a new album is in the shop!!

since this blog is WAY too big to load in any sort of timely manner now, i've started a new blog for the next album HERE!! Matt Littlehale is working on a real New Ancients web page where these blogs will be organized better. There's a clip of him in action on the new bog page. A video of someone making a webpage?!?! what a time to be alive.

Come and Get it!

And here it is in real life:

That's it... Tim and I picked it up from Pennsauken on Tuesday. Check those guns out:

I think matt is setting up an online order page over on the ORB site for you out of towners who would like to buy this, but if you're in the area, come by any orb event during the week and grab a copy (you also get a pretty fine poster and postcard if you like). Those of you out of state who pre ordered will be getting your orders in the mail soon - next week we'll begin sending them out. Thanks to you all for helping make this project a reality and thanks for being so patient for all these months!
enjoy!

July 12th is the date...

when we should have the CD in hand.
here's the latest from the manufacturing plant on the CD -

Detailed Information:

Operation Finished Date Status
Prepress 2006-06-21 Finished
Screen Prep 2006-06-30 Finished
CD/DVD Replication 2006-07-02 Finished
On-Disc Printing 2006-07-02 Finished
CTP Computer-To-Plate 2006-06-27 Finished
Packaging Scheduled

it's coming....

Out it goes!

My work here is done.
Brian Jones and I finished up the layout details LATE last night (or early this morning) and the package for Disc Makers is on it's way:

That's it... over a years' worth of work stuffed in that little package. Let's hope it gets to Pennsauken alright.

Art is IN!

It's official: Dave is finished with the artwork for the album! No, you will not get to see it just yet, but you can see this:



What's this in the mailbox? Hmmmmmm... Hmmmmmmmm ???


Classic Dave Ulrich. What am i looking at? *NOTE* this is NOT the art for the album, just the art Dave did for the package that the real artwork is in. Got it?

OK - Jonesy is doing the poster and postcard layout (that's right - if you buy a CD you get a free full color 11x17 poster and a postcard) and he and I are doing the last minute tech additions (thank yous, contact info, release #, etc) that go inside over Dave's work. Hopefully, by the end of this week, the entire package goes out to the press plant. 15 working days later (assuming we didn't screw anything up), little Timmy will be driving down to the Philadelphia area to pick up 10 boxes worth of New Ancients product. You may now start getting choked up.

Album layout sneak peek....

Here are some of the preliminary cover ideas we've come up with for this CD. Get comfy, cause there's lots here. I know you're all excited to see these...



A little kung-foo anyone? This one's for Andy. *snicker*




nice pipe. I think i could set my watch by that haircut.




no idea what this is all about.




good times ahead!




a recent New Ancients photo shoot




costume change. are the collars big enough?




more of the same




Hair. Discuss.




Hjarter Fem means rock.




...by a karate chop to the spine by that guy in the first cover.




too serious i think.




where there sings songs about logs, there goes no audience... me thinks.




after all, isn't this what ORB is?




looks like a tuesday night YAG meeting.




...no comment.




in honor of mustache week.




poor kid. nothing says "this album rocks" like a sheepish photoshoot with pops.




one of my favorites. hey tim! "I like Stuff!"




that one dude on the right blew a fuse in his unit i think.




do my legs look too shiny in this one?




too grim?



well, there it is. Let us know which one you like.

Still Waiting.....

Hey hey -
Quick update to say welcome back to Tim, Emily and Jonesy. They have returned from their globe trekking and have settled again (for the time being) back in NJ. Nice.
In CD news, no super duper developments yet other than the CD art is currently in the works and we've been reviewing roughs via email. Looks real good so far. Also, we're working on new songs already. Yup. Scary huh? this CD isn't even out yet and i'm talking about new stuff. As long as we pay this one off quick (which looks like it will happen pretty soon), we'll do another. Expect that in about a year though. We have 4 brand new tunes we're testing out on people thursday, tuesday, and sunday nights at ORB as well as probably 6 to 7 older ones that we never got to on this album that we can pick from.
In the meantime, i've been working on new songs for The RingOut (Tim, Jeff and my other band) and songs for Chris DeLaCruz. So much good stuff... anyway - that's it for now!

The Waiting Game....

is what we're currently playing... waiting for artwork from the great Dave Ulrich. I'm tempted to post his phone number so you all can call him to get him moving... but in the meantime, we still need funds to pay for the project; so here's a neat little paypal button to make pre-buys extra convenient:

If you haven't done so already, please click that thing and order a CD or 2 for a friend. Alright... sit tight for more updates as things happen... things are always happening.

