Hi everyone! It's been another intensely busy week of editing the upcoming Better Than The Book album for me (more on that in a second) + I have a huge milestone I'd love to share with you. It's not going to be a long post this week, but let's get straight into it!

Firstly some updates on the Better Than The Book album. As it currently stands 8/10 tracks have been edited ready for some final freezing down of processing before mixing, and the 9th track is mostly there too (just the lead vocal takes and associated harmonies left to sort though). It's been admittedly very intense, so I'll likely take a little break after the editing to let my ears refresh ready for mixing. Seeing how it's all currently going, I recon I can finish the edits by the end of the month, then have all the freezing done by the end of the first week of November, ready to take a break in the weekend and get started mixing on Bonfire night (well not the night, but the day)! That's the plan for the moment anyway, but we'll see how it all goes and these are certainly things that can't be rushed. Wish me luck!

Onto the next piece of news this week, super exciting times as my first ever animation audio post-production job from back in 2014, "3 Little Raptors and the Big Bad Rex" by Fun Station 4 Kids (the sequel of which was featured in the Patreon intro video) just hit a whopping 10 MILLION views on YouTube! A huge congratulations to Fun Station 4 Kids and the rest of the 3 Little Raptors team on this awesome achievement! Amazing! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go check out the animation below, and send FS4Ks some YouTube love! Enjoy!

Finally this week, just a quick note to say that the new Patreon rewards schedule starts next Wednesday 31th on Halloween! For all the $5+ patrons, they'll be receiving downloads of Better Than The Book's cover of Heartbeats by The Knife, as well as the 2015 Better Than The Book & Jabun collaboration GG [Good Game]! For those on the $1-2 tier, they'll be receiving their rewards on the following Wednesday in November, and for those on the $10+ tiers, look forward to a sneak peek into the creative process behind another of the tracks on the upcoming album! (though I've yet to decide which track). If any of that sounds exciting to you, then head over to Patreon (<<< Click here) to get a piece of the action (be sure to pick up the One Small Step EP from earlier this month too) and I look forward to sharing this music with you soon!

That's all for this week! I'm aiming to get the last 2 tracks of the album edited by the next blog post, and some if not all of the tracks frozen and ready for mixing too, but we'll see how it all goes. Until then, I hope you all have a great week and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various audio projects. All the best, and take care!

Hi everyone! It's been a super busy time here at JabunAudio with the Patreon launch, but I've finally been able to get back to working on the new Better Than The Book album too! It's only going to be a short post this time, so let's dive straight into it!

First of all, a Patreon update and celebrating a great first week on the new platform! Thanks so much to everyone who's contributed so far as well as all the kind people who've shared & tweeted about the page and intro video to their friends and followers, it really means a lot. This first week has been a great start and after just over a week we've already almost reached halfway towards the first goal (which is basically just covering basic running/maintenance costs not including rent/utilities). A huge thanks to the 6 patrons who've made that happen and perhaps at this rate, we might make that first goal within the month? One can dream! If you've yet to check it out, head over to Patreon to see what all the fuss is about and pick up the One Small Step EP and more when you sign up! Also, if you've yet to see it, have a look at the special Patreon intro video I made to celebrate launching the campaign. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, and I look forward to seeing you over on Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Onto the next and last piece of news for this week, over the last 7 days I've finally got back to editing the tracks for the upcoming Better Than The Book album ready for mixing! As of Wednesday that's 5/10 edited, 5 to go, though I still need to go though and "freeze" down some of the processing (such as noise reduction) before mixing, just to keep things running smoothly. Hopefully that shouldn't take too long though and I'm still aiming to be mixing by the first week of November. Things are certainly sounding great so far though, and I really can't wait to share this album with you all soon! It's all coming together!

That's it for this week! Next week is looking to be more editing for the new album for me + some continued promotion of the new Patreon page too. Again, if you've yet to check it out please take a look and if you're able to, sharing the page or intro video with anyone you think would be interested would be a huge help to spreading the word. Hoping to bring some more music to you soon, and as always thanks for supporting JabunAudio and my various projects! I hope you have a great week until the next post, and until then, take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having an amazing week! It's been intensely busy over at JabunAudio, perhaps the busiest it's been in a long time preparing for and launching the new Patreon campaign to help fuel my music projects! Certainly exciting times and there is much to tell so let's get straight onto that!

