Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week so far! It's been a SUPER busy one here at JabunAudio, but a productive busy rather than a tedious one! Some small(ish) updates to start with before we get into the main news for this week: After a super inspired weekend of Jabun jamming and demo recording, over 30 minutes of demos for Jabun's upcoming 2nd album are now complete with still a tonne more ideas I've left to explore! On top of that, after many months of stalling due to moving studios, illness and being away, I've FINALLY finished recording vocals (and therefore everything) for the mystery cover song I've been meaning to release for the past year! It's onto the final editing, any extra production things and mixing now!

Moving onto non-recording news, I've just about finished sorting through the footage from the various Better Than The Book LIVE practice sessions, totally in 8 videos: 4 shorter clips and 4 full length songs! They're just awaiting approval from the rest of the band before I upload them properly and make them public, but more on the release schedule for those when the time comes. Lastly on the small(ish) updates, I've finally sourced a speaker cabinet for my new Orange Amp which should be with me by the time you're reading this! More on that next week, and boy am I excited!

And with that, let's get onto the main news for this week! After some difficulties getting it all working and set up, Better Than The Book finally has an INSTAGRAM page! I'll be sharing daily pictures on this as best I can, and at the moment I'm running a never before shown series with behind the scenes pictures and in-depth descriptions from recording the One Small Step EP back in 2012! Check out the pictures below for a taste of what you're missing and head over to Instagram for a new picture each morning! I hope you enjoy the journey!

https://www.instagram.com/bttb_music/

​And remember you can support both Jabun and Better Than The Book and get even more behind the scenes peeks (including audio) when you subscribe to my Patreon page! Maybe I don't plug this often enough, but it's a great way to support the projects on a regular basis and you'll get the full BTTB discography and MUCH MORE when you sign up too for MUCH LESS than buying it off Bandcamp or iTunes etc... + I love chatting to people in the comments about things! Hope to see you there:

Get more from Jabun and Better Than The Book on Patreon: 
https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

And that's about it for this week! I think that's about all my main targets for the month already completed too which means more time for me to practice these new BTTB songs, write some more Jabun, and get stuck in producing this mystery cover song! No doubt I'll be filling my time with productive things and maybe even getting a head start on next months targets! We shall see! Until the next post, I hope you have a great final week of January, see you next time for some more $5 Patreon rewards, and thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book, Jabun and my various projects! Take care!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week so far! It's been a super busy one here at JabunAudio, updating the various websites with new front page descriptions, updated about pages, and of course the dates at the bottom of the pages, as well as sorting learning materials for the BTTB live band's next batch of tracks, and writing/scheduling the next set of Patreon rewards ready for the end of January! I also got around to marking up my JabunAudio "World Takeover" map, which was both fun and enlightening, though turns out that with all the acoustic paneling there's probably not enough wall-space in the studio to hang it up! May have to put it in the entrance hall or stairwell, but oh well! Anyways, there's some amazing news to share this week as you can probably read from the title, so let's get to that!

Onto this week's main amazing news, it's been a GREAT start to the year for radio features as The Ska Show with Beefy (The #2 ska radio show / podcast in the world) awards Better Than The Book's "Artificial Ignorance" #16 on their Top 30 new ska tunes of 2019 charts! Thanks so much to Beefy for all the love he's showed for the Hopes and Dreams album and Better Than The Book last year, and check out the replay of the #20 to #11 chart in this latest episode of The Ska Show below:

https://www.facebook.com/TheSkaShowwithBeefy/posts/2744594605628927

Better Than The Book plays about halfway through preceded by a lovely shout out from Beefy! You can also check out the #30 to #11 chart list via the link below:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/the-ska-show-with-beefy-on-southern-fm/playlist-5th-january-2020-the-best-of-2019-chart/2742981579123563/?__tn__=-R

And if that wasn't a good enough week of Ska, Tonic Ska Radio has also been showing the project some love over in London too! Thanks so much for sharing the tunes and check out their Facebook post all about it below:

https://www.facebook.com/tonicskaradio/posts/1205821572961971

Finally on the news for this week, I'm pleased to announce a brand new page on the Better Than The Book website featuring the dates and locations for upcoming BTTB gigs! So far there's only one booking confirmed, but I'm positive more will follow (or precede) that one as the year progresses! Check out the Better Than The Book gigs page and hope to see you at one of the shows!

https://betterthanthebookuk.weebly.com/gigs.html

And that's it for this post! I've got much learning to do for this latest batch of BTTB tunes, as well as some more recording and composition for other projects to catch up, so I've no doubt this coming week will be a busy one for me! Until the next post, I hope you have a great time whatever you're up to and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various other projects! Take care!

