Tunes In Tulsa
Aug 27, 2010 by Jeremiah
Greetings everyone. It's been a little while since my last post, obviously, but if you've been following my Twitter account (@jeremiahrich), you know we've been busy mixing. I've completed my work with David Teegarden at Natura Digital Studios, and have moved on to the final mixing stage with a gentleman named Joe Kane. The original intent was to finish at Natura, but the cost would have been too great. Joe has done an outstanding job so far, as we now have two songs fully completed, as in ready to go directly to mastering! I spent today (technically yesterday) in Tulsa Oklahoma working on the second song with Joe, and will be working with him tomorrow as well. Joe's mixes are by far the best anyone has produced, and he has been able to complete them in the shortest time and the lowest cost. That's a very amazing and rare combination indeed!
I know many of you have been concerned, and rightfully so, that I would never be content with the songs and the mixes. It is certainly difficult, as I am a major perfectionist. Through this process, however, I've learned that a CD cannot ever be completely perfect, but the project is finally at a point where I am 100% satisfied ecstatic about our work. Our delays in the past have either been due to the cost of the mixing, or in other cases I've been unhappy with the results. Neither scenario is the case this time. When Joe and I first met and discussed finishing the mixing together, we decided we would start on the song that has been the most difficult mixing: All For You. This song has now been completed for over two weeks, and I am still just as pleased as I was when we first finished it. I waited to post this entry as I wanted to be completely sure before I did. Perhaps I've finally learned my lesson on jumping the gun with this kind of news. 
Now to answer the burning question: what is our timeframe? While I cannot yet offer an exact release date, we've recently been blessed with the financial resources to complete the mixing. This is a huge answer to prayer and a major encouragement that we are continuing down the right path. Due to this and the satisfaction I feel with our two completed songs, I expect to be finished with the mixing by the end of September. Once the mixing is completed, we will master and duplicate the album. The album art is already finished, so there won't be any more creative barriers to hold us up. Concerning the mastering, I will be working with a gentleman named Bob Katz. Bob is renowned as one of the top engineers in his field (read: in the world!), and has graciously spent much time communicating with us already by listening to mixes, and providing constructive feedback. I feel extremely blessed to be working with such talented individuals who have been and will continue to deliver amazing results.
Back to today's (again, technically yesterday's) session, Restore took us approximately thirteen hours to complete. Not only is Joe mixing, he is adding some other final touches as well. For Restore, this included recording tambourine, nylon guitar, electric guitar, and a percussion instrument known as a Cajón. I could go on with several more details, but we begin again at 9, so I had better get some rest. I will be sure to keep the blog updated as we go through these final steps. There is much happening, so there will continue to be much to share each week. Thank you for keeping up with our journey, it means more to both Hannah and I than you will ever know!
Joe Kane recording Cajón for Restore
State of the Record
May 20, 2010 by Jeremiah
Greetings all! Figured I would pop in and post a quick update about the record. Yes, we are still working on it. Yes, it will be done soon. Of course, soon is a relative term. I think it's important to clarify just exactly what is taking so long: the mixing process. I am more than pleased with how everything is sounding, so the delays have nothing to do with my satisfaction with the material. I am beyond amazed with how great everything is sounding and am eager like nothing else to let you hear the results. It took much longer than expected to find the right people with whom to mix the record.
Computer Tunes
Apr 29, 2010 by Jeremiah
Yesterday I said I would put up some new tunes today. I have posted them at the beginning of this entry, so feel free to listen while you read along. First, some background. For quite some time I have been wanting to jump outside my comfort zone and get back into the piano. I like playing guitar just as much as ever, but there's only so much I can do with one instrument. Through working on this record, I have discovered a love for arranging music and composing, though before Saturday I had not really given it a shot. I spent the weekend writing 4 songs. Since then I have written three more. The two I included here I feel are the best of what I have done, though I definitely have a lot to learn.
New Site
Apr 28, 2010 by Jeremiah
Once again it has been a bit of time since my last update. My excuse this time is that I have been designing a new website, part of which you are seeing now. I say part of which because the design is not complete. A lot of my time was spent behind the scenes, updating the code that runs the site. My old design was based on code I had written over several years, so things were nothing short of a mess. I decided to move to something called Expression Engine, and I am absolutely loving it.