Journal Archives Links Bio Forum Press
Miggs Musings
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
"can you hear me now?" ok, two posts in just a few days. i'm on a roll or something like that. we've been talking about re-releasing the Late Nights & Early Mornings EP with a small twist but one i'm kinda in favor of. we would release the original masters. i know, "what do you mean by that don?" well what i mean is that when chris manning and i originally discussed this album, the idea was to do an intimate recording. maybe even just guitar or piano and vocal. somehow that got away from us. actually, it was the fault of the song "nothing". as we were doing we thought it was a shame not to fill that one out a bit. it seemed bigger than that. we stuck with no drumsticks or electric guitars, though. so we did and then the rest of the songs sat funny when listening back so we dressed them all up except the title track. i wanted that to be me and a guitar and that's it. where was i with the reasoning again becasue that paragraph above isn't the reason......oh yeah. so we sent the album in to a great mastering company and what they do is they give the songs that added punch and depth. and they are the reason some of your albums are louder than others. and if you notice, the new albums you're buying are WAY louder than anything else in your iPod, right? there is a huge debate going on right now in the industry that louder isn't better. in fact it's compromising the quality of the recordings becasue the louder you make it the more you "crush" the mix, losing the dynamics- making the instrumentation indescernible. i hate it. i know that old recordings are lower but the SOUND of them is better. we're fooled becasue these recording seem "crisp". man, this is a long explanation. chris and i were really happy with the initial mastering but when we put it on the iPod, the songs soulded flat. especially against other acoustic albums, so we kept pumping up the volume and mastering, which makes the song sound smaller in a weird way. it compresses and crunches it. i'm sure chris could explain this so much better than me, sorry. in the end, i went against my heart and released the EP as highly compressed as we could. i love it but i feel like i've littered in some way, if that makes sense. or i've contributed to the dumbing down of music listeners and then my manager started reading about the backlash and she agreed with me and this idea came up to release the "producers cut" for us. and if some of you want it, even better. but be warned, it will not be a NEW album of material so don't waste your coin if you don't want to be frustrated when you put random on the iPod or CD shuffle. got it? good. i'm going to make a commitment to myself that the next full album we release will NOT succumb to the trend of the day. we will master this album to sound full and rich but not just LOUD. see, the other kicker is that radio stations compress the songs for radio so they get an extra "mastering" and are even louder. this is why if you ever hear your fave song on the radio and then listen immediately to the CD, there is a difference. man, that wasn't easy. be the ball, danny........... Labels: DVD, insomnia, late nights and early mornings, mastering, miggs, miggsband.com, mixes
Sunday, April 22, 2007
"just for the record, the weather today is..." pretty damn cloudy actually. it's sunday and i've been thinking it was saturday. oh well, a day slipped by me somehow. let's see....i just watched the DVD from the cafe du nord show and it was a fun show. there are some camera and sound glitches and i completely trainwreck "to be alone" but i think we'll spruce it up a bit and release it as a live DVD. any takers? what should we name it? tell me. there have been a bunch of emails about the new pictures at myspace.com. it's funny because to me it's just the same old same old but i like hearing from you so thanks. last night we took some others as a band and those will begin appearing places soon. the new website launches on or about May 10th so look for that and commment, of course. the touring has been going well. where have we been lately again? hold on, i'll go look at the schedule. ok, arizona was fun. really fun. people are all so cool there. i think i already told the border patrol pull over story so i won't waste your time again here. we were at a venue in newport beach the other night and some kid was doing backflips in front of the stage. full on. it was funny as hell and i wanted to put the guitar down and break off a little flip my own self. course, i'd probably slip and land square on my back but i still had INTENT. we played the skate rink in san jose last night. it's weird doing that but it's cool cause then younger kids can see us and we like playing for them, too. my mic was all static-y for the first 2 songs and then just went out so i was running over to michaels mic to sing and then back to mine to see if it was on. finally got all sorted out and we didn't get rattled, so i consider it a success. has anyone been watching this season of south park!?!?!?!? my GOD is that funny stuff. i bought the first 9 seasons and have been going through it but michael