Ah I forgot that was the initial plan here! Would've been cool indeed. Hopefully there's opportunity to do some kind of celebration for the occasion, a little solo session maybe? A little promo/sale/thing if naught else? And one day the real thing fo shizzle...

It'll be a little late, but I'm hoping the live folks will all be back in our hometown between Christmas and NYs for a meet-up. Maybe even a little jam if possible? We shall see I suppose :)

Oh that'd be cool! Better late than not if so, hope all goes as hopes go this time!

February 2023 blog and Patreon post: Computer breakdown, BTTB and Jabun project updates, Christmas fun and new gear, music/videos and podcasts to share, reflecting on 2022 and more goals + a sneak peek at Jabun's June22 EP album artwork for the $10 patrons & more!

Hi everyone and hope you've had a great start to 2023!

​It's been a while since the last proper update what with the computer breakdown and everything (see the Patreon post here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/77232796) but while my old laptop of 14+ years is sadly now completely out of commission, all data has been recovered and transferred to my desktop and all project files (with some tweaking as necessary) have been put into a fulling working state again which is a huge relief! In other personal update news, on top of the computer troubles I've been quite unwell recently too for various reasons and in and out of hospital but don't worry I'm on the mend or at least getting there to figuring out exactly what the problem is! There's lots of cool updates and things to share this month building up from the lack of update last month too so let's get to things!

First of all, some project updates! After a longer than expected break from things, I'm back to working on the upcoming Better Than The Book album, and now that the projects on my more powerful desktop, I've been taking the time (while less physically well enough for intensive recording) to work on adding some production extras to these 14 tracks I've been working on the past few years! 5 tracks are now just awaiting vocals, while the other 9 still have just a few little production extras left to go as well. It's slowly but certainly shaping up and I'm really pleased with how this album is sounding so far! Hopefully not too long until I can start sharing the tracks with you but it's still quite the road to go!

Meanwhile I've been busy with the last bits of prep work for the upcoming Jabun EP which if I haven't revealed before is going to be called "June22" and will consist of 2 live ambient performances from June 2022! As it currently stands (as I write this), all artwork for the release is finalised and complete (more on that in a moment), and a set of master track exports has been made but still needs final checking and finalising. Admin prep work is going well too and I'm hoping for a tentative March 2023 release date so hopefully it'll be in the next set of Patreon rewards! We shall see!

Onto other updates, at the end of last year I was busy fixing up any troublesome studio equipment ready for a New Year of working gear and after some troubleshooting and time with a soldering iron amongst other things, everything is in full working order again, including my now-no-sticky-buttons MPC1000, a Monotron Duo synth with a working resonant filter again, a very (mechanically) quiet homemade Leslie cab, and I even got to do a mod on my Jaguar I've been meaning to for a while! There's still a little more I'd like to play around with on that Jaguar, but it's dealing some delicious new tones and functionality now. Horray!

And moving onto more updates from the end of last year, I recieved some amazing music related gifts this year for Christmas! From Eva, a custom water bottle with the Jabun logo on it which looks super cool, and from my twin Eamon, a super cool synth from Roland, the Aira Compact J-6! One of my favourite synth of all time is the Roland Juno-6 (or Juno-60) and I use a plugin emulator of it in much of my work as both BTTB and Jabun. If the Juno-60 is a full set of all the oil paints you could want, then the J-6 is like the super compact 64 colouring pencil set with included sketchpad and stencils/stationary. It's a lovely more condensed synth engine with a super powerful chord library + sequencer + extra pattern/arpeggio generator, something I wasn't even aware existed in hardware! No doubt it'll be making it into some new music soon! On top of that Eamon made me ANOTHER amazing mash-up EP and holy moly it's a fantastic one. 6 tracks, around 16 minutes and it's coming to YouTube week by week now! Check it out on Eamon's channel as it comes out (should be 3 out so far): 

https://www.youtube.com/@TallismanRogue/videos  

And check out the opening track now: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWODZcriQ-A

Track #5 I think is some of Eamon's best work ever (especially if you've seen the Cyberpunk Edgerunners anime) so be sure to check that out in Feburary! Thanks so much for the amazing and thoughtful gifts Eamon and Eva!

