Hello everyone and hope you've had a great week so far. With the upcoming Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album audio pretty much finished, I've been working intensely this week on the album's cover artwork which is coming on well but taking a bit longer than I predicted. Still, it was over a year working on the songs and audio for the album, so spending a bit more time on the artwork seems justified at this point. No point rushing these last few hurdles, and I positive the wait will be worth it! Onto other news this week, there's just a few little things to share, so let's get to it!

First of all, Fun Station 4 Kids has released another Dinosaur animation right on time for March: Dinosaur March! While I wasn't directly involved with the production of this one, it features my track "See Ya Later" as the credits music and it was great to see all the dinos being drawn behind the scenes too. With a whopping 33,000 views in the first 36 hours since release, it's been the quickest start in views to any of the FS4Ks projects to date! Simple but effective! Check out the video below and what's you're favorite dinosaur in the video? Mine is Moschops. He so chonky! Enjoy!

Next and finally for this post, just a quick Patreon update. Although yesterday was the final Wednesday of the month, the Hopes and Dreams album is so very close to completion that I've decided to hold off the rewards for a few weeks so that the next set of $5+ rewards will be the finished product. I've also made a patron only post detailing the schedule for the next few months of rewards which will focus around the upcoming album. You can read it by becoming a patron for as little as $1 a month, but don't worry, the schedule will become public once all the dates are set in stone. Head over to Patreon for more details:

www.patreon.com/NickStanding

That about wraps up this shortish post! I'll be continuing to work on the album art until it's done, then it'll be time to finish preparing the album as a finished product ready for the tonne of admin work surrounding its release! It's going to be a busy time for sure, but we'll see if there's more exciting news to share in the next post. Until then, thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various projects and I hope you have a great week whatever you're up to. Enjoy the dinosaurs and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week! It's been a busy one over here doing some client mastering work (more on that in a moment), whilst working through feedback to finish off the audio for Better Than The Book's upcoming Hopes and Dreams album. I'm super pleased to announce though that after a few minor tweaks (and seems like 3rd time's the charm as usual), the new album audio has passed the test of my musical production peers and has been declared ready for release! All that's left to do is export and check the final audio files, create the artwork, which I'm currently busy working on, and then a whole bunch of admin work to get the finished product ready for going out into the world! Super exciting times, and hopefully I should be on track for getting the album (as a product) completely finished by the end of the month or thereabouts. Onto the main news for this week, there's a couple of cool things to share so let's start off with a big celebration!

First of all, a huge congratulations to the Fun Station 4 Kids team for surpassing 1 Million views on YouTube with our quirky Humpty Dumpty animation! This one was a whole load of fun to work on as while I was on audio post-production duties as usual, Vlad from World Beyond was commissioned to do the score music which was spectacular! If you've yet to see it, feel free to watch the video below, and once again a huge well done to FS4Ks for yet another video surpassing 1 Million views on YouTube! Amazing!

Next and lastly this week, I wanted to share with you this track I mastered for Zelazon, which was a load of fun to work on. You can read more about it in the description on SoundCloud, and if you're in need for audio mastering on your own tracks/albums, send me a message and I look forward to working with you! Without further wait I hope you enjoy" Fated":

And that's about it for this week! I'll be concentrating on artwork for the new BTTB album until it's finished, after which it'll be time to make those final master exports and finish off the album completely! Whether that'll all get done in the next 7 days I'm not so sure, but we'll see how it all goes and whatever else pops up in the coming week. Until next time I hope you have a great week whatever you're up to and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various music projects. Take care and see you in the next one!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week! Just one thing to report for this blog post so it's going to be a short one, but that one thing is that the first full-album master test for the upcoming Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album is finally complete and has been sent out for feedback! Unless any problems are brought to my attention to address, the album is pretty much complete audio-wise, which means it's time to get back to some artwork. Exciting times!

And that's it for this blog post! Short, sweet but good news I think. Looks like I have some client mastering work to get on with this coming week too so along with working on the BTTB album art, it looks to be another busy one. Until next time, thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book, JabunAudio and my various projects and I hope you have a great time whatever you're up to in the coming week. Take care and see you in the next one!

