The future is wind-powered, sort of

I have two new musical projects on my plate. Well, one new one and a revision to an old one. Today's post is about the old one.

Those of you who have taken the opportunity to listen to my album The February Project from last year undoubtedly heard a bunch of dodgy "saxophone" on three songs. That was actually recorded with a Roland GR-33 guitar synthesizer. Which turns out to be a terrible way to make fake sax parts. Too glitchy and unpredictable for solo work.

In the main, my next job is to replace those parts with better ones using my Yamaha WX-5 wind controller, as featured on my latest album.

Since my fingering skills on sax are still a "work in progress," I had to do a lot of digital trickery to be able to play horn parts on Hidden Element.

The primary goal of revising The February Project is obviously to make it sound better. However, my secondary goal is to use it as a learning tool for the WX-5, so that future fusion albums don't require such trickery.

Beyond that, I may revise the song "Cosmic Jazz Explosion" and revert back to a longer version of that piece that I shelved for the initial release. I will definitely give the entire album a remix and try to make it into something I can proudly press up and sell a few copies of.

I don't have a timetable for this, but I'm aiming for the next few months.

My next post will talk about my upcoming new project, which is a guitar jazz-rock album. No horns or keys. And maybe some metal moments creeping in.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Post-album depression

Haven't posted for a couple weeks. Basically, I've been trying to get my head back together after finishing Hidden Element
.

I was shocked by the sudden depression that set in after finishing it. Not because it turned out badly. Quite the opposite. It was such a pleasure to make, that I felt bad not having any more work to do on it. It was as if my life suddenly became devoid of purpose.

I spent the last few weeks selling off some surplus guitars. One thing Hidden Element taught me is that I don't need 50 zillion different guitars to get the job done.

I'm over the blues now and firmly thinking about the future. First thing on the agenda is to complete CD cover art and have it pressed up. I haven't pressed anything since One Week In December, but this new album warrants it.

I've also got my next projects lined up, but more on that later.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone