Tracking is basically done, so we are now entering the mixing stage which is a daunting stage but something I personally feel optimistic about. 

The end is getting nearer, and we are taking care of the work one chunk at a time. 

Just need to keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused. 

I put in about 15 hours this past week on Crystal Gazer. 

What do I have to show for that 15 hours of work? 

Well, the main thing is finishing the vocals to The Prodigals Return Resolve. Click here to watch a little clip of the final product. 

This is a significant accomplishment for me because now all of the vocals are done for the album!!!

Whew. I started working on the vocals to this album last summer, so it has literally taken me a year to finish. 

The reason why it took so long was different things in my personal life and also learning how to actually sing properly. It was an ordeal, to say the least, but I am much a better singer now because of it. 

Now, all that remains for tracking is the bass part to The Prodigal Returns Resolve. We as a band are still going back and forth over my exact bass part. Something that I can definitely knock out this coming week. 

Last week was also my last full week of summer with me reporting back to work this week. 

The accomplishments for this summer besides finishing the vocal tracking include giving a design upgrade to the website and actually making proper videos for the YouTube channel. 

Before this summer, our YouTube videos were mainly audio tracks with still shots. Now, we have several proper videos, and our subscriber list has grown from 4 subscribers to about 20 with our channel having almost 1,000 views total. 

Small potatoes in the grand scheme of YouTube but a pretty big achievement for us a band. 

With me going back to work, it will probably be difficult for me to put in as many hours as I was able to over the summer. 

However, during last school year, I had to make sure I got a lot of sleep because I was trying to keep my voice in top notch shape for singing, and I was also abstaining from coffee for the same reason. 

Now, that the singing is finished, I can abuse my body by depriving myself of sleep and drinking large amounts of coffee. ha ha 

The end is getting nearer, although a large amount of work still remains.  

Just need to keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused. 

I put in a little over 20 hours this past week on Crystal Gazer. 

What do I have to show for about 20 hours of work? 

Well, not as much I would have liked. 

I cleaned and polished the fretboard of my bass, put on a set of new strings and also got a full set-up with the neck, action, and intonation adjusted. 

I also made this video showing just how much of a difference in tone new strings on a bass can make. 

Both of those jobs took a lot of time, but they both don't feel like very big accomplishments.  

I think that's because I didn't actually accomplish any work on the actual album. 

So, the to-do list I had for last week is still the same to-do list for this week. I still need to finish the vocals and bass for The Prodigal Returns Resolve and create a YouTube short based on that song. 

However, having a great-sounding bass in working order is crucial. I also learned a lot of really good video-editing techniques from the video I made from that experience. It's my most complex video yet. 

So, once again, the end is extremely near. 

Just need to keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused. 

I was only able to put in about 15 hours this past week on Crystal Gazer. The reason I couldn't put in another 20 hours was because my kids came down with a cold and couldn't sleep well. 15 hours is still a good bit and more than I can usually put in during a school week. 

What do I have to show for 15 hours of work? 

Well, I finished the bass work to The Cave and made this YouTube short based on that song which is my most complex video yet. 

This video was made solely in Reaper by the way. 

I also recorded the vocal melody and one layer of harmony for The Prodigal Returns Resolve. (Click here to watch and listen.) 

So, a good bit of progress was made.  

What's on the to-do list for this week? Well, the main things are to finish the vocals and bass for The Prodigal Returns Resolve and create another YouTube short based on that song. 

I'm getting so close to the end of this album that I can taste it. 

Just need to keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused. 

I put in 20 hours this past week on Crystal Gazer. That's a lot for me. The most time I've ever done in a single week this entire year so far. 

It helps that I'm home for summer break as a teacher. However, with two young kids at home, the vast majority of each day is still not free. I've just been alternating between late nights and early mornings trying to re-up with a full eight hours of sleep every few nights. 

The sweet spot has been working from 8 pm to midnight for a four-hour, uninterrupted shift. 

What do I have to show for all this time put in? 

Well, completing the vocals to LOGOS and creating this YouTube short which shows me finishing the song. 

That video took a MASSIVE amount of time to complete despite being so short and simple. 

The reason is that I'm still trying to find the right video editing program. Lightworks is just too complex, and DaVinci Resolve won't work with my computer's graphic card for some reason. 

Reaper, which is my DAW, actually shows promise for editing videos. However, it has a bit of a learning curve, so I ended up just using Clipchamp which is a free, web-based editor from Microsoft. 

