A busy week since the last update and a fair bit to tell! A few days were spent at the London studio engineering Voice Overs, then more BTTB work, and of course some non-work-related preparations for the holidays. This'll likely be the last update of the year unless I'm feeling particularly inspired and have enough to tell on Wednesday 23rd. I'll be away after that enjoying time with family and friends until January 4th, and I suggest everyone else do the same if you can. Anyways, onto this weeks updates! Lets get started:

Firstly, last night I had my primary email account hijacked/hacked ... It's all sorted out now, though I urge everyone to ignore messages from "me" received between 21:10 and 22:00 on Friday 18th December containing a single link and no text, because it's NOT me and I don't know what it is (probably Malware or something equally unpleasant...). Big thanks to the AOL tech support team for getting that sorted very quickly and to the friends who spotted and reported it to me along with tips and things to look out for when I finally got my account back under control. Hopefully that'll be the last of the problems, though if people continue to receive suspicious emails from one of my addresses, please let me know and I'll look into it. What a great start to the weekend!

Next, just a little update on the BTTB album: It's clear now that it won't be finished by the end of the year, so I'll be aiming for release at the end of January(ish) instead now (apologies for the delays as I know a few people who are very much looking forward to it), but definitely no point in rushing it now. Gotta take these final steps carefully. No more finished mixes either this week, though I got more recording done (The last few bits I think), and the collaborative and final song is well on its way to completion. Just the intro (and intro track) / outro to sort + a proper mixing and mastering session to do. Hope to have it closer on its way before Christmas! It's certainly shaping up!

Next, I was recently invited to join an upcoming audio community currently in its beta phase called "EarCrush"! I'm all signed up now, though I still have very little idea how it works... not even sure how to link people to my profile yet. I'm sure I'll be able work that out in time. We shall see how it all goes. If you do feel like searching up for Jabun or Better Than The Book on EarCrush though, let me know if you can figure out how it all works...

Lastly, on Wednesday night /  Thursday morning I went to see the midnight premier of Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens and it was INCREDIBLE! No spoilers, but I really think, if you're a Star Wars fan you will NOT be disappointed! I can honestly say that that night was the most incredible cinema experience of my life! The cosplayers, the atmosphere, the sense of community, and that's not even the film yet! J J Abrams has truly created something spectacular with this new movie, merging everything we enjoyed from the original trilogy and enhancing it with a modern edge, but still retaining that classic Star Wars atmosphere and look. I absolutely loved it! If you've yet to see it, go soon! Highly recommended!

That's it for this week and for 2015 at JabunAudio! Lots of stuff has happened and lots of projects have been shared in these past 12 month and I think JabunAudio and the community following it has grown a lot in that that time. Thank you to everyone who's helped support me this year and I look forward to working with you, entertaining you and sharing with you in 2016. Have a great Christmas and a wonderful New Years, enjoy the new Star Wars and I shall see you all next year. Again, thanks for everything and until next time, take care and have a great holiday! 

It's been a busy week since the last update: a few days at the London Studio and the rest of the week back in the (now all fixed up) home studio! Lots to report so let's get started!

Firstly, you read correctly: my home studio is all fixed up now and ready to accept all forms of work again! A huge thanks to my dad who sorted most of it out and to my brother who also helped with the moving stuff around while work was being done. I'd be stuck without these guys' helps so everyone, show them your love! It so nice to be back in this nice comfy room for recording and mixing :D

