My Music Life

06/01/11 “A Classical Beginning”

My music career started in the sixties and seventies and continued through the eighties and nineties…up to  the present. Actually, it really started in the fifties with my first classical piano lessons…I will forever be grateful to my parents for instilling the discipline in me to make the commitment and take lessons at an early age, because this action set up what was to come.

Back in those early formative years, when the fascination of playing in bands first started in my head, there were no computers, sequencers, digital audio workstations, drum machines or synthesizers (at least not at first), to accompany your playing. So, real humans were needed, and, of course, they all had to learn how to play proficiently…practice, practice, practice…and more practice…those endless hours spent in your rehearsal studio (bedroom)…to be good enough to play in a band, and book work at local pubs, high schools, and dance halls.

06/15/11 “All of my Vintage Keyboards now have plugin emulations”

I love all the vintage instruments I’ve accumulated over the years…my modified Hammond B-3, modified Leslie 122, Minimoog Model D, Sequential Circuits Prophet 600, and Yamaha DX7. Considered by many to be keyboard’s greatest hits from the late thirties (in the case of the Hammond) up until around 1986, all of the aforementioned now have plugin emulations, some better than others, and are for the most part very genuine sounding and very useful, especially when tracking in the studio and time is of the essence. But playing live, in concert, is an entirely different matter. These beasts of the past still sound better and have a bigger impact visually, I believe, in a live setting.

Other analog and hybrid gear still in my arsenal include the TOA D4 and D4E mixers, a versatile, “Swiss Army Knife” ten channel rack mounted mixing system that delivers great sound and flexibility, TOA 280ME Studio Monitors, an Alessis RA-100 Reference Amp, Roland U220 PCM sound module, dbx 160XT, ART Proverb 200, Digital Music MX8 MIDI patchbay, BBE 462 Sonic Maximizer, SM 57 & 58 microphones, and Symmetrix normaled patchbays. But I’m certainly not adverse to updating my studio gear and my live rig as well.

I have a PreSonus 2-channel Audiobox USB digital audio interface with MIDI for my computer, MXL 4000 large diaphragm and MXL 603s small diaphragm condenser microphones, NADY PCM 900 LDC, Audio Technica  ATH-M40fs headphones (an amazingly flat frequency response) and Behringer four channel headphone distribution, for starters.

So it’s the blending of the old and the new, analog coexisting with digital, using what was and what is, and embracing what will be. And although new technology will always inspire new attitudes and new levels of creative thinking, these vintage keyboards continue to remind me just how far we’ve come.

06/26/11

Presently, I’m involved in tracking and mixing sessions with the band “Buxx”, working in four separate, independent studios in Los Angeles, to remix, embellish, and ameliorate the present ten song offering, which will be promoted and distributed through Retrospect Records in Las Vegas. We’re on schedule for a late fall release.

07/01/11

“Buxx” is taking a short break this 4th of July weekend, and will resume tracking and mixing again on July 5th and 6th. The remixed album is on course to be ready for release by Labor Day, hopefully sooner. It was truly a difficult task selecting the additional tracks on this disc, given the fact that our entire catalog of songs have all been very well received. However, that said, we decided on a select combination that truly reflect the band’s best efforts and compliment the existing tracks quite well.

I’ll have more information in the few next weeks. I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend.

07/09/11

We had a great session last night at our engineer’s place and finished all the tracking for the upcoming album. All that’s left to do is mix and master. Hopefully, the mixing will be done before month’s end, with the mastering chores to follow very soon after. After so many lulls over the past two years, it’s great to see everything coming together so quickly now, and our engineer is working at breakneck speed to complete the project.

Looking back at the point when we first received interest from our distribution company in Las Vegas, initially, it seemed like the preparation process started out so slowly, what with reviewing and selecting  material, and embellishing all these songs to see how they’d fit with the existing tracks, to many dynamics issues as well, since all were recorded at different times and in various recording studios throughout western New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles.

Make no mistake-it took quite some time just to select the right combination of songs, which we believe best represent the style we established and were known for by our fans.

We’re shooting for a late fall release, hopefully sooner.

07/21/11

We listened to the latest mix of our album last week, and it’s definitely made some progress…giant strides on some songs. Still a lot to be done, but a large portion of the mix improved dramatically. More mixing to come this week, of course, as we have the good fortune to have four different studios at our disposal. Also, we’re putting together a tentative video idea for one of the songs, which will be totally conceptual, in all likelihood. The preliminary content is in place, and we’re tweaking it on the fly…relying on the ebb and flow of our creative juices. These video updates should be in place very shortly, perhaps in the next few weeks. This has certainly been a great deal of work, but it’s been so much fun! In the process of getting a better sonic picture, half the fun is getting in there and getting your hands dirty. Seeing all of our efforts start coming to fruition is quite satisfying. We’re very pleased up to this point.

