December 2024 Blog Post: Jabun's Nephology album has been released, a huge thanks for 500 subscribers on YouTube, listening parties (next one at 8pm GMT today), fixing gear, more videos and more!

Hi everyone and hope you've had a great November! It's the beginning of another month which means another news roundup to share and since Jabun's Nephology album was released just a few days ago (more on that in a moment), there's no extra rewards this time so I thought I'd just make one news post for all the patrons today. Don't worry though, I'll be sharing something more before the year is out so there's still more rewards to come this month! Until then though, let's get on with the news!

First of all, as you're probably already aware on Wednesday 27th November I released my 6th album/EP project as Jabun - Nephology, a 6+ hour collection of 3 long-form ultra ambient remixes of my 2nd album 15-4-20 inspired by cloud gazing! I've already rambled a lot about it in various posts last month, so I shan't repeat myself here, but you can purchase, read all about and listen to the album over on the Bandcamp page here:

https://jabun.bandcamp.com/album/nephology

And of course for the appropriate Patreon subscribers you've got the full download package of Nephology in your rewards below which includes Mp3s (+ WAVs for the $10 patrons) and full sized album art + cover photo + alternative cover! If any of that sounds good to you and you're not a Patreon supporter yet 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/116372988
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/116372989 ​
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

For the Bandcamp savvy amongst you, it's the final Bandcamp Friday of 2024 on Friday 6th December which means that when you purchase anything on Bandcamp day (not just my music), 100% of your contribution will go straight to the artists you want to support. If you're planning on picking anything up or sending a digital download Christmas present then this coming Friday is the best time to do so. Thanks for supporting independent music however you can!

To celebrate the Nephology release I'll be hosting a number of listening / chillout / cloud watching parties on YouTube! The one for the first track Cumulus was on Wednesday but don't worry if you missed it as I'll be holding listening parties for the next 2 tracks on my JabunAudio YouTube channel today on Sunday 1st December and on Wednesday 4th December. If you've not done so already, subscribe to the channel to keep in the loop via the link below and come hang out, ask questions, and let's enjoy some Nephology together!

https://www.youtube.com/@jabunaudio

Today's stream starts at 8pm GMT! I look forward to seeing you there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB-qCcMFMZg

And speaking of my YouTube Channel, I want to say a HUGE thanks to everyone who's been watching and supporting the channel since I started this 2-videos-a-week schedule last year (and everyone before that too), as the JabunAudio YouTube Channel has just exceeded 500 subscribers! It's really cool to see that people are enjoying the videos (of me mainly messing around in the studio) and music (hopefully)! I'll be releasing a dedicated thank you video at the start of 2025 to celebrate and show my appreciation and I look forward to seeing how the channel grows in the next 500 subs and more! Thanks so much for watching and listening!

Keeping on the topic of listening, alongside the Jabun Nephology listening parties on YouTube, on Wednesday 27th, I held the first private listening party for Better Than The Book's upcoming Side Character In My Own Life album, just myself, and Eamon and Sam from the BTTB live band. It's always a nerve-racking experience showing these projects to people for the first time, but I can safely say now, that I'm not the only one who thinks this new album is gonna blow some minds, from a performance, writing and production point of view! Get ready for a ska punk journey like no other in the coming months, starting before the year is over! I can't wait to share it!

Onto some studio updates now, things are slowly but surely settling in at the new studio though there is still a little way to go yet. More than half of my current acoustic tiles are up now with still some planning to get the rest of them done soon, and it's certainly sounding a lot better and more studio quality now between these walls (with still some room for improvement). In terms of equipment repairs, after a month long dance with NI tech support, we FINALLY managed to resurrect my beloved Session Horns plugin I use for all my Better Than The Book brass work! A HUGE horray and thanks to Franky from NI tech support for the patience and troubleshooting. We got there eventually!

On top of that, my main guitar amp of 17 years, a Marshall AVT50x combo has been rescued from a silent grave by an incredibly simple fix! Basically all that had happened is that after many years of being thrown around the back of cars and moved around, the one pre-amp valve had wobbled free and become slightly deseated from its socket on the main circuit board. A quick wiggle and firm press back and the amp was back in working order! While it was apart anyway though, I took the time to replace what had become a very noisey output fan, and now it's running much smoother (I've made a video about it which will be coming out in the new year if you're interested). I also noticed that a lot of noise was coming from the new computer tower into the reverb circuit so I relocated the reverb to a new position in the speaker cabinet section of the combo, shielded the tank more with copper tape and moved the PC tower a few inches further away and all the noise is basically gone now. Horray!

If that wasn't enough repairs for the month, I also fired up my Moog just to find out that one of the keys was sticking/ not triggering properly, but thankfully that was just a 5 minute job for some contact cleaner and button mashing, no extra parts needed. Phew!

For now the next step for studio set-up will be switching to a slightly smaller but hopefully as ergonomic synth desk in order to make room for my big bass amp which I'll be picking up later this month, then planning some shelves and storage spaces. There sure does seem to be a lot of Tetrising needed to fit this 20+ years of my music recording (and 28+ of music playing) life into this new studio. It's a big job but I'm looking forward to the adventure!

Finally for this month as usual I've been keeping up with my 2 a week videos on the now 500+ subs strong JabunAudio Channel! This month we said farewell to the old studio along with a tonne of organ related videos, and more. Here's the updated main playlist:

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

And here's the full list of videos below:

• Nektar NP-2 Sustain Pedal Half Damper function with Yamaha Reface CP?!​
• I'm moving! Goodbye Studio Tour!
• Inside my Homemade Spring Reverb Unit (with Yamaha YC-25D Organ)
• Vintage String Machine Vibes with the Yamaha YC-25D Combo Organ and MXR Phase 90 Script (Arp Solina)
• MXR Phase 90 vs Jim Dunlop Rotovibe vs Phase 45 Clone Shootout with Combo Organ (Yamaha YC-25D)
• One last jam before moving house: War Pigs by Black Sabbath on Organ (Yamaha YC-25D)
• KORG Volca Keys Synth Challenge: 3 part Techno Drums + Bass LIVE NO OVERDUBS!!!
• Uncut Guitar Practice - The stuff YouTube guitarists don't share (at least that's what I hope)...

Next month we're saying hello to the new studio along with some more guitar and organ and a few little insights into setting everything up! Hope you enjoy it and looking forward to seeing you in the comments!

That wraps things up for this time! I'll be back before the end of the year with something extra special from BTTB before it's time to update the reward archives at the beginning of 2025, so the next (usual) beginning of January post will likely be another "no extra rewards" shared news post! Until then, I hope you enjoy the Nephology album, hope to see you at some of the listening parties this week and thanks as always for supporting my music however you can! Take care, happy holidays if I don't speak to you before, and enjoy some cloud watching!