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Hi everyone and man oh man has it been a busy month of October! There's a tonne of stuff to share this time so let's get straight to it!
Firstly in the news for this month, a huge update to share as Better Than The Book's upcoming album is now edited and ready to start mixing! That's 14 tracks all ready to hit the mixer this coming month (and beyond), and man oh man have I been looking forward to this! That's not to say there won't be any further editing at all, but things are sounding pretty solid right now! It's really just a case of polishing things up now and bringing out the best in every track. Super exciting, though I'm sure it'll still be a few months until everything's complete and ready to release! In any case, I'm positive the album will be out in 2024, so look forward to more BTTB in the new year! Next this month, my good friend Cyberdevil has been up to his usual INKtober challenge for the 5th year in a row, where he writes and records a rap every day of October, and as usual I've thrown a beat his way to provide some backing and inspiration! It was an especially fun challenge for me this year as after spending so much time editing BTTB stuff on the computer, I decided to compose and live perform the beat entirely with my first ever groovebox, the KORG EM-1 Electribe. It's only got a set selection of sounds and effects in it, unlike a sampler or DAW where you can record your own sounds into it, but the limitations make it a super fun sketchpad to play and compose with. It gives you what it has, and it's up to you to make the best of it! I ended progamming and then live mixing/performing the beat, then giving it a quick mastering style polish in Ableton before sending it CD's way for him to lay down an oldschool rap verse and what a great performance he gave too! The track even went onto receive a Front Page Feature Award on Newgrounds.com which is super cool! Check out our Inktober collaboration "Pool Party" below: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1258761 And if you're a Patreon supporter, you have an exclusive download of the instrumental beat to download too! Head here to become a supporter for as little as $1 a month and get ALL past rewards including the full Better Than The Book and Jabun Discographies and tonnes more as soon as you sign up. Enjoy and hope to see you over there! https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding On top of that, after watching some of my YouTube guitaring videos, CD got inspired to rap over one of my Guillotine Switching riffs too! It's very rough and ready but I very much appreiate the word being spread, and super happy to hear my guitaring has people inspired! Check out "The Guillotine Switch Pitch" Below: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1252434 AND if that's not enough my twin Eamon also threw a beat in for the first time this year too! Completely different vibes to mine and I think Cyberdevil and Eamon worked well on this one too! Check out "Rockstar Inc" Below: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1258481 And if you feel like catching up with the full INKtober2023 month, here's a link to the full playlist below. It's quite a ride! https://www.newgrounds.com/playlist/319932/inktober-2023 Next on the list, it's onto another good musical friend Vlad from World Beyond who's been busy making music videos for his revisited Winter Legend EP! The video series concluded yesterday with a full on music video to the track Everything We Stand For which I played acoustic guitar on! Check out some top notch WB video editing and some cute hedghogs, and feel free to revisit the Winter Legend EP too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slX8_6h5BNA
Finally it's onto the gear and guitar videos for the month and it's another 2-a-week packed playlist for you with some more fun Guillotine Switching (including my best numetal DJ impression), some extra guitar techniques and alternative tunings, messing with effects and sound design and more! Here's the usual playlist link with the added videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvQTBoOjZdKLgL4ecTvLz6sm
And here's a list of the latest additions:
Hope you enjoy them and there's much more to come in the coming month! And that about wraps things up for this month, unless you're a $10 patron in which case you have a pre-mix demo for a bonus version of Better Than The Book's "Hold Me Tight" from the upcoming album to look forward to! Looks like I'll be busy getting started on mixing that album in this coming month along with recording some more guitar/gear videos for the YT channel so I'm sure it'll be an exciting time! Until the next post, I hope you have a great month to come, enjoy all the new music and videos and fun stuff and thanks as always for supporting my work however you can! Take care and all the best and see you in December! $1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/90192203 $10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/90192161 Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842 Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
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Hello everyone and hope you've had a good September! Seems like this time of year is just flying by at the mo, but it's been as busy as it has been productive over here and there is a fair bit to share (some very exciting stuff IMO)! Let's get to it!
Onto the updates for this month, it's been a busy one getting all these fully recorded Better Than The Book tracks checked, edited, and ready for mixing and so far, just 1 out of 14 is ready for the mixing fun! That might not sound like a lot, but since last time, all 14 tracks have been finely combed to remove any unwanted noises (mainly background clicks or hum from electricity), and all the vocal/other instrumental performances/takes have been sorted and compiled for the best peformances too (apart from 2 derivitive tracks which share the same vocal parts and need checking once the others are finalised). It's pretty much just the final checks to go through now so I'm very much hoping to get those last 13 track done and ready for mixing by the end of October! We shall see how it goes (it's supposed to be a pretty busy month ahead again). Next, I've been busy keeping up with my 2 guitar videos a week, and as usual here's the updated playlist for you: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvQTBoOjZdKLgL4ecTvLz6sm And it's been a SUPER exciting one this time! We have some more 2 hand tapping guitar ideas, some acoustic slide guitar, a playalong to one of the Better Than The Book guitar solos, some more ska/reggae organ, and (get ready for it), the unveiling of a brand new guitar technique I've not seen done before and I specifically developed for the doubleneck guitar: Guillotine Switching! To paste the desciption from the unveiling video: "A while ago someone commented that they wanted to see how I'd play standing up since that's my name and I always seem to play sitting. I thought I'd save it for when I present my ULTIMATE TECHNIQUE and the time has finally come to stand! I've been working on this for a few years on and off now, but I've not seen anyone use this technique before which is specific to multi-neck electric instruments (please comment if you have). This demo is fairly basic, but I'm working on more complex applications and I think it'll open the door to actually mastering the doubleneck electric guitar as its own instrument, rather than just 2 guitars connected!
I hope you enjoy it, and there's much more to come in October too! Here's a full list of the video additions since last time:
Finally, a nice little press feature as news of my wedding to Eva (amongst other things) made it onto The Tank Tribune over on Newgrounds! Thanks so much for sharing all the happy news peeps! Feel free to check out the full newspaper below: https://thetanktribune.newgrounds.com/news/post/1384926 That about wraps things up for this month, unless you're a $10 Patreon supporter in which case I have a fully recorded (but not yet edited) WIP demo of the "Hold Me Tight" from the upcoming Better Than The Book album for you! Looks like Cyberdevil is back to his Inktober mischief this year so along with a tonne of Better Than The Book editing, hopefully I'll find a moment to throw a beat his way too! I'm sure there'll be a tonne of updates to share in November on top of a few more guitar videos. Until then, I hope you have a great October to come and thanks as always for supporting my music and project however you can! Take care! $1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/88602898 $10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/88602899 Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842 Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
Yo yo yo everyone and hope you've had a GREAT August! It's the beginning of another month and time for more updates and rewards, and there's some HUGE project and personal ones over here to share this time! Let's get straight to it!
Firstly, a HUGE personal update as on August 19th, Eva and I celebrated our 10th anniversary together by getting married! After a quick mini-moon break, we had an amazing party the following weekend with heartfelt speeches, some mosh-pit and dance floor madness, and competative wedding games including one of my best friends (and DJ for the night) racing to eat some super spicy noodles! I can honestly say it was the best day of my life! What adventures will be had next? We'll have to wait and see :) Thanks so much Eva for being in my life and now being my amazing wife! I love you soo much! 
