Welcome to IBM

After a long, long time of waiting, the company I work for (Telelogic) has finally been taken over by Big Blue. We had our "Day One" today - this is IBM-speak for a mass induction day. Actually, it was pretty good. I know IBM has a reputation for being staid and boring, but at the moment it is far more innovative than a certain large operating system and office software vendor we all know. And it certainly gives me far more opportunities than I would have had.

Recording a demo

The band I am in (Deja Voodoo, though that name may change as there are lots of bands with that name!) finally got around to recording a demo a couple of weeks ago. We took from ten in the morning until six in the evening to record four songs. The first couple of hours was spent just setting up - mostly getting the drum sound right. All credit to Richard of Plug'n'Play Studios (www.plugnplay.tv) who was our engineer for the day.

I have to say, it was hard work, but a tremendous buzz listening to the raw playbacks.

Laurent, our keyboard player, spent some time mixing down from the sixteen track originals to stereo, so far he has managed to get two of the tracks done and, though I say so myself, they sounds pretty darn good! OK, there are a couple of places we could have done better - I have already spotted one place where I can improve my bass line - but overall, especially considering we spent so little time on it, it is plenty good enough for what we want. Next we need to get the rest of the mixes done, burn some CDs and hawk them around local clubs and pubs.