It's simple and does the job, but it has its limitations that makes it not an option for larger video projects. 

I'm going to see if my next YouTube short can be made solely in Reaper. 

This coming week my main goal is finishing up the bass work for The Cave (see demo here) and making a little YouTube short showing me laying down that bass work. 

The end is in sight. Just need to keep putting in the work. 

Keep grinding, keep striving and stay focused. 

This past week was one that I put in a lot of hours, but it still feels like I accomplished very little. 

I made further progress on the vocals to LOGOS, but I'm still not done. We are finally going to give in and use pitch correction on one vocal part in one section of the song. I've tried this part over and over again, but I still hover slightly over the notes instead of locking completely in pitch. 

I feel like a bit of a defeatist giving into pitch correction. However, pretty much everyone does it. I've also grown so much as a singer by abstaining from pitch correction up to this point, and when it's all said and done, only a tiny part of the vocals will have any pitch correction in them whatsoever. 

In addition to vocals, I also began developing the bass line to a short one-minute song that Michael the guitarist wrote to resolve the entire album and to symbolize the prodigal finally returning home. Click here to watch me demoing the bass line. 

I'm so close, and I know that if I keep putting in the time that this album will eventually get done. 

Keep working, keep striving, keep grinding. 

Whew. Feeling wiped as I type this out. I pushed myself pretty hard last week staying up late and getting up early, and now I feel drained. I managed to finish the chorus 3 vocals of LOGOS, so chorus 4 and the outro still remain to be completed. I'm so close yet still feel so far away. 

I also took a break from working on the Prodigals album to record my dad telling some of his amazingly twisted stories which I plan to incorporate into yet another concept album. Here's a sample. 

I've got more ideas than I have time. ha 

I could write more, but my body's telling me that I need sleep. 

Hoping for quick and easy progress for finishing the vocals to LOGOS. 

This past week was surprisingly productive. I thought it would take a lot of work and time to get my voice back into singing shape, but I managed to finish the vocal overdubs for the first two choruses of LOGOS. Click here to hear the difference that vocal overdubs can make in a chorus. Now I just need to overdub the final two choruses as well as the outro. 

Besides recording work, I did a bit more design work including starting the design for a t-shirt. 

I have been recently struggling with despondency about the progress of this record and if anyone will even care to listen once we're finished with it. 

However, God has really helped to buoy my spirits, and I feel really good about the progress we are making. 

I'm not going to feel overwhelmed about the amount of work that still remains to be done, and all the other responsibilities that take up my time. 

I'm not going to feel any resentment towards others for taking time away from music. 

I'm not going to compare myself to others who are more successful and more productive than me in their music. 

I am going to be faithful and diligent to the music and trust God to bring the increase as He sees fit. 

"Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed" (Psalm 25:3). 

This past week, I finished the vocoder part for verse 1 of LOGOS. I figured out how to make it sit in the mix right and not be too distracting or overpowering. Click here to hear how it currently sounds. I spent a late night finishing that up and then the next morning woke up at 5 to catch a flight to Toronto with the family. Talk about grueling. ha

During my downtime on vacation, I did a lot of work on revamping the design of the website. Still a work in progress but it's looking a lot better compared to what it did originally and I'm getting a lot of good ideas for design and layout. 

Still need to finish the vocals for LOGOS which means getting my voice back in shape for singing after taking a week off. 

Ugh. Never ending it seems. 

Ok. I finally finished the first layer of vocals for LOGOS. Now, I am going back through and adding vocal overdubs. I started the vocoder part for the first verse, and that is sounding really promising. 

I was hoping to make some more progress this past weekend but that cursed retaining wall project kept me busy Saturday and Sunday. Sigh. I can't wait for that damned project to finally be over and done with. 

So close and yet so far away. 

A good antidote to the lack of time and progress blues is The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. I've been listening to the audiobook on YouTube, and he gives solid progress to aspiring artists struggling to be successful. I highly recommend all content creators to give it a listen. 

Hoping and praying that this upcoming weekend will afford me more free time. 

I did another pass on the outro to LOGOS this past week, and it's closer to being done although there are still a couple places that I need to fix like a syllable that's a little pitchy and another syllable that I rush a little bit.  Hopefully, I'll have some time on Memorial Day to knock that out. 

