Sessions

Well right now the band is slogging through rehearsals getting prepared for our studio dates. We have all the material for the album written and most of it arranged and well-rehearsed. Aaron has knee surgery soon so we trying to get as much tracked before then as possible.

As before, each member has a keyboard(s) so we have quite a set-up going on at our rehearsal spot (Ange's basement by the by). I thought I'd add some pictures. Ange's set-up is a Yamaha analog synth and a Roland Fantom (both of which are at the bottom right of the picture). Her Selmer Alto and Soprano saxes aren't in the picture.

Behind that is my rig, which consists of an M-Audio Axiom 61 going into a Dell laptop running Live. I use quite a few plug-ins and samples collected from various places but the ones I seem to use the most are Linplug's Albino3, Camel's Cameleon, U-he's Zebra3, G-Force's M-Tron, Mini Monsta and Oddity, and NI's B4. I also use the Live plug-in Sampler (and Simpler) as they are both stellar. Behind that (or to the left of that) I also have an M-Audio Radium 49 going into a Dave Smith Evolver. My Mesa-Boogie MarkIV and Marshall 4x10 are against the wall facing the laptop and Axiom.

Peeking through that is Gary's StudioLogic keyboard controller (nearset the bass neck on the top left). That goes out to a E-MU Vintage Keys rack mount. He also has a Trace-Elliot Viper 6 bass amp, an Ibanex bass (among others, but right there he is on his trusty Ibanez).

It's hard to see from the above picture, but tucked between Gary and Aaron is an Alesis Micron which Aaron uses. Aaron's Rogers kit is to the right of the keyboard. Connecting all of this to the various PAs and amps is a morass of patch cords. Pretty cool actually.

I have met with artist Francis Dupuis who is going to put our package together for us. Aaron is an artist as well, so among the three of us (with some licensed art-work from other sources) we are sussing out the package design quite nicely. All in all things are coming along quite swimmingly.