Sometimes, when the urge to create gets too strong, I will work on a piece of music in my spare time.

I want to say “work in my studio” but the truth is that my “studio” is really just one wall of my office, totally occupied by 19 inches of rack equipment, two synthesizer keyboards, a mixer, and my Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) with two 15″ LCD monitors. In other words, when I’m in my office trying to work on some technical or business related thing that, theoretically, earns us some money, my “studio” is two feet away covered by an old sheet that reduces the rate of dust accumulation, but that does nothing to muffle the tiny electronic cries of neglect.

I have learned that their cries are impotent ones, because by themselves, the items of studio equipment do nothing to kick-start the flow of creative juices necessary for making progress on numerous musical projects.

About a week ago I pushed myself into re-working an older piece of mine that I was in danger of losing the “source code” for. I’ve had some success – the MIDI instruments have had their patches restored and the sounds safely rendered to hard disk in the form of 24-bit digital audio.

On the not-so-good side of things, I have been unable to remember how to play the bass line on my Chapman Stick, which, through lack of use, is kind of in a state of disrepair. Also, all the guitar sounds I’ve tried so far, sound horrible. It’s that old problem, the my-god-the-demo-sounds-almost-perfect-and-you’ll-never-get-it-sounding-that-good-again situation.

The other drawback is that I’ve played through the peice so many times that it is forming the continuous looping soundtrack to my brain. It’s particularly noticeable right now. Every time I pause in writing a sentance, thinking about what to write next, or try to put my brain in neutral to catch a mental breath, it’s there like demonic muzak.

Even in my imagination the guitar sounds like crap.

Editors note, August 2020: I have no idea what song I was referring to, here. I’m guessing, Painting Abstracts. I could be way off base.