April 2010 Update

Lots of exciting things going on. Mixing "trial and error" is starting to pay its dividends and part of the "secret" is in the mastering stage. As mentioned earlier, one of the keys is having the correct instrument sounds. I find that as I get closer to the alchemy, the sound of the instruments is becoming more and more important.

To that end, I have found a Microfrets Signature guitar (not the baritone that Mike converted into a six string bass) and purchased it via eBay. I have a local luthier who is going to convert this to a six string bass (including changing the neck to a baritone neck) and duplicating Mike's bass guitar to a "T". The key to the sound is the Micro-Frets body/pickup combination so this should come out quite well. I have my fingers crossed. Not sure how long this is going to take in that the luthier has to build the neck from scratch and has to move and change the tailpiece, move the treble pickup and reset the intonation. I am also going to have it painted "JET GLO" black and add the white binding. Then the idea is to sample the Micro-Frets bass and use this in the project.

I have also found an excellent source for Steve's setup and sounds and have incorporated this information into the project as well. The test track is starting to take shape but the closer I think I am getting to recreating this masterpiece, the further away I realize I am really am.

Hope all is well. I am probably going to be putting up another FREE Kontakt sample set soon. Can you believe over 200 musicians downloaded the ARP PRO soloist sound now available?

Jim K - Keeper of the Shrine
jkleban@nc.rr.com