And There It Is

Know what these are?

You guessed it! The final masters of this crazy CD we've been working on for like a year now. (Why 2? one's louder than the other - i need to listen to them both and see which one feels better and doesn't melt your CD players when actually played). So to back it up a bit here, Christian and i traveled once again out to Plinky's place in Dayton NJ in order to get the finishing touches put on the mixes. But, before you can do any sort of critical listening for sonic integrity of a project like this, it's a good idea to stuff yourself with at least 2 feet of heavilly oiled (and vinegared) italian sub:

We chowed while plink got the songs loaded in his system. I think he may have erased my hard drive i brought with me with all our songs (after they were transfered luckily). I'll just send him a bill later for that.

As you can see, he's quite the man of mystery! What does he really look like? Not many know, i can tell you that much. We also had the daunting task of picking the order of the songs on the disc. It's like a game of tetris trying to line up tempos and moods and lyrical content in order to make a nicely paced and flowing album to listen to. I think we got a winner though.

And that was it! 2 disc burns later and we were flying back east with the finished product in the stereo! Hard to believe it's all done.

Next up, Dave Ulrich has been handed the artwork by Jonesy as he has gone west to meet up and capture Tim and Emily in order to bring them back to New Jersey. Many people miss them much. Especially me. Anyway, dave will be working on the layout and as long as i badger him enough... we'll have it off to press soon!
Well, that's it for the weekly updates... next time you hear from me it will be that the art is done or that materials are off to the press plant. I will keep you all posted. Again, thanks for everyone who is helping out with the pre-buy - we're still going strong with orders- but we need lots more, so get your friends to chip in.
Now for you moment of zen: Christian playing one of plinky's many many fine and rare instruments:

The Last Monday Night Session

Last night was the official LAST night of tracking/mixing for The New Ancients. You heard me right.... we now have a full album awaiting mastering to be done this wednesday. The album also has a title... you ready?
"Light For Dark Eyes".
There it is. Don't complain or make other suggestions, as they will be promptly ignored. The batteries in the cam were dead, so tom only snapped a couple pics... here's basically what the night looked like:

Christian and i made little changes to things here and there to try and tighten up the mixes before we take everything to Plink's in 2 days. That leaves just tonite to make any REAL last minute fixes, which is good because i want this project done and off my plate. Again - this is the curse of having your own studio based on a DAW (digital audio workstation - i.e. computer): you can tweak and make changes ad nauseum till the cows come home and never be finished. I try to keep reminding myself that Ted Templeman and Van Halen recorded Van Halen I in like 8 days or something. 8 Days from first hitting record to masters! that's the way to do it. Anyway, by the end of the night we had full mixes of every song on disc that christian, michelle and i are to listen to and make notes on for possible mix changes late tonite, then christian and i will be heading to 17th ave productions (ONLY ONCE THIS TIME!!!!!) tomorrow. I'll get the cam charged up and take a pic or 2 of Plink in action. That's about it for this week... again - the camera was dead so no vids for your moment of zen... but i found a pic on a web site that should suffice: Check It Out Here.
See you Thursday!

well, it's official....

i'm still not sure i really believe it, but:


Yes. Christian is officially done with tracking his parts. That means no more hoping his voice holds out over the hours of phone calls and meetings he takes part in each day, no more trying to schedule studio time around his super-busy schedule, but most importantly, it means this thing is just about done.
But, i'm getting ahead of myself... first thing we did last night was to review the notes that Plink (the mastering engineer) sent me regarding the first 8 songs i left with him. He agreed to review the work and give me mix comments; things that could be changed to make the mixes better before we master them. I had to go back with the last 3 or 4 songs anyway, so if there were things i could change in the original songs, i could do that and bring new versions with me. Here's a shot of us going through Plink's thoughts on the mixes:

Most of the comments were small changes - some were matters of taste - but overall, i think the mixes are pretty much there. We quickly got to work and tracked christian's lead vocal for "Happy Souls" in record time. After that, it was on to a background vocal for "Jesus Master" which also went really quickly.
The real Dan P solved calculus problems while we worked.

Before i knew it, that was it! it was over! Christian was really all done, and it was only like 9:30. No champagne was broken out and sprayed around the room on each other's heads and into the crowds like you see when the Indy 500 is over. No large tubs of Gatorade dumped over my shoulders or reporters shoving mics in my face asking me "what are you going to do next!?!" like in the Super Bowl. We celebrated by firing up the 1964 Hammond M3 and trying to write an organ line for "Happy Souls".