A shoutout to Vlad from World Beyond who shared a post about the special occasion on the World Beyond blog and bilibili too! Thanks for the amazing and kind words Vlad! I've known Nick Standing since the track Mountains of Gold for which he kindly agreed to record acoustic guitar back in 2013 on Newgrounds. I was so impressed by his guitar composition Mayhem Market that I couldn't think of a better musician for that role and I'm happy to say that he only excelled at his craftsmanship several amazing albums later as Better than the Book, Jabun and guitarist and a member of World Beyond. I am happy that Eva, the most caring, smart and hardworking person I've encountered, and Nick, a real gentleman whose openness, honesty, skill and expertise are inseparable traits, met each other and became a couple. https://www.worldbeyond.net/2023/08/eva-and-nicks-wedding.html https://t.bilibili.com/831672098498805767#reply181899378608 Meanwhile just before heading off to get hitched, I FINALLY finished tracking and recording for the upcoming Better Than The Book album! 10 tracks + 4 bonus tracks are now fully recorded and just awaiting some final editing before mixing! I'm hoping to get at least half of that editing done this month, but the biggest album hurdle (recording) is now complete! Still no ETA for release but it's slowly but surely getting there! I'll be taking my time to make sure this is worth the wait! Finally for this month, there's another load of YouTube videos for the new regular posting habit! Check out the updated playlist below: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvQTBoOjZdKLgL4ecTvLz6sm And here's a list of the new additions since last time! I especially enjoyed experimenting with different alternative tunings! They really do draw me to different ways of thinking/playing:
That about wraps things up for this month, unless you're a $10+ patron in which case you have a fully recorded demo of "Rewrite" from the upcoming Better Than The Book album to look forward to! It's going to be a busy month of BTTB editing and guitar video recording (and wrapping up the post-wedding tasks), and hopefully I'll finally get some time to finish updating the JabunAudio website too! We shall see. Until next time, I hope you enjoy the new videos and music and I shall be back at the beginning of October with more updates! Thanks as always for supporting me and my various projects and take care! $1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/86950958 $10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/86950959 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! Another month is here which means another post and set of updates! Let's get to it!
First up, despite being away for a week seeing Iron Maiden and enjoying a stag do and some good times with family and friends, it's been an incredibly productive month working on Better Than The Book's album with 6 more vocal tracks fully recorded! 4 tracks left to go, and one of those in just a stripped back acoustic version of another using the same recordings, so really it's just 3 tracks to record! I'm hoping to have that all done by the end of this month, but with the wedding coming up in less than 3 weeks as I type this + the bash, a mini-moon, and not to mention the mountain of prep still left to do, that miiiiight be a bit ambitous... at this rate I'm sure it'll all be recorded and deep into the final editing by the end of September though, then onto mixing! Exciting times ahead and I really think it's gonna blow you all away! Next up I've kept busy with my 2 guitar videos a week goals and after some incredibly inspired sessions including inventing my own never before seen special technique (though you'll have to wait until September to see that), I've added another 14 videos to the schedule this month! I'll be slowing down with my own recording now as I'm currently 2 full months ahead of schedule. Feeling good though and it's been a heck of month in July with some lovely comments and vibes. Check out the updated playlist below: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvQTBoOjZdKLgL4ecTvLz6sm And here's a list of the new additions since last time! I especially recommend the "15 years of self-doubt" and Message in a Bottle videos! Enjoy!
Finally this week, last month's interview on the Off The Wall Show Podcast was featured on Tankman Triweekly and The Tank Tribune on Newgrounds! Thanks for sharing the stuff peeps and it's always an honour! First time in the Tankman Triweekly too! Hope you and your readers all enjoyed it! https://tankmantriweekly.newgrounds.com/news/post/1369091 https://thetanktribune.newgrounds.com/news/post/1377005 That's it for this month, unless you're a $10 patron in which case you have a sneak peek demo for the fully recorded (but not yet edited/mixed etc...) "Red Kite" from Better Than The Book's upcoming album to look forward to! August is set to be a busy BUSY BIG month with wedding stuff so we'll see how things go musically and the monthly post might be a few days later than usual, but I'm sure there'll be something to share! Hope you enjoy all the new videos and thanks as always for supporting my music/stuff however you can. Next time you'll hear from me, I'll hopefully have a ring on my finger WOOT WOOT! Take care and see you in September! $1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/85411708 $10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/85411711 Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842 Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
Hi everyone and hope you've been having a great June (and keeping cool too). It's time for another post and there's some super exciting updates to share with you this month! Let's get to it!
It's been a super busy few weeks recording vocals and after some SUPER intense sessions I'm super excited to share that 4 out of the 14 tracks on the upcoming Better Than The Book project are now fully recorded! Those 4 tracks are just awaiting some minor edits and then it's just mixing and mastering (the technical stuff) left to go. I must say that recording vocals while fun has been super hard work though with a lot of redos and retakes, and especially taxing on the hot days. Here's to hoping I can keep up the stamina. It's a slow and steady race that's for sure! 10 tracks left to go (and a load of editing and mixing etc...). Keep rooting for me if you can please! Next on the updates for this month, as with last time I've been hard at work practicing and trying to impove my instrumental craft(s) and managed to keep up with posting 2 videos a week as I've been aiming to! This time I've been dabbling in some organ, doubleneck guitar, and slide guitar! Here's a link to the updated playlist below (same one as last time): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvQTBoOjZdKLgL4ecTvLz6sm And here's a full list of the new additions since last time! Enjoy:
Next just a cool note from a collaborative project, Sif Savery has just finished her festival tour for the Tales of Zale: Flickering Lights short film we worked on last year (I was the audio mixer), and it's been super cool to see the various nominations and awards it's picked up during the tour! A huge well done to Sif and the rest of the ToZ crew and check out her post about it below: https://twitter.com/JabunAudio/status/1673623398373523456 Finally, I have something really exciting to share with you all. In May I was invited to be a guest on the Off The Wall Podcast on Newgrounds with Aalasteir, who interviewed me on all sorts of things! We talked about my history, workflow, thoughts on nature and art, and much more! It was my first time doing a live-recorded podcast (still edited down, but rather than a back and forth not-in-conversation recording thing like I've done before) and the whole thing ran for a little over 2 hours too which is crazy! A huge thanks to Aalasteir for having me on the show and I hope you enjoy listening to the various discussions (mostly me rambling). Check it out below: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1226054 The podcast also got a front page feature on Newgrounds! Thanks for sharing it Newgrounds! That about wraps things up for this month unless you're a $10 patron in which case I'm sharing with you one of those 4 fully finished Better Than The Book recordings I spoke about above: "Plot Holes (Alternative Version)"! I'm hoping to get (at least) another 3 tracks fully recorded by the next post, as well as another batch of videos, but as time closes in, I'll be away for a bit for a little stag do (and Iron Maiden) before getting married in August! Busy busy times, and there's still MUCH to sort out so we'll see how everything goes recording projects-wise. Until next time I hope you have a great July to come and thanks as always for supporting my projects however you can! All the best, enjoy the podcast and new videos and take care! $1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/83471542 $10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/83471543 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 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)!
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): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe17fbmwkwY Pick-up switch experiments on a Fender Squier Jaguar Guitar (OLD but unreleased): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miGfR4YkaGg The Offspring - The Kids Aren't Alright (2 Parts on 1 Guitar Intro Cover): https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fxqO68zI0R4 More to come very soon! Finally this month, and following from me turning 33, some Birthday funtimes! While I was actually on a double night shift on the weekend of my birthday (ergh...), the following week was a super busy but mostly fun one catching up with peeps and sorting stuff out for Eva and I's wedding in August! As with birthdays, I received some super cool gifts this year, and as usual many of them were music related too! My twin Eamon got me something I've been needing for years, a (BOSS) pedalboard (+ cables) for quick set-up and convenience! I remember back when gigging with Lights Camera Attraction, Andy the guitarist had a similar one so he'd be set up in no time while I'd be fumbling with a handful of bass pedals and cables. The new modern version has foam cutouts to hold in pedals of whatever size you could think of! Check out some builds below and thanks Eamon:
