whales & angels

About half of the record has been mixed so far...at this rate I should have a finished product by December. After it gets mixed, I need to finalize the artwork and send it off to get pressed (i.e., mass-produced). So, optimistically I should be able to do this before Christmas. Also, plans are in the works for a release show early next year. But I will announce those details as they become available.

Tom Eaton has an interesting computer program to clean-up vocal issues. Apparently, whenever I (or anyone, I guess) pronounce the letter "p" into a microphone it has a jarring result. Too much percussive content in the sound. It pops. So Tom has a program that he uses to clean these things up...file it under "studio magic."

The program is called Izotrope RX and it basically presents a graphic representation of every sound frequency inside a given vocalization. For example, if I sing the word "you" the program shows a variety of different sounds as individual frequencies that all go together to make the complete sound. This completely blew my mind. I had no idea there there were that many mini-sounds within a simple vocal sound. And, what's crazier is that you can hear the component sounds played separately! So, each frequency can be isolated and heard on its own. This also blew my mind! Within a simple sung word were so many different sounds: some lower frequencies sounded like whales, some higher frequencies sounded like angels, and other deeper frequencies sounded like evil noises emitted from a dark subterranean source. I could not wrap my brain around the fact that they all run together to make a sung word.

I asked Tom if we could break down the frequencies even further...get even more mini-sounds, perhaps components of the frequencies themselves. I was met with a blank look. We were at the edge of science, and being the naive person I am, I did not realize there was not a deeper level to access. You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one. Seriously, someday they will break down audible frequencies and unlock smaller component parts. Nano-sounds. Or something like that...

So the mixing is ongoing, and updates on album progress should be coming soon! Stay tuned for information on the official release show and the possibility of getting a copy of the album before the show!