Hi everyone and hope you've had a great May (full of bank holidays over here in the UK)! It's been an increasingly busy time over here with wedding preparations and other stuff (only 3 months to go now), so things have been a bit distracted from music unfortunately (definitely nothing to do with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom either... DEFINITELY NOT...), but a little bit of progress has been made at least. Gang vocals and screaming are now complete for Better Than The Book's upcoming album so now it's just the rap and main singing stuff left to do recording-wise! Unfortunately before I got to start on that, I fell ill accompanied by a lingering very sore throat, so I'll have to wait for that to fully heal before I get back to it... Hopefully not too long. I think the plan will be to tackle things track by track now so its certainly coming on, although as usual slower than I'd hoped. There's lots of cool videos and news to share this month though so let's get to that! 

First on the news this month, something super cool that I can't wait to show you NEXT month! Out of that blue I was invited to be a guest on Newgrounds' "Off The Wall" podcast to talk about music, art, animation and other stuff for a little over 2 hours! This was my first time recording a live podcast (edited down but all recorded in one session over discord) so it was a bit nerveracking but an incredible experience. The episode is due for release on June 30th so I'll post it up in next month's rewards. Thanks so much to Aalasteir the host and the OffTheWallShow Podcast team for having me on and encouraging my ramblings!

Next, I've been continuing with my 2 guitar/gear videos a week on YouTube goals and so there's a lot of stuff to share from there! To save on links I've compiled a playlist now which'll be updated with new videos as they're released! Check it out below:

​https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvQTBoOjZdKLgL4ecTvLz6sm

And here's a list of the new additions since last time! I hope you enjoy them (especially the Hurt cover)!

• Guitar Tapping Lick with 3 Variations
• My modified Crybaby Wah Wah Pedal sounds more like a "Whoa Whoa" Pedal?
• 6 vi IV I V Chord Sequence Variations Simple to Complex
• 10 Punk Strumming Patterns
• 10+ Punk Strumming Patterns for compound (triplet) time
• Johnny Cash / Nine Inch Nails - Hurt [Acoustic Cover]... but...
• Killswitch Engage - Rose of Sharyn (2 Parts on 1 Guitar chorus Cover)
• A John5 inspired octave rolls guitar lick

Finally this month, just another quick update. With the new habits and branding I've done some revamping on the Patreon front page as well as my websites! It's mostly done, though I'm still umming and ahhing about changing the bannners, and I've still got to properly sort out my portfolio on jabunaudio.com (eeeerghhhh), but it's getting there. I'm hoping the new layout will be a bit less TL:DR and keep as much of the essential stuff on the front page as possible, as well as trim down some of the excess content so to speak. Feel free to give some feedback and suggestions, and hopefully this'll be done soon too!

https://nickstanding.weebly.com/
https://www.jabunaudio.com/

That's it for this month, unless you're a $10 patron in which case you have an off-vocal demo of Better Than The Book's "Red Kite" (from the upcoming album) to look forward to! More wedding planning in the coming months until September, and I'll be aiming to get back to BTTB vocal recording as soon as I'm able to. In the mean time, there's still more guitar/gear videos to record, and I've been playing with some alternate tunings lately so that could be an interesting topic to cover! Until next time, I hope you enjoy all the new content and thanks as always for supporting me here and however you can! Take care and have a great June!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/82500100
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/82500101
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Hi everyone and hope you had a great April and start to May! It's back to the usual Patreon rewards schedule this month, but with a big twist of sorts as I've done an overhaul of various things since last time. More on that in a second, but first some updates for the month!

Production and recording for the upcoming Better Then The Book album is coming slowly but surely. Hayfever hit me hard this month, but with some nasal spray and anti-histamines I've been powering through as best I can, with some worn out throats which I've had to adjust pace for. Having said that, all the screaming vocals are recorded now and I only have 1 gang vocal track left to go. All the horn parts are now finished again too, so it's really just the main sung/rapped vocals + that last gang vocal left to record! I'll be aiming to get all the rap stuff and that gang vocal finished in the coming month, and hopefully I'll get to some actual singing again before the next Patreon post!

Next this month, I finally got around to modifying / optimising my homemade Superfuzz pedal! A volume jump issue when switching modes and an overall lack of volume in general had been bugging me for ages but it was a relatively easy albeit fiddly fix, and it's now sounding better (and more controlled) than ever! You can hear it in action on bass in the  A P O T H E O S I S  soundtrack below. Level 02 and the Final Boss themes have the best examples. I need to get back to some orchestral stuff at some point:

https://soundcloud.com/jabun/sets/apotheosis-soundtrack-demos

Onto a fun little feature, Jabun's Rebirth from the June22 EP was featured in The Tank Tribune No.79 on Newgrounds! Thanks peeps for sharing the music and the love as always!

