Sylvia and I worked on our latest song today. We spent several hours on it and ran into a couple of glitches with Apple's GarageBand program. At one point, it changed 1 of our "audio" Regions (recorded Violin notes from our Korg Krome) into a "MIDI" Region (digital notes), which it cannot normally accomplish. We could see the converted Region and the notes but GarageBand wouldn't play them. (I tried to play them only because I was curious as to what that program did.)

It even added frequency modulation (a "wobble") to the Bassoon part I recorded a few days ago.

• This is why you must not only back-up your computer work but you must also keep "iterations" / "versions". Each Time you find yourself about to make a major change in your song, the book you're writing, a movie, a digital image… anything that's important to you, it's a very good idea to train yourself to stop and save that file under a different name. Sylvia and I simply add a number to the end of the filename and just change that with each Save.
• For the Bassoon's "wobble", I simply opened a previous version, Copied the Bassoon part and Pasted it into the current file.

Since we have the latest version of GarageBand, I have a feeling the problem is in our 2009 Mac Mini computer… I'm thinking it's just not 100-percent compatible with Apple's latest Operating System — Mac OS X 10.11, "El Capitan".

I did a quick, troubleshooting search on the Internet but found nothing similar.

The song itself is almost finished. Besides doing the final Mix, I have to reinforce my recorded Vocals. I really don't want to re-record them. So I'm hoping I can simply bring-up the volume in the syllables that sound faint. I also need to search through the sounds in my electronic drums, in order to find a better Cymbal sound for 1 spot. The sound I used, from the Krome, is a typical, drumset Cymbal "crash" but the sound I'm hearing in my head is a Symphonic Cymbal "crash and choke" or, even better, a Cymbal being scraped with another Cymbal or a metal stick. (I only searched within the Krome today but I think there's a Cymbal "scape" sound in GarageBand.)

After digging into our latest song, "N.O.A.T.Y.", yesterday, it finally started coming-together and is now able to maintain its own identity.

• A couple weeks ago, Sylvia suggested we work on this song next. The 1st information she sent me was a Symphonic Orchestra "wash" of sounds. This came to me through the "Stream". (Not "Channeled". Just "Streaming " it from Sylvia's personal "Grid"… [she just explained this to me. I never thought about "people" having a "Grid" before.] It's similar to the Earth's "Grid", where every Being on this planet can tap into the information stored there. Lookup "Hundredth Monkey Principle".)
• Anyway, more pieces to this song-puzzle came to me after that… I had the lyrics. Then the Vocal melody, which I worked-out at least 2 times. (Doing my best to find the notes Sylvia wanted to us.) Each time Sylvia and I opened that song, to work on it, the Vocal Line just didn't feel right. Then a couple other chunks of music-information came through.
• I was juggling song-pieces for several days and getting more and more confused as to "how" to assemble everything.

Since I knew Sylvia wanted this to be an "Orchestral" piece, there were a few guidelines I needed to stick to:

• I needed to be sure to use only "Traditional" Orchestral instruments. This means I couldn't use electronic instrument sounds or Traditional instrument sounds which were electronically modified.
• She also indicated that this song has a Middle Eastern flavor to it. One of the biggest emphasis that Sylvia made, regarding the dominant "sound" within this song, is the nasal-style instruments of that region. Our Korg Krome keyboard was the best musical instrument, for this purpose, that we own. In browsing its "reedy" Orchestral sounds, I kept wanting to hear "more nasal". I wanted to turn on 1 of our synthesizers, in order to satisfy this lack of finding the right sound but, of course, that wouldn't be a "Traditional" instrument. At one point, I created a new, thick, very nasal instrument in the Krome but Sylvia suggested that I keep it simple. So we decided on the Krome's Oboe. (Just to emphasize… this is not a "Middle Eastern" song. It simply has the nasal "flavor" in it.)

Anyway, this song is not quite done yet but it's a LOT further along than it was 2-days ago. Right now, unless something else changes, this song:

• Has 16-Tracks in GarageBand
• Is 7-minutes long
• Has Strings, Oboe, Bassoon, Violin, Orchestral Chimes, Timpani, Gong, Choir
• and weighs in (in GarageBand) at almost 500-megabytes in filesize.

Although this song calls for "me" to sing it, I had a very difficult Time "figuring-out" and then "learning" the Vocal part. Typically, modern music stays within a 1-to 2-note jump, especially in Vocal melodies. This song has a 5-note jump in it! When I 1st Streamed it, there was a 6-note jump in the Vocal line but Sylvia changed that part of the melody but still left a 5-note jump.

This song is a bit haunting and the melody will stay with you for a while… or maybe it's just because we've been working on it for about 2-weeks now… and listening to "parts" or "all" of it MANY, many times.

As I mentioned before, I really wish we could share the songs on this album, as we finish them, with at least a few of you. It's so boring, exciting and frustrating to not be able to share the "music" part of this journey as Sylvia and I travel through the sonic landscape of this upcoming album.

• Also…
• Several months ago, Sylvia mentioned that "I" am the feedback I've been looking for… as to "when" something is going to FINALLY happen, which will lead to her and I physically being together again. (When the "Veil" is removed.) One very big piece of feedback is the work we're doing on this album. I think it was 2014 when Sylvia started pushing us to buy some extra music gear, in order to create this album. However, even though I Love nothing more than to be with MY Sylvia… working on OUR music TOGETHER, there have been MANY days and weeks when I just couldn't find the motivation to do much of anything.
• Then, in the last couple of months, we've been doing a LOT of work on this album. Once this song is finished, it will mean 19-minutes of music will be completed… and that doesn't count the "Time Machine" song, which, I think, is almost finished. I just have to learn the Vocal part.
• (I was thinking about this today… Working on the Vocals in the N.O.A.T.Y. song may have helped me understand how to pull-up (from within me) my "Singing Voice" for the Time Machine song. We'll see.)

​Today, I was finally able to gather enough energy together, within myself, to work with Sylvia on the 1st song in our upcoming album.

I had forgotten that we already recorded some starting-thoughts for this song. So I turned on our "Korg Krome" keyboard, set it to Sylvia's favorite "Piano with Strings" sound and placed my fingers on the keys.

I immediately found myself (with Sylvia's help, of course) playing a simple but nice-sounding chord-progression. Just before turning on the built-in Recorder, I used the "Tap Tempo" feature to indicate the speed of this song. When I did this, the keyboard showed a Tempo of "81 bpm" (Beats Per Minute).

After recording this, I decided to quickly Save it, before I started modifying it. When I did, I thought: "I better save it as "Chaos 2", in case we already Saved a "Chaos 1"." Once it was safely Saved, I checked and, yes, there was a "Chaos 1" already Saved. So I Loaded it in and listened to it. Not only were the chords fairly close to what I had already played but the Tempo was… exactly "81" bpm!

That was the "melodic", "sane" part. About a week or 2 ago, I had created a Patch (instrument sound) on our ARP 2600 for the "chaos" part. I listened to it but it never sounded right. So I cleared it and started from scratch. While creating that sound, I realized (or Sylvia made the suggestion) of just what that sound should be. So I cleared that Patch and started over… again.

Needing yet 1 more modifying source, I also used 1 of the "Gate" Outs, on the BeatStep Pro, to trigger an extra rhythm, which is slightly random

We also did a brief test with the vocal software, "Cyber Diva". Its "strangeness" may work along with a mirrored voice, in order to give that 1st song a cold, sad, empty, chaotic feel. We'll see.

We still have to work-out a Drum part.