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June 2006 15) Funny, a year later and I'm still not any better at keeping this site up to date! I need to blow it up and re-do it at this point, but I'm not sure when I'll get around to that. I also haven't done much of anything with my blog, so that's not real good either. I put some news on the front page that I'll move here as I update things. June 2005 21) Realizing how badly out of date this site has become, I've done some work bringing it up to something more current. Updated the Gear and Sounds pages, and also uploaded and linked about 50 articles I've written for various publishers (these specific ones are no longer available through the publisher, so I'm posting them here). 16) Well, I'm pitiful about updating this page! I have been using the GuestMap thing from Bravenet for some time now, and tonight created a "blog" on their service ... you can access it through the Journal link at the left. I'll use this page for major updates going forward, and use the Journal for more day to day type of things. June 2004 My first CD, Darkness into Light, was enough of a success (in other words, it more than made back what I put into making it) that I am now giving it away for free! You can click the link to my Sounds page and download the 192-bit MP3 files of each of the songs. However, Amazon.com is still carrying my CD and has them in stock, as does CDbaby.com, and towerrecords.com. If you like the CD and want to pay for it, please instead give $10 to the charity of your choice.
February 2004 3) Well, long time eh? The last half of last year went by so fast, I still don't know exactly where it went. Here's a quick rundown: July 2003
- Started a new full-time job as a senior network administrator with
a software development company. September
2003 - My dad died at the age of 54 from complications after having
heart bypass surgery. He was a great friend and an incredible person
to be around. I still miss him a lot. January 2004 - Spring semester started, taking three classes again. The company I work for got bought out by a larger company, and network and email integration projects are ramping up. We'll see if there's a job for me once it is all done, since I'm on the side of the company that got acquired. I'm not too worried really, God will provide. February 2004 - I got some new gear in the last couple of weeks, most notably a Bogner Ecstasy 101B amplifier that I bought from a guitarist at Prestonwood Baptist Church. It's a great amp, though I haven't had as much time to play with it yet as I'd like. I've got some material in mind for several new songs, and hope to get some recording done this summer. June 2003 23) A server crash unfortunately wiped out the last couple of months of news. You'd think I'd know better to back up more frequently? So far this year I've spent much of my free time working on books. I've co-authored one book already, tech edited several others, revised another, and am now writing a new one on Exchange Server 2003 that has me writing about 50 pages a week until mid-September. With the final revisions post-editing, I'm looking at October 1st before being completely done. I've had a few requests for mp3's now that mp3.com has moved to a more stringent pay format (maximum of three songs unless you pay). I've opted not to pay since mp3.com has deteriorated in quality and service over the last couple of years. I'll plan to put low-fi mp3's of every song on the album on this site though, and hi-fi versions of a few of the songs. Sales of Darkness into Light have been better than I expected, and I've made back everything I put into the project. Can't complain about that :-) December 2002 26) Doing a short run to check out any potential problems turned out to be a GOOD idea. A couple of problems were found that caused one song to cut off a minute and a half short, and another to skip. Corrected the problem and ran off a few more to test out. If all goes well, we'll call the CD "officially" released and ramp up production next week. 16) Darkness into Light is unofficially released. The initial copies went to friends and family to check out, just to work out any problems there might be before producing more discs. 15) Completed the mastering, and burned a reference copy to listen to. If all checks out, we're ready to go to print! 14) Spent much of the day working on mixing/mastering, we're getting close! 13) Making the big push to get done this weekend! The art work is mostly done, and I've got several final mixes done (the songs I was already pretty much satisfied with by this point). I've set a deadline of the 17th to be finished and ready to ship. 11) I got the last little touchups done on the recordings, and am finally ready to do the final mixes and master the project! 6) Still working on getting everything wrapped up. I had to re-record the first couple of minutes of classical guitar to "Missing Inside," I had a corrupt WAV file and naturally didn't have a good backup of it :-( November 2002 17) I decided that Into the Light wasn't as bad as I thought it was as far as being dark sounding goes, but I think the last minute or so is pretty funny. I got a little crazy with my lead playing, and after playing around with different fade outs at about the 2:45 mark, I decided to just leave the whole 3:40 worth of playing. I tweaked the drums a bit more on The Awakening and think I have them where I want. One of the cool things about pre-releasing demos of my songs on places like mp3.com is that while I'm working on new stuff I am getting feedback on other songs. I'm planning on incorporating some of the feedback I've received prior to the final mixdowns of the songs in a couple of weeks. Hopefully that will make the album as strong as I can get it. I exported a couple of demo mixes from Cubase and uploaded them to mp3.com. 16) Lots of progress today! I redid the drums to The Awakening, but I want to listen again tomorrow to see if I really like them. I've noticed that a lot of times I need to get away from a song for a bit to come back with a more objective view. What sounds good to my ears after I've been working for several hours doesn't always sound good to fresh ears the next day. I also got the lead guitar part done for Into the Light. It turned out a bit darker than I expected, in some ways it has some similarities to The Longing, though less structured. Now I'm trying to decide whether to keep the song and move it up in th song order, kind of like a The Longing part 2, redo the leads to something "happier" sounding, or just leave it as is. I'll listen to it a few more times this weekend and see what I think. 14) Inspiration strikes and I add about a minute and a half worth of guitars to The Awakening, and call it done just shy of eight minutes. I've got to redo the drums and then the processing later, but the tracks are recorded at least. I also played around with Into the Light, but don't settle on a lead track I'm happy with. We'll try something else tomorrow or Saturday. 13) I have about six and a half minutes of The Awakening recorded, and anticipate that the song will end up around nineminutes long when I'm done. Today though I shelved it for a bit and worked on Into the Light, which is the name I gave for the song I mentioned last week. Tonight I laid down a scratch drum track and a clean chorus-y guitar track. I'll get the bass and lead guitar tracks done, then go back and do a finalized drum track. 6) Well, so much for The Awakening being the last song! I had been kicking around an idea in my head and it just happened to develop enough for me to decide to go ahead and record it. Don't have a name for it yet. October 2002 Darkness into Light is slowly moving towards completion. I've worked on getting the tracks to The Awakening recorded, but it has been slow going. I had saved this song to record last because it was the least composed in my head of all of the songs on the album, and that is reflected in how long it is taking to put it together. The first couple of minutes are mostly done and the middle section is taking shape, so we're making progress. September 2002 I got all of the tracks recorded for the songs Illumination and Inner Peace, and dumped off a couple of mixes to put on my mp3.com site. Illumination has gotten some good feedback, but I haven't heard much on Inner Peace yet. I've got such a love-hate relationship with that song, so I'm interested to hear what people think. I've definitely got a few things to do to it before it is ready to be called "finished" though. Inner Peace is a medley of two Dennis Jernigan songs, As the Deer and You Are My All In All. Combined they make for a nice, peaceful song to end an album that has spanned a wide range of emotions. The artwork for the album has been fiddled with some more, and it is slowly coming together. Hopefully everything will be done so the album will be in stores for Christmas. |