April 28, 2016 - 12:59am I'm watching Airplane Vs Volcano... it's awful. I'm pretty sure I missed something major... but this movie makes no sense. First off... you can't fight a volcano... it has no arms... second... why would a volcano need fighting? Especially a fight with planes... planes are expensive! Today was very productive. I laid down a quick drum track as soon as we arrived (11am) and then went to edit while Kyle dug in on guitars. ... drum wise I'm super out of shape. Since tour, I went straight into The Sole Pursuit album and we set up an acoustic guitar station where my kit would normally be. I think I got home February 26 (?) and I don't think I've played drums more than 5 minutes since then. I'm not proud of that but it happens. Even when I was at my old studio, sometimes I'd have other drummers kits in for a week or two and I wouldn't get a chance to play. I don't like playing other peoples set ups... it's really uncomfortable. Even this aft... I tried playing it like "normal" but things are just not where they should be... looks cool though! ... it's fine though... sounds like drums... and it was fun. Kevin got through a ton of vocals today. That's always a huge piece of the puzzle so I'm glad we're in good shape there. I know I'm zipping through the day here... I'll be honest... I'm tired... but it went by fast. The evening ended with Kyle and I doing a few more guitar tracks. On a slightly funny / studio humour tip... Alex left the room and I was running PrO tOoLs while he was gone... 2 minutes later I get a message his iLok authorization is missing.. ... ok. For those of you don't know understand this... iLok keys (physical USB key) hold your licenses for the program. Without it, no authorization. No authorization, no running PrO tOoLs. This is a big deal if you're working in PrO tOoLs 7 days a week... and it could take a week or two to get your licenses back. Turns out, my plugging my trackball in probably caused a hiccup on the USB buss... but still... Kyle made a joke about it before it was confirmed "ok" but it was potentially NOT GOOD before we knew for sure. The day ended with Kyle and I playing a game of NBA jam, head-to-head. ... Phoenix Vs Orlando. I sent it into OT with a 3-point buzzer beater. ... short story shorter, we screwed up the buttons to confirm OT (arcade version) and it ended the game... 51-51... so we'll never know that I won. *cough* I had momentum. :-| Steak 'n Shake is crossed off my list of places to try. It was good... the chocolate shake I got was the business though... I was half done it before we got our food. Ok... I should get to bed... maybe the pics from today will reminded me of other stuff that happened but for the most part... I'm really noticing how I still haven't really seen anything, "tourist" wise. It's sorta like being on tour... a bit of driving, but it's really just back and forth from the gig. ... not complaining... just hard for some people to understand I can be gone for 2 weeks and not have really seen anything. Empire Sound Studio is pretty awesome though... I'd sleep there if I could... they have video games. ... lots of'em. Mike Hough arrives tomorrow. He filmed / produced the "making of" DVD for the Starry Eyes album I did with Parabelle. I look forward to hangin' with him a few days... I'll be honest, he's missed a lot of gold the last 2 weeks... but I'm sure there'll be enough the next few days to justify the trip. Ok... I really need sleep! ... 2 days left. - Mike :-) P.S. Too tired to edit/re-read this tonight. Hopefully fine in the morning. lol.
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April 25, 2016 - 12:17am ... I don't remember how Cowboys Vs Dinosaurs ended... I passed out pretty quick after posting yesterday. I just finished watching Earthquake 10.0 and have moved onto Spiders. I love "bad movies"... although they aren't horrible... but there's some self aware bad writing in them... or maybe the writers realize they've kinda screwed themselves with the story or plot so they need to just brush over a few things... and just have the audience go along with them for a minute. ... for example in the last movie, they need to "remove" 2 of the side characters from the story... so the writers decided to have them "do it" in a cave... and then one the aftershocks of the earthquake caused the ceiling to collapse on them. ... like... seriously. ... or lesson learned. ... or maybe both. ... Spiders is about giant spiders living under New York City... I love the amount of stock footage they use in big city movies like this too... the city is always bumpin' until they go back to the scenes they shot for the movie... then the crowds, bystanders, traffic, etc... all disappear. People = Money Anyway... I don't know what these spiders are planning... but I'll probably be asleep before I find out. So I woke up around 9am and was back working on demos soon after. In short... we got a lot done today... as much as we could actually. Kyle, Kevin, and I finished up around 8pm and then went out for dinner to also have a quick prepro meeting... where we discussed nothing really about the album. ... I was kinda good to not think about the album for a bit... it's been non-stop... but then again, that's why I'm here. I'm really liking the tunes we wrote/worked on this weekend... you know you're in good shape when a chorus is stuck in your head. I had a chat with them about cool vs good songs. Everyone wants their songs to be cool... but good songs have a longer shelf life... and good falls on melody and lyrics... cool rests simply on "something cool happening", but not lyric or melody related. There's a balance... Make it good, then make it cool. ... if that makes sense. Side note... I was going over some PrO tOoLs files tonight... from a large, pro studio, with a decent reputation... or at least a decent reputation for a long time. ... it's a friggin' mess. I'm just going to assume it was jr engineers or worse... interns/new staff who did it... but it's a by-product of shrinking budgets and studios pulling back on staff. You have all sorts of people thinking they can work in studios, or record in general, but they have no idea about even the basics... and when you ask them if they need a hand (or call them out on their lack of knowledge) they say they're fine... and then you're going back and forth 5 times trying to get basic things accomplished... and if you complain, then they see you as fussy or a pain in the butt. Dude... there's 146 audio files missing! ... that's not a complaint! That's a $#&%ing problem!! There isn't a ton you can do either if you're waiting on them to send files properly. #DearBands - If you're working in a large studio (or any studio for that matter), at the end of your time there, bring your own hard drive, save a copy of the session to it, and make sure your copy opens. This way if it doesn't, someone screwed up and you're still there to make sure it works. It's not rocket science. Anyway... I have no idea what's going on in this Spiders movie...I think it's bed time for me. Last week was busy but next week is going to be a test for everybody. If you're reading this, please send good vibes there are no studio gremlins that pop up and make life miserable. We need momentum tomorrow to carry us through the end of the week. I'm here til Saturday... this needs to be done by then. That's why I'm here. - Mike :-) P.S. Lunch was amazing today... went to a place called Penera Bread. It was healthy and tasty. I had a ham and swiss sandwich w/ chicken asian apple salad. The salad was exactly what I needed to combat all the fried foods last week. You might not make friends with salad, but sometimes you just wanna be alone... with salad. P.P.S. This is one huge spider. :-/ |
Mike Langford - Official BlogBeing on both sides of the glass, I get the chance to wear many hats in the music industry. This is a place to share my thoughts, views, predictions, rants, stories and news! Categories
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