https://thetanktribune.newgrounds.com/news/post/1352598

Next, and back to that shake-up I mentioned earlier, after over a decade of being HurpADervish online and on social media, I've decided to rebrand to just Nick Standing and JabunAudio (and Better Than The Book where appropriate). It was a big decision but I want things to be less confusing for people and I feel like JabunAudio is what I'd like to be know as and for from now on. As such, I've changed up the HurpADervish Twitter and YouTube, which were basically JabunAudio anyway to reflect the new branding, cleared out some of my older less, musically relevant/popular videos, and updated the websites as such. Check out the updated links below:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JabunAudio
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JabunAudio

The change of branding came after a point of reflection, as last month I turned 33. I realised that despite my efforts and output in some areas, I've not been progressing as much as I wanted to in others, and specifically, when I turned 30, I wrote down a few goals / places I wanted to be which I don't feel I've got any closer to in the last 3 years... I'm sure much of that has been due to the worldwide pandemic as well as other difficulties, but I also know that I've not actively taken enough steps in the right direction too. As such one big and new thing I'll be trying to do is be more active posting videos on YouTube. Not just the new music with the artwork in the background, but ACTUAL videos of myself, playing guitar, showing my face and (hopefully) inspiring more people on the instrument. Even if it's just short videos of my practice and experiments, I'll be aiming to release 2 videos a week from now on and see how it goes. The Patreon page/rewards may change to reflect these new videos, but I'll be playing it by ear. It's going to be a brand new challenge, but I'm excited to see where it could lead, and maybe one day I'll finally be able to get my name on the back of an Ernie Ball string packet, or have a Yamaha Pacifica signature model guitar made like I've always dreamed. Who knows and wish me luck! Here's some new videos for the month:

Restoring a Leslie Speaker: Guitar Test (3-4-2022) (OLD but unreleased):

April 2023 blog post: The Reward Archive has been updated (4th October 2018 -> 16th March 2023) + monthly news including a new collaboration with Cyberdevil, ChordC & Hania "Ripples of Time (Reduce)" (Free download), starting BTTB Vocal recording and more!

Hi everyone and hope you've had a great March. It's the beginning of another month and so it's time for the usual Patreon update! With the release of Jabun's June22 EP last time, I'm taking a break from music rewards including DEMOlition Pigeon rewards this month, but there's lots of updates and news to share so let's get to that today and I'll be back to the usual schedule come May!

Firstly for the month, with a new album out it seemed like a great time to update the Reward Archives for quick access to all past music rewards and DEMOlition Pigeon articles! As of now, the Rewards Archive is complete from 4th October 2018 -> 16th March 2023! Check it out and read more below:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842

With almost 5 years on Patreon now, there's a whole lot in the back catalogue so I'll leave you to explore if you wish on the Reward Archive post itself. For a quick summary of the changes though, here's a list of the new additions since last time:

$1+ Music rewards:

• Cyberdevil and Jabun - A Lemon Leaf Breeze {Free download + Patreon Exclusive Instrumental}
• Jabun - June22 EP

$10 Demolition Pigeon Rewards

• An exclusive off-vocal studio demo from Better Than The Book's upcoming projects!
• An exclusive Jabun ambient live jam!
• Another exclusive Jabun ambient live jam!
• A WIP studio demo from Better Than The Book!
• Another WIP Better Than The Book demo!
• A sneak peek at Jabun's new June22 EP album artwork!
• An orchestral BTTB sneak peek!

Hope you enjoy exploring if you've missed any and thanks for being a patron!

Onto other news updates for the month, after quite a while of disrepair, I've finally fixed my Jaguar guitar which had some truly messed up controls (to the point of unusable). Not only is it all fixed and sounding better than ever now, but I also finally managed to do some mods I've been meaning to implement since last year! For those interested, these are treble bleed mods on the volume control on both the rhythm and lead circuits (tuned to bring out the best for both circuits). It basically means that things done get dull when you turn the volume down now, which really makes for an even more versatile instrument! Good times!

Next it's been a super busy month for work on Better Than The Book's upcoming album. After a VERY scary moment of panic where I'd accidentally deleted/lost the master session of the opening track (over 2 years in the works...) and thankfully recovered it in full from my back-ups, I was first busy with cello recording (now complete) and now it's onto vocal recording! I decided to start with gang vocals and as of now it's 7 tracks done, 3 to go (and 4 without any), but gang vocals are strenuous so I'm trying not to overdo it on my voice (which I may have done already....). Gotta take it easy as to keep vocally healthy. Going through the final lyric sheets though, there was one track which I wasn't quite happy with (but an easy fix) and one track I REALLY wasn't happy with, and after some long thinking I decided to completely scrap the lyrics and rewrite the vocals (lyrics and melody) from the ground up for that one. It took a little while, but the new lyrics are now complete (which I'm MUCH happier with), and I've already recorded the gang vocals for it too! Unfortunately the change in melody meant that all the horns (and some of the drums) I'd painstakingly programmed for it no longer worked at all, and while I have managed to redo the drums, there's still a long way to go before the horns are finalised again. That said, it's just that 1 track of horns and then all the vocals left to go so it's really coming on well! Not sure how long all these vocals will take but I'm sure the time will fly by and recording will be complete in the next few months!

