Lately me and JP (you can find some of our stuff all over the site) have been throwing around ideas for a concept album. We're still figuring out some of the themes, and where we want the story to end up in the end, but for now I've put together a couple proofs of concept.

Exactly.

Now, usually I'm not this animated when I play.  But DAMN, I like this song.

So I present to you now: me, playing bass, rocking out in the back of the studio in my pyjama shirt and steel-toe runners.

Jens Peder Sweeting, of course, plays what should be an entire horn section on his keyboard, and his roomate Dylan is on drums.  A friend of ours (and the regular bassist for JP and Dylan's band), Forrest Conner, picks up the guitar for this song and it sounds amazing.

Usually, my bass playing never ends up being audiable on a video from a digital camera, so I ran a direct out from JP's keyboard and my bass amp, as well as a condenser mic from the guitar amp and drumset, into my ZOOM H4n recorder.  Being able to adjust the levels on each individual track made this turn out really well, even though the guitar is not as loud as I would like and there is a bit of clipping.  But, this was thrown together at one in the morning, so I'd say we did the best we could.

And that was the perfect way to end my vacation in Tampa.

So, I haven't posted in a while, but this time I actually have a good excuse.  Aside from working a lot this holiday, and applying to go back to school, I've also been in Tampa, Florida for a week.  I leave to go back to Ontario tommorow, but before I go I'll post a couple of videos from a show we did at a local bar (which had been converted from an old brewery). 

I play on a borrowed bass, and Jens plays his keyboard as usual, with his roomate Dylan on drums.  The video also features one of his classmates playing absolutely amazing guitar, and some guy we found to play the bongos.  As usual, the positioning of the camera and the amount of planning we had for this (the entire gig was improvised) mean the bass and keys are nearly inaudiable, but I think you all get the general idea of what went on.

My roomate.  Andrew came up with a neat drum beat on Hydrogen, a Linux drum machine.  So, two weeks later, it has grown from there considerably.

Another one of my three-part songs.  Kept it a little shorter this time. 

Another fun one to play.

On the title: the first word is project; as in a school project.  The second is project, as in projecting one's voice. Any more esoteric and I think I'd be naming these in another language entirely.

I'm not sure if you guys have realized this yet, but I have a TON of fun coming up with the titles for these songs.

This computer is amazing, as evidenced by the following screenshot.  While editing my latest song, I had the Ardour mixer on the left monitor and a system monitor on the opposing screen.  During editing, I was using nowhere near the system's full potential.

The only time any of the processor loads went over 30% was when I was creating the final 'export' file, where I compile all eight seperate tracks into one .wav file.  That I convert into an .mp3 and put it on the website.

And thats how it works

I love my twelve string.  I've said that before a few times, but i just thought I'd make sure you guys knew.

Its technically an eleven string guitar now though.

Just a note, the sirens at the beginning were not added in after the fact as an effect.  An ambulance drove past my window as I started recording, and it just so happened that I used that same take in the final version.