Which is pretty funny to watch as neither Christian nor i can REALLY play the organ. We can fake stuff ok, but it's like seeing two chimps pounding away with sun-bleached thigh bones on a log deep in the jungle trying to come up with a suitable part.
Here's a clip after the bone pounding was over and we started getting composed:

By this time, most of the peanut gallery had left (Tom, Steph, Dan and Alex) leaving only Michelle, Christian, and myself. We planned the rest of the tracking to be done, which looks like one more session for Jeff and myself to knock off 2 background vocal parts. In the meantime, i will be putting finishing mixing touches on "Jesus Master", "Happy Souls", and "Life Is So Bright".
Alright, that's it for today.... so, this may be the last one of these on this blog; get ready! Christian presents us with our moment of Zen:

You wouldn't like me when i'm angry....

Having had a home based recording studio for some years now (10!) i've evidently arrived at some level of proficency in setting things up like pre amps, compressors, effect, patchbays, and computers. As a result, i often get questions from people starting down the same road of home recording on how do do certain things, and i'm always up for helping people and giving advice - i enjoy doing that. It always seems like most questions are computer related, as they are the source of most mystery and headache in the small home setup. Now, with respect to computers, they present an interesting dicotomy in the recording world. They make it very easy to get certain jobs done fast and efficiently, but on the other hand, they are complex systems that can easily get screwed up so bad, they make work impossible.
I hate them.
Which is really funny, in a sad sort of way, because both my primary career (software engineer) and secondary job (recording engineer / musician) both rely heavily on them. The last thing in the world i want to do is fix computers. When they break on me, i basically turn into the Incredible Hulk. I get the bugged out eyes and the white hot rage, i want to do things like break though cinder block walls and flip cars over, or run down the highway barefoot. I don't have the green body paint, huge muscles, and ripped wranglers of course, and there's also no crazy newspaper reporter following me around trying to catch me in my alter-ego (as far as i know), but you get the picture.
Anyway - on sunday i broke yet another rule that i always warn people about.
Never upgrade any part of your computer (hardware or software) during a project if you don't really have to. Especially when the project is near completion.
So, guess what i did... yep. I decided that it wouldn't be a big deal to go ahead and update my OS to 10.4.5 from 10.3.something for no good reason. Midway throught the update, the Apple updater program warns me about something that has failed
and the system needs a re-bootin'. Ooooooh Kaaaaaay. Reboot.
wait
wait
wait
Nothing.
machine will not come back up.
*eyes turn white and begin darting around the room ala David Banner*

I will spare you all the horrors that soon followed, but suffice it to say it looked a little something like this:

In the end i got really lucky, after doing an OS re-install i only had to reinstall
the MOTU drivers for my 2408, the drivers for my little remote control thingy, and copy all my plugs back into the library folder and when i brought up DP, (and the New Ancients project) everything worked. (as far as i can tell). Whew!
So last night we had quite a large crowd stuffed down there; little Nick showed up:

and we finished up the main vocal for "Jesus Master". Christian's voice was still recovering from 2 weeks ago, but he had just enough gas to get about 5 takes of the song down. As soon as we heard him getting tired, we sent Steph and Alex out for some Riccola throat drops... (Ricco-Recon). In the past, i've had great results with this little bottle of throat drops called "Singer's Saving Grace". It's a super expensive herbal tonic of sorts that helps give extra life to a tired voice with only a few drops down the hatch. When we were tracking vocals for Million Time Winner's "Writing The Broken Line", Christian was drinking this stuff constantly, and it really worked! Give him another one Stpeh:

It worked! Here's Christian excited about finishing yet another main vocal part:

Next, it was on to some horn parts for the choruses of"Happy Souls". Matt Pucci came in with his trombone and quickly nailed his part:

He needed a music stand for the notes he wrote, but of course all my music stands have somehow mysteriously dissapeared into the briney depths of the ORB basement. It's like the Bermuda Triangle down there. Here's what i'm now resorting to:

About an hour later, Blue showed up with the trumpet again and played a part over Matt's 'bone. Warm up, QUICK!

Eventually everyone left leaving me and Blue to finish his part up, giving us peace and quiet to get work done. We pushed Blue's lips pretty hard... he hit some crazy high notes for the rideout of the song. Let's just say he wont be blowing up balloons any time soon. I bet this morning his lips are swelled up like 2 big red hotdogs. Ok - 2 more sessions and this thing is done, for real. Thanks as always to the great Tom Sasso for pics and vids.
So there it is.
And here IT is, your moment of Zen, courtesy of Alex:

so i crossed NJ 6 times in 3 days....