Finally this month, it's been a little longer than expected in the making but today I'm super excited to reveal my latest collaboration with the one and only Cyberdevil and few new exciting people! I'm sure you already know by now that Cyberdevil and I go waaaay back to 2013 (dang... has it been almost 10 years already?!) with on the whole regular collaborations and frequent chats. Earlier this year, CD invited me to provide some "quick" help with the production on some music he was working on for an animated series on Newgrounds, "Reduce" by Mejson. CD's vocals were already tracked and ChordC provided an excellent orchestral/nu-metal-esq instrumental so it was my job to polish up the mix/master from stems, add a little of my own production flair, and "if I had time" maybe provide some vocals for the chorus. At the same time, CD had also contacted the one and only Hania (of Newgrounds vocal fame) to provide vocals in the chorus too, and while I wasn't originally intending to sing on the track due to work and busy times, when Hania said she was on board, I just couldn't miss the opportunity to sing alongside her! I remember first hearing Hania back when I was 17 and playing and singing her stuff while playing piano. Never would I have thought I'd be singing alongside her 15 years later! Thanks for setting that up CD! Anyways, fanboying aside, a quick mixing request turned into a fully fledged production project and I hope you enjoy our latest collaboration "Ripples of Time (Reduce)"! Check it out on Newgrounds, get a free download, and here are the credits below:

ChordC - Original Instrumental and Idea.
Cyberdevil - Lyrics, Main Vocals and Coordination.
Nick Standing (Jabun) - Backing Vocals, Additional Mixing/Production, Mastering and More!
Hania - Choruses and Backing Vocals.

Listen/download on Newgrounds:

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1204386

That about wraps things up for this month! We'll be back to the usual monthly news and DEMOlition Pigeon rewards in May though the rewards may be a little later than usual as I'm away for some Birthday (hopefully) fun times. Until then, I hope you have an excellent April to come and thanks as always for supporting my music! Take care and I'll see you in the next one!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great start to March! The time has come and today I'm super happy to finally release Jabun's "June22" EP! Check it out now on Bandcamp and I hope you enjoy it:

​Purchase the June22 EP now on Bandcamp:
https://jabun.bandcamp.com/album/june22

After releasing my live and ambient 4th Jabun album Tides in May 2022, I really thought I’d be taking a break from electronic and ambient music to concentrate on my ska-punk project Better Than The Book which between night shifts working retail and other things was slowly but surely working through making its 3rd full-length album. Before even May had come to an end though, I was back to recording some evening electronic ambient jams, and although some of them weren’t great at all, June would bring forth some of my most inspired electronic performances yet!

I already raved about the modular synthesizer performances of Suzanne Ciani in the “about” section of the Tides album on Bandcamp, and to my luck and surprise Ciani was coming to Leeds in June (to my knowledge for the first time ever) to perform with her Buchla Modular System live in quadraphonic! Knowing I’d kick myself if I didn’t go, I bought a ticket and eagerly awaited the evening I’d get to see one of my synth heroes shine on stage on June 22nd! At the time I was still very much listening and researching and experimenting with my own KORG Volca Modular synth, and Decay was the result of some pre-concert excitement and experimentation in the weeks leading up to the big night. Come June 22nd I stepped into the venue to an amazing live and quadraphonic ambient DJ set by Kessie which was a simply incredible experience. As opposed to just the 2 speakers at the front of the stage, there were 2 speakers behind you too, so you really were surrounded by sound as you walked around the small venue hall. Mindblowing! The opening act was an amazing local ambient musician Jake Mehew who played a fantastic set on Modular Synthesiser, Arp Odyssey, and hand-pumped reed organ. After another Kessie accompanied ambient interlude, Suzanne Ciani was ushered to the stage with a grand Leeds welcome and proceeded to conjure her signature incredible electronic soundscapes on her treasured Buchla Modular System. The next 45 minutes or so were a trip out of this world followed by a fun talk with the audience and some further synth jamming, and after an amazing night out, I knew that I’d be setting up my own modular system as soon as I possibly could to release the collected inspiration. Rebirth was the result of a jam the following night.

It’s not always obvious to me whether a random spur of the moment live jam will be released as something more in the future, but as the weeks passed and turned to months while I continued work on Better Than The Book’s 3rd album (along with other things), I found myself revisiting these 2 live performances often and soon realised that they’d become Jabun’s next collective release. After some prep work and subtle mastering, the result was the June22 EP.
​
June22 is a 16+ minute collection of 2 electronic live performances inspired by the modular synthesizer works of Suzanne Ciani. Both tracks from June22 were performed live and recorded as a single take in June 2022 with only the lightest of further processing to bring the EP together in mastering. The system used in both performances consisted of a KORG Volca Modular Synthesizer running into a KORG Nu:Tekt NTS-1 Digital Synthesizer, and was captured on an Akai MPC 1000 Sampler before being mastered in Ableton Live 8.