So after tons of hard work and planning over the past few months, on Monday I finally launched a Patreon page for my music projects Better Than The Book & Jabun (amongst other musical things)! 

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

For those of you unfamiliar with it, Patreon is an online platform where patrons can pay a monthly subscription to support creators and their creations in exchange for various rewards. In my case your contribution will go towards fulfilling larger goals and requests for my music which I simply can't finance alone, such as CD and vinyl pressings, music videos, and later down the line, even touring, as well as giving me more time to focus on writing away from my client work as JabunAudio. Of course I still intend to keep helping other creators as JabunAudio, as well as write my own music in my spare time, but my hope is that with your support, we can allow these projects to blossom in ways that I wouldn't be able to your help, and create a musical experience that'll surpass the Hopes and Dreams of everyone who has supported my music so far.

​To start my own Patreon adventure off with a massive BANG, everyone who contributes will receive the full debut EP from Better Than The Book: "One Small Step"! That's 4 songs + album art + a couple extra edits, all for just $1! Every month thereafter you’ll receive more music downloads and album art (many of which will be Patreon exclusives), and depending on your subscription tier you’ll get even more content and perks including early access to content, never before released demos, work in progress tracks and behind the scenes stuff, and at the highest levels, one-to-one mentoring for your own music and more!

While I'm busy finishing Better Than The Book's new album "Hopes and Dreams", I'll be uploading a couple of tracks from the BTTB back catalogue each month, as well as some bonus tracks & exclusive downloads which I can't wait to share with you! For those of you on the DEMOlition Pigeon ($10) tier, prepare yourself for a deep dive into my creative process and a taste of what's to come in the new album, and I hope you're ready for some headbanging, skanking goodness soon!

If that sounds all great to you then head over to Patreon for all the details, goals, rewards, examples of the music you’ll be contributing to, and a personal introduction video which I’m positive you’ll enjoy watching! Many thanks for the support!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

The keen-eyed among you will also have noticed the new Patreon tab on the navigation bar above, which contains the video above, as well as a link the campaign and a quick reminder of that it's all about! If you ever need to find the Patreon page in the future, but can't remember the web address, just click on the tab above, and I look forward to seeing you there!

Finally this week, yesterday was World Mental Health Day, and every year, I write something on the subject on social media as Better Than The Book. Having had my own problems throughout my life with anxiety, panic attacks, depression, and other problems, I know first hand how much of an important issue mental health is, and so I'd like to share with you the post I wrote on the BTTB Facebook page yesterday. These are things which need to be said:

"It's World Mental Health Day again, but be sure to remember that everyday should be Mental Health Awareness Day in that no matter what day or time it is, it's always important to take care of yourself, your own mental well being, and support those around you to the best of your ability if you're able to. We are not a solitary species; we're much stronger together than alone.

So not just on World Mental Health Day, but EVERYDAY remember:

It's ok to say "no" to stuff
It's ok not to always be ok
It's ok to take some time for yourself
It's ok not to be "perfect"
It's ok to be who you want to be
It's ok to ask for help. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of courage
Support each other as best as you can

Much love to you all and in the wise words of Bill S. Preston Esq. & Theodore Logan:
"Be excellent to each other" & "Party on dudes!""

Please take care of yourselves and your friends, family and colleagues. We're in this life together, so let's make it great and get through it together!

And that about wraps things up for this blog post! Just one piece of big news this time. It's finally time for me to get back to working on the album after almost a month away from it too. Editing and mixing next to do so it'll certainly be a busy week ahead, and I'll be continuing to promote the Patreon page throughout the month and beyond so I'm sure I'll have my work cut out for me over the next few weeks! Until the next blog post, thanks so much for reading and supporting JabunAudio as always and if you decide to join me on Patreon for this next chapter in my musical adventure then a look forward to seeing you there! Thanks again and take care!

Hello everyone and hope you didn't miss me too much over the last few weeks. It's been an intensely busy time for over the past month, both in the studio and away from it, as I've been travelling around the country on various trips, as well as spending most of last week ill in bed (thankfully, I'm mostly better now). My time in the studio has been spent working intensely on the long in the pipeline Patreon page, which I'll talk more about in just a second, as well as proof-listening to various snippets of the upcoming World Beyond album which is due for release in the near future and sounding fantastic so far! Really can't wait to share that with you all! It feels like too long since I've been working on the upcoming Better Than The Book album too, though in reality it's still on the track with the adjusted schedule looking like an early 2019 release now. Just the engineering side of things (and artwork / marketing) left to do, and I can't wait to get stuck in with that very soon. Onto the news for this blog post then, let's start with the Patreon page!

It's been a heck of a long time in the works (especially since I've been prioritizing work on the BTTB album this year), but the last few weeks has brought more progress to the Patreon page than the last few months! Since the last blog post, I've been busy scripting, filming and editing an introduction/information video about the Patreon page, and as of yesterday, the page, video, and various artworks for the campaign are pretty much finished. I'm just waiting on some last pieces of feedback before I start uploading things, but it looks like I'll be ready to make it live and start sorting out the marketing side of things by the end of this week. If everything goes smoothly, I should be announcing the launch in the next blog post, so be sure to keep an eye out for that next week, and if things don't go quite to plan, then I'm sure it'll be up by the end of the month. More information to come with the launch, but even if you're unable to contribute, I think you'll enjoy the video I put together for the campaign. I am by no means a professional video editor (give me sound any day), but I really think this video is the best solo video I've produced. On top of being an introduction for the Patreon page, I think it's a really nice step into the background workings and history of JabunAudio, as well as a nice view into the development of my life as a full-time musician/audio engineer. I hope you enjoy it when it's released, and I look forward to sharing it with you all soon.

Next on the news, it's the beginning of another month which means another JabunAudio music production newsletter has been sent out! This month I'll be discussing limiting vs clipping as a means to control audio peaks in mixing and mastering, which of them may be more appropriate/transparent in certain applications and why! 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!

Finally for this blog post, as has become tradition for the start of each month, let's look back on last months goals, see how we did, and set some new ones for this month! Here's what was set for September:

1) Write 3 more articles for the JabunAudio monthly music production email
2) Finish recording the interludes for the BTTB album (up to 4 tracks) 
3) Sort out the Patreon Page *
(* indicates lower priority)

And overall it's been a successful month I think! I've certainly completed my JabunAudio articles quota, and with the well thought out omission of interlude tracks in favour for some shorter sounds at the beginnings/ends of tracks on the BTTB album, goal 2) was completed too! While not live just yet, all components for the Patreon page are for all intents and purposes complete as well, and just need to be assembled, launched and marketed. With that I think setting the goals for the month will be pretty simple:

1) Launch and run the promotion plan for the Patreon page
2) Finish editing all the tracks on the BTTB album ready for mixing in November

Two goals doesn't seem like much for a month, but I think they'll both be a whole lot of work. The Patreon page should be easy enough to launch, but I've a lot of promotion / background work adding links to places etc... to do so I imagine it'll be a fairly busy time with that. With regards the edits for the BTTB album, there's also a lot to go through and check there too and while I think it's a good aim to have, I'm really not sure how long realistically it'll take to go though every part of every track and make sure it's ready for mixing. We'll just have to see how it goes and do it at a steady pace I think. Wish me luck! Any goals for you this month? Feel free to comment and share below, and all the best with your targets too!

And that about wraps things up for this week! The coming week will be dedicated to finishing off that Patron page ready for launch, then onto the vast amount of pre and post launch marketing to do. I think it's going to be busy. I'd also like to get started on the BTTB edits soon too, though I'll wait until after the Patron page is launched to get started on that. Looks like it's going to be a busy time for me this month, but for the first time in a while, it looks like I'll not be going anywhere so I can get stuck in and busy without distractions. I hope you have a great week until the next blog post and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various projects. Take care!

​One more thing! On the current draft of the Patron page, there are a number of limited membership reward tiers for your contribution. To show my thanks to all the close supporters of JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various other projects, I'll be opening the Patreon page and these tiers to my close friends and those subscribed to the JabunAudio or Better Than The Book newsletters first, before opening it to the general public. If you want to be first in line to see these limited tiers (including mentoring sessions) or the Patreon page, be sure to subscribe to the JabunAudio newsletter here on the JabunAudio website, or to the Better Than The Book Newsletter on the BTTB website to be first in line to get a space. Thanks again for your support and I look forward to interacting with you on the Patreon page soon!