In other news, Tales of Zale now has an animated music video for the credits music to the Flickering Lights short film I did the sound mixing for last year! Check it out below and a huge congrats to Sif, Marquette, and Matthew on the release:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jxnlcbRP-A

Meanwhile a brand new season of my friend David Klein's FanScape Podcast has just started and the first episode featured Better Than The Book's Meteor Shower playing on the radio in a Slenderman horror story! 2 episodes are out as I type this and things are getting super tense! Check out episode 1 below and support the podcast on Patreon if it's your jam:

https://www.patreon.com/FanScapePod

Episode 01: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE9RgjnwYcw

Looks like this forum post got a bit too long so check out the rest of the post where I reflect on the achievments of 2022 and set some goals for 2023 over here: https://jabun.newgrounds.com/news/post/1337256 Wish me luck!

That about wraps things up for this post unless you're a $10 patron in which case you have a sneek peek at the album art for Jabun's upcoming June22 EP to look forward to! I hope you have a grand February to come and I'm super looking forward to sharing with you the new Jabun EP soon as well as any fun updates in the next post! Until then, thanks as always for supporting my projects however you can, enjoy all the music and take care! All the best and wishing you a happy, healthy and amazing 2023 to come!

All Patreon supporters will receive all past rewards for your tier when you sign up so check out the archives to see everything you can catch up on and hope to see you there!

​

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/77771132​

$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/76914972​

Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842

Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

At least that old laptop lasted a commendably long time then! Got about the same runtime from my old stationary, 2009-2022 - it never broke down entirely but was getting so slooow to work with, just opening new browser tabs took ages - sometimes they wouldn't open at all, finally made the move to a new one and looking back I probably should've done so sooner! Really sped up some daily dues a lot.

Looking forward to hearing the new album when time comes for it, hoping you get better steadily, and those mash-up's do sounds incredibly! Not just typical two track ones either, so full of nuances... that's awesome.

A lot of good news overall! Nice to see the new year's starting with some big positive points too.

Cheers CD! Strangely, that old laptop NEVER got slow at all, just one day in December the file explorer stopped working entirely, and no matter what I did I just couldn't seem to fix it. After some last ditch attempts it stopped booting entirey... I could do a fresh OS install, but given it's age it just doesn't seem worth the hassel, and I have my desktop working well at least :) Thanks for the well wishing! No doubt I'll give you a proper personal update in our email thread XD All the best!

Laptops usually age faster than stationary computers too... must've been a real beast in the beginning then/been well-tended to as long as it lived. Mmm if you still have the HDD lying around you could probably try connecting it via another device sometime and check for errors, sounds like it might be that one component then, sector/file system error, maybe the laptop otherwise is still perfectly functional then, albeit indeed as you say a bit old at this point.

If I were you I'd save it anyway, could be fun to play around with in the future, with replaced HDD maybe, a lightweight Linux variant on it and it'd have newfound life. :)

But all good as long as you have an alternative; it seems it's probably even better! Till then yes; all the best!

Hehe, I definitely took good care of it XD I actually took the HDD out to get the files off of it and that seemed to be working fine, I think it was more of software glitch... tried various scans and checks but to no luck :C It'd be a heck of a hassel to re-install all my music stuff on there again, and with its age, the web browsers are no longer supported and lots of sites won't work... Eamon's laptop is still working apart from the screen so I may just give it for spare parts. I'll keep the HDD for safe keeping though :) Indeed with regards the sentiments. The desktop is definitely more modern and powerful. Couldn't ask for more atm :)

Hmm you wonder if Microsoft might be intentionally breaking their old OS as to make people upgrade, always wondered if they had something to do with it so exponentially slowing down, but magnetic drives do get slower with time too... strange the system itself would bug out like that though... well, whatever the reason good to hear the parts do live on at least!

Good to hear.

Hehe, if they were still working on intentionally breaking VISTA I'd be surprised (what my laptop was running, 32-bit no less) ! Most people thought that was broken from the getgo XD I do wonder with these forced obsolence conspiracy theories though...