Decay recorded on June 8th 2022 
Rebirth recorded on June 23rd 2022

Despite being my shortest collective release as Jabun so far both in terms of runtime and track count, and being a bit rough and ready around the edges due to the spur of the moment live nature of the recordings, I’m super pleased with how June22 turned out and really believe it showcases 2 of my most inspired live electronic performances to date. When I close my eyes and let my mind wander, Decay conjures images of walking through a desolate radioactive landscape, alone, a hazy fuzziness clouding your mind and senses as you explore the distorted broken world around you. Rebirth brings images of recovery from such destruction, a time-lapse of plants springing up again from the burnt soil, life and nature reclaiming the land once more. I wonder why my mind wanders to such places when I listen to these tracks? I wonder what images they conjure for you? Whether you sit down to listen intently, have them on in the background while doing something else, or simply immerse yourself in the sounds, I hope you enjoy these uncut live electronic performances from a particularly inspiring month in summer 2022.

This is going to sound silly, but the photo for the album artwork is actually just a pot lid from Eva and I’s kitchen. I recall seeing it one day and noticing how the light bent and reflected off it and thought to myself “What a wonderful texture and image, I should use this for an album cover”! With the metallic nature of some of the sounds from the KORG Volca Modular’s inbuilt reverb, as well as my own imagined narrative of nuclear decay/recovery, I thought this scratched up shiny metal pot lid somehow fit perfectly with the vibe I was going for with June22. Interesting to note too that this is the first Jabun collective release which doesn’t feature any sky and/or sea imagery. I wonder what the next Jabun album will have in store.

All tracks written, performed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun] 
Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing [Jabun] 
Album artwork, images and photography by Nick Standing [Jabun]

A full credits and special thanks section is available now on Bandcamp, but here I'd like to extend a special thanks to Vlad from World Beyond for acting as my 2nd set of ears and helping sharpen up the images in the album artwork! Cheers Vlad! I'd also like to extend my sincerest thanks as always to everyone on Patreon who helps keep my music going each month, with special mention to the current $10 patrons Nathan Puray and Michael White. Thank you all so much for your help and support in making my musical dreams a reality! You folks are amazing!

Read more on Bandcamp: https://jabun.bandcamp.com/album/june22

To celebrate the release launch I'll be hosting a listening party "premier" for June22 on YouTube at 8pm (GMT) tonight! Check out the link below and come hang, ask questions, and let's enjoy June22 together! I look forward to seeing you there:

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j3V6wifdh8
​
Of course my supporters on Patreon are celebrating today with the full download package of the June22 EP which includes Mp3s (+ WAVs for the $10 patrons), full sized album art + cover photo + alternative cover, and a photo from the recording sessions of track 01 "Decay"! As usual the $10 patrons are getting a sneak peek at what I'm working on currently, and this month I'll be sharing another WIP studio demo from the upcoming Better Than The Book album with them! If any of that sounds good to you, then consider becoming a patron for as little as $1 today, and remember you'll be getting the full back-catalogue of rewards for your tier when you join, including the full BTTB, Jabun and Nick Standing discographies, bonus Patreon exclusives and much more! Find out more below:

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/78068528​
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/78068526​
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

June22 will be arriving on all the usual streaming services/stores, YouTube and Newgrounds shortly, but in the mean time you can listen to the full EP on Bandcamp, or for a quick teaser head to SoundCloud. Enjoy!

​Onto updates and news for the month, it's been a SUPER busy and exciting one this time, although not without its frustrations along with the good times as well. Starting with some studio updates, you may recall last month's report of my long time music production laptop finally having to call it a day, and with the relatively smooth migration to my desktop set-up I thought things would be perfect to start recording again early this month. Oh how wrong I was... With the new set-up came a huge problem, long story short, a ground loop noise issue which meant I was unable to record into the desktop without an insane and basically unusable amount of electrical noise / interference corrupting my signal... After a few devices bought and returned, I finally managed to fix the problem with a £20 Behringer Ground Loop Isolator (the HD400), and HOLY MOLEY, I should have got one of these years ago... I've been used to having a small but workable amount of noise in the signal in the past, but this things kills ALL that interference. It is SILENT. I honestly didn't realise getting recordings THIS clear was possible! Feels great!
​
And with that, I ended up finally recording some melodica, synth and some other stuff to add in some production extras for Better Than The Book's new album (see the $10 DEMOlition Pigeon rewards for further details)! After a rocky start, it's been a very productive month in that department and now there's just 2 tracks left to do before it's ONLY vocals left to record! I'll be hoping to tackle both of those in this coming month, mainly some cello recording + some other stuff. Hopefully it all goes smoothly! I've also had some exciting collaborative work on the cards too in the last week or so, so I'm hoping to share that with you next time. Busy busy!
Next on the news this month, some SUPER exciting updates on gear! After (no exaggeration) almost 2 and half years of searching pretty much daily for them online, including a few near misses, I FINALLY managed to get my hands on some bass pedals for my Yamaha Organ, which means apart from some extra potential effects pedals, the organ rig of my teenage dreams is finally complete! Check it out below:

​Considering the extortionate asking prices of some of the pedals I'd seen previously, I managed to get my own BP-1 bass pedals for a great deal, mainly since it was missing the "lid" to fold it up into its own suitcase for transportation. From experience, the main organ's lid just sits on the corner of the room behind my cello anyway, so it wasn't a dealbreaker for me. The Bass Pedals on the other hand now allow me to play basslines with my feet, also freeing up my hands to change settings and tweak effects while still playing, or even play guitar while playing organ with my feet if need be too! With the fully fixed up YC-25D combo organ + BP-1 bass pedals + my home-made rotary speaker, some effects pedals and the amp, and a box of spare parts I picked up earlier, touch wood this should be all my electronic organ related dreams sorted for life! It's been a long time in the works, and I can't wait to put the full thing into some tracks and jams soon (though you'll hear it without bass pedals a tonne in the new BTTB record)!

With the great times comes the not so great though, and shortly after setting up the full organ rig, my Jaguar guitar (pictured above on the left) has been put (half) out of commission... I'd been experimenting with some modifications for it and whether it be due to out of date contact cleaner or just already worn out parts, I've managed to mess up a few components to an unusable level so much so that they'll need replacing... a pain in the backside. I'll be hoping to fix that (and maybe finish the mods?) in the coming month, and hopefully it all goes smoothly. On the bright side, the Jaguar is basically 2 guitars in one electronically, and it's only one of those guitars (The "Rhythm Circuit") which is messed up, so I still have the "Lead" side to play with. Such is the way of luck I guess...

Finally this month, I thought it'd be cool to share with you an update from my personal life. If you're not aware already, I'll be getting married in August, and the invites that I made were sent out earlier this month! I'm super happy with the design I made (and Eva approved) for them, so I thought it'd be a shame not to share it around! Check it out below and hope you enjoy the oldschool and personal vibes!

​That about wraps things up for this time! With such a big release, I'll be taking a break from any audio / project rewards in April to update the archives and such, but I'll be sure to check in with monthly updates nonetheless. We shall return to our usual schedule come May! Until then, I hope you have a grand March ahead and enjoy the new June22 EP and I hope to see you tonight at the listening party on YouTube! Thanks as always for supporting my music and take care!

December 2022 Blog and Patreon post: Another WIP Better Than The Book demo for the $10 patrons, World Beyond's new album "Blindsight" is out, Tales of Zale: "Flickering Lights" gets multiple awards on Newgrounds and a Spanish Dub + more updates!

Hi everyone and hope you've had a good November since the last post. It's been another tough and busy month over here and apart from some progress mastering the upcoming Jabun EP I've unfortunately not been able to get to any of my personal projects since last time. That being said, it has been a very exciting month for collaborative projects so let's share the good news there:

First up, I'm super pleased to announce that World Beyond's new album "Blindsight" is now out and available on all the usual platforms! Check out the link below for all the options:

https://fanlink.to/blindsight  

And read more about it on the World Beyond blog below as well!

https://www.worldbeyond.net/2022/11/new-album-blindsight-available-111122.html

This'll be my 5th multi-track release with World Beyond (including the Revolt 3 track single, but not including other single releases), and this time I played cello on 2 tracks as well as put in countless hours of proof-listening and non-hands-on production assistance! On top of a wonderful album, Vlad's been busy putting together some amazingly animated music videos for each track as well which seem to be coming out weekly on the World Beyond YouTube channel! Check out the videos for the tracks I played on below and subscribe to keep up to date with the new videos as they arrive! Welcome again to our World Beyond and hope you enjoy the adventure!

Bewitched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaG-3w3ZkrU
​

Land of Serenity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofUgLd-w9fg

Onto other projects, Sif Savery's Tales of Zale: "Flickering Lights" has finaly come home to Newgrounds and was greeted with big praise! Not only did it receive a Front Page feature award before it even passed judgment(?!), but it also went on to receive the Daily Feature (1st Place) Award and the Weekly 2nd Place Award too! A huge congrats to the team and thanks to the Newgrounds community for their warm welcome and check it out on Newgrounds below:

https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/862126

On top of that, Flickering Lights has also received a complete Spanish dub as well! My role this time was mainly just to strip the English voices from my English language mix to prepare it for dubbing, but apart from any Spanish speaking parts, it's still me on the mixing desk as usual, and I must say that the voice cast sounded on point to me too! Check it out below on YouTube and hope you enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rExh3EZQ2_0

Finally for this post, a quick reflection on monthly goals again, and as mentioned above it's been another very difficult month again so no progress at all with the ones set last time. As such I'll just be renewing the same goals as before, though it still may still be a while until I'm able to tackle any:

1) Finish the masters for the upcoming Jabun EP (Some progress made but still not finished)
2) Finish melodica parts for Better Than The Book
3) Finish cellos for Better Than The Book

On top of that, I also have some studio repairs to do and some guitar modding I'd like to do soon too, so those are on the list as well (though not formally). As before we'll see how it goes and celebrate any small victories as and when. Hopefully there'll be something to celebrate in the New Year.