I also came up with a vocal melody to the little resolve track that Michael created to resolve tracks 1-9 of Prodigals and to serve as a musical interlude into LOGOS which is the final track of the album. 

So yes, just a few tiny steps of progress but a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and is taken one step at a time. 

I've come this far on the journey, so there's definitely no stopping and turning back at this point. Only forward. 

Ok. I managed to finish the final chorus. Once I finish the outro then my first vocal pass of LOGOS will be done. After that, then I'll need to go back and see what other sections need additional vocal layers. It's fairly standard in rock music to double the vocals in the chorus, so I'll at least do that. Plus, I have an idea for a vocoder part in verse 1. 

It's frustrating to think that I've been working on the vocals to this song since April, but it is what it is. 

The end is in sight, and I also scored 89.66% in vocal accuracy today on my vocal practice app which is a new personal best. 

Progress is being made. I just need to be diligent and keep chipping away.  

This past week was one of disappointment compared to the optimism of my previous blog post. I managed to comp together the takes from verse 3, chorus 3 and verse 4 and record the minor fixes that needed to be done. 

I then did some takes of the final chorus and outro thinking that I would still have the same mojo as I did in the previous week's vocal sessions. Turns out that most of it was pitchy and needs to be redone. Sigh.

It is frustrating that I still struggle with pitchiness as a singer considering all the work I've put into my singing. I've even mostly given up coffee, alcohol and soda in order to be a better singer for crying out loud. 

Oh well, no use crying about it. Just keep putting in the work and the results will happen eventually. 

This past week I made a good bit of recording progress on the vocals for LOGOS with only a few hours of effort.  

I managed to do verse 3, chorus 3 and verse 4 in only a few takes with only one note being off-pitch. 

This is quite a breakthrough for me since I usually need to do multiple takes of every single line and then comp all those different takes together to make a final vocal part for a section which is quite tedious and time consuming. 

What allowed me to achieve this personal milestone is the fact that I've been practicing with a vocal app on my phone. The vocal app gives me single notes and different intervals to sing and then grades my pitch accuracy. I've managed to work my way up to an 89% average in vocal accuracy, and I'm steadily working on bringing my vocal accuracy up to the mid 90s. 

My dad used to say, "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect." which is exactly right. Practicing something for hours a day with the wrong technique is worse than not practicing at all. 

I'm hoping that I can knock out the vocals for LOGOS this coming weekend. 

This past week was a disappointment since I made no recording progress on the vocals for LOGOS. 

Long story short, dealing with a collapsing retaining wall at my house took up most of my weekend. (Adriel, you were right.)

On the other hand, I did manage to practice singing five days last week, and I did bring my vocal accuracy up to 89% on my vocal training app. 

Progress may have stalled, but I'm hoping nothing in my house will fall over, so I can have some recording time this coming weekend. ha. 

This past week was the second and last week of my two-week Spring Break, and while it still wasn't as productive as I wanted, I still made some solid vocal progress. I was finally able to finish chorus 1 of LOGOS after lots of going back and forth on our band Discord server with Michael Depp the guitarist on pitch and timing. (Michael is my vocal critic and coach. Ha.) Chorus 2 actually came together quite easily with just a few takes, so hopefully that's a harbinger for better vocal recording sessions in the future. 

I'm really working on singing in pitch since pitchiness is the main reason I have to do so many vocal takes. I have a vocal app on my phone that grades how well I sing in pitch, and right now my vocal accuracy average is around 88%. If I can bring up my average to around 95%, I think I'll be able to record vocals a lot more quickly. 

As I said last week, progress is slow, but still I plod on. I've come this far. There's no turning back now. 

This past week was the first week of my two-week Spring Break, and while it wasn't as productive as I would have wished, I still made some solid progress. I redid verse 1 to LOGOS and got it sounding better, and I also managed to lay down the final takes for verse 2. I put a lot of work into the first two choruses of the song, but it's still not where it needs to be. Problems with pitch and style. As a band, we managed to agree on what the style and tone of the choruses need to be, and now it's up to me to lay it down.

Progress is slow, but still I plod on. I've come this far. There's no turning back now. 

This past week I managed to track verse 1 to LOGOS. Today is my 10-year wedding anniversary, so I won't have time to make any more progress for this week. However, tomorrow is the start of my two-week Spring Break, so I'll have a lot of time to track.  

