Progress for 2009, Hopes for 2010

I’m quite pleased with 2009. I learned a ton about studio techniques, and I proved to myself that I can make the kinds of recordings I want to make.

I also proved that my meandering, multidisciplinary path through college coursework was right on target. The music theory, the electrical engineering signals, the computer programming, differential equations … every bit of it has application in my studio. Somehow, I knew what I was doing back then!

Not that I’m programming computers to solve differential equations while I strum the guitar—yet! But that is coming when I start writing audio plugins. I’ll explain later.

The biggest difficulty, believe it or not, has been pursuing this within my current work-at-home lifestyle. You would think having a studio in the basement would make it dead-easy to get tons of work done, but I have found just the opposite. I do not tolerate loose ends well (very distracting!), and since we moved here with a toddler and immediately had two more babies while I started a new job and we started driving children to school every day, there are a lot of loose ends still about! For a decade, we have gotten used to stepping over these things and working around them, but I have been underestimating their impact on my ability to start big, thoughtful projects. It is like living inside a giant to-do list whose items are trick birthday candles that never blow out. I still don’t even have a real desk in our office!

But that is already changing. My first studio goal for 2010 has begun, and it involves everything but the studio: finish moving in to this house, and finish establishing a solid family budget. In July, Linda and I began working hard on the budget, to make the monthly routine more efficient, more accurate, less prone to end-month emergencies. We have come a long way, and it has freed up a lot of my time and energy to handle the house.

Then, right on cue, Divine Providence intervened by flooding part of the basement! Not the studio part, mind you, but the corner clear opposite the studio. And not enough to ruin anything important, but just enough to make us remove every single unsorted item, down to the last LEGO piece, obsolete kitchen appliance, and 1980’s high school text. The stuff is now consolidated in a few terrible spots, where we are handling it piece by piece. Slow going during holiday season, but I am willing to burn all of January and February on this, to see the light at the end of that tunnel.

Next, the time and energy freed up will go into the studio’s acoustic makeover, meaning that its walls, ceiling, and possibly certain corners of the floor will be covered with acoustic materials for better recording and mixing. And then … with the studio in its final structural form, I will be able to get real furniture and storage, making it much less makeshift, more ergonomic, easier to configure my equipment, and easier to work for longer hours. So, you see? It’s all connected.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy the holidays!