lotusCast - The official blog & podcast from lotuspike

To the movies, I will go!

Well, this is sort of about music but not about ambient music, so I’m calling it “otherwise”. I admit it: I watch American Idol. I wasn’t sure whether Vonzell or Bo would win, but I was pretty sure it would be one of them. I’m quite surprised at last night’s result. I now predict that Bo will win it, but Carrie has surprised me in each of the last three weeks by not being eliminated, so maybe there’s one more surprise in store.

lotuspike and our blog / LotusCast have been mentioned in todays Pittsburgh Post Gazette. The article discusses blog technology as a marketing tool, and how companies are taking advantage of the opportunities blogging offers to reach audiences quickly and cost-effectively.

We like that!

Check out the article here >

Now that I’ve got the studio nearly reassembled after moving, I’m starting work on my next album, tentatively titled West. It will be sonically similar to On Water, but the compositions will be more structured, in the direction of the last track on On Water, “Pray for Rain”. The first track, “Laurel Ridge”, is finished now; look for an exclusive preview of it in the next lotusCast podcast. We’ll also feature a sneak peek at Daniel’s work in progress as well.

-Ben

OK, so after a long bout with a mix issue and learning a few things from scratch (thanks Jeff) I have decided to scrap my whole production process and start again.

It’s not as big of an issue for me as it is for an artist with a complex hardware setup or elaborate studio environment. This is mainly because my world is made up of one laptop (mac of course), a entry level MIDI controller and a guitar (which I don’t know how to use yet), so when I say I have abandoned my production process, most of it has to do with the DAW.

Thanks to fellow lotusFounders Jeff and Ben I have come to understand the value of Logic Audio’s mixing flexibility, so i am hooked and off and running.

My only regret is how much time I scratching my head over Ableton Live in the production process…and don’t misread this, I LOVE Live, but I found Logic to exceed my expections when it came to achieving some rather complicated sound sculpting tasks.

Thanks again to the lotusPartners. They are true mentors!

DP

I upgraded my laptop to Tiger today. With a little prep (updating some utilities, deleting some things known to be incompatible), it went very, very smoothly.

Indeed, I’m typing this blog entry in via a Dashboard widget right now…

Super Cool App - Delicious Library

This has to be one of the uber-coolest apps on the planet.

Don’t believe me, ask Jeff.

Check out Delicious Library here >