Hi everyone and I hope you've been having a great week and had a good helping of pancakes on Tuesday if you celebrated it! It's been another intense week here at JabunAudio mainly continuing with work on the upcoming Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album, which is going very well (more on that in a moment). For the first time in a few months, there's no video to share from World Beyond this week, though I'm sure there are at least 3 left to go by my count. In any case there's still lots of news to cover so let's get started!

Firstly this week, a celebration as last week's game "Ballet of Pain" by Alex Clay received a front page feature on Newgrounds.com! A huge congratulations, and overall the game's reception has been successful so far. If you've yet to check it out, then you can play Ballet of Pain over on Alex's Webpage by clicking the picture below. We hope you enjoy the bittersweet adventure!

Next this week, some of the usual beginning of the month news to share! Yesterday was the first Wednesday of March which means I've just sent out rewards to the $1 /$2+ patrons, and this time I'm sharing another batch of Patreon exclusive downloads: a handful of demos from late 2011 / early 2012 for Better Than The Book songs before Better Than The Book was even a thing, which would later become tracks on the 2016 Two Year On album! 
          If that sounds good to you, then become a patron for as little as $1 a month to download this music and all previous rewards for your tier including the entire current BTTB discography! For those of you who decide to join (or have already joined) the $10 tiers or higher, this month I'll be sharing some work in progress draft artwork for the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album as well as a demo master for track 06 Get A Haircut! Enjoy the exclusive sneak peek!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Continuing with the beginning of the month news, I've just sent out another JabunAudio music production email article as well, and this one will be the 10th and final one in the series (for now at least). This time I'll be discussing my favourite methods for making a chorus (or equivalent section) sound bigger and hit harder to really make an impact whenever this important section of your song comes around! I'll be focussing on more traditional band arrangements, but many of these methods can be applied to various styles of music. If that sounds interesting to you, sign up for free on the JabunAudio home page, I hope you enjoy it, and be sure to share with anyone you think would be interested!

https://www.jabunaudio.com/

There'll still be one final email with a special announcement next month before I go on hiatus, but until then, let's make the most of more discussion!

​Next this week, some quick updates for the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album: as it currently stands, all the mixes have now been tweaked for maximum impact and the entire album is sequenced, trimmed and glowing with a lovely layer of mastering polish pretty much done! I just need to go through to check for errors and make any final tweaks if need be, then it'll ready to send off to some fresh ears for feedback! It's very VERY nearly there in terms of the audio and I'm aiming to certainly have it sent out before the next blog post, before I get back to working on the artwork while I wait for some feedback! Exciting times!

Finally this week, it's that time once again so let's look back at last month's goals and see how I did. Here's what was set:

1) Finish a first draft master of the album ready to send out for feedback before any final edits
2) Draft up the album art for the Hopes and Dreams BTTB album
3) Set aside ISRCs for the new Hopes and Dreams album and fill in all the information I can in my records (apart from the stuff I'll need to sort just before and after the release).

Looks like number 1) is almost but not quite done, but considering the busy and short month of February I don't think I'm unreasonably behind schedule for this one (a week or two at the most), and should have it done within a week for sure. 2) Is sort of done too, though I'd have liked to get an even better draft completed, or even started on the actual artwork. Still, the goal was technically completed, and the $10 tier on Patreon certainly has something to show for it. 3) was completed at the very beginning of the month so a big tick in the box to put there! Overall, I feel like I'm a little behind this month, but not too far. Let's set some new goals for March!

1) Finish the audio for the Hopes and Dreams BTTB album
2) Finish the artwork for the Hopes and Dreams BTTB album

Only two goals to set this month, but lofty goals they are! Essentially I want to have the content of album completed by the end of March / beginning of April, which I think is just about doable unless there are any major complications. I also have some other background and personal goals, some of which have already been completed pertaining to the JabunAudio Music Production Article, but all will be revealed next month. These two goal above are the big ones and the focus for the next 4 weeks! Any goals you'd like to share? Comment below and we can keep each other accountable!

And that about wraps things up for this week! I'll be busy doing the error checks and final tweaks for the Hopes and Dreams BTTB album over then next week, but other than that, I'll have to see what comes my way! Until next time, I hope you have a great week whatever you're up to and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various projects, whether here or on Patreon (or both!). Take care, and see you in the next post!