Wooah 32-bit even, that's a rarity these days! Same on the stationary? Hope you don't have any essential 32-bit software that can't handle the move, I remember losing a few moving from Windows XP to 7, with 32 to 64 bit then.

I do know some devices are made to break, they've found printer chips for example with timers to limit use, but I doubt it's common with most things. Microsoft... they may prompt you to upgrade and limit software functionality under the guise of security but surely they wouldn't have code to intentionally slow things down with time, some older computers I've had worked fine long after their intended end of service, but you never know...

The desktop is 64-bit :) I did have some essential 32-bit plugins I use ALOT, but I managed to find a bridging software so that they run correctly (Phew!). Bit of trouble when I first made the move though... I've heard the same thing about certain printers. On software/firmware, sometimes the best thing to do is NOT upgrade... difficult to know whether it's going to be good or bad until you do it though, after which it's often too late.

Whoop, that's good, and good thing on the plugin bridge, didn't know such things were a thing.

Mmm, suppose you can't always downgrade... I'd heard it was the circuits/chips themselves, not so much software, may be misinformed, or they use both ways then...

Neither did I until I needed it (jbridge is what I used if anyone's wondering) XD Not sure with regards the other stuff. Interesting though!

jbridge hmm, good to know that too!

Announcing Jabun's brand new "June22" EP & full early access to the $10 Patreon Supporters! June22 releases on March 3rd 2023!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great February so far! The time has finally come and today I'm super happy to announce that following my ambient and experimental live 4th album as Jabun – Tides (released May 2022), on March 3rd 2023, I will be releasing another live Jabun EP – June22.

June22 is a 16+ minute collection of 2 electronic live performances inspired by the modular synthesizer works of Suzanne Ciani. Both tracks from June22 were performed live and recorded as a single take in June 2022 with only the lightest of further processing to bring the EP together in mastering. The system used in both performances consisted of a KORG Volca Modular Synthesizer running into a KORG Nu:Tekt NTS-1 Digital Synthesizer, and was captured on an Akai MPC 1000 Sampler before being mastered in Ableton Live 8.

June22 Tracklist:

01 Decay (Recorded on June 8th 2022)

02 Rebirth (Recorded on June 23rd 2022)

All tracks written, performed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun]

Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing [Jabun]

Album artwork, images and photography by Nick Standing [Jabun]

A full about, credits and special thanks section will be available on Bandcamp when the album goes live on March 3rd at midnight, but for now I'd like to extend an immediate special thanks to Vlad from World Beyond for acting as my 2nd set of ears and helping sharpen up the images in the album artwork! Cheers Vlad! I'd also like to extend my sincerest thanks as always to everyone on Patreon who helps keep my music going each month, with special mention to the current $10 patrons Nathan Puray and Michael White. Thank you all so much for your help and support in making my musical dreams a reality! You folks are amazing!

While there won't be a pre-order period for this EP, I will be announcing later and hosting a listening party "premier" for the EP on YouTube on the day of the release. In the mean time, FULL early access to the June22 EP has been granted to the $10 patrons including Mp3s, WAVs, full sized album art + cover photo + alternative cover + a photo from the recording sessions of track 01 "Decay", and the story behind how the EP came together! If that sounds good to you then become a $10 patron and experience June22 in full now (and remember that you'll recieve all past rewards for your tier as well when you do):

$10 Reward: https://www.patreon.com/posts/78068518

Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842

Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Until the next post and the release date (when I'll also have the usual monthly updates and Patreon rewards), I really hope you're hyped for these latest live jams from Jabun and thanks as always for supporting my music however you can and especially on Patreon! Take care, all the best and see you on March 3rd!

Decay and Rebirth hmm... sounds maybe really cathartic! Looking forward to hearing what this one's like.

Cheers CD! It's certainly something XD I'll let you judge for yourself :D Thanks for checking in!

Jabun's June22 EP releases this Friday on March 3rd! Join me for the listening party at 8pm GMT on YouTube!