Get more from Jabun and Better Than The Book on Patreon: 
https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Happy New Year 2020 everyone and hope you had a great holiday season however you celebrated! It's been a crazy exciting time since the last post and there is SO much HUGE news to share in this one as you can probably see from the title! It's going to be a long post so without further wait, let's dive straight into it!

But first, let's start with some backstory: Better Than The Book has been a studio project of mine since mid 2012, but apart from making the records themselves, I never really had the opportunity / means to take it to the stage. Fast forward to 2016 when Two Years On was released, and things started getting interesting. With 2 tracks making it on the radio over in the USA, I was getting interviews and requests asking when I would be touring the USA, but as a person with no band or funding, I really had no idea what to do. I even had a USA label approach me about the project back then, but without a gig-ready band at the time, I couldn't fulfill the needs they wanted. Fast forward again to 2019 and Hopes and Dreams, and even before the album was released the attention was heating up with radio play as far as Australia and many web features and interviews. When the album launched on July 19ths, things exploded over the next few months and it was clear that people wanted me to take this live, and I'd be kicking myself if I didn't give it a shot. By the end of October, 7/10 tracks from the album had made it onto the radio all across the USA, UK and Australia!

After much discussion with a few close and musical friends, in August 2019, four of us got together for a casual living room jam and strategy meeting, and all things considered, it went super smoothly and I was happy to give this live thing a shot. We set out 8 tracks to learn to start with with the aim to practice hard and meet up for a full band, loud and proud rehearsal before the end of the year, and in late December 2019 it happened, and it was spectacular! Considering we'd never played most of these tunes together, and certainly not in a full band situation, it was already more than 90% there musically, with just a few tiny kinks to iron out (like vocal harmonies and who was doing which backing vocals). I was on top of the world, and at the end of that practice, it was pretty darn clear that 2020 would be an exciting year for Better Than The Book!

And so without further wait, I'd like to formally announce that Better Than The Book will be hitting the stage in 2020 with the following line-up of my crazy friends:

Nick Standing (Me): Lead vocals and guitar
Eamon Standing: Backing vocals, guitar and harmonica (one man horn section)
Sam Brown: Backing vocals and bass guitar
Andy Forman: Drums

Eamon, Sam and I were in our first band together, I was in a band with Andy, Sam was in that same band with Andy before I joined, Eamon and Andy made a record together with me producing it, Sam's been in another band I was in after I left, I've been in a battle of the bands against Andy with that pre-mentioned band (before I left), and of course Andy lent his guitar playing to Better Than The Book's 1st EP One Small Step on the track "Woof Woof, Nag Nag" (as well as many gang shouts on the album along with Eamon). In short, we all have a long musical history together and I honestly couldn't think of a better bunch of people to be doing this with!

What's next for the project? Well we've another 7ish songs to learn before our next meet-up in April then it's time to do the final polishing and start looking for gigs! We already have one confirmed for November (more details to come closer to the time) so at the very latest, our first gig will be then! It's been a tonne of hard work but I can't wait to really push this to see how far we can take it, and if you want to help support the project here on Patreon, it'd really help cover the practice studio and travel costs while we prepare (and get some merch sorted), and of course you'll be getting all the good stuff and full BTTB discography here when you sign up! 2 new patrons have already joined since I made this announcement on Tuesday so come join in the fun over on Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Back to that epic practice in December, I did manage to get some footage of that, as well as subsequent practices too, so keep a lookout for some of that coming hopefully later this month (lots of footage to sort through)! Overall, 2019 was a heck of an exciting year for Better Than The Book, but I have a feeling that 2020 will be just as exciting in a completely different way! There's still a heck of a lot of work to do in preparation for gigging but I think musically and equipment wise we're pretty much there!

And speaking of new equipment, I'm super happy with my lovely new and compact gigging amp I got just before the practice, an Orange Micro Dark! Don't let its size fool you, this thing is DEAFENING if it wants to be! Plugged into a Marshall 4x12 cab at practice, I could only get the volume up 1/3 the way before it was plenty loud enough for the room and to keep up with Andy's drumming! Simple, sweet sounding, my kind of tone and doesn't even weigh 1kg! I'll definitely be putting this in my rucksack for practice rather than taking my 50 watt 14kg+ Marshall amp on the train, as lovely as it sounds.