Next, World Beyond has released an awesome new track "Homecoming: Part 2" which I helped compose and produce! Now a huuuuge confession here: Vlad (the founder of World Beyond) buzzed me a few weeks back to help with the production and proof things for the project, which I was happy to help with as usual. Listening through to some of the earlier drafts, I was really digging this piece, and there was something oddly familiar about it which I couldn't put my finger on... at first I thought maybe I was playing cello (but from a recording session a while ago), but I really couldn't remember... Anyway. Upon the track's release I was given lots of credit, waaay more that I thought was necessary which confused me a lot so I asked Vlad to clarify what I'd actually done for the project (apart from the extra production and proofing in the past few weeks). Turns out that according to him, I'd written a lot of the strings, percussion and synth parts, to which I was at first very skeptical (though one synth part did sound VERY much like something I'd write...). Sure enough though, that night I dug through my project archives and found a project with working title "Coming Home" and indeed he was correct! So then I was thinking to myself "How the heck did I forget about this?!?" Looking at the date I was working on it last, it read September 2013! Suddenly everything made a lot more sense! Well, it's great to have this collaborative project finished after all that time and I'm really pleased with the way it turned out! Huge praise to Vlad who was the real mastermind of this project :3 You can purchase the track on Bandcamp (and listen below) and read more about it in Vlad's own words on the World Beyond Blog. Vlad's also put together an awesome Trailer with his smooth Russian vocals and great visuals which you can watch below as well. There's also an instrumental version of the video on the JabunAudio videos page. We hope you enjoy the music/videos and thank you so much for supporting World Beyond!
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Finally, just a few updates on the Better Than The Book Album. Another intro track is finished which means just 3 tracks left, 2 of which are interludes/extended intros) and 1 of which is the collaborative song with Cyberdevil. I've almost finished recording the song, just a few more bits to go which I hope to have done by the end of next week (hopefully get started on the mixing too). There's a little more audio to get from Cyberdevil for an extended intro, but it should be pretty straightforward I think. Schedule-wise, due to the fast approaching holidays/festivities + the previous delays, I don't think the album will be out by the end of the year, so my aim is to get the audio pretty much done and mixed by the end of the year, ready for beta testing, final polishing, Mastering, artwork and admin stuff in the new year. Apologies for the delay. Hopefully I can make it up to you with a new Jabun album in 2016 too! We shall see :D

That's about it for this week. A little bit of exciting news, I've been approached by another music promo sort of thing which I've been trying to sort out this week. Should be interesting and I'll keep you up to date on any major goings on in that department. What's in store for next week? I'm back in London for a bit, then I hope to get cracking on with the final stretch of the BTTB Album. Been really craving some electronic music recently too which is a sure sign of what to expect after this Ska Punk Season is complete! Anyways, thanks again to my dad and bro for all their help in getting this room back to health, to Vlad for his awesome work on "Homecoming: Part 2" and to all of you for listening, reading and supporting JabunAudio! Next week's update will likely be the last one of 2015 as festivities and family take priority over work in this jolly season :D See all of you then and have a good week! Take care :D

It's been a hectic 2 weeks (though I did have a nice time away last weekend :D). A fair bit to report too, some good, some not so good, but let's get started anyway!

​Firstly (and unfortunately...) on return to the studio at the beginning of this week, I noticed a wet patch on the carpet and nearby wooden furniture, and after moving a lot of stuff around to investigate, it appears that the radiator had been leaking. "No worries", I thought and fixed it in my usual fashion, did some tests and thought that was the end of it, but after lifting up the carpet to see if there was any unseen damage, it was discovered that the floorboards beneath had started to collapse and there was a pretty grim mold problem too... Long story short, I've got to get this problem fixed properly and soon, and since the carpet is up and the furniture's been moved around significantly, my room acoustic are temporarily out of whack too. What will this mean for audio work?

Well firstly, since the room acoustics are messed up, I'm unable to finalize any Mixes or Masters or acoustically record until the problem is fixed and everything is back in order. This obviously means I won't be able to take any commissions involving those sorts of jobs for a little while, but I'm still taking audio fixing / clean-up jobs in the mean time (since I usually do that stuff with headphones anyway). It also means I won't be able to finish any more tracks for the new Better Than The Book Album until this is all sorted which means further delays to the album, making it unlikely that it'll be released before the end of the year. I'm still working towards that goal though! The aim is to have a proper crack at fixing the floor this weekend and assessing whether there's any further damage underneath the floorboards. If there isn't then it could be a fairly simple fix and I'll be back to normal in no time, but if there is, then be prepared for further delays... I shall keep you all updated.

On the bright side, no equipment was damaged (apart from the room itself) and it shouldn't (hopefully) be too expensive to fix. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery!

Finally and in other news, progress on the album continues, though slower than usual due to the circumstances. The extended intro for track 4 is finished apart from final mix checks (which will take place once the room's all fixed up). It was both fun and frustrating trying to find public domain material for this track, though I cannot tell you how immensely satisfying it is to sample other people's work and know you're doing it completely legally :D. Hope you enjoy it! Progress is going ok on the final song featuring Cyberdevil. I've still got a lot of stuff to record for this though (including more backing vocals + guitars) so I won't be able to even get a finished arrangement until the room is fixed. Doing my best in the mean time to record everything that doesn't require the acoustic space (synths and electronicy/samply things). I think this is going to be the hardest track to finish, but I won't let that stop me!

That's about it for this week. Hopefully things'll be back to normal very soon, though only time will tell. Many thanks for your patience and support and hope you all have good weeks. Until next time, take care!