Hi everyone and hope you've been having a great final week of November! For once, there's not been much going on over here at JabunAudio this week as I've first been away visiting family, seeing the Australian Pink Floyd, and bringing my cello back to the studio, and then dosed up on Lemsip in bed these past few days (I suppose that's what's to be expected after sharing a room crammed full of 1000s of rock fans). Worth it in any case, but I've been resting up instead of working as of late. As such there's not really much to report this week apart from the latest set of $5+ Patreon rewards going out yesterday, but there is an amazing new cover song to share from World Beyond too, so let's get to talking about all that good stuff!

So first of all, yesterday was the final Wednesday of the month which means another set of Patreon reward posts for the $5 and $10 patrons are out, and this time we're continuing with the 2013 Jabun back catalog of music with another original track: "Apollo"! "Apollo" was released back in March 2013, and was another track where I was still experimenting with finding my own voice as Jabun too. It's got a more beat driven chillstep vibe to it, and the instrumentation and overall feel were heavily influenced (perhaps a little too much) by one of my finger-drumming heroes Araabmuzik, known for his lovely MPC performances. Interestingly too, "Apollo" is the only Jabun track to date which features my own lyrical sung vocals, and was the first track which I recorded vocals with my SM27 mic too. Of course having received such a crisp and clear sounding condenser mic for Christmas 2012, the first thing I did was negate all that clarity by running the vocals through a telephone style effects chain! Whatever the case though, I'm still pretty happy with the way this one turned out, and it was the first Jabun track to get a little bit of external attention too, even if that was by someone using it to launch their own YouTube music showcasing channel without asking permission first... oh well! In any case, without further wait I hope you enjoy "Apollo"!

Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfjunS79UgE
Get the $5 reward now : https://www.patreon.com/posts/5-reward-jabun-31102206

For the $10+ patrons, I'll be diving deep into the creation of the final and title track from Better Than The Book's recent "Hopes and Dreams" album! Become a $10+ patron to access that article and many more now, and remember that you'll gain access to all historic rewards and posts for your Patreon tier too when you become a supporter! With the new REWARD ARCHIVE tag it's never been easier to catch up with all those posts and music downloads you've missed too! I hope you enjoy them!  

Get the $10 reward now: https://www.patreon.com/posts/10-extra-reward-31102207
Find out more about my projects on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Next and finally this week, I just wanted to share with you the latest amazing cover song from World Beyond and Marica Vilibic, and I really think they've outdone themselves with this one! While I wasn't directly involved with the production and performance in this one, over the past few weeks, as has become usual for eachother's projects, I've been listening through and acting as Vlad's 2nd set of ears during the final mixing and mastering process for this track and my lord I really think it's his best orchestral production to date! Check it out below, especially if you're a video games fan and congrats to Vlad and Marica for putting this all together! Simply stunning!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week so far hopefully keeping warm! It's been a fairly busy week here at JabunAudio working on various upcoming projects, though there's not really much I can share or report on most of them so this'll be a pretty short post. There is one exciting project I can talk about though as well as some important updates for the winter period so let's get started with that! 

First of all, as of this weekend just passed (November 16th), I'm super excited to announce that (concentrated) writing and production has started on my 2nd full-length album as Jabun! I say "concentrated" because I'm constantly gathering ideas for various projects no matter what I'm mainly working on at the time, but I've finally sat down and made a plan for this latest chapter of Jabun and it feels SO DARN GOOD to be back to writing and recording demos in the studio (and during my leisurely time too). With it being less than a week since I started working on it, it's still very early days but there's 7+ minutes of structured demos so far as well as 15+ track ideas I'd definitely like to pursue for the project from just my ideas folder alone (and those were only the ideas I thought appropriate for this album)! It's certainly going to be a different vibe to Daydream, that's for sure, though it's still me so there's some crossover in the style of course. The current plan is for a more far out and soundtracky feel and structure to the album, think Yoko Kanno and Hiroyuki Sawano soundtrack vibes, with a combination of orchestral, electronic, far out, and rocky / jazzy / metal vibes including some lyrical vocal work. I'm hoping to make this album around 1 hour in length, though judging by the amount of material I have to work on so far, I imagine it may end up being a lot more so I may split it up into various volumes if appropriate! Very exciting times I must say and I'm hoping to have this out (at least the first volume) by the end of next year (2020) if all goes to plan!