For the gear heads among you, since the Micro Dark only has one channel (or sound at a time), as opposed to my Marshall which you can switch between 2 via a foot-switch, I took some time during the Christmas period to build a little pedal for it! This'll be the 4th (and most simple) pedal I've designed / built from scratch, and I call it the "Pre-Wash". Put it before you amp and when engaged it cleans up your signal for less distortion, in the same way as rolling the volume down on your guitar can clean the signal. It basically turns a single channel amp into a basic 2 channel one. Neat! I still need to source a speaker cabinet for the Micro Dark to play through in the studio, but as of right now I have all the equipment I need to gig Better Than The Book (which is half the battle)! Check out the Micro Dark and my homemade "Pre-Wash" pedal below!

In terms of other fun holiday acquisitions, my brother Eamon gifted me the Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) triple vinyl soundtrack which was awesome! Definitely my favorite film score of 2019 and almost certainly my favourite film of the year too (controversial opinion I know)! Fun times! Additionally, with all the crazy worldwide feedback on my music last year too, my one and only Eva gifted me a world map to mark up and keep tabs on where my music has been played and featured as well as all the places I've collaborated/worked with and more! I'm super looking forward to filling that in when I can, and planning my JabunAudio world takeover from there! Been meaning to do this for a long time!

Next this week, I have a very special clip to share with you from the upcoming Tales of Zale Episode 3 by Hikarian Animations! I worked on this earlier last year for a cinema screening in Copenhagen doing my usual sound mixing and audio production roles, and it was a pleasure as always to be working on it! I believe this'll have been my first piece of work to be shown in a cinema too (mixed to Dolby specifications I must add) which is very exciting for me! I hope you enjoy the clip below, a huge thanks to Sif for our continued work together on this amazing project, and no doubt there'll be more mixing for me to do on this episode later this year!

Next this week, another month comes by and another set of rewards on Patreon are out, and this time we're continuing with the 2013 Jabun back catalog of music with another and one of my favourite remixes: Clare Jeffrey's "60 Days [Jabun Orchestral Mix]"!  

$1 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/32058625
$5 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/32058620
$10 rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/32096914
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding​

This remix really takes me back and was one of my first real attempts at orchestral writing (which was released), something I'm very much planning to get back to in the upcoming 2nd Jabun album this year. In summer 2013 Clare, who was a friend of mine and close with the people I hung around with at the time, came to me to record a lovely acoustic + vocal song “60 days”. We recorded that in an afternoon I think in the same makeshift bedroom studio that Better Than The Book’s “Two Years On” was recorded in, and with the recording ready for me to mix and master at the end of the day, I began my usual work. I often find when I’m listening to music, especially with my “production hat” on, these things really mix and arrange themselves, telling you what they need and where in order to bring out the best in the melodies or atmosphere, and while I was mixing this lovely acoustic version, the song was saying to me that I had to try making it sound HUGE as well! The result was “60 Days [Jabun Orchestral Mix]” which was really only made for the fun of it but I’m super pleased with it even to this day. With that said, I think I’ll let you hear it for yourselves, I hope you enjoy it, and a huge thanks to Clare for having me record and produce the original as well as have fun with the remix too! It was a blast!     

​For the $10+ patrons, I have a VERY special treat for you this time: a download package with 10+ minutes of rough demos from the upcoming 2nd Jabun album as well as articles on the composition/production process for each of the tracks contained! 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 :)     

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

That's it for this month's rewards and another Jabun track will be coming next time as we continue with the final original track from 2013's Jabun discography! See you then!