This past week was another week of little to no progress. The main culprit for no progress was a gift I've been working on for my ten-year wedding anniversary. Making the gift has been much more time consuming than I originally anticipated, and it's taken up much of my free time. I at least managed to practice my vocals to the song I'm going to record next which is LOGOS and, even though it's a very challenging song vocally, I seem to be handling it quite well, at least in the practice sessions. 

We shall see what this coming week has in store. 

The next song on the to-sing list was Supper's Set. However, the scratch vocal takes I did back in May and June of 2019 are actually good enough to be the final vocals of the song. That means I only have one song left to record vocals for which is LOGOS, an eleven-and-half minute monstrosity, ha. 

So the finish line is in sight, for tracking at least...

This past week I finished the vocals to a song! For the song Homecoming?, I only needed to record the vocals to the buildup section, and I managed to knock that out Friday evening. This album has been six years in the making, and I'm so close to finishing it that I can almost taste it. Thank God for the grit and determination He has given me to see it through this far, and I pray that He will continue to bless this endeavor all the way to the end. 

This past week I again made absolutely no progress on the album although for a different reason. My whole family including me came down with a cold, so my voice was shot for any sort of singing. Last week, I didn't feel too terribly bad about it since I needed a break, but two weeks in a row with no progress is deflating. This coming weekend is my son's first birthday with my parents visiting, so it's looking like it might be a third week in a row with little to no progress. 

I could write a lot more about this but perhaps it's better not to. I'm just hoping and praying that my cold will completely go away and that I can manage to find time to record this coming week. 

This past week I made absolutely no progress on the album other than practicing singing a few times. I had a lot of other things going on such as a friend visiting from out of town and a birthday party for a friend of my daughter. I don't feel too terribly bad about it since I think I needed a break anyway from the hustle and strain of trying to squeeze in several hours of recording time into my packed schedule. 

Here's hoping for a better week next week. 

A lot of false starts and do-overs this week. I did finish the second chorus of Homecoming?, but then I sank a lot of time into tracking the vocals for the buildup only to have Michael the guitarist say that the way I did it in the demo was better and that I should record the final vocal that way. I then spent Saturday tracking the vocals to the third verse only to have Michael to tell me that I was flat. At least I was able to record the outro vocals properly. On Sunday, I was able to finish verse 3, and now all that remains is the buildup section which I will tackle next weekend. 

It's never fun to meet so many disappointments and setbacks when recording, but that's just the nature of the game. Sometimes, the muses smile upon you and other times they hide their face. 

The only thing a mere mortal like me can do is to carry on stoically regardless. 

The seventh week of 2023/third week of February was one of modest accomplishment and success.

During most of the previous week, I was home alone with my family gone on a trip. 

And since I was like a single man again, I was able to put in a lot more recording time finishing one song and getting halfway through with one another. 

This week, with my family back, I was back to my normal schedule, so my recording time was constricted again. 

Therefore, my output was constricted as well.

I was able to make progress on the second chorus of Homecoming?, but I was not quite able to finish it since we did some tweaking on the melodies as we worked. 

A Bible verse that gives me solace during these times of frustration and slow progress is Psalm 37:34, "Wait for the LORD and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land;”.

So, rather than getting frustrated with myself and my current life situation, I can trust that God will allow me to finish this project in His own time as long as I trust and remain faithful to Him. 

The sixth week of 2023/second week of February was one with quite a bit of accomplishment and success. First off, I finally finished the harmony section for Cold Embrace. (For a sample, click here). That means that I am finally finished with recording the final vocals for that song except for a final scream part that we are still trying to figure out. Also this week, I began recording the final vocals for Homecoming? which is the eighth song in the Prodigals album out of ten songs total. For that song, I was able to record the two verses and the first chorus, so I'm close to halfway done with that song. 

We are definitely nearing the end of the recording stage of the album which is extremely encouraging. It feels extremely good to see all the hard work and long hours paying off. 

I'm hoping that this coming week will be just as productive or even more so. 

The fifth week of 2023 was one of modest accomplishment. I managed to finish the melody part of the vocal section I was working on last week, and I almost finished the first layer of harmony. 

The lack of progress does frustrate me, especially since I've been working on the vocals to this one particular song (Cold Embrace) since December of 2022. 

However, despair never leads to anywhere good. 

I have to keep saying to myself the Latin phrase that I mentioned a few weeks prior. 

Festina lente, festina lente, make haste slowly. 