gets the latest on his iPod so last night Aron and I snuggled in the van and watched while mike drove. it was nice. and the show was good too... i also watched rocky balboa and still love that series. go rocky. there are too many books to get into here and i feel like it's all i've been talking anbout lately but i will say that this week i go visit corona del mar school and we're going to talk about the fountainhead and atlas shrugged. they've been reading them after we spoke recently so i want to go listen in and get into the debates....freaking cool. i've had blue october on my iPod for a while now and barely checked it out but yesterday gave it a good listen. it's really goood. i wish he'd not always double his voice and i'd love to hear the rock ROCK more (people can say this about us, too!) but it's strong stuff. "hate me" is a powerful song. and that led me to put the killers sam's town back on and that is a strong ass album. it's not as immediate as their first, hot fuss, but it is just better all around. some points in the lyrics really grab me, the melodies are damn goood and the drumming and guitar playing are so inspired. ok, sopranos tonight. no shows until friday and some catch up time......... d Labels: atlas shrugged, ayn rand, DVD, late nights and early mornings, miggs, miggsband.com, south park, the fountainhead, tour, weather
Journal
Tomorrow, There is always Tomorrow? -
Today we learned that a friend, the guy who was working on our new website was killed in a motorcycle crash. what i read was that he was driving late at night, pretty fast, and lost control of the bike heading into a truck. no helmet, not that it sounds like that would have helped.
life is THAT fucking fragile. tomorrow you are dead. stop complaining about what you don't have or where you are if it isn't where you want to be. stop petty arguments with people. practice peace. practice forgiveness. respect that you will NOT GET ANOTHER CHANCE TO LIVE THIS LIFE and live it. for you, for your parents who gave birth to you, for duke grey, who doesn't get a choice anymore for a second chance.
"just for the record, the weather today is..." -
pretty damn cloudy actually. it's sunday and i've been thinking it was saturday. oh well, a day slipped by me somehow.
let's see....i just watched the DVD from the cafe du nord show and it was a fun show. there are some camera and sound glitches and i completely trainwreck "to be alone" but i think we'll spruce it up a bit and release it as a live DVD. any takers? what should we name it? tell me.
there have been a bunch of emails about the new pictures at myspace.com. it's funny because to me it's just the same old same old but i like hearing from you so thanks. last night we took some others as a band and those will begin appearing places soon.
the new website launches on or about May 10th so look for that and commment, of course.
the touring has been going well. where have we been lately again? hold on, i'll go look at the schedule.
ok, arizona was fun. really fun. people are all so cool there. i think i already told the border patrol pull over story so i won't waste your time again here. we were at a venue in newport beach the other night and some kid was doing backflips in front of the stage. full on. it was funny as hell and i wanted to put the guitar down and break off a little flip my own self. course, i'd probably slip and land square on my back but i still had INTENT.
we played the skate rink in san jose last night. it's weird doing that but it's cool cause then younger kids can see us and we like playing for them, too. my mic was all static-y for the first 2 songs and then just went out so i was running over to michaels mic to sing and then back to mine to see if it was on. finally got all sorted out and we didn't get rattled, so i consider it a success.
has anyone been watching this season of south park!?!?!?!? my GOD is that funny stuff. i bought the first 9 seasons and have been going through it but michael gets the latest on his iPod so last night Aron and I snuggled in the van and watched while mike drove. it was nice. and the show was good too...
i also watched rocky balboa and still love that series. go rocky.
there are too many books to get into here and i feel like it's all i've been talking anbout lately but i will say that this week i go visit corona del mar school and we're going to talk about the fountainhead and atlas shrugged. they've been reading them after we spoke recently so i want to go listen in and get into the debates....freaking cool.
i've had blue october on my iPod for a while now and barely checked it out but yesterday gave it a good listen. it's really goood. i wish he'd not always double his voice and i'd love to hear the rock ROCK more (people can say this about us, too!) but it's strong stuff. "hate me" is a powerful song.
and that led me to put the killers sam's town back on and that is a strong ass album. it's not as immediate as their first, hot fuss, but it is just better all around. some points in the lyrics really grab me, the melodies are damn goood and the drumming and guitar playing are so inspired. ok, sopranos tonight. no shows until friday and some catch up time......... |