Uh Oh...what's this?!?!?!

This past friday i headed to 17th Ave Productions in Dayton NJ (yes there is a Dayton, NJ) to have the final mix of "Dying Faith" mastered by Plinky for the documentary that Christian Smith and Revelation Studios are doing. I got there late in the morning and after talking shop for a while we got the song (along with about 6 others) transfered onto the studio's system only to find out all the files were corrupted, screwed up, and unusable. I think steam actually came out of my ears. I had to drive an hour all the way back across NJ to my place, get my hard drive with all the files on it, grab some cheese and pretzels for lunch, then immediately drive an hour west back to plink's studio to master the 3 versions of the song that Revelation Studios in Pasedena needed. That left me with exactly one hour to get back to Middletown, pack my crap, and head over to Shrewsbury to where the ORB high school retreat was leaving for the weekend in Hammonton NJ (i was asked to go along to help out). Once i arrived in Shrewsbury, we promptly got on the road for a refreshing 3 hour trip (yes, for some reason it took us 3 hours to get to Hammonton) to the camp where we were headed.
So this weekend in the blueberry capital of the world was something to behold to say the least. I'm sure there will be tons of pictures up on the ORB website fully covering the entire event, so I will just say that this was one super-high-quality group of people to get to know. There is just too much to say about everything that went down - and this is the recording blog, so....
In light of the retreat, i decided to give everbody the night off last night from recording, as we were all totally run down and in desparate need of sleep/repeated showerings/backrubs/baths/hot tea/extra long toilet time etc. Also, Christian has NO voice left after multiple talks and constant yelling, screaming, and laughing. Barely enough to even talk. So as i predicted, no singing was to take place. I ended up working alone last night comping vocals for "Life is So Bright"; one of the last 3 songs to have the finishing touches put in. Looks mighty different in the studio when no one else is there:

You can almost hear the crickets in that picture.

Jeff Ulrich will hopefully be doing vocals this week and i will schedule another mastering trip (this time with the hard drive in tow!).
Finally, just to let you all know, the pre-buy is going very well. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that we're *about* halfway there to paying for the pressing. Keep spreading the word and convincing friends to join the pre-by club. OK - that's all the news i have for now. Next week we'll have more of course!

stay clean -

pete

The Girls Are Done! The Girls Are Done! *ahem*...

Hi Inter-netters...

Lots of news and stuff to report this week, so i'll get right to it.
First off, we are well on our way to paying for the CD pressing now. BIG UPS and thank yous for everyone who has coughed up money for a pre-buy - we've had lots of response already which is good because the faster we get the money, the fast the CD will be in your hands. Again - if you haven't done so already, you can give me (pete) some cash or write me a check and i will be sure to get you on the waiting list. You can also donate online through paypal (which people have done already! thanks internet superheros!) by sending payment to sales@jerkrecords.com with a note that it's for The New Ancients CD pre-buy.

During the last week i finished "Boundless Love" by re-recording a guitar part (thanks for the help Sabrina Nilsen) and redoing the drum part. For the drums i ended up playing a super small set made up of Sammy's 20" Ludwig kick, my '67 Rogers snare, and my super old and decroded (<- from what movie? anyone?) Zildian hi-hats. One microphone in the room set back from the kit was all the song needed i think for the super-stripped down feel it has. i think it works...
So last night we finished up Michelle's final vocal parts for "Happy Souls". Congradulations girl, you're done! She celebrated by quietly knitting in the background. And by "quietly knitting" i actually mean talking loudly while i tried to make critical listening decisions on the mixes. It's cool, that's what everybody does down there. We had Joe sitting in on the session noodling around on my old nylon string acoustic i had when i was a pup:


I also finished up my vocal parts for "Life is So Bright", so now that one is basically in the bag. Steph looks excited about that:


We added some more little toy sounds to "Boundless Love" to finish that up for good as well. Here's a pic a Christian rummaging through the ancient suitcase i carry all my noisemakers around in:


All that's left now is final lead vocals for "Jesus Master" and "Happy Souls". Now, we just need Christian to stay healty and not blow his voice out. And that's a tall order, trust me.
What else?
Rumor has it that this week our own Brian Jones and Dave Ulrich are getting together in NYC to hash out design details for the packaging. I only hope the musical content will be up to par with what these two come up with. Seriously... they do fine work. Want to see one of our previous projects that Dave has done? Sure you do:
They liked Dave's work so much they still use it in the catalog!This is the company who will duplicate the CD.

