The Making of Evidence

Evidence Vol. 1 (released on my 68^th birthday) and the upcoming Vol. 2 feature music written and recorded over the past 48 years that I’d like you to hear. The goal was to remix anything that needed it and remaster everything, trying to make it sound as much as possible like it was all from the same time and era sonically.  The remixing in particular helped with that goal, since it enabled me to update and replace guitar amps, keyboard sounds and drums – the one thing that seems to date my music the most (to me), while keeping the parts as played originally. 

The project started early in 2025 when I got the idea that I should remix the album ‘A Matter of Time’.  That album was my first to be recorded digitally 25 years ago, and I still had a lot of the outboard midi gear I used on the album.   I also still have a running copy of the software I used on the album –Emagic Logic Platinum Audio for Windows.  The process was to open the original project in Logic and clean it up for exporting, where I exported the  OMF file which included the audio tracks, as well as the Midi file.  I also did a screen capture of the Emagic screen so I knew the original tempo, instrument names etc.

I would then create a new blank project in Cubase with the proper tempo, and import the OMF and Midi files, which usually lined up properly.   I then had to deal with all the midi files, and have them triggering the external equipment, with what I thought were the original sound patches, using the program patch numbers as well as screen names. The external midi gear was a Roland JV-1080, a Korg TR Rack, and an Emu Proteus 2000 and Procussion.  To be safe, once I had the midi track setup – I would render it to an audio track.  When that was complete, I could mute the original midi tracks, and either use the rendered audio track, or trigger a modern day VST sound in a new midi track, or combine both approaches.

I continued in this manner until I had all of the original AMOT tracks ready to mix down, and would then master it in Wavelab with a litany of mastering plugins.

Once AMOT was done, I attempted some tracks from And We Dream to remix, which would prove much more difficult, as those tracks were recorded on 8 track tape synced to a PC with SMTPE time code, where I no longer had the hardware to decode the time code stripe.  In those cases, I had to either detect the tempo from something like a drum track or do a tap tempo.  Once I had the tempo with the audio, it was equally hard to get the midi tracks to line up, which required some experimentation to get it as close to right as possible.

Once the idea of a retrospective of sorts came about, I started looking for the tracks I’d like to add to remaster.  I massaged the mixes, remasters and running order for most of the second part of 2025.  Many months later Evidence is done, and the slate is finally clear in my mind for something new.  Curious to find out what that might be.  In the meantime, let me know what you think of Evidence.  There’s a lot of me in there…

Listen/Download Evidence Vol. 1

Listen/Download Evidence Vol. 2