Today was another mixing day if only for a couple of hours. Rich, our engineer, was in Austin. I was in Asheville, and Frances in Nashville. We spent at least a couple of days since last week listening and making notes on the mixes for the 10 tracks we have for Crossing the Sabine. Today was a day when we all seemed to have time to send notes back and forth while Rich re-mixed a few tracks. It’s the kind of operation that requires everybody to be sitting down remotely at the same time.

Of course things never really work out that way with all the distractions in our lives. No sooner had Rich sent me the first re-mix, a gorgeous version of a song we’re doing, maybe the final one, that I heard a knock at the door. I cursed and tried to remember who might be coming over. Oh yes… it was a guy who needed help with a set of pipes that had barely been played in 20 years. Here he was on my doorstep with a dusty pipe case and his pretty wife behind him. I have never fixed a bagpipe so fast in my life. Hemp and reeds were flying and I got him completely tuned up and out the door in 30 minutes. He could hardly believe it. Neither could I. He walked out with a set of pipes that played great, no charge just to get him out the door so I could get back to the mixes that Rich was sending.

Besides mixing I’ve been experimenting with mic placement and trying even more to refine the sounds of the flutes and pipes and I’m learning so much right now. More on that tomorrow…