That's it for this month's post unless you're a $10 Patron in which case you have another Better Than The Book WIP studio demo to listen to as well. It's looking to be a very busy and difficult few months ahead so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to work on my own projects for a while unfortunatley, but I'll try to keep up with the monthly updates as best I can, and expect to hear more updates about the upcoming Jabun EP soon. Until next time I hope you have a good December, Christmas and other Winter Festivities, New Years and beyond to come and thanks as always for supporting my music and projects. The next update will likely be a bit late as I hope to be away for New Years, but I shouldn't be gone too long. Take care, enjoy all the new music, and all the best!

P.S. Would you believe that Better Than The Book's One Small Step EP celebrates it's 10th anniversary since release at the end of December!? Crazy how time flies and thanks for supporting Better Than The Book for all these years! Hope to have some more tunes to you soon!

All Patreon supporters will receive all past rewards for your tier when you sign up so check out the archives to see everything you can catch up on and hope to see you there!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/74132961
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/74132974
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

​November 2022 blog and Patreon post: An exclusive Inktober Instrumental Jabun beat download for all Patreon supporters, a WIP studio demo from Better Than The Book for the $10 patrons + big updates from World Beyond, Cyberdevil and more!
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Hi everyone and hope you've had a good October, Halloween and everything. Truth be told it's been a very difficult and turbulant month on my end, and with all that's been going on I've had to put all personal projects on hold for the moment, hopefully not for too long. I wasn't sure whether I'd be writing a post this month at all, but as it so happens it's been a very eventful month with collaboration news AND for the first time in a while I have a related new music download reward for my supporters on Patreon (exclusive too)! Let's get started with the monthly updates:

Firstly, as has become tradition, for the 4th year in a row, my pal Bob Axell AKA Cyberdevil has been doing his yearly Inktober challenge, writing and recording a new rap every day for the whole of October! As usual, I was invited to submit a beat to lend some inspiration, and although tough finding the time/headspace, I just about managed to get one to him which I'm really pleased with! Check out Cyberdevil's Inktober 2022 adventure below (there's also a doodle a day in the art tab):

https://cyberdevil.newgrounds.com/audio/

And check out our collaboration for day 26 below "A Lemon Leaf Breeze" which was also awarded a Front Page feature! Thanks Newgrounds:

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1167590

Lyrics: https://cyberd.org/inktober-26-a-lemon-leaf-breeze-lyrics.html

AND as an extra exclusive treat, I'll be sharing downloads for the instrumental beat with all my supporters on Patreon! Hope to see you there (see the end of the post for details)! 

This instrumental was a really cool one for music production "firsts" for me as it was my first time recording with my homemade spring reverb and Fender Mini-Twin amp (for the guitar), and also the first time recording with my homemade Leslie Vibratone style rotary cabinet (on the organ). I think this is also the first publically released track with that vintage Yamaha YC25d combo organ on it too which is pretty cool. Overall I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, and for those wondering (because I've been asked about it a few times already), that glitchy "synth" scratching sound is actually an electric piano being run through an analog modelled delay feeding back on itself and then playing with the delay time (courtessy of the Yamaha Reface CP's CP80 sound and the onboard analog delay effect). It's much too fun. I need to do it more often!

Onto other collaborators, World Beyond has been cooking up an amazing new cinematic orchestral album "Blindsight" which I've been helping put the final touches on (as a second set of ears) over the last few weeks! As far as I know, after careful considerations and hours or prooflistening, it's just about ready to be released and should be out in the next week or so! Expect to hear me on cello for a few tracks and check out the amazingly animated teaser below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAWlvB8-PLU

More on the following link when the album's out!

https://fanlink.to/blindsight

Finally in collaborative news this month, I'm super proud to say that Sif Savery's Tales of Zale "Flickering Lights" animated film that I did the sound mix (and some sound design) for has been awarded "Best Nordic-Baltic Children's Film" by the Fredrikstad Animation Festival 2022, by the jury of children too apparently! Amazing news, a huge congrats to Sif and the rest of the team and check out the trophy below. Super cool!

https://twitter.com/Sifps/status/1583847952237273090

Before I leave you to it until December, a quick reflection on monthly goals, and as mentioned above it's been a very difficult time so no progress at all with those. As such I'll just be renewing the same goals as before, though it may still be a while until I'm able to tackle any:

1) Finish the masters for the upcoming Jabun EP
2) Finish melodica parts for Better Than The Book
3) Finish cellos for Better Than The Book

Well see how it goes and celebrate any small victories as and when.