07/25/11

An absolutely great night of mixing and we’re one step closer to finishing the album. More video ideas were introduced yesterday evening as well, and they’re moving us ever closer to the finish. It looks like we’ll be meeting our deadline in fine shape, and that’s no small feat. More to come during the week.

08/05/11

We got the final mixes back, but there’s still some tweaking left to do before the mastering process begins. The video is in its final stages as well, and that should be ready as soon as the mastered mixes are finished and we can drop the finished song into the video. This has been a labor of love for us all, but it certainly has been fun, and, as always, we learn something new with every session. That’s the beauty of the tracking and mixing process-something new and unexpected always comes into the fold.

I’ll let everyone know more in the coming weeks, since this project could be ready for release by month’s end.

08/09/11

Still tweaking, tweaking…these final mixes take FOREVER…yeah, baby. Well, the final mix is never done, so it’s been said. You can listen to a song today, and listen to it a month from now, and find something “you should have done differently.” It’s common, but it’s frustrating to hear something you didn’t hear before, and have the situation be out of your control at that point. So, that’s why you’ve got to listen to a song a zillion times before it’s released to make absolutely sure it’s “right”, and yet, it may not be right still.

Ha ha! The trials and tribulations of mixing songs…we’re almost done…you’re gonna love it!

The video we’ve been working to complete is also very close to finishing as of this writing. I’m sure you’ll find it interesting, entertaining, and thought provoking. More on that soon.

08/18/11

The final mixes are finished now, and the mastering process is the next step. As well, our video should be finished by Labor Day at the latest. A lot of work had to be pushed further back due to vacation schedules and other commitments. Keeping everybody on the same page and everything in sync is the big test now. Our record company is eagerly anticipating the arrival of our new offering, and the promotional campaign that will ensue. The CD’s will be made available through our label’s website. I’ll have more information as it’s made available.

08/23/11

As of today, the album is officially mixed, the song order has been chosen, and now we await the mastering process. The video will be finished soon as well, and we will return to the project shortly, after a brief hiatus to tend to other matters. We’ll resume after the end of August, and we’ll use the the majority of the month of September to launch our promotional campaign and all the planning that goes with it. It should be a lot fun…and a lot of work.

09/14/11

The album mastering is now completed. The album artwork is receiving the finishing touches, and it’ll be just a short while longer until our record company will have the final product in their hands. Definitely before the month is over. We’ll take a short break after that, and then resume promotional efforts. Can’t wait!

09/28/11

The artwork is finished now, so the music masters and artwork are all in the record company’s hands. Plans for new videos have also initialized, so I’ll have to keep everyone posted on that as well.

10/20/11

The Buxx Facebook page is up now at http://www.facebook.com/KnickersDown?v=wall. The new e=mail address is buxxband@yahoo.com. There is new video material on the Facebook page along with new uploaded photos. More will be added as we acquire and/or finish them. If anyone has appropriate photos they’d like to post, please feel free.

11/07/11

The Buxx Channel is now available on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/buxxband. All of our videos are available for your viewing pleasure with more to come very soon. Feel free to leave a comment on the site if you wish. Enjoy!

11/27/11

We’re still waiting for our record company’s release date notice, and that should be any day now.

12/12/11

Retrospect Records has announced on their website that the release of the “Buxx” album “Knickers Down” is expected shortly, re-mixed and re-mastered on CD with new tracks added as well. It won’t be long now…

01/20/12

Heading to the NAMM Show in Anaheim tomorrow, which I really look forward to again, and we got word from our record company that the CD is nearing the release date, so we’re setting up shop on CD Baby and iTunes, to get that phase of the project rolling. Seems like it’s been such a long time ago, that we were actually tracking and editing. Well, all good things take time, I suppose. We’ll address our Facebook friends and fans when the release is official.

01/23/12

Well, it’s finally official. Although the CD’s not on the Retrospect Records website yet, it IS available on CD baby and iTunes as of today, downloadable either as singles or as an entire album.

01/25/12

As of today, the Buxx CD is available as a digital download from the Retrospect Records site, although it’s not yet available as a hard copy. I’ll keep you posted on that…. By the way, I’ve recently updated my computer to an Intel Core i5 running Windows 7 SP1, so I can do a lot more now than three months ago.

03/04/12

Just learned that legendary guitarist Ronnie Montrose died today. He was a major inspiration, early in my career, and listening to his music drove me to create mine. I’ll always respect and be grateful for the music that he gave the world. R.I.P. Ronnie, you will be missed.