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Acoustic guitar and vocals put down on Shopping Lists. The SM58 sounds ok for vocals once it's cranked. I'm bloody glad because I really don't have any more dosh to spend on gear at this stage (a job would help this).

This song is bloody high. A bit too high for my range in the chorus but it sounds crap in a lower key so I just did lots of take until it didn't suck as much.

I started sketching up the feel and tone for Shopping Lists. Got a nice poly-rythmic beat going in Reason and then destroyed it and made it lo-fi with Reason's awesome Scream Sound Destruction Unit. Slapped the acoustic guitar part on top and sounded good. Added some grand piano over that and liked the combination of sounds. The sketch was too busy for the verses but might work well for the instrumental. I need to find a more stripped back version of the feel for the bulk of the song.

Great Escape guitars and vocals done. Had some nightmare with vocal popping on this track but managed to kill most of the pops with a carefully placed high-pass filter on the plosive set at about 150hz. I'm not going through this again so the next tracks' vocals are gonna be recorded with my SM58. If that doesn't cut the mu-tard then I will need to buy a vocal preamp ($$$$$).

Here it is in all it's glory! Woot! I'm sure Neil Finn will be doing his next recording here with these state of the art facilities. Eat your heart out York Street.

Have started recording Great Escape. Put down the acoustic guitar both as a miced version and a DI version and mixed the two takes. The idea is that you get the clarity and definition of the DI and the ambiance of the miced version.

Rearranged my studio (spare bedroom) so that there is less reverb 'slap' and the sound is deader. This involved turning the spare bed mattress and base into wall paddings. Hung a duvet over the window. My studio is now insulated to withstand a Siberian winter. The problem is we're in the middle of summer; at least it's more sound insulated now.

Today I've been working on Into the Sun. Recorded my Reason drum part to disk. Added shakers to the chorus and tambourines throughout. I realised that when the drums cut out after the last chord of the chorus you can hear the drums bleeding through the vocals and the gat tracks from my cans. Bugger!

It's hard to find silence. I'm just encountering a problem that many home recorders run into. How to record in a less than soundproof environment. You find that your recording days are very much dictated by your environment. I can't do much today. for example, because some bastard is using a weed trimmer next door.

I'm thinking about traveling up to my father's place to do my next stint of vocal recording. He has a very soundproof concrete basement. Thank god my portable pro tools gear allows me to do that.

Fucking cicadas are a pain too. You hear me nature! Shut the fuck up!

I've finally got all my stuff together to start recording. I left my job at the end of last year because of the stress of running a business. As it was sucking up all my time and energy I had little time for music.

Now with a (hopefully) brief period of vagrancy comes some time to attack this record with some determination.