Hello everyone and hope you've had a great time since the last blog post! It's been a super busy week here, not working on music, but instead working on admin stuff and getting things all set up for another kickass year for JabunAudio before I head off at the end of the week for some (hopefully relaxing) downtime. Lots of things to tell so let's get straight to it!

First of all after almost 4 years of running this site, JabunAudio finally has its own custom domain name: JabunAudio.com! For those of you who are used to heading to jabunaudio.weebly.com, don't worry about changing your habits as the old address will automatically forward to this new one. I've also been in the process of securing a custom email @jabunaudio.com, but due to some tech support mishaps, that's been delayed and I'm waiting for things to be reset before I can try again. Again feel free to continue using my older email addresses, as I'll still be using them for the foreseeable future! 

On top of the new web domain name, I've taken some time to spice up the Home Page of the JabunAudio website! As well as all the previous things, you can now find the mastering demo reels as well as testimonials from long term collaborators and clients (more on the Press Page) and JabunAudio's mastering Philosophy "Making dynamic, clean and punchy masters that'll encourage people to turn up your music, rather than turn it down". It is my hope that by having the home page equipped with everything you might need, potential clients will be able to assess whether JabunAudio is right for them in the quickest and most efficient manner. And speaking of efficiency, I also took the liberty this week to update all my various social media accounts to better reflect the JabunAudio brand (as well as adding the new website). That took a while...

Onto the next piece of news this week, I've also finally signed up for Patreon and have been busy at work setting up all the information on that account. I was hoping to get the page launched this week, but the task was a fair bit more complicated than I estimated and instead of rushing it, I'll wait until after I get back at the end of the month to finish it off. For those who don't know, Patreon is a funding platform where patrons can pay a monthly subscription to support a creator in exchange for various rewards. In my case, the Patreon page is not for JabunAudio itself, but to help support me in pursuing my own original music projects (Better Than The Book, my music as Jabun, as well as larger collaborations), so I can continue to create new and original music without having to worry about the monetary pressures from taking time away from client work. In exchange for contributing, I'll be offering various rewards including music downloads (including various Patreon exclusives), behind the scenes photos, never before released demos and work in progress versions, and even monthly mentoring sessions (at a discounted rate compared to my similar services at JabunAudio). My goal is that with Patreon and your support, Better Than The Book, Jabun and my other music projects will eventually be able to fund themselves (rather than being completely self-funded as has been the case for the past 6 years), meaning I'll be able to focus more on creating, as well as be able to produce some of the many things people are asking for but I simply can't afford on my own such as CD manufacture and merchandise, as well as later down the line music videos, vinyl pressings and even possibly touring! I'm aiming to get the page up and running early May, and will provide more details when I can. If you're interested in helping me or have any requests for rewards and other things, please let me know and I'll do my best to help. Thanks so much for your support.

Lastly this week, something a little different and fun! For months now I've had a tab pinned in Google Chrome for the Fender Original Contest, a competition about expressing your individuality and love for Fender instruments! It's not really work related at all, but I thought it'd be fun to share with you my entry, a handwritten account (+ photo) of how I found my trusty Jaguar guitar "Burnie Al Dente", which as it so happens, I bought exactly 1 year ago today as I write this (Wednesday)! I hope you enjoy it, and as well as that, I hope the judges enjoy it too, as the prizes include a trip for 2 to the Fender Factory in California, VIP tickets to a concert in Los Angeles, and getting to take home your very own brand new guitar or bass from the 2018 Fender Original collection! Wish me luck and I hope you enjoy the story of how I met Burnie Al Dente, my trusty Jaguar! (Pro-tip: Open the image in a new tab so you can zoom in for better resolution)

And that about wraps things up for this week! As mentioned previously, JabunAudio will be closed from April 20th to April 30th, and as such there will be no blog post next week either. Hope you don't miss me too much, and when I return I aim to get that Patreon page published, custom email (amongst other things) sorted, and get started recording vocals for the upcoming Better Than The Book album! Exciting times. Until then, I hope you have a great few weeks whatever you get up and thanks as always for reading and supporting JabunAudio and my various music projects. Take care!

Hello everyone and hope you've had a good week whatever you've been up to. As you can probably tell by this week's title, it's been a busy few days here at JabunAudio recording Bass for the new Better Than The Book album, though I also managed to find some time to complete my tax return too, so I'm glad that's all sorted and out of the way for another year! There's not a whole lot to report this week, mainly just some updates on the album, so let's start off with that!

