I went to an Alan Parsons class on the Auraria Campus in Denver. I asked him to comment on the ways his production philosophy has stayed the same and the ways in which it has changed considering the developments in recording technology throughout his career.

(I’m recounting this from memory; sorry for any inaccuracies) He first talked about the ways that his production philosophy has stayed the same throughout the series of changes from 4-track to 8 to 16 to 32 on to todays digital environments. He said he still tries to get the best sound and the best performance from the musicians. He doesn’t like to “fix it in the mix.” He also doesn’t work on computers during sessions, preferring to have an operator there to “click the mouse,” though he said he will work on a mixing desk if there is one there.

It was really cool to hear him talk for almost two hours about his amazing career.

Mark-Anthony Turnage, Alan Parsons, Todd Reynolds, and Luke DuBois. What a week.

I had a really great masterclass with Mark-Anthony Turnage last night. We looked at Fitful Slumbers. He seems like a really great guy, and I like his music. I’m looking forward to the Pendulum concert tonight.

I spent the day tracking a new studio recording of Distillations and the improv thing I’ve now put with it.  I’m going to present this in the Luke DuBois Masterclass next week.

I found out today that I will be able to take my comprehensive exams this semester, so I can advance to candidacy. I should be done by the end of 2008.

I started back to school this week. I am teaching Instrumentation, so I have another class to plan for.

I’m also taking a prog rock class instead of doing an Independent study. It made more sense in terms of my planning, and my plan was to write about pop music anyways.

After that, I’ll have exams next fall, and then dissertation approval.

I was selected for a jury this week. It wasn’t the ideal thing to have happen (I had to cancel the first class of the semester), but it was interesting.

This continues an earlier thread from here

The new Mystery Cabal site is live.

mysterycabal.com

Press return to load “Frequency Response,” a new web based sound installation created in collaberation with Rob Miller at Loophole .

I finally had a breakthrough on the transition to the “Third Point” in “Passage.” I’ve been stuck on this for weeks, so it felt really good to get an idea of what to do next. I be tracking on it tomorrow afternoon.

I’m also meeting with Rob to finalize the stuff on the Mystery Cabal site. It could be live today or tomorrow.

I finished shielding the Oscar Schmidt 335. It isn’t as quiet as the Hamer, but it is much better than it was before.

I had an offer to show Remnants again at CU. I turned it down, which is a bit out of character for me. Normally, I take everything that is offered me, but I would have been showing the piece in the lecture hall / recital salon and that presented certain problems when I thought about trying to make the piece work.

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