October 2024 Blog Post: Some amazing and some super sucky news: Got a house, moving studios, broken computer and all projects suspended indefinitely... + more videos and more!

Hi everyone and what a mixed month it's been over here... Some HUGE big news of both the super good and the super bad variety this time and it's probably best just to start off with that...

THE GOOD NEWS: Eva and I finally got our own house! We've only been in for just over a week now so things are still spread out everywhere and it's a bit of a mess but it's great to finally have our own space and it's just about starting to feel homely now! This also means I'm finally moving to my very own (non-rented) studio space which'll hopefully be the home for JabunAudio for a LOOONG time to come (and it's slightly bigger than the last place too)! It's exciting as it is nerve racking, but with no limits to what I'm allowed to do, I'll be taking the time to create the most ideal studio workspace as I possibly can which I'm sure is going to take a while, but more on that as we get to...

THE BAD NEWS: I knew there was going to be some disruption moving studios as there always is, but not as bad as this... Firstly the smaller(ish) bad news: the studio room which I'll be moving into isn't quite ideal and needs some additional work on top of the usual acoustic panelling which'll require some extensive planning, time and investment to sort out, but should hopefully be manageable. eventually. Along with that we're currently living on the edge of a building site so things are a bit noisy at the moment and probably will be for some time too... It was to be expected, but it's still a bit of a buzzkill for any acoustic recording for a few months at least.

Finally though, and here's the really REALLY BAD news, after moving, I set up my trusty audio production computer for the last 7-8 years, and... it won't boot up... Startup recovery? Nope! System restore? Nope! Boot up in Safe Mode? NOOOPE! I was hoping at least to be able to get along with promo-work, basic client consultation and editing work, making videos and artwork and prepping these 2 album releases while the acoustic side of the studio needed sorting, but NOPE! It's all grounded... apart from basic social media and email work (on the Chromebook I'm typing this up on), I can't do any computer work anymore!

I'll be making some calls later this week to see if things are salvageable which I should know by the end of the week, but unfortunately at the moment, it's looking like the BEST case scenario is a hard reset on the PC, and starting back from square one... 8 years of crafting a specialised software environment for making music and I'll have to rebuild from scratch... Luckily, I backed up everything before the move and the master WAVs for the next 3 Jabun Records releases are complete and backed up, but while all files are preserved and there's a record of all the software etc... setting up the software environment again including installing all the software, plug-ins, bridging software for back compatibility, licencing etc... is going to be a massive task (if even 100% possibly) and I'm hoping it's not going to cost an arm and a leg too. On top of all this, there's over 70 minutes of unfinished Jabun projects which I don't have access to anymore, and there's also no guarantee that they'll be fully recoverable (error free) even if I do manage to set up the software environments again. It's a real headache I did not want to have to deal with, and if things go the way I think they will, I think it's gonna be a long time to fully recover from this... I've still not had a chance to check the rest of my equipment yet, but I know at least my MPC and grooveboxes still work so maybe I'll have to go DAWless for a while? That'd be an interesting challenge.

Moving on to some more bad news, with the situation above, and not having (useful) access to many files or being able to do any media work, I'm having to put a hold on all music releases for the foreseeable future, including Better Than The Book's "Side Character In My Own Life", and Jabun's "Nephology". I simply don't have the means to release them at the moment, or promote them effectively. I'll keep you posted with any updates on this as and when but it's gonna be a case of taking each day at a time for the moment.

Onto some better news, I did manage to finish all the artwork for Jabun's Nephology project before the move and if you're a $10 Patron (and in place of any music rewards this month), you have a download of all the artwork, including the main album cover, the alternative cover (for the matching Jabun catalog) and the isolated photo used for the cover too to look forward to! I hope you enjoy it while you wait for the album to finally drop (as soon as I can)!

Finally this month, I managed to keep up with the 2 videos a week YouTube stream despite the disruptions! Check out the playlist below:

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

And here's a list of the latest additions:

• KORG Volca Modular Techno Groove Box Patch
• KORG Volca Modular Tips and Tricks: Sub-harmonic Generator Patch using Function 2
• KORG Volca Modular Tips and Tricks: Basic Envelope Follower Patch using Function 1
• KORG Volca Modular Bouncing Ball Patch
• I got to play Henry the Pipe Organ at London Bridge Station! J.S. Bach Prelude I in C Major BWV 846
• Playing Henry the Pipe Organ at London Bridge Station! Spirited Away One Summers Day Joe Hisaishi
• Better Than The Book - Bump In The Night (Vocal Harmony Practice 13-7-2024)
• Darude - Sandstorm on Organ (Yamaha YC25D)
• Trance Synth vibes Organ (Yamaha YC-25D)

I currently have videos scheduled for up until the end of November including some about the studio move, but after that I'm not sure what's going to happen with the lack of a working computer. I'll be continuing to film stuff when I can and hopefully I'll be able to get back to editing and scheduling videos soon.

And that about wraps things up for this month! Not exactly the best news I was hoping to share, but we'll just have to see how things progress over the next month. Thanks for always supporting my various projects however you can, and I'll be back with hopefully some better news in November. Take care!

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