That about wraps things up for this month, unless you're a $10 patron in which case, I have another sneak peek WIP studio demo from Better Than The Book to share with you, a track I was supposed to be recording cellos for last month and which seems lyrically appropriate given the current times. I'm really not sure how much I'll be able to do music-wise in the coming month(s) but at the very least, I'll be back in December to share with you a link to World Beyond's brand new album "Blindsight" so I hope you're looking forward to it. Until then I hope you have a good November to come and thanks as always for supporting my music, collaborations and more however you can and especially on Patreon. All the best, take care and I hope to be sharing more new music with you soon.

All Patreon supporters will receive all past rewards for your tier when you sign up so check out the archives to see everything you can catch up on and hope to see you there!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/73367978
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/73367977
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

October 2022 blog and Patreon post: Monthly updates including Sif Savery's Tales of Zale - Flickering Lights (which I did the audio mixing for), a feature celebrating Roland's 50th anniversary, BTTB horns finished + Another exclusive Jabun ambient live jam for the $10 patrons and more!

Hi everyone and hope you've been having a good September. It's been another busy month here, and I'm so stoked to finally be able to share this with you (the video below) so let's get straight to that!

Following last month's trailer and after a tonne of hard work from a plethora of people, I'm super pleased to finally be able to share with you Sif Savery's Tales of Zale - Flickering Lights, an animated short film! I've been working on the audio mixing (and some sound design) for this for a few months now, but when Sif says that we were working on it right up until the release time, she REALLY means it! I think I sent off the final cut of the audio about 6 hours before the release, and it was approved less than 5 hours before the premier too! Crazy work schedules, but I think you'll be able to appreciate how much went into it! A huge thanks to Sif for having me on the project again, and a big shoutout to Matthew (the composer) and Patrick (the foley artist / sound designer) who I've been working with closely over the last few months! Check out Tales of Zale - Flickering Lights!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DLbgOeE2_w

Also, Sif's got some cool merch on sale if you're interested too! The link's in the video description on YouTube, and I just had to pick up the production artbook as a memento. Go check it out!

Another cool little bit of news following from last month, in celebration of their 50th Anniversary, the music tech company Roland asked for people to send in their stories of how Roland products have enriched their musical journey, and this month they've published the story I sent in! The editing is a little janky, but it tells the story of how my twin (after already gifting me my trusty Tr-08 a Christmas or two prior) gifted me a vintage Tr-505 drum machine for my 29th birthday: my first piece of gear older than I am! The article also features links to music by Better Than The Book and Jabun and it's an honour to be featured on among the greats on the Roland site! Check out "Nick Standing -  Welcome to the Club" below:  

Roland & Me feature: https://articles.roland.com/roland-and-me/

As a token of their thanks for sending in a story (and it being picked), I also have an awesome 808 hat and 50th anniversary T-shirt waiting for me too! Thanks so much for all the inspiration and the fun gifts Roland!

Onto other updates for the month, after such a busy and important project, it finally felt like a good (and safe) time to replace the cable on my main studio headphones. I've been using these since before I was recording Two Years On waaay back in 2015 and they've been run over by chairs, caught on stands etc... so much that they were very much in need of dire repairing. All good now though and hopefully this new cable holds for a long time. Onto more musical updates, I'm super happy to announce that horns have finally been completed for the upcoming Better Than The Book album (and more). It's just some extra acoustic stuff (including cello) left to do hopefully in the coming month, then it's finally (hopefully) time to start laying down vocals! It's been a long time working on this, and there's still much more to do. Meanwhile I've been busy prepping some new stuff with World Beyond, as well as another Jabun EP coming soon, so it's not going to be too long until the next project reaches the end of the pipeline! Exciting and busy times ahead!

Finally as usual for the month, let's take some time to reflect on and set some goals! Here's what I set last time:

1) Finish Tales of Zale Episode 3
2) Finish the final Better Than The Book horn part
3) Replace the cable on my studio headphones (if possible)

And done, done, done! Not really much to comment on those! Horray! With that said, as mentioned above already I do have some plans for what I'd like to get done this month so let's see if I can do the following:

1) Finish the masters for the upcoming Jabun EP
2) Finish melodica parts for Better Than The Book
3) Finish cellos for Better Than The Book

As well as keeping on top of the usual admin stuff. It's going to be tricky depending on how much other stuff I have going on this month, but we'll see how it goes!