Hi again everyone and hope you're having a great February so far! In case you haven't heard already I'll be releasing my latest EP as Jabun "June22" on Friday March 3rd at midnight (GMT)! While there won't be a pre-order period for this EP, I will be hosting a listening party "premier" for June22 on YouTube at 8pm on Friday! Check out the link below and come hang, ask questions, and let's enjoy June22 together! I look forward to seeing you there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j3V6wifdh8

June22 is a 16+ minute collection of 2 electronic live performances inspired by the modular synthesizer works of Suzanne Ciani. Both tracks from June22 were performed live and recorded as a single take in June 2022 with only the lightest of further processing to bring the EP together in mastering. The system used in both performances consisted of a KORG Volca Modular Synthesizer running into a KORG Nu:Tekt NTS-1 Digital Synthesizer, and was captured on an Akai MPC 1000 Sampler before being mastered in Ableton Live 8.

June22 Tracklist:

01 Decay (Recorded on June 8th 2022)

02 Rebirth (Recorded on June 23rd 2022)

All tracks written, performed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun]

Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing [Jabun]

Album artwork, images and photography by Nick Standing [Jabun]

A full credits and special thanks section will be available on Bandcamp when the album goes live on March 3rd at midnight, but for now I'd like to extend an immediate special thanks to Vlad from World Beyond for acting as my 2nd set of ears and helping sharpen up the images in the album artwork! Cheers Vlad! I'd also like to extend my sincerest thanks as always to everyone on Patreon who helps keep my music going each month, with special mention to the current $10 patrons Nathan Puray and Michael White. Thank you all so much for your help and support in making my musical dreams a reality! You folks are amazing!

In the mean time, FULL early access to the June22 EP has been granted to the $10 patrons including Mp3s, WAVs, full sized album art + cover photo + alternative cover + a photo from the recording sessions of track 01 "Decay", and the story behind how the EP came together! If that sounds good to you then become a $10 patron and experience June22 in full now (and remember that you'll receive all past rewards for your tier as well when you do):

$10 Reward: https://www.patreon.com/posts/78068518

Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842

Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Until March 3rd and the next post (when I'll also have the usual monthly updates and Patreon rewards), I really hope you're hyped for these latest live jams from Jabun and thanks as always for supporting my music however you can! Take care, all the best and see you on Friday!

March 2023 blog post: Jabun's new "June22" EP has been released! Join me for the listening party at 8pm GMT tonight on YouTube + Patreon rewards & monthly updates including BTTB recording progress, organ bass pedals, guitar repairs and wedding invites!

This post got LONG so head over to the main page for the full version:

https://jabun.newgrounds.com/news/post/1343496

Exciting times! Here's the summary:

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to March! The time has come and today I'm super happy to finally release Jabun's "June22" EP! Check it out now on Bandcamp and I hope you enjoy it:

​Purchase the June22 EP now on Bandcamp:

https://jabun.bandcamp.com/album/june22

June22 is a 16+ minute collection of 2 electronic live performances inspired by the modular synthesizer works of Suzanne Ciani. Both tracks from June22 were performed live and recorded as a single take in June 2022 with only the lightest of further processing to bring the EP together in mastering. The system used in both performances consisted of a KORG Volca Modular Synthesizer running into a KORG Nu:Tekt NTS-1 Digital Synthesizer, and was captured on an Akai MPC 1000 Sampler before being mastered in Ableton Live 8.

Decay recorded on June 8th 2022 

Rebirth recorded on June 23rd 2022

All tracks written, performed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun] 

Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing [Jabun] 

Album artwork, images and photography by Nick Standing [Jabun]

A full about, credits and special thanks section is available now on Bandcamp:

https://jabun.bandcamp.com/album/june22

To celebrate the release launch I'll be hosting a listening party "premier" for June22 on YouTube at 8pm (GMT) tonight! Check out the link below and come hang, ask questions, and let's enjoy June22 together! I look forward to seeing you there:

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j3V6wifdh8

​

Of course my supporters on Patreon are celebrating today with the full download package of the June22 EP which includes Mp3s (+ WAVs for the $10 patrons), full sized album art + cover photo + alternative cover, and a photo from the recording sessions of track 01 "Decay"! As usual the $10 patrons are getting a sneak peek at what I'm working on currently, and this month I'll be sharing another WIP studio demo from the upcoming Better Than The Book album with them! If any of that sounds good to you, then consider becoming a patron for as little as $1 today, and remember you'll be getting the full back-catalogue of rewards for your tier when you join, including the full BTTB, Jabun and Nick Standing discographies, bonus Patreon exclusives and much more! Find out more below:

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/78068528​

$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/78068526​

Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842

Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

June22 will be arriving on all the usual streaming services/stores, YouTube and more shortly, but in the mean time you can listen to the full EP on Bandcamp or here on Newgrounds! Enjoy:

​Onto updates and news for the month, it's been a SUPER busy and exciting one this time, although not without its frustrations along with the good times as well. I'll save the fine details for full blog post, but here's a summary of the more relavant points:

​

Firstly, after some initial recording equipment frustrations, I ended up finally recording some melodica, synth and some other stuff to add in some production extras for Better Than The Book's new album (see the $10 DEMOlition Pigeon rewards for further details)! After a rocky start, it's been a very productive month in that department and now there's just 2 tracks left to do before it's ONLY vocals left to record! I'll be hoping to tackle both of those in this coming month, mainly some cello recording + some other stuff. Hopefully it all goes smoothly! I've also had some exciting collaborative work on the cards too in the last week or so, so I'm hoping to share that with you next time. Busy busy!

Next on the news this month, some SUPER exciting updates on gear! After (no exaggeration) almost 2 and half years of searching pretty much daily for them online, including a few near misses, I FINALLY managed to get my hands on some bass pedals for my Yamaha Organ, which means apart from some extra potential effects pedals, the organ rig of my teenage dreams is finally complete! Check it out below:

​Considering the extortionate asking prices of some of the pedals I'd seen previously, I managed to get my own BP-1 bass pedals for a great deal, mainly since it was missing the "lid" to fold it up into its own suitcase for transportation. From experience, the main organ's lid just sits on the corner of the room behind my cello anyway, so it wasn't a dealbreaker for me. The Bass Pedals on the other hand now allow me to play basslines with my feet, also freeing up my hands to change settings and tweak effects while still playing, or even play guitar while playing organ with my feet if need be too! With the fully fixed up YC-25D combo organ + BP-1 bass pedals + my home-made rotary speaker, some effects pedals and the amp, and a box of spare parts I picked up earlier, touch wood this should be all my electronic organ related dreams sorted for life! It's been a long time in the works, and I can't wait to put the full thing into some tracks and jams soon (though you'll hear it without bass pedals a tonne in the new BTTB record)!

With the great times comes the not so great though, and shortly after setting up the full organ rig, my Jaguar guitar (pictured above on the left) has been put (half) out of commission... I'd been experimenting with some modifications for it and whether it be due to out of date contact cleaner or just already worn out parts, I've managed to mess up a few components to an unusable level so much so that they'll need replacing... a pain in the backside. I'll be hoping to fix that (and maybe finish the mods?) in the coming month, and hopefully it all goes smoothly. On the bright side, the Jaguar is basically 2 guitars in one electronically, and it's only one of those guitars (The "Rhythm Circuit") which is messed up, so I still have the "Lead" side to play with. Such is the way of luck I guess...

Finally this month, I thought it'd be cool to share with you an update from my personal life. If you're not aware already, I'll be getting married in August, and the invites that I made were sent out earlier this month! I'm super happy with the design I made (and Eva approved) for them, so I thought it'd be a shame not to share it around! Check it out below and hope you enjoy the oldschool and personal vibes!

​That about wraps things up for this time! With such a big release, I'll be taking a break from any audio / project rewards in April to update the archives and such, but I'll be sure to check in with monthly updates nonetheless. We shall return to our usual schedule come May! Until then, I hope you have a grand March ahead and enjoy the new June22 EP and I hope to see you tonight at the listening party on YouTube! Thanks as always for supporting my music and take care!

Wooo today's the grand launch date! This turned out real nice...

Decay... seems ominous but maybe not stagnant. It feels vibrant still. An encapsulated hope somewhere in the void, sounds tubular and large, very atmospheric... I love the build.

With Rebirth you definitely have more momentum and energy. Reminds me of the soundtracks you might hear play in documentaries of the universe; in those scenes were one cell organisms turn to two cell ones, and plants start growing, and the greenery expands and everything gets bright and beautiful and utopian... really cool build here too, and then towards the end, it slows down, like it's reached a peak; like it nears the point of decay once again...

Though hopefully with plenty of middle ground between those points.

This was solid. Production quality's crisp as always, and it really takes you for a journey; takes its time doing so too.

A lot of good stuff going on overall! Awesome news... on all but that guitar then. Hope it gets fixed too.

Woot woot indeed, and really happy you enjoyed it @Cyberdevil! For Rebirth especially that's the exact imagery I was going for when making it so super happy that came across well! As for Decay (in case you're wondering), I imagine walkng through a desolate potentially radioactive landscape alone and atmospheric. Many thanks for the praise and well wishing :)

Yup it's been a pretty good time recently (as you know from other conversations), apart from that guitar. Parts have arrived and are sitting on my desk now, so hopefully I'll be able to repair things (and maybe finally get to some other mods) tomorrow. Cheers again for the well wishes!

Ah I can definitely hear that! I suppose I correlate 'decay' to more so 'decomposing', it does sound pretty dystopian for sure; empty; something you might hear in a horror movie too, a alone-in-the-world type one... or a spacey one dealing with the opposite end of the cycle when it comes to universal expansion. When the stars have burnt out; the particles decayed; it's getting all the more dark; all the more still and somber (there's this artist called melodysheep who did a documentary on this recently, very atmospheric soundtrack, reminds me a little of that)... seems both themes go hand in hand anyhow! A build and eternal loop. A journey to calm and recoup. To slow and to rise with the ruse of the life that shoots through the skies like a roof!

Awesome. :) Hope it's an easy thing to replace!

Ah I can see/hear that too. I really like that end of the universe interpretation you thought of there especially. Thanks for sharing the vibes!

I think it's going to be a bit tricky/fiddley from a mechanical point of view but hopefully it should be simple electronically at least (as long as the parts work correctly). We shall see! No doubt I'll be writing about it in the next post XD Cheers!

Looking forward to that. XD Hope the parts all work and combine as they should then! Cheers!

Guys... seriously. When are you two just gonna start a podcast?

April 2023 Patreon post: The Reward Archive has been updated (4th October 2018 -> 16th March 2023) + monthly news including a new collaboration with Cyberdevil, ChordC & Hania "Ripples of Time (Reduce)" (Free download), starting BTTB Vocal recording and more!

Hi everyone and hope you've had a great March. It's the beginning of another month and so it's time for the usual Patreon update! With the release of Jabun's June22 EP last time, I'm taking a break from music rewards including DEMOlition Pigeon rewards this month, but there's lots of updates and news to share so let's get to that today and I'll be back to the usual schedule come May!

Firstly for the month, with a new album out it seemed like a great time to update the Reward Archives for quick access to all past music rewards and DEMOlition Pigeon articles! As of now, the Rewards Archive is complete from 4th October 2018 -> 16th March 2023! Check it out and read more below:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842

With almost 5 years on Patreon now, there's a whole lot in the back catalogue so I'll leave you to explore if you wish on the Reward Archive post itself. For a quick summary of the changes though, here's a list of the new additions since last time:

$1+ Music rewards:

• Cyberdevil and Jabun - A Lemon Leaf Breeze {Free download + Patreon Exclusive Instrumental}
• Jabun - June22 EP

$10 Demolition Pigeon Rewards

• An exclusive off-vocal studio demo from Better Than The Book's upcoming projects!
• An exclusive Jabun ambient live jam!
• Another exclusive Jabun ambient live jam!
• A WIP studio demo from Better Than The Book!
• Another WIP Better Than The Book demo!
• A sneak peek at Jabun's new June22 EP album artwork!
• An orchestral BTTB sneak peek!

Hope you enjoy exploring if you've missed any and thanks for being a patron!

Onto other news updates for the month, after quite a while of disrepair, I've finally fixed my Jaguar guitar which had some truly messed up controls (to the point of unusable). Not only is it all fixed and sounding better than ever now, but I also finally managed to do some mods I've been meaning to implement since last year! For those interested, these are treble bleed mods on the volume control on both the rhythm and lead circuits (tuned to bring out the best for both circuits). It basically means that things done get dull when you turn the volume down now, which really makes for an even more versatile instrument! Good times!

Next it's been a super busy month for work on Better Than The Book's upcoming album. After a VERY scary moment of panic where I'd accidentally deleted/lost the master session of the opening track (over 2 years in the works...) and thankfully recovered it in full from my back-ups, I was first busy with cello recording (now complete) and now it's onto vocal recording! I decided to start with gang vocals and as of now it's 7 tracks done, 3 to go (and 4 without any), but gang vocals are strenuous so I'm trying not to overdo it on my voice (which I may have done already....). Gotta take it easy as to keep vocally healthy. Going through the final lyric sheets though, there was one track which I wasn't quite happy with (but an easy fix) and one track I REALLY wasn't happy with, and after some long thinking I decided to completely scrap the lyrics and rewrite the vocals (lyrics and melody) from the ground up for that one. It took a little while, but the new lyrics are now complete (which I'm MUCH happier with), and I've already recorded the gang vocals for it too! Unfortunately the change in melody meant that all the horns (and some of the drums) I'd painstakingly programmed for it no longer worked at all, and while I have managed to redo the drums, there's still a long way to go before the horns are finalised again. That said, it's just that 1 track of horns and then all the vocals left to go so it's really coming on well! Not sure how long all these vocals will take but I'm sure the time will fly by and recording will be complete in the next few months!

Finally this month, it's been a little longer than expected in the making but today I'm super excited to reveal my latest collaboration with the one and only @Cyberdevil and few new exciting people! I'm sure you already know by now that Cyberdevil and I go waaaay back to 2013 (dang... has it been almost 10 years already?!) with on the whole regular collaborations and frequent chats. Earlier this year, CD invited me to provide some "quick" help with the production on some music he was working on for an animated series on Newgrounds, "Reduce" by @Mejson. CD's vocals were already tracked and @ChordC provided an excellent orchestral/nu-metal-esq instrumental so it was my job to polish up the mix/master from stems, add a little of my own production flair, and "if I had time" maybe provide some vocals for the chorus. At the same time, CD had also contacted the one and only @Hania (of Newgrounds vocal fame) to provide vocals in the chorus too, and while I wasn't originally intending to sing on the track due to work and busy times, when Hania said she was on board, I just couldn't miss the opportunity to sing alongside her! I remember first hearing Hania back when I was 17 and playing and singing her stuff while playing piano. Never would I have thought I'd be singing alongside her 15 years later! Thanks for setting that up CD! Anyways, fanboying aside, a quick mixing request turned into a fully fledged production project and I hope you enjoy our latest collaboration "Ripples of Time (Reduce)"! Check it out on Newgrounds, get a free download, and here are the credits below:

• ChordC - Original Instrumental and Idea.
• Cyberdevil - Lyrics, Main Vocals and Coordination.
• Nick Standing (Jabun) - Backing Vocals, Additional Mixing/Production, Mastering and More!
• Hania - Choruses and Backing Vocals.

Listen/download on Newgrounds:

That about wraps things up for this month! We'll be back to the usual monthly news and DEMOlition Pigeon rewards in May though the rewards may be a little later than usual as I'm away for some Birthday (hopefully) fun times. Until then, I hope you have an excellent April to come and thanks as always for supporting my music! Take care and I'll see you in the next one!

Thank you again! What an impressive article! And a great story! It's nice to hear that everyone has such wonderful memories! They are priceless and often depict human childhood... it's so priceless! Such projects are like milestones and souvenirs that we will not forget! Bravo! I'm glad! Thank you for such great help!

Thanks for the promo; thorough production work once again! :) Was quite the project; awesome to collaborate with y'all!

All good things going on too - looking forward to the big upcoming BTTB release!

Thanks so much for reading Mejson! Totally agree with you with these projects being milestones to hold as souvenirs :) Really happy you and the rest of the team liked the track, it was a blast!