Grounded

The past couple of days have given me a sense of growing hope that the Redline Project is starting to find a coherent direction for its recorded product. I am a person who emotes deeply and wrestles regularly with life's answerless questions, often to no avail. It is fitting that the music on the final recording will reflect these personality facets, and I am excited that they are starting to reveal themselves even in these early scratch recordings.

The feedback I have received regarding 'Slips Away' and 'Sing Silently' has been overwhelmingly positive. If you did take the time to write, please accept my sincere thanks. This project, music listeners, is for you. The final recording must speak to its audience, or it will cease to have one.

As encouraging as the past week's worth of songwriting, recording, and blogging all have been, I must confess that it all has me feeling a little heavy, and I am imagining that my readers are feeling the same. So permit me today to lighten it up a bit with a quick anecdote from the trenches of Studio Redline and a scratch recording of some electronica experimentation.

Early last month, I waxed melancholic about the endless frustrations of online message boards. Though the loathing generally continues, I am pleased to inform that I found an actual solution to one of the persisting problems plaguing my recording setup.

Here's how it all went down:

Each time I plug up my acoustic-electric Guild F4-CE or the Guild Starfire electric guitar on loan from a friend, I experience a horrid melange of buzzes, pops, static, and clown nose honks. After delving through stacks of digital drivel, I happen on a post with an intriguing do-it-yourself fix. The poster's idea smacked of the home repairs I have accomplished with duct tape in one hand and a caulk gun in the other. Perfect; worth a shot.

Simply strip a bit of plastic off the top and bottom of a long wire. Wrap one end around the exposed metal where the guitar cord meets the mixer and run the other down to the chassis of the computer. Buzzing problem solved.

Initially false. The cacophony continues. But I make an important observation: when I unwind the wire from the base of my desktop tower, the buzzing disappears. Why? Because I am touching the exposed copper threads. Apparently I am a grounded individual.

Fingers on wire equals no crazy hum or nightmare buzz. But I need both hands to play either guitar. I twirl my scraggly soul patch as I ponder my options.

Eureka! One simple maneuver later, I am adding acoustic and electric guitar tracks to the evening's musical experiment. Thank you, random message board poster. You have made my night.

So as you listen to today's scratch recording, you can thank my left gluteal muscle for the noise-free guitar lines. Yes, that's correct: I stuck that wire right down my pants and sat on it.

Mission accomplished.