Had a blast a Refest. Thanks to all of you who came down to see us I know we all had a great time. Was very impressed at the level of the artists/bands who played - It’s amazing to think there is so much talent out there and centered around the Reigate/Redhill area. Hopefully I can convince some of these unsuspecting victims to come and record here at Tom Hughes Studios…their careers will never be quite the same again!!!

Have had some technical issues with the Drowing In Dreams mix in that whilst trying to import it into the mastering computer running Cubase 5, I have been experiencing lots of background hiss/noise. Unfortunately, as my desk does not offer balanced outputs I am going to have to invest in some uber cables to make sure the signal to noise ratio is as good as it possibly can be. I used to mix straight to an external Tascam CD-Writer but am trying to uphold the integrity of the sonic quality of the mix for mastering. By this, I mean that I would like to keep the any conversion to a minimum and hence keep the mix at its original sample rate of 96kHz. Apologies to those of you who have no idea what any of this means (I’m sure you are just hearing white noise in your heads right now!) but just bear with me here and expect the overall production quality to increase greatly with this track (and beyond). I might even go back and remix and master all of our previous recordings here to push the overall production level up although at this stage, it is probably more important to focus on the writing both by myself and with the band!

Anyhow guys stay tuned as I am hard at work on all of this and in the process of booking more gigs for the band!

The first ‘Drowning In Dreams’ mix is only a matter of days away now.  I have been working tirelessly to try and finish this song.  The biggest challenge for this track in particular was the vocals and the guitars.  The former required a couple of different approaches involving reworking some of the existing diction/melodic flow of the lines.  For the latter, some electric overdubs combined with the distinct sound of the Taylor T5 has rectified a ‘thin’ guitar presence in the song which was lacking attack.  As ‘Drowning In Dreams’ has a very particular groove to it, I felt it was important that I get these things right first time without having to go back into the studio to rework instrumentation that was not working.  Be patient and the mix will be uploaded soon!

I have been in session recording vocals for ‘Drowning In Dreams’ yesterday/today and I am happy to report that progress is much quicker than I had previously expected.  A mix should be uploaded to the site in the coming week and we can start tracking our new song ‘Try’ straight after!  Exciting stuff!  Keep checking the Music Downloads section as as soon as the mixes are availible that will be the first place to find them!

Wow!  What an amazing event!  The whole vibe of the festival was fantastic.  Playing two days was a a real privilege and I thank Trevor Rapson (the Acoustic stage events manager) from the bottom of my heart, for providing me with this opportunity.  The first day was slow (despite the fantastic weather) as I opened the stage but yesterday was fantastic with the tent totally packed and my music being very well received - either that or my unsuspecting victims/audience were just trying to escape the bad weather but we’ll go with the first theory for now!

Again a big thank you to Trevor for putting on such a fantastic stage.  Some of the highlights of the festival for me were The Yearner Babies (respect to you my man Ali!), Mat Buchanon and Joe Bonamassa to name just a few.  Some of the comedy acts in between the music were also fantastic.  Looking forward to next year!

I just can’t help myself.  Seriously.  I’ve remixed this track again and re mastered it.  I am MUCH happier with the overall sound (and volume) of this mix than I was with the previous versions.  Interestingly enough what really helped me this time was using a ‘point of reference’ as I am unsure how much I can trust my control room at the moment with standing waves and various reflective surfaces (all of these issues will be addressed in the coming weeks).  I used Porcupine Tree’s “Lightbulb Sun” album as a reference point and tried my hardest to match the sonic quality of this record.  If you haven’t already heard this album I would strongly recommend hearing it (it has now been remixed and remastered by Steven Wilson last year).  These guys seriously are the last truly great British Prog-Rock band in my opinion!  Anyhow, click over to the ‘Music Downloads’ section to check out the new mix of ‘I’m Still Looking’.

Don’t forget Tom Hughes Band will be playing the Oxjam acoustic stage @ Redfest 2009 on the 25th July.  This festival is only a few weeks away so don’t forget to check out their website and support the fantastic local artists which will be showcased at this event!  Tickets can be bought here.  Don’t forget to check out their website @ www.redfest.co.uk