October 2007
Sunday, Oct 28
The O'Charley's gig is done, and the spots will start airing in a few days. We still use the term "air", which has been nearly obsolete for many years now. But would you say "the spots will cable/beam?" Of course not. Some people still say "roll tape". Whatever.
You can view the TV spot here; I posted a version at 15 fps for quick startup (meaning, I exported a version that removed every other frame). For the final mix, I downloaded a fifteen-day demo of the Sonnox Limiter plugin. I had bought the Inflator instead, which is great, but I'm sort of sorry I did; the Limiter is actually what I need more, but it's five hundred bucks. Another "who knew" (I've collected so many now).
Carey Moore and I did a little work called Saturday Music Store - listen to it here.
The plants that need to be brought in, are in. The deciduous bonsai's have been placed in their in-ground beds, but not covered over yet. After the recent rains, this part of the world is green again, but the temperatures are much cooler, and it's getting dark earlier. It makes me sad. The seasonal change is always good, but the end of summer has an increasingly negative effect on me with each passing year. Perhaps when my business is booming I'll feel differently. But I'm beginning to understand why older people move to south Florida in the cold months.
Sunday, Oct 21
Random, uninteresting and ultimately meaningless trivia from my little world...
I've begun moving the plants indoors. That involves setting up metal racks after bringing the components down from the attic, cleaning off plant pots and saucers, and carrying the plants into the house. I hate to do it; they don't like it. If I still had Mom's greenhouse...but then I'd be paying horrifyingly high electric bills.
Yesterday was the final Hillwood High School Band competition. Held at Westmoreland High School, several miles north of Gallatin, they did very well and placed high. The band will perform one more time at the last high school football game of the season. It's a home game, so once more this year, I can walk there and enjoy the scene.
Last night's Cloverbottom rehearsal was good, with a surprise visit from Rock's sister. I haven't seen her in several years.
I haven't been working on any music at all.
Hopefully I'll have something of interest to post here soon.
Monday, Oct 15
I had to take my car in for repairs early today, and got a ride from there to the external account on Music Row. There was a "media day" scheduled for Tracy Lawrence. Only one problem - Tracy himself never got the message that it was happening, and is out of the state. So the producer had to start calling everyone he'd lined up across the country, to let them know it was cancelled.
Rather than hang around there until a later booking at 4:00 PM, I wanted to go home. I couldn't get a ride, so I walked. It's around eight miles, and took me ninety minutes. Some shorts and a t-shirt would have been nice, although the strong breeze was helpful. It's amazing what you miss in a car. I need to resurrect the cycle commuting life.
And I would really like to sit down with the city planners, the guys who occasionally decide to allocate funds for a sidewalk, and ask them what the fuck they're thinking.
Saturday, Oct 6
Hello, to the two or three of you who faithfully check in here only to find that I haven't put up anything remotely entertaining in a long time. Here's some current trivia.
The Cloverbottom rehearsals are going well. We hit a point last weekend where things suddenly gelled, and we're starting to sound like a band. Still no telling if the rumored Return to Elliston Square show will happen, but Cloverbottom will be primed and ready, and will play somewhere. We have a nine-song set.
I love the interface I bought for the computer's audio output, through which I monitor iTunes and web content. Sometimes it's the little things, and this is a major improvement.
I'm working on a job that may be the best of this year. For a regional restaurant chain called O'Charley's, my client is Buntin advertising, for whom I've worked since I started in the business. It's a TV spot for a big steak promotion, all tribal drums and flames. The agency and I got on the same page from the beginning, and things are going well. We recorded the VO yesterday (via ISDN from L.A.), and when they came over to do it, I discovered that the campaign is not only the :30 TV, but a :10 TV and a :60 radio. So my next step is to compose the track for the :60, obviously without the elements specific to the video. I've used congas, djembes, the Motif, snare drum, various shakers, and a dozen different sounds from the Handsonic. I'll post a clip when the video edit is final and the audio is mixed. And I love working in the internet age - the video editor is in Australia.
Speaking of the internet, I have to upgrade my hosting for the studio site. I'm currently on a shared server, and sometimes people have trouble downloading files from my public ftp folder. After the upgrade, my clients won't have any hassles retrieving files, since my server won't share traffic with any other users. i will likely park this site's domain name under the Talbot Sound domain, and keep everything under one account.
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