Finally this week, it's the beginning of the month and of the year AND of the decade, so it's time to reflect on and set not just some monthly goals but some yearly ones too! I do have a goals list for the decade too, but it's a bit long for this post so I'll be keeping that to myself! Let's see what was set for December 2019:

1) Sort and schedule Patreon reward posts for while I'm away
2) Organise and prepare for the first Better Than The Book full-band practice session
3) Write & record 22.5+ minutes of rough demos for the 2nd Jabun album (total)
4) Finish recording vocals for that cover song (low priority)

So 1) was done no problem, and with that epic BTTB full-band rehearsal I mentioned previously 2) was done too! I wasn't sure how much I'd be able to get done of 3) since I was away and making the most of time away and with family and friends, and although I didn't manage the full 22.5+ minutes, I did manage just over 18 minutes which isn't so bad. 4) was a write-off from shortly after the get-go as I already had a bad throat at the beginning of December and was making sure my voice would be ok for the rehearsals in later December which thankfully they were! With all that reflected on, here's what I'd like to achieve in January 2020:

1) Write & record 30+ minutes of rough demos for the 2nd Jabun album (total)
2) Finish recording vocals for that cover song 
3) Update the websites (change the dates, update descriptions on front page etc...)
4) Sort the next set of Patreon rewards
5) Sort the arrangement and practice materials for the next set of 7 BTTB songs
6) Set up a BTTB Instagram account and share the links on the web etc...
7) Hang up and mark up my JabunAudio world map
8) Sort through all the BTTB footage from the practice(s) and get ready to upload it

That's a lot of goals for the month, but time waits for no one so I'd like to be as productive as I can, whether I can finish them all or not! 1) would be nice and really should only equate to finishing 4 demo tracks, which with all the current half-finished material should hopefully be doable. 2) should be a day's work and now that my throat's better should be doable. 3) will take a while and will be tedious, but needs to be done. 4) I already know what these'll be so I just need to write the posts. 5) is a high priority as the other guys need to know what they're playing and singing ready for the meet-up in April. 6) was recommended in a strategy meeting as a good way to get people hyped for the project and spread the word, so it'll hopefully be worth the effort. 7) will be fun! 8) again will be a bit tedious but I really can't wait to show you all what BTTB live will sound like! BUSY month ahead, but wish me luck and hopefully I'll be able to get through it all! All the best with you own goals too and feel free to share them in the comment section below and we can cheer each other on!

Onto the yearly goals I set at the start of January 2019, here's what I had:

1) Release the 3rd BTTB album and (at least) start on another BTTB or Jabun album
2) There's a cover song I've been meaning to do for a LONG time so I'd like to release that too
3) Invest in some new studio equipment and/or instruments
4) Make some new connections and help make more animations         
5) Keep doing what I do, and keep getting better at it! 
6) Be a better business as well as an audio engineer, music producer and musician. Make 2019 the best financial year for JabunAudio yet!

Overall, not too bad, and while I didn't get all of these completely done, I made a tonne of other achievements which I'm very happy with. With Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams out (and then some) and around half a Jabun album demoed so far 1) is very much completed! 2) is well on the way but was delayed due to illness and an unexpectedly long down-time when JabunAudio moved in September, as well as the long winter break. I think I'm only just behind schedule on this and aim to have it done before Easter. 3) I think I can say is done too! With the new gigging amp mentioned above as well as the wonderful melodica which I bought earlier this year (which is already on some of the new Jabun demos), I think I've definitely put back and invested in my work as well as treated myself to some well earned rewards. 4) I can't actually remember whether I've made any new connections audio-work wise this year, but I've certainly maintained and strengthen a fair few and as demonstrated with the Tales of Zale clip above, I'm still very much working on animations which I love! With all the radio attention worldwide including idobi radio, BBC Introducing, and The Ska Show with Beefy (The world's #2 ska show), I think I can safely say I'm getting better at what I do and certainly have been keeping myself busy doing it (5)! Finally 6) while it hasn't been the best financial year for JabunAudio (moving is always quite the finance sink), it certainly hasn't been the worst which is always good! Reflecting on it, I think last year I was more pushing for success with BTTB rather than JabunAudio in general, and I think that shows in both projects. Overall I'd say 2019 was the best year so far for my music, but I think 2020 with the right push can be even better, and an even better one for JabunAudio too! Here's some targets for 2020:

1) Finish and release that cover song!
2) Finish or at least be in the final stages before releasing the 2nd Jabun album
3) Release the 3 mystery bonus projects I plan to release!
4) Play my first full band gig as Better Than The Book
5) Start work on a new BTTB EP/album?
6) Make a new and updated Patreon intro video
7) Invest in some new studio equipment and/or instruments      
8) Keep doing what I do, and keep getting better at it! 
9) Make 2020 the best financial year for JabunAudio yet!

2020 certainly has some big aspirations but I think they're all doable with the right hard work and know-how. It's definitely looking to be a more self-music focussed year, but I'm super looking forward to working on more collaborative and client projects too, such as Tales of Zale Episode 3 and more! Wish me luck and again feel free to share your own goals in the comment section below and we can cheer each other on! All the best!