In that last picture you'll notice the FS-5L footswitch as well which I saw in the window of one of Brighton's second hand guitar shops for a too-good-to-resist price. I'd been meaning to build an equivalent for a while but this was super economical and convenient! If you're wondering, it switches the "Turbo" mode on for the BOSS Turbo Overdrive above, taking the tone from a lovely crunch to a full on Marshall-esq distortion. Very good! Next, my parents have been on a long trip visiting Ma's home in Thailand, but also Malaysia where I was born and Japan while they were in the area too! Along with a TONNE of snacks, they bought back the latest Ellegarden album and a BOSS Tremolo pedal which came with a special Japanese spring festival gift bag too! Super cool, and no doubt you'll be hearing that at some point soon!  (My Blues Driver pedal is currently in that pedalboard alongside the Tremolo!) Finally, not music related, but I'm super excited about it, Eva got me some new PJs, pens, and a preorder for the new Legend of Zelda game (you should know already now that I'm a huge fan)! It's gonna bring a great distraction for the evenings, but there's still a few weeks to wait! Best keep productive until then! Thanks for the gifts everyone! That wraps things up for this month, unless you're a $10 patron in which case you have another Better Than The Book WIP studio demo to look forward to! More guitar videos to come next time while I continue working on the upcoming Better Than The Book album, and I'm sure there'll be other unexpected things happening in May too. Who knows! Until then, I hope you enjoy the new content, let me know if you have any suggestions or requests and thanks as always for supporting me however you can. Take care and all the best! 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:
$10 Demolition Pigeon Rewards
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! Hi everyone and hope you've had a great start to 2023! It's been a while since the last proper update what with the computer breakdown and everything (see the Patreon post here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/77232796) but while my old laptop of 14+ years is sadly now completely out of commission, all data has been recovered and transferred to my desktop and all project files (with some tweaking as necessary) have been put into a fulling working state again which is a huge relief! In other personal update news, on top of the computer troubles I've been quite unwell recently too for various reasons and in and out of hospital but don't worry I'm on the mend or at least getting there to figuring out exactly what the problem is! There's lots of cool updates and things to share this month building up from the lack of update last month too so let's get to things! First of all, some project updates! After a longer than expected break from things, I'm back to working on the upcoming Better Than The Book album, and now that the projects on my more powerful desktop, I've been taking the time (while less physically well enough for intensive recording) to work on adding some production extras to these 14 tracks I've been working on the past few years! 5 tracks are now just awaiting vocals, while the other 9 still have just a few little production extras left to go as well. It's slowly but certainly shaping up and I'm really pleased with how this album is sounding so far! Hopefully not too long until I can start sharing the tracks with you but it's still quite the road to go! Meanwhile I've been busy with the last bits of prep work for the upcoming Jabun EP which if I haven't revealed before is going to be called "June22" and will consist of 2 live ambient performances from June 2022! As it currently stands (as I write this), all artwork for the release is finalised and complete (more on that in a moment), and a set of master track exports has been made but still needs final checking and finalising. Admin prep work is going well too and I'm hoping for a tentative March 2023 release date so hopefully it'll be in the next set of Patreon rewards! We shall see! Onto other updates, at the end of last year I was busy fixing up any troublesome studio equipment ready for a New Year of working gear and after some troubleshooting and time with a soldering iron amongst other things, everything is in full working order again, including my now-no-sticky-buttons MPC1000, a Monotron Duo synth with a working resonant filter again, a very (mechanically) quiet homemade Leslie cab, and I even got to do a mod on my Jaguar I've been meaning to for a while! There's still a little more I'd like to play around with on that Jaguar, but it's dealing some delicious new tones and functionality now. Horray! And moving onto more updates from the end of last year, I recieved some amazing music related gifts this year for Christmas! From Eva, a custom water bottle with the Jabun logo on it which looks super cool, and from my twin Eamon, a super cool synth from Roland, the Aira Compact J-6! One of my favourite synth of all time is the Roland Juno-6 (or Juno-60) and I use a plugin emulator of it in much of my work as both BTTB and Jabun. If the Juno-60 is a full set of all the oil paints you could want, then the J-6 is like the super compact 64 colouring pencil set with included sketchpad and stencils/stationary. It's a lovely more condensed synth engine with a super powerful chord library + sequencer + extra pattern/arpeggio generator, something I wasn't even aware existed in hardware! No doubt it'll be making it into some new music soon! On top of that Eamon made me ANOTHER amazing mash-up EP and holy moly it's a fantastic one. 6 tracks, around 16 minutes and it's coming to YouTube week by week now! Check it out on Eamon's channel as it comes out (should be 3 out so far): https://www.youtube.com/@TallismanRogue/videos And check out the opening track now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWODZcriQ-A Track #5 I think is some of Eamon's best work ever (especially if you've seen the Cyberpunk Edgerunners anime) so be sure to check that out in Feburary! Thanks so much for the amazing and thoughtful gifts Eamon and Eva! In other news, Tales of Zale now has an animated music video for the credits music to the Flickering Lights short film I did the sound mixing for last year! Check it out below and a huge congrats to Sif, Marquette, and Matthew on the release: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jxnlcbRP-A Meanwhile a brand new season of my friend David Klein's FanScape Podcast has just started and the first episode featured Better Than The Book's Meteor Shower playing on the radio in a Slenderman horror story! 