That about wraps things up for this time, unless you're a $10 patron in which case you have another exclusive Jabun live ambient synth jam to look forward to. I'm hoping next month will be a bit more relaxed and restful, but we shall see what it brings! Until then, I hope you have a great October to come and thanks as always for supporting my music however you can and especially on Patreon! Take care and all the best!

All Patreon supporters will recieve all past rewards for your tier when you sign up so check out the archives to see everything you can catch up on and hope to see you there!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/71688981
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/71688980
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

September 2022 blog and Patreon post: Monthly updates including a trailer for Sif Savery's Tales of Zale Episode 3 (which I'm doing sound for), a feature celerating Roland's 50th anniversary, more BTTB horn updates, An exclusive Jabun ambient live jam for the $10 patrons + setting and reflecting on more goals!!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a good summer! It's been turbo busy over here working on the amazing thing in the title so let's get on with the updates and get straight to that!

After much hard work from a tonne of talented people, the time has almost come and I'm super pleased to finally be able to announce that I'll be mixing audio again for the latest episode of Tales of Zale!

Check out the trailer and mark September 7th on your calendars because this is one you won't want to miss! A huge thanks to Sif Perlt Savery for having me on the team! It's been undoubtly the most challanging and ambitious animation I've been a part of to date! ​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpXKM8wMdb0

Onto other updates, despite such a busy month, I still managed to get a full 3 more horn parts finished for the upcoming Better Than The Book projects (as well as playing around with some other stuff)! Just one more horn part to go, and it's SOOO close, but not quite done yet so I'll be aiming to finish that off in September!

Meanwhile and lastly for the news this time, the synth/music-tech company Roland is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and to celebrate they asked people to send in their stories of how Roland has changed and enriched their lives! Among the countless stories, it looks like they've chose not just mine but also my twin Eamon (who used to work for the company)'s stories to publish! Super cool! They're staggering the posts, so mine's not up just yet, but you can read the story of how Eamon got me my trusty Tr-08 drum machine for Christmas while working as the Roland rep in Andertons! They've even featured "Waves" from the Tides album on their blog too. That's pretty darn cool! I hope you enjoy the read and look forward to sharing with you my own drum machine related story (again another present from Eamon) when it's up!

Roland & Me feature: https://articles.roland.com/roland-and-me/

And finally for this month, some goal setting and reflecting as usual! Last time I set just the single goal to finish up those BTTB horn parts, and with 3 out of 4 complete, despite knowing how busy things would be with other things, I'm pretty pleased with progress! With that said, here are the (some probably obvious) goals I'll be setting this month!

1) Finish Tales of Zale Episode 3
2) Finish the final Better Than The Book horn part
3) Replace the cable on my studio headphones (if possible)

Those first 2 goals I'm sure will be doable, though I do aim to take it easier this month once Tales of Zale Episode 3 is out, it's been quite the busy adventure! That last goal is one I've been meaning to do for a while but kept putting off until this big project was done. I've had my main studio headphones since before Two Years On was recorded, and with the amount of times I've accidentally ran over the cable with my chair or caught it on things, it's a miracle it hasn't needed replacing sooner really! Some research to do, but they're nice headphones so if I can just replace the cable, that'll be the goal! Wish me luck and I hope you have a good month ahead too!

That about wraps up the post for this time. If you're a $10 patron you have a new exclusive Jabun live ambient modular synth jam to look forward to, but until next month I hope you have a great September to come and thanks as always for supporting my work however you can! Take care and enjoy the new episode of Tales of Zale on September 7th!

All Patreon supporters will recieve all past rewards for your tier when you sign up so check out the archives to see everything you can catch up on and hope to see you there!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/70045307
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/70045312
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Hi everyone and hope you've had a great July and stayed cool during this crazy hot weather! Since all my personal backcatalogue has been uploaded now, this'll be the first regular monthly blog post without any Patreon reward downloads (unless you're a $10 patron), but I'm thinking this area's looking a bit empty so let's see if I can muster up something else to share in the near future while you're waiting for the next big project release from Better Than The Book or Jabun (at least for the Patreon supporters)!

In the mean time it's onto monthly updates, and it's been an intensely busy few weeks spent on a super exciting mystery collaborative project I'm still not sure if I can talk about yet. Only a few months until release time though so there'll be something to share on that very soon (and it's one of the biggest projects I've worked on yet). Meanwhile, I managed to find some free time in between heaving mixing sessions to continue arranging horns for the upcoming Better Than The Book album projects, and so 3 more horn parts are finished and only 4 are left to go! Slow progress but progress nonetheless and I'm super pleased with the way it's sounding at least!

Meanwhile, Vlad from World Beyond has released an amazing "short (but not really)" animated music video for our work together on the Nobody Asked For This So I Did It album! The new video shares the lore behind World Beyond's fictional storytelling with a super nicely put together hybrid animation and really showcases Vlad's creativity in the visual arts, storytelling, and of course music! You'll hear me pounding along on bass and lead guitar as usual too. Check out the new music video below and hope you enjoy it!