Happy Chinese New Year, sitting in Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden)'s drum kit, Patreon rewards & another JabunAudio newsletter sent out, Better Than The Book anniversaries, an animated music video from World Beyond + setting & reflecting on some more goals!

Hi everyone! Hope you've had a great week whatever you've been up to, and for those who have been celebrating it, Happy Chinese New Year from JabunAudio! Although I've not been here for most of this week, it's somehow been as if more than a week's worth of stuff has been crammed into the few days I have been in the studio, and as such, it's going to be a long blog post this time, so I hope you enjoy it. My studio time this week has mainly been spent working on the final audio tweaks for the upcoming Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album, as well as drafting up the cover artwork, both of which are going well so far. Before we get onto the main news for the week, I thought it'd be cool to share with you what I was up to this weekend past, as it really was a spectacular time! Let's get started:

So amongst the tasty food, red envelopes and chill time with loved ones this weekend, I also went on a pilgrimage of sorts on Saturday and finally took a trip down to Drum One, the drum shop that Iron Maiden's drummer Nicko McBrain opened last April in Manchester! I've been meaning to go since it opened (for those don't know yet, I've been a HUGE Maiden fan since my teen years), and the cards lined up perfectly this weekend for a trip there and it was simply awesome! Not only was there tonnes of cool drum stuff there, but by the entrance was Nicko's touring kit from when I saw Iron Maiden for the 2nd time back in 2008 with a tonne of my family and friends (last year was the 5th time seeing them and they're always a blast!). I asked whether I could take a picture with the the kit, and the guy at the counter asked whether I wanted to take a picture IN the kit instead! Mind -> blown! Of course!
          And so I the rest of the pictures speak for themselves! I didn't get a chance to play, as there wasn't a snare set up (I did manage a hi-hat stomp though), but it was simply awe inspiring, and frankly intimidating being inside such a large drum set (see the panorama below to get an idea) that I'd seen played by one of my biggest drumming heroes! 9 toms (ranging from a TINY 6" to much bigger than I thought existed too (18" apparently)), 11 cymbals plus the hi-hats minus the usual gong at the back, snare stand set up but no snare, and a single kick bass drum (I have no idea how that guy does what he does with a single kick!). Amazing! Thanks so much to Eva for the detoured trip and for taking the outside drum pictures! It was an amazing day out! 

Onto the first of the main news for this week, it's the beginning of another month which means another JabunAudio music production newsletter has been sent out! This time, I’ll be continuing with the topic of vocal production, discussing various methods for creating artificial vocal double tracks before sharing my own technique for achieving tight and naturally varied doubles for you own vocals (without having to pick up the mic a second time)! If that sounds interesting to you, sign up for free on the JabunAudio home page, I hope you enjoy it, and be sure to share with anyone you think would be interested!

Next, and continuing with more beginning of the month usual content, yesterday was the first Wednesday of February which means I've just sent out another batch of rewards to the $1 / $2+ patrons over on Patreon! This time I'm sharing the final piece of the publicly available Better Than The Book discography, a bonus instrumental version of BTTB's debut album: "Two Years On [Instrumentals]" and yesterday just so happened to also be the 2 year anniversary for that album, as well as the 3 year anniversary since BTTB dropped it's debut album Two Years On! How time flies, and it's been an incredible 3 years since then. Thanks so much to everyone who's supported the project over the years and I really can't wait to share the upcoming Hopes and Dreams album with you soon!
          With all that said you can now get everything BTTB has currently released (including many exclusive bonus tracks) when you subscribe to my Patreon page (+ even more good stuff if you go for the higher tiers)! If that sounds good to you, then become a patron for as little as $1 a month to download all this music and all previous rewards for your tier including the One Small Step EP, Two Years On album and the last few months' collection of tracks too! I look forward to sharing the journey with you!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Next this week, some awesome and epic animated fun from World Beyond, as Vlad releases a music video for the first track on the recent "Nobody Asked For This So I Did It" album, "Not The Beginning", set as a teaser to the climax of the album "Awaken The Giant", which I'm sure will be coming soon! I think I'm just on bass for this track (possibly guitar too? I can't actually remember), but whatever the case, I hope you enjoy the epic visualizer! Be sure to subscribe to World Beyond on YouTube via the video below to be the first to see the latest videos. I can't wait to see what's next!

Lastly this week, another beginning of the month tradition as we look back at January's goals and see how I did! Here's what was set:

​1) Have all 10 mixes done for the new BTTB album ready for final tweaks and mastering
2) Set up a new archiving / back-up system for projects
3) Update my ISRC records for the new (and old) World Beyond tracks

All successes for last month! All 10 mixes at least have their first draft completed and I've already started on the final tweaks and setting up a mastering session for the album! The new archiving / back-up system was off to a shaky start (some corrupted files on one of the copies, but is all set up and rectified now, and my ISRC records are as updated as ever with the World Beyond tracks. Horray! So what shall I set myself this month?

1) Finish a first draft master of the album ready to send out for feedback before any final edits
2) Draft up the album art for the Hopes and Dreams BTTB album
3) Set aside ISRCs for the new Hopes and Dreams album and fill in all the information I can in my records (apart from the stuff I'll need to sort just before and after the release).

It's both a busy and short month with really only 3 weeks to get all this done, while not even being here for a lot of it, so I'm really not sure if I'll be able to make all these targets this time. Thankfully, 3) is already done as I managed that earlier this week, and I've made a good start with the album artwork and tweaks too, so hopefully things should be nearly done by the end of the month. I'll make finishing the audio for the album top priority with the artwork being a bonus if I can get that fully drafted too. We'll see how I get on! Any goals you'd like to share for the month? Feel free to comment below so we can keep each other accountable!

And that about wraps things up for this post! Phew, that was a long one. What does my coming week look like? Well I'll be away again for another extended weekend, though unfortunately Ozzy Osbourne has postponed his UK gigs due to poor health so I'll not be moshing my heart out on Monday night. Hope you get well soon Ozzy and looking forward to seeing you again in September (hopefully) for the re-scheduled dates. Thankfully I still have a Marvel Exhibition to look forward to as well as possibly seeing new new Battle Angel: Alita film which I'm super looking forward to for the best part of the last decade. Other than that, and working hard on the new album when I can, we shall see where the week takes me! Until the next post, I hope you have a great time whatever you're up to and thanks as always for supporting JabunAudio and my various music project! Take care and have a good one!