Good stuff happening on the musical front, folks. I’ve already mentioned that Dan and I and Ian recorded some demos up in Lansing at the end of December. Well, I’ve taken those demos, and layered on some more parts, and chopped up and restructured a couple of the songs to make them more song-like, and added some awesome new guitar lines and bridges and solos and such. It’s all sounding great and I’m still totally excited about the project. After a couple more practices, and maybe some drum practice recording/arrangement in Dan’s basement (I recently purchased a souped-up new laptop for portable music recording, along with a new USB 2.0 audio interface* that is sounding AWESOME so far; I love that my entire recording setup is portable, and doesn’t even require a power outlet if my laptop battery is charged up), we might be ready to head back up to Lansing for round 2 of the actual recording process.

I keep meaning to write an entry about the way I came about the final structures for the 2 songs I felt were too long or repetitive (basically, I had three good parts for each of them, and just strung them together in sequence; doesn’t make for such a great song that way), and I will do so soon. Basically I made myself some nice visual aids that really helped.

Anyway, that’s about it. I’m glad it’s Friday. Another hour of work and then relaxation. And probably some more music fun in the basement studio this weekend.

* People have said I should’ve gone for a FireWire audio interface due to its faster speeds, etc… BUT! If you’re a PC laptop user, you’re stuck with a 4-pin FireWire port (which doesn’t provide power), as opposed to a 6-pin FireWire (which DOES provide power), which means you’re always going to need an available electrical outlet. Mac users win on this one, since Apple’s laptops provide 6-pin connections. Therefore, it’s USB 2.0 for me.