If you've yet to check it out, have a listen to my previous album from 2017 "Daydream" which is available in all the usual places as well as on Bandcamp! I hope you enjoy it:

Of course this is more chill than what's to come!

​Next and finally this week, some winter downtime notice! Exciting family things are happening next month which means JabunAudio will be closed for a little longer than usual this winter, but I hope you don't miss me too much. The last working day for JabunAudio will be Thursday 12th December 2019 which will also have the final blog post of the year, and I'll be returning on Monday 6th January 2020 to get back to all the usual stuff with the first blog post of 2020 being on Thursday 9th! As per always, I'll not be able to take any audio work during this period and messages may receive delayed responses during this period. Apologies in advance for any inconvenience but I hope you take some time out during those weeks to lay back and have some leisure time too! I imagine it's still going to be very busy for me, just with different things to usual!

That wraps things up for this blog post! Another batch of $5+ Patreon rewards is coming next week and I'm sure I'll be working on this album some more (I just can't stop myself lately), but I'm sure there'll be more exciting news to report in addition to that when the time comes. Until the next post, thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various projects and I hope you have a great week to come! Take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great November and week so far! This post is a little later than usual as it's been a super busy and exciting week here at JabunAudio with some more amazing BBC Radio news, more bonus rewards for my supporters on Patreon, as well as a new mastering demo reel for 2019 to share! Exciting times, and without further wait let's get to it!

First of all this week, yesterday on BBC Radio Sussex and Surrey, Better Than The Book was featured once again on BBC Music Introducing: The South! It was another amazing show last night and thanks so much to Melita for playing a special radio edit of "Hopes and Dreams" and for the amazing shout-out, reading all my tweets on the air, and more! For anyone who missed the show you can catch it again on the BBC Sounds app / website but as with the last one, it's only available for the next month so don't wait too long! Check it out via the link below:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07r91qx

And if you want to hear more from the new "Hopes and Dreams" album, check it out on Bandcamp and in all the usual digital places, or pick it up when you become a patron for as little as $1!

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/hopes-and-dreams  

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
 
A big shout-out to my good friend Andy Forman too who's project By Hand And Heart was featured on the show as well this week! You may remember Andy's name as the guest guitarist on "Woof Woof, Nag Nag" from the One Small Step EP back in 2012, but we've shared many a good time since then too! Well done bro!  

For some key times in the show, keep an eye out for the following, though don't skip through as there are some cracking tracks in the show this week! I hope you enjoy it:

0:29:41 - Better Than The Book Tweet readout  
1:26:00 - Better Than The Book Tweet readout   
1:31:40 - Better Than The Book's "Hopes and Dreams [Radio Edit]" + a shout-out before and after 1:48:56 - By Hand And Heart's "November Freefall" + a shout-out before and after  

As promised I have an extra bonus reward for all the patrons this week too: an exclusive download of that special radio edit of "Hopes and Dreams" that was featured on the show! As mentioned previously, I may decide to make this radio edit available for streaming and download elsewhere at a later date, but for now, it's a Patreon exclusive download, and patrons at least will be the first to be able to get it! Become a patron for as little as $1 a month to access this track and many more now, and remember that you'll gain access to all historic rewards and posts for your Patreon tier too when you become a supporter! With the new REWARD ARCHIVE tag it's never been easier to catch up with all those posts and music downloads you've missed too! I hope you enjoy them: 

Become a patron today: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

The next set of $5+ rewards will be coming in 2 weeks too so not long to wait in the grand scheme of things!

Next and finally on this week's news I have a brand new demo reel for my mastering and music production services as of 2019! Check it out below:

As with the previous reels, for each pair of clips, the first is the final mix* before mastering, and the second is the final master as released. All tracks in this reel were taken from Better Than The Book’s 2019 album “Hopes and Dreams” and for each track as well as being the mastering engineer, I was also the composer, performer, recording and mix engineer, and producer, so this serves as a demo reel for those services too. By popular demand, each pair of clips has been approximately level matched (*by turning the original mix up against a generic limiter) to more clearly show the differences between the final mix and masters (apart from volume). In reality, the masters work out to usually be a few dB louder than the final mix, though I always aim to make dynamic, clean and punchy masters which will encourage people to turn up the music, rather than turn it down!