In other developments:
Christian Smith, author of Soul Searching
and professor at UNC Chapel Hill, is doing a documentary on kids and how they relate to religion and the church these days. He found out about ORB and had to come check it out. Soooo, a few weeks back there was a film crew here from Revelation Studios in South Pasadena, CA getting footage of ORB and following a couple kids around their daily routines and whatnot. The director found out that we were recording these songs and were interested in hearing what we had. Long story short: they want to use "Dying Faith" in their film. That means, friday I'm on my way to get a few versions of it mastered. Now, i consider myself a pretty shoddy 2-bit tracking and mix engineer for the most part, but i am even worse at mastering, so i will be taking the final mixes to our friend Plinky at 17th Ave. Productions for this last stage. I've done lots of projects with Plink over the years and he is a true master at engineering, mixing, mastering, and production - so it's always great to get his input on my work. It's also nice to finaly get out of my place and work in someone else's, so i'll take some pics of the session so you all can see a real studio in action. I'm excited about this film development because it presents the opportunity for this music to be heard by tons of people all over the world, and more importantly, i don't have to do anything! i love that part. Anyway, I will keep you all posted on wen and where this film can be seen.

Ok, that's enough. In closing, it wouldn't be an update without one of these: Your moment of zen, Steph style:

Steph Finishes... Or Does She?

Howdy Snappers.
Last night we hit yet another mile marker: Steph has officially finished her parts on this recording. *please take this time to weep gently with your face in your hands, or on the shoulder of a loved one close by*.... *ok, now snap out of it*.
Christian was sick yesterday (as was i, but i didn't have to sing, so here i am), so he didn't make it to the session. Steph was there with her friend Alex - who i'm pretty sure is her new agent/manager/bodyguard and as usual Tom Sasso was shootin' pics and talking about fights at hardcore shows and spraypaintin' stuff. We also had a special guest appearance by the one and only Andy Bova who was sitting in to pick up recording tips as he is just setting his studio up with the same system i use here. He doesn't know what he's walking into though. Look at the fear in his face:


Also absent (again) was Tim. Where has he been? I've been needing my assistant! I need someone to get me my coffee! Untangle those mic cables! answer the door! let the dog out! let the dog back in! rub my back! rub tom's back! *ahem* He and his girlfriend Emily decided to take some serious time off and head out across the country on their way to Hawaii, then back to the west coast, then at some undetermined time coming back here (hopefully). They are traveling with some grizzled old sea captain too, so they've got that going for them. While you're wasting time reading this blog, you may as well waste some more by checking in on their whereabouts at Their TRAVEL BLOG HERE. Navagation on that site is a bit cryptic, but worth it in the end. There are some great pictures of their travels. Maybe by the time they return this CD will be done? maybe? maybe not. only time will tell. It always does.
Anyway...
We worked on "Happy Souls" last night for the most part, along with a bunch of little mix tweaks for a few other tunes. Here's steph being patient while i teach andy some fancy computer skillz:


And here we are talkin' shop and wastin' time. Look at that pic of me. What a nurd! I look somewhat taken by andy's sky blue hat:


Tom had a brand new 100 watt lightbulb installed in the side of his head earlier in the week. I think this helps him take great photos:


Here's a classic shot of one of the biggest studio no-no's there is. Tom manages to catch me with a cup of joe perched on the mixing board. I should know better as in the past i have spilled 3/4's of a bottle of beer into the exact group of faders on this console. No good. Although it may be argued that it made the board actually sound better. At least it made for a fun night of cleanup.


Now, back on the subject of Tim. In honor of him not being around, i did a re-mixed version of one of his Patrick Swift songs called "I Like Stuff" after someone brought up the idea while eating at the Red Bank diner on saturday night. So sunday, i got to work. Now, it's technically not a remix as i did not have any of his source tracks to actually re-mix, this is a brand new tune with samples from the original flown in. It's a good example of a "one-day-song". I played bass, keys, and Sammy's drumset for this recording. Listening tips: crank volume, crank bass control, insert little glow sticks in mouth (or baby pacifier), turn off lights, remove shirt (not you girls), drink 3 red bulls, spin in circles repeatedly. Enjoy!
I Like Stuff ReMix.mp3

So, there you have it -> But before you go, here it is, your moment of zen: