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posted by robert on 24 Oct 2004 04:58 amart work
this past weekend our wonderful friends Ashleigh & Shannon New came to knoxville to help take photo's for the album art. after several rolls of film, many long exposures and a broken camera we have the pictures that will make a good portion of the layout.
we're still waiting on two more pictures that should be taken within the next week. then i'll work out the details of the layout and post the cover art.
we should have a release date VERY soon, and a new website soon after that.
sit tight!
yea!
tyler is back, BOOYA!
posted by robert on 21 Aug 2004 02:59 amoops...
sorry for the down time, i just realized that our domain name had expired the other day and had no funds to renew it.
anyway, updates have been lacking for lack of news to report.
the album is recorded, mixed, & mastered. we released an mp3 of The Call a few weeks ago. right now we're just working on artwork ideas for the cd layout and new website. got an idea? send it our way.
more later!
The Tracklisting...
Past Mistakes- “The Purgatory Lp”
1. AM
2. Kicking The Dead Horse
3. The Call
4. Where Moth & Rust Corrupt
5. Abre Los Ojos
6. Help
7. Appearance Of A History
8. Homecoming
9. 4th St. (The Turn)
10. Flesh & Blood Didn’t Reveal This To You
11. White Lights
12. I Care About You…Really, I Do
ninety nine percent...
over the past few weeks we've been working hard on the minor details. mixing was completed a couple weeks ago, and chase and i worked last week on sequencing everything together. the past week has been spent working on mastering... researching several different techniques. it's been pretty tedious, and not worth mentioning much.
there's one more extremely small thing to fix, then i think we'll call it finished. i hope to have everything done by the time i leave for my trip (on july 1st), but free time is limited so we'll just have to wait and see how things work out.
hope everyone's having a great summer!
and the name of the album is...
past mistakes- "the purgatory lp"
purgatory- 1. a condition or place in which the souls of those dying penitnet are purified from venial sins, or undergo the remaining temporal punishment for mortal sin forgiven on earth. 2. any condition or place of temporary punishment, suffering, or expiation. 3. serving to cleanse, purify, or expiate.
-chase
quicky
i worked on the mix in huge chunks over the weekend... i think its about done. there may be a few songs that need reworked, but only small changes.
today dawned the first listen of 'white lights' in full form... sounds wonderful. i can't believe we wrote that song.
um, still no word on the final title of the album, but it HAS to be soon… deadlines, and such.
other than that, i've got nothin'... i should get a thumbs up, or down from chase about the mix tonight. that will dictate the rest of my work week...
the unfortunate one...
not too much to talk about really... mixing is going well. i've got almost 5 songs 'done', meaning i think it sounds good in the studio... but, you never know until you burn a copy and listen to it on several different stereos. that's when you realize how nice studio monitors can be.
we've been talking about the album title, and i think we've decided on it... but i'm not going to assume anything, so i'll let chase or tyler talk about that stuff.
i'll try to update again in a day or two, should be really close to complete by then.
page four...
today was a good day, indeed. i got started this afternoon working from notes made last night with tyler.
made several changes to the drum shape, focusing on the snare and floor tom sounds (the previous raft was way too dry on the snare, and the floor was too prominent on certain parts.) did a lot of editing to the single tracked vocal parts... doubling & slipping them where ever there was room.
chase showed up and worked and with me for an overall view of the sound. then i made another rough draft to analyze on the stereo upstairs. everything sounded pretty good, so i went back to work for another hour or so before class.
i now have mix settings for the first four songs... but i didn't have time to make a run-off to listen to. so, that will have to wait until tomorrow.
the rest of the week is going to be hectic and studio time will be sporadic, but stay tuned...
notes...
now the real headache begins... mixing. i started working today on a shape for the cd... balancing drums, bass, and basic guitars together. i got a good start this morning before work.
tyler came over once more tonight and listened to what i got done and then we made two pages of notes for guitar levels, and sample/loop placement... although, most of that won't be done until mastering.
the goal is to finish mixing by this weekend... so tomorrow will be the heaviest load. wish me luck.
tracking is actually done?
yep, that is correct. tracking for the new album (which is still yet to be titled) is done, as of today. finally. only took a couple months. now i suppose we're moving onto step #2, which would be "mixing." i'm meeting with robbi tomorrow to go over some details with the guitar levels and mixing. i think i am understanding a quote once made by a favorite band of mine: "when i listen to this record, i can't help but hear the sweat and blood we put into it."
tyler
ps- i'm moving to branson, missouri for 10 weeks to grow and learn. i'll be back in august with a new past mistakes album that i'll probably be proud of. you should hear it. keep in touch.
email: jagstang02@aol.com
phone: 865.621.2919
snail: notch pines
223 young life lane
branson, mo 65616
vocals are dizzone.
on thursday night i recorded vocals for "Help", one section of "White Lights", and one line in "Kicking the Dead Horse". took a few hours. thankfully tyler was in attendance to help with suggestions. the three of us work well together and the vocals for this album ran much smoother and definitely much more quickly than the vocals for the split. the funny thing is, the split was only 3 songs while we did vocals for 7 songs on this album. the 7 songs took less time than the 3 songs on the split. ok, i'm rambling. anyways, i went out in true PM fashion...losing my voice recording "Help". And you'll hear why when the record is released. that's the only song i scream on.
Today robbi and i are finally knocking out the handclaps, tambourine, egg shaker, and maraccas. should be fun.
-chaser
spring storms
i've been wait for it to rain for days now... and today, only way home from work a few drops hit my windshield. so, i rush to my house, put a mic on my front porch and record the rain & cars driving by for about 20 minutes.
i had an idea of using this for a song tyler recorded by himself on his last day of guitar tracking. it sounds cool, but we have no idea where this will go, or if it will even make it on the album... we'll see after mixdown.
w/ a trip to the Waffle House for dessert.
I laid waste to the studio tonight. Yes folks, I owned it. 30 minutes is all it took for me to record the vocals for "Open Your Eyes" AND the first verse of "Homecoming". You got that right...30 freakin' minutes.
Tomorrow night I have to record the vocals for "Help" and one tiny section of "White Lights".
On Saturday, we'll be recording the extra percussion tracks.
Sunday= Tyler's loose ends. Oh, that sounds dirty, but I'll leave it at that...
-Chase
booya!
chase turned out the goods today... we're now finished with five songs, and i'm feelin' flippy!
tomorrow & thursday, more vocals... we're not getting started til late, so we're shooting for one song a night. the good thing is these have been recorded before (demo versions with vocals), so we have somewhat of a blueprint to go by, with plenty of room for experimentation.
tyler gets back thrusday evening (from the beach... can you believe that crap?!) so, we'll be finishing up loose ends on friday and mixing thru the weekend.
it's close!
who's a bad son?
me... sorry mom.
so, sunday we didn't end up tracking all the goods like we'd hoped. the evening mainly consisted of me tracking drums to tyler's guitar/noise loops. this was done in my living room using three mics... an MK319, AT4033a, and the D112 all positioned several feet away from the drums. some of the parts were easy and i just played along with the metronome... others were difficult but they turned out well. at one point there's two drums kits going at once... crazy!
after all that jazz april showed up and threw her tracks down very proficiently. sounds awesome.
monday chase and i continued the vocal torture working on the call & white lights. tomorrow... more of the same.
Mother's Day.
Today, Tyler and Robbi are working on some extra percussion stuff. Sleigh Bells, Tamborine, Shakers, Maraccas, hand claps, and drum loops. Exciting stuff!
Also April will finish her vocal tracks before heading back to Virginia.
Me, I'll be spending time with my mother. Who's a good son?
-Chase
Day 3 of Vocals. (Saturday)
We congregated at the Koons Plantation at 6pm. With the grass freshly cut, I took my seat in the vocal booth (hallway) for the next 3 hours while Robbi ate tortilla chips and talked on the phone...again. We almost completed track 2 on the album, "The Call." All that's left vocally for that song are two parts sung by April. Then we moved on to "Homecoming" and "White Lights". On Monday I'll finish up those songs. Then I'll only have 4 more songs to do!!! Woohoo!!!
April heard some of the songs. They made her horny. Hopefully it'll have the same effect on everyone else. You never know...
-Chase
ps- I graduated from college.
Day 2 of vocals
We began at about 9:30 on Friday night. Continued working on the Choruses of "Kicking the Dead Horse." Knocked those out with ease. Then our good friend April Hill came over to sing some back up tracks. She's a recent graduate from Emory & Henry University with a degree in Opera. Um, yeah, she can sing...
-Chase
Microphone Check 1-2...Check...Mica.
I've been lounging for the past week. And I finally got the call. "It's time dat we do dis killa." "Word." "And we gonna do dis right playa." "Word." "So brang it dawg, brang it!" "Um, do I have to?"
I can't stand recording vocals. When we recorded vocals for the split with RedWinterDying, I remember spending 10 hours on the lead vocal track for 1 song. Do you realize how frustrating that can be?
Anyways, we decided to set up the microphone in Robbi's hallway in the upstairs. Robbi put the mixing board in his bedroom, so he could lay in his bed and nap while I attempted to hit semi-correct notes. After vigorous stretching and breathing routines (and a full body massage given to me by Mr Koons himself), I was ready to begin the crueling process of...singing.
Since the weather is warming up, Robbi's house was a bit toasty. He was wearing shorts, while I was handsomely attired in a 1986 green Boston Celtics t-shirt and jeans. I was beginning to feel a bit warm and light-headed, so the only option was to strip. Yep, off came the shoes, socks, and shirt. Ladies...please, no mental pictures. Can we please start now? Oh what's that? Someone please tell me that Robert Koons is NOT sitting in the next room eating chips, apples, and talking on the phone to Tyler/and Howell. And I thought we were professionals...
FINALLY, we start with track 1 on the record "Kicking The Dead Horse". I knock out vocals for the intro, verse 1, and verse 2 before calling it a night. We're moving at a snail's pace once again.
Attn: Robbi...I tagged Chris McIntosh in to take my place tonight. He said he was up for wrasslin' with the microphone. If you need me...damnit, I guess I'll be in the studio AGAIN. You can't blame a guy for wishful thinking.
-Chase
pics...
yeah! tyler finally sent me pics (thanks bra). click the center button to jump ahead to the newer pics.
oh, and tyler, right back at ya, buddy. 
the rhodes...
we finally got to bust out the rhodes last night. it was set up in the middle of the room, and simply mic'd with a MK319 close to the floor centered on one speaker a few inches away from the cabinet.
the rhodes was added to White Lights in two sections, and I Care About You in one section. we may add more later, but for now that's all we have planned.
tonight we begin vocals. all the gear had been moved upstairs and has taken over my living space (bedroom, living room, & hallway.) we've got a lot planned for only having a few days left...
oh, and thank you to virginia for the awesome picture. :)
loops...
today was more random tracking with tyler. we recorded a bunch of loops and interlude parts to flow the songs together. some of these will be simple, and some will be complex with drums and keyboards. we'll be tracking all that this weekend, on top of vocal tracks that will begin on thursday. also, i think the rhodes will finally make an appearance tomorrow evening an a couple songs.
other than the vocal tracks, most of what's left is really up in the air. we're pretty much just writing this as it goes... and i hope it works.
fingers crossed...
oh yeah, and maybe tyler will send me some photos to upload...?
White Lights
So, we cooked up something very cool in the song "White Lights" on Monday. It's my favorite song on the record, and you'll probably agree. I doubt we'll unleash this one as an MP3 for you to hear...so you'll have to wait until August. But it'll be worth it. I just wish we could think of a title for the album. Email any suggestions to chase@pastmistakes.com.
Today, Tyler is adding fender rhodes, keyboards, and Robbi is laying down some percussion stuff. Hopefully they'll finish the between song loops.
I begin vocals on Thursday. I'm seriously not looking forward to this. Would anyone like to fill-in for me? pretty please?
-Chase
Oh you want pics do you Robbi?
Look, I got your picture right here buddy....
====D
) )
for future reference...
"intonation"
yeah. so bass is done, thank god...
i'm leaving town this weekend, but when i return tyler and i will track the between song interludes and rhodes parts. then chase and i will get down with some sleigh bells, tambourine, shakers, hand claps, etc.
we've got a bunch of new pics to add... if tyler would send them to me... hint, hint. :)
Salute the Bassmaster General.
We began re-tracking the bass guitar on Tuesday afternoon. After working on it for about 4 hours, we realized that we were once again having tuning problems. We couldn't tell what the problem was, but we figured we would take my bass to the guitar shop on Chapman Hwy to let them take a look at it. Supposedly my intenation (i need to learn how to spell this word) is perfect and the neck of my bass isn't warped. So we were puzzled as to what the problem is. We called it a night with only 5 songs completed.
Thursday evening we re-congregated in the studio to finish my section of the music. Things flowed smoothly and we were even blessed by a visit from the lovely cookie fairies. 
1000 thank yous go out to Virginia and Katey.
Bass tracks have been completed.
Monday/Tuesday= Tyler going back into the studio to finish some guitar parts and Robbi to add the auxiliary percussion.
Over and Out,
Chase
Can we get a lil bass in the mix???
So I haven't posted anything thus far because I haven't been too involved in the process. Wait, that's cutting myself short. If you listen to what we have recorded thus far, you can't tell that I'm in the band, but I've been there for a good portion of the process thus far. Anyways, I'm rambling.
On to the bass tracking...after we tracked drums at Java, I went to Rik's Music and had the intenation (spelling?) on my bass checked. And they put on some new strings for me. Then I headed over to Robbi's to begin my section of the album. I'll be frank with you guys, I hate recording. I like writing songs and I love playing shows, but I'm never really into our recordings because I feel like that only capture a fraction of what we really sound like. So whenever we finish a recording, I listen to it once or twice and put it on the shelf for a year or so. Where was I? Oh yeah, getting started on the bass tracks.
For the record I'm using my Ernie Ball Music Man String Ray. DR strings. Mesa Boogie 400+ Amp head plugged directly into the mixing board. No need to use a speaker cabinet.
We spent 6 hours laying down bass tracks for 7 songs.
Then Tyler entered the studio for the next 8 days or so and created some insanity via his guitars. After returning to the studio, I was informed that I somehow tune my bass differently than Tyler tunes his guitars. Is that possible? I guess so. To make a long story short, my tracks got scrapped and I have to re-do them all. :(
Who hates recording??? yeah...
Chase
guitar tracking...
so, we've been working on guitars for a couple weeks now.
we used several amp/cabinet combinations (see tyler's post below for a full equipment list)... but most cabs were set up angled toward the wall at about 45 degrees, with a small cab boxing in the open side to make a triangular shape. in most occations digital transfer was made with a MK319 (close to the floor, tight in the corner), and a 57 (angled toward the center of the speaker at about 45 degrees on the top outside speaker, a couple inches away from the cab.)
each song uses four guitar tracks that weave in and out between different sections creating everything from dense clamor, to pneumatic compositions.
sounds killer. :)
next up is the retracking of bass guitars later in the week.
the drum tracking...
ok... so we arrive at my house on sunday evening... around 9pm we load up the gear and head down to java, where a show had just let out. renee closes the shop and we begin setting up the portable studio in the two rooms... drum room (where the bands play) and monitor room (where the counter is.)
my kit (a three piece pearl kit) consisting of 24" bass drum, 14" snare, & 18" floor tom, is set up in the middle of the room facing the street. seven microphones will make the transfer to digital signal... 57's on the top & bottom snare and floor tom, D112 in the bass drum (about half way in off axis by about 45 degrees facing the beater), AT4033a overhead (about a foot above my head slightly angled toward the cymbals), one MK319 near the bass port (at about 11 o'clock from where i sit, and about a foot off the ground pointed toward the port), and one MK319 slightly off center to the right (about three feet off the ground and about 10 feet away.)
...i don't recall the compression settings (only on the close mics.) in the 'monitor room' (behind the brick wall) chase & tyler plug in direct to the board for scratch tracking... after a couple hours of tweaking we finally begin tracking a little after midnight... playing through each song three or four times (on average) before getting a solid take.
somewhere around 4:30am we finish, data is saved, and begin packing up. we head back to my house, unpack, and discuss the next step... bass tracking on tuesday.
i let go... and sleep.
the guitars are neverending
...so over the last 2 weeks, we've managed to get about 55% of the guitars tracked. still more work to be done! layers of rhythm, layers of leads, layers of noise, layers of effects, more layers of noise, and a few more layers of effects, and a layer or 2 of feedback, creating a nice atmosphere for a good chuck of the album. so far i've used the following toys to produce all these crazy sounds:
-Marshall JCM900
-Soldano Hot Rod 50+
-Orange OR80
-Marshall JCM800 cab
-Mesa Boogie Recto cab
-Epiphone Sheraton II w/ Gibson p/u's
-Fender Japanese JD Telecaster w/ Seymour Duncan p/u's
-Line 6 DL4 & MM4
-Boss RC20 Phrase Sample/Loop Station
-Morley Pro Wah
-Digitech WH1
-Sovtek Big Muff
-ebow, slide, picks, & some cords
HUGE 'thank you!' go to the following people for being generous enough to let me borrow equipment from them: Caleb Boaz, Josh Manis, Brandon (Twinkiebots), Steve Gaskell, & Zach Land
laaaaaaaaaaaayte.
demo mp3
so, tyler mentioned to me about posting an MP3 from the demo we made a few months ago. so, before the link i have a disclaimer...
this was recorded in my basement studio (not the normal room we record in) live during a practice in december. no over dubs, and no vocals. this was done mainly for writing vocal parts & to help in the production of the real recording (which we're doing now.)
anyway, here it is... enjoy.
it's up...
...finally. this is the studio journal. we'll try to update it every day we record. also, i'll be going back and writing about the stuff we've already done, engineering/mixing/tracking notes, etc.
more later...