As always you can message me on the JabunAudio website here for more information about my audio services and I look forward to getting your music sounding how it’s meant to be heard:

https://www.jabunaudio.com/

Mastering Demo Reel 2019 Tracklist (all track by Nick Standing):

01 Better Than The Book – The Hardest Part
02 Better Than The Book – Artificial Ignorance
03 Better Than The Book – And I Fear
04 Better Than The Book – Meteor Shower
05 Better Than The Book – Brighton
06 Better Than The Book – Get A Haircut
07 Better Than The Book – (The Travelling To See Eva Song)
08 Better Than The Book – GG
09 Better Than The Book – You’ve Got A Lot To Say
10 Better Than The Book – Hopes and Dreams

Listen to and purchase the full “Hopes and Dreams” album here:
https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/hopes-and-dreams

And explore other Demo Reels on SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/jabun/sets/demo-reels

That about wraps things up for this blog post! More busy times ahead for me this coming week with a couple of projects going on at the moment I'm not at liberty to mention yet, but that just means it super exciting stuff! Until the next post, I hope you enjoy the BBC Introducing show and new demo reel (and new Hopes and Dreams Radio Edit if you decide to become a patron) and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various projects! Keep warm and take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to November! It's been a busy time here at JabunAudio this week and although later than expected (after almost 2 months of downtime), I'm super excited to announce that JabunAudio is finally relocated, calibrated and open again to help with all your digital mastering, music production, and animation audio needs! Feels great to be back to it and there's so much I want to get done before closing up again for the winter break too! As always, feel free to explore the portfolio and services list via the navigation links above to see what JabunAudio is all about, and if you're a creator who uses audio then I look forward to working with you on your projects soon! I've a couple of little web updates to do in the coming weeks, as well as putting together a new mastering demo reel later this month, but first thing on the cards will be some long overdue guitar recording for a little fun project! Looking forward to that! Apart from all that news above which has taken most of my week to sort out, it's been an extra exciting few days for Patreon rewards so let's start by diving into that!

Yesterday was the first Wednesday of the month, and naturally, the $1+ Patreon rewards have just gone out, Mp3s and artwork for last week's $5 tier rewards: Better Than The Book's "Get A Haircut [Radio Edit]" which was featured BBC Introducing last month (a Patreon exclusive download) + Jabun's "3rd September 1939"! Feel free to read more on the dedicated Patreon post here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/31102203

With JabunAudio just re-opened too, I've put together a special bonus reward for all the Patreon supporters too: a quick tour of the new studio with pictures and a Q&A in the comments section! Join in for as little as $1 and pick up all previous rewards for your tier (Including the full Better Than The Book discography, Patreon exclusive bonus downloads and more) when you do and check out a teaser photo of the new studio below! Hope to see you there!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/31329452

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Finally this week, it's the beginning of another month, so as has become tradition, let's reflect on last month's goals and set some new ones for November! Here's what was set for October:
​
1) Finish setting up and acoustically treating / calibrating the new studio, and re-open JabunAudio
2) Join PRS for Music and sort registrations
3) Sort the Patreon rewards for the next 2 months and schedule the posts

Now I didn't think I'd be able to get most of these done, but it looks like everything went better than expected! Although JabunAudio re-opened at the beginning of this week rather than by the end of October, it's all ready for this blog post so that's what counts! I didn't take into account the admin time for registering for PRS, but after many MANY spreadsheets and forms, my PRS application is all sorted and all the necessary works registered and tagged with the IRSCs on PPL too, so that's grand! And I managed to schedule those Patreon reward posts up until Christmas so that's great too! 3/3 goals sorted!

This coming month is looking to be VERY busy with various things, both business, creative and personal, what with the holiday season coming soon, but I feel like I've a lot to catch up on so I'll still be setting a fair few goals here, though they'll be less urgent than last month's.

1) Put together and publish a new mastering demo reel for 2019
2) Finish some small web updates I've been meaning to do
3) Record vocals and guitar solos for a cover song that's been on the back-burner the past few months
4) Start putting together ideas for a new Jabun album/EP to release next year

​I've also got the usual November to do list of sorting Christmas presents and travel (among other things) so these 4 goals feel a good balance of productive and fun! Wish me luck, and feel free to post your own goals in the comments too! Best of luck with yours!

And that wraps things up for this blog post! I'm going to be busy on those first 3 goals for much of this coming week I'm sure, and there's some other stuff in the works to come soon too so we'll see how it all plays out! Until the next one, I hope you have a great week whatever you're up to and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various projects! Hope you enjoy the Patreon rewards if you've signed up and take care!