Twilight Meditations Sessions - CD Complete

The Night is Over, The Day Begins

Its fitting that the final track, which I guess technically falls outside the meditation part of the CD, is called The Day Begins.

I've never liked mornings.  If you really know what I'm like, then you'll know how much of a night owl I am.  I work better, play better, read more, etc. while the moon is in the sky.  There is a feeling that I can't describe knowing that I'm one of the few up in my part of the world.  Elsewhere, on other continents, people carry out their days, much like we do, while we sleep.  When twilight comes for us, they begin their day.

When the alarm clock beeps to wake me up, at 8am, I used to despise it.  I hated alarm clocks.  I am a grouchy morning person most days.  But then someone dear to me explained something that I will never forget.

The day comes, and with it comes the thankfulness that i've made it through another night, and can awaken, my life continuing for another day.  Its exciting, empowering and extremely profound.

So even if I still flip off the alarm clock and growl at it, I remember the important fact that hadn't occurred to me until it was explained to me in my mid thirties.

We've awoken, we're alive, and its a brand new day.  What will happen to us today is unlike anything we've ever been though before.  Isn't that worth a smile for the morning?

see you soon

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Final Mix Day Two

Well, the mixes are literally being torn through.  Besides some aesthetic  instrumentation changes, volume redraws and some minor reverb tweaking, I think the disc is really gonna work.

At least I hope so  O_O

There is a major thunderstorm going on outside, and I usually unplug the whole studio and run for the living room, but I'm on a roll, and it feels like I can't stop now.  All thats left to mix is twilight dawning and then its a move to the recapitulation tracks.  I think two will do it.  I'm going to estimate the disc will time out to right around an hour or so.

Thanks so much for staying with me you few, it really means a lot when I get comments on this stuff, otherwise i'd feel so alone.

See you late tonite,

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Final Mixes Started

Wooo!  Mixing track one "Twilight Falls".  It was a lot less work than I thought it was going to be.  Just 3 clicks that needed removing, some eq, compression on the strings (damn Cello players) and some note replacement.

I once told a friend that mixing this stuff was pretty straightforward because all of the instrumentation was recorded really well.  Thats just the volume though.  Reverb time (trails) are really important in this type of music.  Generally, I find the busiest section of music and make sure that the trail of the previous note doesn't interfere with the next note on.  It prevents soup...which is sometimes desirable.  But right now I'm in the mood for a steak and eggs.  We'll get into that sometime, if we talk in person.  Steak and eggs music instead of soup.  Dear Lord where has he gone now?

I'll mix three today, three tomorrow and finish 3 tonite and tomorrow.  infinitequest.com goes live friday, which means that my 16th release date needs to be adheared to (eep!)

We shall see.

:)

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 4

At night, when its a clear night, I like to look up at the sky, and try to see the dimmest stars I can manage.  These stars are, generally, farther away than the brighter ones.  The light reaching me from them is old, sometimes ancient.

Its a profound experience looking into the past this way, and many emotions occur.  One that is most significant is sadness.  I am sad because I am seeing something that will never be seen at that moment, in that way again.  I am sad that I will never be able to reach those stars in my lifetime, and wish I could look upon them from distances not impeded by my earthbound self.

To me, sadness is not a bad emotion to have, at least in this sense.  This is because it is not only sadness I am feeling, but happiness, joy and humble emotions I can't put into words.  These things all remind me of my life, and those around me, and the simple beauty that can be observed up there and here and on earth.

If you can see this, you are alive, and the stars are looking down at you. Why not have a glance up at them?

Track four : Star Light

Runtime : 8:17

See ya tomorrow :)

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 3

Morning Gang :)

Night Three!  After taking two very much needed weekend evenings off, its back to work here on the album.  This evening, I found myself looking up at the metaphorical stars.  I remember as a kid looking into the night sky and see shooting stars going as far as horizon to horizon.  I remember they were some of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

I felt it fitting to name this slow piece Star Trails because it evokes a small measure of the feeling those shooting stars gave to me.

I started with some heavily edited reverse piano and bell sounds, and progressed to more traditional elements for the middle of the piece.  I've noticed that I've been following a pattern without realizing it.  I favored the artificial and synthy elements in the beginning of the piece, and then moved to the traditional elements.  This piece was no exception.  Though a really pretty voice patch picks up the second theme at the end, simplifies it, and then piano takes us out.

The most enjoyable part of this is right around a minute.  I layered this little piano pattern with a staccato piccolo, playing the same notes in the same octave.  Its a little playful and sets up the first of the stars playing across the sky, those childhood moments when you realize there are amazing things in front of you, and the golden tickle of the excitement you feel.

It clocks in at a respectable 6:33.  I was going to lengthen it by repeating the first section but with different instrumentation, but if you feel like you said something right the first time, why say it again?

Know what I mean?

See you tomorrow night, and thanks for reading.

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 2

Morning Gang

Well, its night two (well, morning two) of the final Twilight Meditation CD project.  Even as I complete the second track of this CD, I'm starting to feel a bit... apprehensive about finishing it this week.  These last two nights have been really magical.  I don't want it to end.  No one is awake, almost in the whole world, at least from where I'm sitting, and the sounds that the computers and the modules are making just make me so happy.  This Fazioli sample (Piano) is so beautiful I want to go buy the real thing.

Anyone have an extra 250k they can lend?  ;)

Anyway, no more misty, I'm a guy for God's sake.

Track two, tentatively named Vapor on the Fields, clocks in at 8 minutes.  It draws just a touch from the last theme in the first track, but it goes to different and varied places.  Some of it is very warm, especially in the middle, with adagio strings in a very low register.  Its almost pastoral.  The predominate instrument in the piece is a Classical Guitar.  I'd say I did this because it sets the harp, Fazioli Grand and Strings nicely, but I really did it for Jenn, cause she said she loves the instrument.  So do I.

The CD continues to thumb it's metaphorical nose at me at completely deviate from what I had planned to record.  I think I'm getting okay with it though.  I opened my manuscript for the first time and ACK! wrote the piece out with a pen!  Had to, too many changes and I was getting lost at some points.  Sleep deprivation and orchestration, man, any composer will tell you they go hand in hand.

Tonight finished early, which I am thankful for, because I have an evening scheduled with some good friends tonight, and I want to enjoy myself without too much fatigue.

See you Sunday :)

jack

Twilight Meditations Sessions - Night 1

Morning Gang

Well, i've been working on my Meditation CD project for a while now.  Release date is quickly coming, and Jenn told me how long they need to turn around duplication.  So, its full steam ahead, in which will no doubt be an interesting week of midnight sessions.

It actually all started the night before last, with temporary additions to the studio.  I added an 88 Key controller (Yamaha S80) and some extra computer power for those really cpu intensive sections.  There are also three VERY cool mikes setup (thanks Jim!).  A Blue Woodpecker (Ribbon Mike), AKG 414XLII and a Earthworks condenser.  These are setup strategically in no particular fashion or reason, scattered about my studio, ready to capture whatever instrument or weird object,...or breath.. at a moments notice.

Since the majority of the album is written, either sketched in sessions or in my head, very little music really needs to be written.  Just orchestrated, mixed, mastered and out the door right?

Eeep!  I wish it would have been so easy.  Because as soon as I downbeated (is that even a word?) the first bar of the first track, I realized that it was going to go its own way with no consideration for what I've already done and what I wanted.  Yes, the CD has taken off of its own accord and now is laughing at me as I scramble to re-write, re-orchestrate, etc the entire Disc.

Ah, love being a composer, don't you?

Okay here's the scoreboard.  CD = 1 .   Jack = 0.

Okay, I didn't come away with nothing.  I have a rough mix of a completed first track, tentatively titled Twilight Falls, and it clocks in at 5 minutes.  I did have a different name for it, ask Jenn sometime, she'll laugh...at me...again ;)

See ya tomorrow

jack