And that just about wraps up this mammoth post to begin the decade! I am going to be busy as heck over the next week I'm sure updating the website and scheduling posts (as well as trying to find a speaker cab for the new little amp on eBay), but I hope to find some time for some music making too! Lots to do! Until the next one, I hope you have an amazing start to the decade and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book, and my various projects! If you want more content and to support my music projects more closely, head over to Patreon and join the community there for a front row seat! Hope you enjoy it and take care!

Hello everyone and hope you've been having a great 2nd week of December! It's been busy but a nice kind of busy here at JabunAudio this week, tying up loose ends for closing up for the winter, taking part in seasonal festivities, and just having a bit of fun to be honest! I did attempt some vocal recording for that upcoming cover on Monday, but while I did make some progress, it's quite clear that my voice isn't yet fully recovered (especially enough for metal screaming) so I've decided to postpone that goal until the start of next year. Got a few more minutes of demos recorded for the upcoming Jabun album though, practice sessions sorted for the first full band Better Than The Book live rehearsal (super exciting times!), and had some time to enter a little Fender guitar contest too! Let's continue with that:

So as seems to be the case this time of year, Fender is running another guitar contest to celebrate a new line of guitars, their Japanese Ultra Series, and the challenge this time was to come up with a unique Ultra Riff in a 30 second to 1 minutes video and describe what makes it unique (within the character limits)! The 4 runner up prizes are a Fender Ultra Series guitar or bass + a $500 Fender gift package, and the grand prize is (drum roll please) 2 Fender Ultra Series instruments + a fully covered trip for 2 to California for a tour of the Fender Factory and tickets to Winter NAMM 2020 in January (+ gift packages and gift cards)! Seems to good not to give it a shot so here is my entry below! It would have been cool to play the double-neck, but in connection with the Fender brand I went for my Jaguar with a DropC Nu-Metal riff using the unique circuits of the Jaguar to create some glitchy effects (think Wes Borland meets Tom Morello)! A bit silly, hopefully unique enough, and a lot of fun! I hope you enjoy this little clip! Wish me luck, fingers crossed for a win this time and who knows what I may be reporting in the next blog post!

And with that, that take us to the end of the final blog post of 2019! JabunAudio will be closed for the winter holidays starting Thursday 12th December 2019 (Today), 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! Lots of exciting stuff lined up for me until then and I look forward to reporting on it all in the next post! Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful time however and whatever you're celebrating this winter and I can't wait to bring you more music, news and more in 2020! Thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various projects and making 2019 a fantastic year! Take care and see you in 2020! 

Hi everyone and hope you're having a marvelous start to December! It's been a very busy time for me this week but not so much with JabunAudio stuff. I was away again for the weekend and my hands have been full with with personal errands these past few days too, so my studio work has mainly been making sure all the loose ends are tied up before I close up JabunAudio for the holidays (mainly admin stuff). I think it's going to be hectic until closing time next Thursday so not so sure what exciting things I'll be able to get done, but there's still a couple of things to report in this blog post (as I'm sure there'll be in the next and final one for 2019) so let's get started!

​First of all for the news this week, yesterday was the first Wednesday of the month which means last week's $5 Patreon rewards were just released to the $1 patrons (mp3s and artwork only)! The reward was of course Jabun's "Apollo" from 2013 and you can read more about it in the dedicated Patreon post below:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/31102212 

Or grab the $1 reward here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/31102211

As a reminder 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 it's the beginning of another month which means time to reflect on some goals and set some new ones! Here's what was set for November:

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

Now I think I did mostly well on these, though some spanners were thrown into the works this month too. 1) & 2) seem like ages ago now but were successfully completed! 3) however I only managed to get half done: The guitar solos were recorded well, but I only managed the main lead vocal before getting ill and messing my throat up (still feels bruised from all the coughing). With the remaining vocals being metal screaming + belted high harmonies (high intensity stuff), I've thought it best to wait to fully recover before attempting recording again so unfortunately it might be a while until I can get this one sorted. On the other hand 4) was pretty darn successful I think! Sifting through my overflowing Jabun ideas folder for material for the new album, there's already 19 track ideas I'd definitely like to pursue with another 19 ideas which are less formed but partially recorded too! On top of 20 Ableton sessions and 56 shorter sound clips, there's also over 7 minutes of fully structured rough demos recorded so far with probably half a dozen reasonably fleshed out track ideas in the works at the moment! All in all a good haul I think!