The fourth week of 2023 was one of deflated discouragement compared to the buoyant optimism that I ended the previous week on. In short, life got busy causing me to neglect sleep and vocal practice. Therefore, when I recorded vocals on Saturday, I was only able to track two usable takes and wasn't able to finish the vocals for the song Cold Embrace which is what I was originally hoping for. 

However, I am not going to wallow in the mire of despair. Two good vocal takes is better than none and I was able to nail down the stylistic approach to the section of the song I am working on which will make tracking a lot easier the next time around. 

A week like this happens to everyone who engages in the creative process. In my mind, the best thing to do is to rest up and hit the coming week head on.  

The third week of 2023 was one of overall optimism. Although the progress was relatively small, it was a week that set me upon a more sustainable and productive path than the one I had been pursuing. 

Every night this week I practiced singing for thirty minutes and then went to bed early giving myself at least seven hours of sleep each night. Then, on Saturday afternoon, I set aside a few hours of time to record vocals. The progress I logged was finally finishing the interlude for Cold Embrace which I began working on back in December and coming up with a cool harmony idea for the ending. 

Not a mind-blowing amount of progress but this way of working is a lot more sustainable than pulling late nights and pushing myself without sleep in order to try and finish quickly. That was the way I worked in the past, and I always just wore myself down and eventually made myself sick which forced me to stop working on music for at least a week or two which in the end was counter-productive.  

Plus, by giving myself the rest I need, my voice is actually getting stronger and my singing ability is actually improving which eventually will translate into me being able to record vocal takes a lot more accurately and quickly. 

A Latin phrase that I learned recently is festina lente which means "make haste slowly" or, as my brother-in-law used to say, "slowness is smoothness, smoothness is fastness [sic]." 

Making haste slowly is a lesson that I am really taking to heart especially when it comes to making music. Prodigals has already been years in the making which, at times, makes me quite anxious to hurry up and finish. However, rushing the process won't make the final product any better and may actually end up prolonging the process. 

Consistent and sustained progress is the motto for 2023. 

Note: For those of you are looking to improve your own singing voice, I highly recommend listening to The Singers Lifestyle podcast by Daniel Tompkins who is the lead singer of TesseracT. His advice is priceless for aspiring singers of all genres. 

With the first week of 2023 behind me, I reflect on the progress that Crystal Gazer has made in achieving its New Year's Resolutions. This was not a week of spectacular achievements but rather one of tiny steps in the 1,000 mile journey. 

The main accomplishment this week was to get my voice back into singing shape. The time I took for vacation combined with coming down with a slight cold put my voice in a less-than-optimal condition. So, I spent about 30 minutes each day this week warming up and practicing singing. At first, I couldn't even do this singing video but by the end of the week I was able to do that one with ease as well as this one and this one. Therefore, I feel fairly confident in tracking vocals this coming week. 

The second accomplishment was creating this awesome promo video. A friend of mine is helping us with video production, and I feel that this great little promo clip is a sign of even cooler things to come. 

The third accomplishment was buying the domain name crystalgazerband.com. Although I'm not sure that this current site builder will be the final home for Crystal Gazer, I now have peace of mind in knowing our domain name is safely in our possession.

May this coming week be an ever more fruitful week! 

With the new year of 2023 now upon us, the time has now come for new year's resolutions, and why not resolutions for a music project?

The biggest and most important resolution for Crystal Gazer is to finish their Prodigals album. (For more information about Prodigals, click here.)

Of course, many important goals and objectives loom large for a fledging musical project (creating social media profiles, developing a website, taking good photos, and so on).

However, doing all those things without a finished musical product to promote would be the epitome of pointlessness. And also, those are all smaller, subsidiary things which will work themselves out while we are in the process of finishing the album.

If you have read the previous blog post, you'll know that I have four songs left to track vocals for. After that, we also have four songs that we either need to track piano for or find a better sounding piano plug-in to use. Right now, those four songs have a very cheap-sounding midi piano. (For a sample of how cheap and crummy it sounds, click here.)

Of course, once all the tracking is complete, the fun just begins.

Then comes the challenge of mixing which has always been the graveyard of all our other previous music projects. And, of course, after mixing comes mastering which we will most likely hire someone to complete.

That doesn't even cover album art design and song publishing but again smaller, subsidiary things which should work themselves out from having a completed product in our hands.

Completing an entire album from start to finish would be a huge artistic milestone for all three of us in Crystal Gazer.