So first of all, I'm super excited to announce that bass recording for the new Better Than The Book album is complete! That makes, drums, rhythm guitars and bass all done now (for the most part anyway), which means it's time to move onto vocals! There's also some keys, lead guitar and of course horns to sort out, but vocals seems like the next logical step from here. This afternoon looks like it'll be filled with setting up new sessions, exporting instrumental demos and getting all prepped for a bit of singing, though since I'm going away at the end of next week, I'm not sure exactly when I'll be starting (or finishing) these. Looks like I'll have to play it by ear. In the mean time though, I hope you enjoy another little clip of the recording process! This time I'm tracking bass for the first track of side 2 of the album, a little song called "Get A Haircut". Enjoy! 

And that's about all there is to report this week. What's in store for next week? Well as I mentioned previously, at the end of next week I'll be heading back to my home town until the end of the month so that gives me 9 more days to get stuff done before a significant break. With the BTTB bass recording and tax return done, that's 2 out of 4 of my April goals in the bag which just leaves sorting out some web updates (which are in motion at the moment) and creating a Patreon page left. I imagine most of the next few days will be put towards that, though I might get some vocal recording done for Better Than The Book if time allows. Whatever happens, it's looking to be a busy week for me! Anyways, I hope you have an excellent week whatever you get up to and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various projects. Until the next post, take care!

Hello everyone and I hope you all had a fantastic Easter break whatever you got up to! It was a chill weekend for me (though I took a little time to catch up on some admin work, so it wasn't completely fun and games), but now that I'm back, it's busy and deep again into recording for the upcoming Better Than The Book album (more on that in a moment)! Some cool (and silly) stuff to share this week as well as the usual reflecting on the previous month to do, so let's get started with the latest updates from JabunAudio!

First of all, some updates on the Better Than The Book album. As you may have read last week, all the rhythm guitars (electric and acoustic) for the album are now complete and since then, I've restrung my Sterling bass with a fresh set of Ernie Ball Slinkys, serviced it, and started recording bass! As it stands while I type this, 4/10 bass tracks have been recorded, comped and sorted ready for the next layer of recording and at the pace things are going, it looks like I'll be able to get 1 or 2 tracks done for each day of full recording. Fun times! 6 tracks left to go and I'm sure the next few weeks are going to be good fun! In case you're interested too, below are pictures of my Sterling, which has been my primary bass for Better Than The Book since the One Small Step EP in 2012, as well as the outboard bass recording rig for this album. It's a little smaller than usual, but super effective at delivering my punchy bass tone (and will be greatly enhanced in Ableton and Amplitube: my digital weapons of choice!). Hope you're ready for some sonic thunder on the new record!

Next this week, I must reveal that last week's promise of a new album teaser was... only partially true! Instead though I'm super happy to finally share the abomination that is JabunAudio's first April Fool's prank (as Better than The Book & Jabun), a "vocal remix" of the 2015 instrumental track GG [Good Game]: "MLGG". With this track, you'll either get the joke or you won't but there's not much point in trying to explain it. In any case though, it seems like the whole thing was a great success and I'm super happy that people enjoyed it! To clarify though, there IS a vocal version of GG coming in the new album (just not at all like this). If you missed the prank on April Fool's Day, feel free to subject yourself to it below, though I hold no responsibility for your disgust, ripping off your headphones, general confusion, or any other negative consequences. Enjoy MLGG!

Thirdly this week, it's the beginning of another month, so let's take some time to reflect on last month's goals and set some new ones for April! For starters, here's what was on the list for March:

1) Service all the guitars ready to start recording.
2) Finish the A P O T H E O S I S  Final Boss Theme.
3) Record all the main rhythm electric guitar parts for the new BTTB album.

And looking back at it, it seems like March managed to achieve all that and more! Guitars (and bass) have all been serviced now, the A P O T H E O S I S  Final Boss Theme was finished and released, and all the rhythm guitars for the new BTTB album were recorded too, both electric and acoustic! Excellent! Now that we're back on track, let's set some new goals for April:

1) Finish recording bass for the new BTTB album (including comping and sorting takes)
2) Update the JabunAudio website (There are some updates I've been planning)
3) Do my yearly tax return (joy...)
4) Set up a Patreon for my music (I've been meaning to do that for quite some time)

Perhaps this will be more of a challenge than last month to complete, but let's see how we do and reflect on things as and when! Any goals you're setting for yourself this month? Feel free to leave it in the comments so we can keep each other accountable. Wish me luck!

And finally for this week's news, just a heads up on some downtime. As you may already know, April 24th is my Birthday and I'll be taking a trip back to my hometown to celebrate with friends and family as usual. As such, JabunAudio will be closed from April 20th - April 29th, and will reopen on April 30th ready to start up again for May. As such, there will be no blog post on April 26th either. Apologies for any inconvenience, hope you don't miss me too much, and I look forward to working with you again soon.

That about wraps things up for this week! It's back to bass recording for me (until it's all finished) then I have some admin work to catch up on. Exciting times! Hope you all have a great week until the next blog post and as always, thanks for supporting JabunAudio and my various projects. Until next time, take care!