So onto December's goals, here's what I was thinking:

1) Sort and schedule Patreon reward posts for while I'm away
2) Organise and prepare for the first Better Than The Book full-band practice session
3) Write & record 22.5+ minutes of rough demos for the 2nd Jabun album (total)
4) Finish recording vocals for that cover song (low priority)

Goal 1) is a must since I'll not be working (apart from fun stuff) while I'm away especially on Christmas and New Years Day. 2) is an exciting one which has been in talks for a while and it's really just a case of organising it and making sure everyone is suitably prepared to the best of my ability. I'm feeling pretty solid on my own guitar work, though having been resting vocals the past week or so, those may require some more work. 3) I think is a reasonably target, and by rough demos I mean fully structured demos with a definite track structure. I was originally thinking 30+ minutes, but with how busy the holidays can get I think this is much more reasonable but will still be a challenge. If you're wondering why 22.5 minutes, it's because it's one fully packed side of 12" vinyl, and with over 7 minutes already done, it's just another 15 minutes left to write and demo-record this month which should be ok. 4) is low priority as vocal recovery (especially for that BTTB meetup) is more important so if I manage to record those final vocals it'll be next week, but if not, it'll be in the New Year. That's it for my goals and feel free to share yours in the comments if you'd like! All the best!

And that wraps up this post! Next time will be the final blog post of 2019 before I close up shop for the Winter and in honesty, I'm not sure what'll be happening this week and what'll be there to report so we'll just have to wait and see! Until then, I hope you have a great rest of this first week of December (and keep warm) and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various projects! Take care!

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!

Hi everyone and Happy Halloween! Hope you've had a great week so far and have fun plans for tonight if the spooky holidays are your jam. It's been a pretty hectic week here at JabunAudio, mainly sorting out the next set of Patreon rewards as well as filling in an obscene number of spreadsheets for PRS and PPL registrations (and more admin work), but that's all done now which means this afternoon I should be able to get back to setting up the studio, which has made just a little bit of progress over this past week. Thankfully I've found some time to keep inspired on the guitar and other instruments, but I'm hoping to get to a lot more of that soon! Not much apart from that to report this week, other than that the latest set of $5+ Patreon rewards are out! Let's get to that:

​Yesterday was the final Wednesday of the month which means another set of Pateron reward posts for the $5 and $10 patrons are out, and this time we're heading into 2013 continuing the Jabun back catalog of music with another remix-contest track: "3rd September 1939"! I'm also sharing a bonus Patreon/Radio exclusive Better Than the Book track this month: the radio edit of "Get A Haircut" which was featured on BBC Introducing! Just a little extra reward but I hope you enjoy it!  

Onto this month's Jabun track, "3rd September 1939" was created back in February 2013 for a remix context which if I remember correctly was to promote the release of some sample packs. Unlike last month's track which was an actual remix of a pre-existing song, this time contestants were given royalty-free stems to compose with and my entry was the track below. Back then I was still experimenting with finding my own voice as Jabun and remix contests like this are always fun opportunities to experiment with new styles in a low-pressure "have some fun" environment. I wouldn't say I'm completely happy with this one but there are a tonne of elements I do like and it was a great learning experience back in the day! I hope you get a kick out of it at least, and without further wait, here's "3rd September 1939"!

Onto the bonus Better Than The Book Patreon exclusive download: I have the radio edit of "Get A Haircut" which was featured on BBC introducing earlier this month. It's nothing too exciting in that it's the same as the album version apart from having the word "prick" muted (at the request of the BBC)  but as my closest supporters I thought the patrons would appreciate a download of it! Check out the album version of Get A Haircut on Bandcamp:

For the $10+ patrons, I'll be diving deep again into the creation of another track from Better Than The Book's recent "Hopes and Dreams" album, the solemn number on the album "You've Got A Lot To Say" (which you can listen to via the player above too)! 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!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
https://www.patreon.com/posts/31102201​

That's it for this month's rewards and for this blog post too! The $1 Patreon rewards will be out next Wednesday (Mp3s and artwork for the two $5 reward tracks), and it's the beginning of another month too which means more goal setting and reflecting to share! Until then, I hope you have  a great Halloween and start to November and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various music projects! Take care!