Here's to hoping that 2023 will be the year that finally happens.

For Crystal Gazer, the year didn't really get started till mid-to-late July. That was when my basement finishing project was complete, and I finally had a music room to record in again. (Click here for a video of my music room.)

So, after almost two years of inactivity caused by construction work and the birth of my two children, I was finally able to sit down and begin working on the Prodigals album again. (Click here for information on Prodigals.)

Opening up the sessions on my DAW, I found that guitar, bass and drums had been recorded for each song and that recording-wise the work that mainly needed to be done was tracking the final vocals for about eight remaining songs.

Tracking these vocals has been the bane of my existence.

First, recording is often the very last thing I get to do after a hard day at work and then an evening spent with family, so my time to track is extremely limited, and when I do get to record I am not at my best.

Second, tracking solid vocal takes is a time-consuming and tedious process for me that requires many frustrating attempts to get even one decent take for one section of one song.

So, as 2022 draws to a close, the tally stands at four songs tracked with four songs remaining for 2023.

It's very easy for me to get discouraged with this snail-like progress. However, when I listen to the songs that we have finished and compare them to the demos that I originally wrote, I realize the remarkable progress we have made and how close we are to the finish line compared to where we started.

May the year 2023 be a year of album completion and release!

Another week of 11 hours and 15 minutes of music-related work done. 

Well, what did I accomplish this past week? We did another solid mixing session. I also started work on the video for Our Town although I really only got started. I moved some files around so that all the video project sessions could draw source footage from the same folder. That ended up messing up the video session for The Things We Do (To Get By) which means I'll have to go back and re-edit sections of that video. Sigh. I did track an alternative bass part for the intro of Alone. However, it didn't sound as good as what I did originally, so I ended up scrapping it. I also did some more work on my Google Drive cleanup, and I'm close to being done with that. My parents came into town for my daughter's birthday party, and I sat down with my dad and did a three-hour long recording session of his memories and recollections. I'm recording these stories not only for personal reasons but also for potential later use for music. Prodigals is, in part, inspired by his stories, so I'm getting some ideas for how to incorporate some of his stories into some bonus material for Prodigals. 

This week one of my goals is to help Michael with some samples on one of his own songs. I also need to stop procrastinating and film myself recording the intro bass track to Alone and use that video as an opportunity to try Da Vinci Resolve as a video editor which is a pro-level editing software. 

Here's to another week of putting in the work. 

Keep grinding, keep dreaming and stay focused.

Ok. I didn't really do much this past week besides adding some more vocoder lines to verse 1 of LOGOS. At first, the vocoder effect sounded really cool, but now it's starting to sound kind of fatiguing to the ears, and I'm not even done with the entire verse yet. 

Maybe the vocoder part needs to be lower in the mix or maybe the vocoder should be for every other line in the verse. Something we need to figure out. 

Anyways, I'm out for summer break so hopefully I'll have more time to work on music. However, having two small kids at home can really eat up your time during the day. 

Also, we are going on a family trip to Niagra Falls and Toronto this week, but I'm planning on working on web design and other non-recording aspects while I'm away. 

Here's to a fruitful upcoming week. 

The second week of 2023 was one of overall disappointment, albeit with some small but encouraging signs of progress. The cause of disappointment was me coming down with an awful cold and being knocked totally out of commission for two whole days. This completely trainwrecked any chance of me making any vocal recording progress since my voice is only now getting back into any singing shape. 

Thankfully, some progress was made in some other areas. 

Firstly, I improved the look of the site by adding a nice banner image taken from the cover of our upcoming album. The default banner image was just beyond bland. 

Secondly, I made this sample lyric video. I created this video in Canva which is the design service we are using for our album cover. However, Canva has some real limitations as a video editor, so I am trying to find the right video editing software for us. Right now, it's a toss up between Lightworks and DaVinci Resolve. Both are Hollywood-level editing platforms that are basically free, so I need to try both and see which one is easier and more intuitive for me.  

Thirdly, Michael and Adriel have been working on dialing in guitar tones and so far have dialed in a killer lead guitar tone. Click here to hear a sample. (For those of you who are wondering, he's using the Archetype: Plini plugin by Neural DSP.)  

So, while this past week wasn't the productive week that I was hoping it would be, I can at least say that it wasn't a total waste. 

Here's to this coming week being one of happy and healthy productivity!