2 episodes are out as I type this and things are getting super tense! Check out episode 1 below and support the podcast on Patreon if it's your jam: https://www.patreon.com/FanScapePod Episode 01: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE9RgjnwYcw
Finally I thought it'd be cool to set some New Years music goals and reflect on the year just gone! Let's start by seeing what I set this time last year: 1) Keep doing what I do, and keep getting better at it! 2) Make 2022 the best financial year (for JabunAudio?) yet! (As always I can only try) 3) Release Jabun's 4th album 4) Release or at least finish recording Better Than The Book's next album 5) Play the first BTTB live gig (still hoping) And overall, I think I did pretty well! It's difficult to measure, but I definitely think my skills are improving which can be reflected in the achievements of the year (see below), especially the Tales of Zale Flickering Lights short film, and various album releases! Speaking of which, Jabun's Tides was released so that's done, and it DID happen to be my best financial year in general ever too, with it also being one of JabunAudio's best years yet, though not quite the best ever. We can try! Although I didn't manage to finish recording the upcoming Better Than The Book album, progress has been made (Horns are finished) and I think things are slowly but surely getting there! BTTB gigs are still on hold unfortunately too, but we'll see if things can change in 2023. Life is tricky to work around these days... Achievements-wise though, since the start of 2022, despite the craziness in both the world and my personal life, it's been a super productive year seeing the release of the 3 track single "Revolt" with World Beyond, the Patreon exclusive "Mouth (Season's) Greetings" mash-up EP which I made for Eamon last Christmas, Cyberdevil's "INK20" mixtape, Jabun's "Tides" album, Sif Savery's "Tales of Zale: Flickering Lights" animation (and more), another INKtober collaboration with Cyberdevil "A Lemon Leaf Breeze", and finally World Beyond's "Blindsight" album! Phew! On top of that, it's been a super fun year with studio updates too, with the aquisition and modding of a vintage BOSS OD-2r Turbo Overdrive pedal, the building of my very own Leslie rotary speaker cabinet, a Fender Mini Twin amp (as cute as it is functional) from Eamon, and the recently gifted Roland J-6 synth (also from Eamon)! I'm really starting to run out of room here, though I'm still on a lookout for those elusive Yamaha BP-1 Bass Pedals to go with my YC-25d organ. I wonder what the new year will have in store! Setting goals-wise, I'm not sure that the new BTTB album is going to be released by the end of the year but I'd like to set: 1) Finish recording the upcoming BTTB album (at the very least) 2) Release the Jabun June22 EP 3) Get a BTTB live performance done? Along with all the usual self improvement stuff! We'll see how it all goes and wish me luck! Looking at December's monthly goals here's what I set: 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 And although 1) is pretty much done, I didn't get around to any BTTB melodica or cello recording, mainly due to illness, external pressure and other things. While I will be preparing for the June22 EP release this month (ready for a March release), I do plan on getting back to some more BTTB production and recording when I can too which should be fun. With wedding planning and other things going on in my life at the moment, I've decided to no longer set any public monthly goals for the foreseeable future. It was a fun experiment over the past few years, but I think I've been putting enough (or maybe a little too much) pressure on myself without the public announcements over the last few months, so I'll just be taking things at my own pace, and trying not to beat myself up too much if things are slower than I hope. Progress will be made where I can though, that I can be sure of! Thanks for sticking with me all these years, and I look forward to sharing lots of new music with you soon! That about wraps things up for this post unless you're a $10 patron in which case you have a sneek peek at the album art for Jabun's upcoming June22 EP to look forward to! I hope you have a grand February to come and I'm super looking forward to sharing with you the new Jabun EP soon as well as any fun updates in the next post! Until then, thanks as always for supporting my projects however you can, enjoy all the music and take care! All the best and wishing you a happy, healthy and amazing 2023 to come! 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/77771132 $10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/76914972 Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842 Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding |
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