A little kindness goes a long way

I just finished a very poorly timed trip. I was pulling into Austin at 5pm on a Friday afternoon during labor day weekend. Stupid, I know. Anyway as I exited the freeway for one last time I looked out into the traffic with disgust. I turned left and almost rear ended the car in front of me. As I quickly stopped I silently yelled fuck in my head. Apparently I mouthed it as well. Over the blaring music in my car I heard a voice. To be sure of myself I turned down the radio and looked to my side. The guy in the car next to me was saying, "it's ok!" in a reassuring tone. As I returned the smile he said, "there ya go!" I just want to say thanks to that stranger and remember that life always gives you what you need. Sometimes it's just some reassurance from a stranger.

Austin doesn’t like my Xterra

The day I purchased my X I got a nick in the windshield. I should have known that it was a signal of what was to come. While driving down mopac one day, I hit a vulture. That became the week of birds. Before the week was to end I struck two more birds.

Moving on from the “acts of god” last week someone decided that my car wasn’t fast enough. That is the explanation that I am sticking with. To help me out they decided to improve my vehicle with speed scratches. For those of you who are unfamiliar with speed customization google the Simpsons and speed holes. I can’t tell if the scratch is working or not, but I’m pretty sure that if I was to punch the gas I would be able to tell the difference in acceleration now that I have a rather long scratch down the passenger side of my vehicle.

Just moments ago, my car received it’s most recent attack. A Pizza Hut delivery guy on Capital of TX highway in a small red hatchback decided that my vehicle would be much improved if it had a new windshield. To make sure that he got his point across, he cut me off and in the process threw the tiniest pebble up in the air. The reaction from my windshield was swift and unwelcome. I now have a 6in crack in my windshield. Thanks Pizza Hut!

Managing Expectations

Last week I was hired by a band to record a demo for them. I spoke with them so that I knew what their goals were, and I communicated what my fees would be for the service of recording them. Their initial goals were that they wanted to record 5 songs to aid in the search of a singer for their group. I inquired about the bands sound, how many people were playing, and what instrumentation was involved. After receiving the answers to these questions, I decided what the best way to capture the music would be.

I arrived at the bands practice space with recording gear in hand, and the recording session went fine. They did lean a little on the long side and it took them about 5 hours to record five songs. In between songs, I let them listen to what had been captured and the overall response was quite positive. The recording session was complete at 1am and I headed home to get some sleep while they went out on the town to celebrate.

The next day I started to receive pressuring phone calls asking when a mix would be available. I looked at my schedule and decided that I would have time to have a rough mix by the following Tuesday evening. I made sure to tell them that the process would be that I supply them with a mix, and they should then give me notes on what their thoughts were about the songs.

I rushed through the first set of mixes and I borrowed heavily from track to track. Usually, I treat each song as its own, but in this case there was no time to approach the project in that manner. Overall, I spent 5 hours coming up with the first draft of mixes which means that I like the band was averaging one song per hour.

I was able to deliver on my original deadline and handed off three disks for the band to listen to on Tuesday evening. I told them that they were a little bass heavy and their original response was that they understood that they were just a rough draft. At this point I thought that they were happy with the way that it sounded. I was only able to get the response from the band member who I gave the mixes to. I sat down and listened to each song with him and I was able to get his initial reaction as to how everything sounded from his stereo. He walked me out to my car and heard more of the songs from my car stereo where he replied that it sounded great in the car.

I started to worry a little when he mentioned that he knew that the guitar player wanted to re-record some of his guitar parts. In an effort to not get worried, I told him that the band should listen together and make decisions on what specific things were good and what needed to be changed.

My phone rang 3 or 4 hours later and it was my friend giving me the bad news. The guitar player wanted me to record all of his guitar tracks again. When I asked the reason the response was that he didn't sound the way he is used to sounding. I assumed this was a volume or mix issue. I knew that I had compressed the guitars more than I wanted to, and they weren't the focus of the mixes. The musician uses a large number of effects when he plays, and his set up included a full pedal board and a multiprocessor. Without having a master volume or a compressor to control all of these effects, there was a significant level change when distortions were cycled through or when simply changing between different effects. I hadn't had the chance to use automation in the mix, and therefore I leveled out the guitars with compression.

The drummer had supplied the following feedback for the session..."I want to tweak the drum sound some." As you can no doubt tell, these guys are quite articulate. When I asked more questions about that situation I got no response.

I do realize that the topic of this post is managing expectations. I also realize that at this point you are probably wondering where I am going with this. Here it is. How would you have handled the situation differently? I know that one thing I would have done is make sure that I have the contact info. for all members so that I could talk to them directly instead of through one individual. What else would you change?

Back in ATX

Sometimes it all just falls into place. A friend got me on the list to go see Animal Collective upon my return to Austin. During the show I was offered my first VIP pass to Stubb's. I had secretly been hoping that I would be able to get on the deck for the show, but was unwilling to ask for the pass when I had already asked to get into a sold out show. While on the deck, I realized that I had been taking too many pictures from my phone and the battery was about to die. I was able to send out a few last text messages updating the poeple that I knew who were in attendance at the show, and those that I thought would be downtown to set up a meeting after the show at Creekside. At first I was worried about being downtown without a mobile. It's funny how attached we get to these things. The anxiety quickly passed as I was able to receive confirmation from my friends that we would all meet up at Creekside later in the evening. The show was amazing, and being able to enjoy the view from the VIP deck made it even better.

After making it to Creekside, I ran into other groups of friends that I hadn't seen in a while. These included ex-girlfirends and their groups of friends, and old friends that I have been neglecting while in graduate school. A good time was had by all, and I got to experience one of those rare instances when a number of your worlds collide and everything works out just fine. The only moment of anxiety left was that my friend had still not arrived. She was working at Stubb's and so I didn't expect her to get out immediately, but I did start to feel concern as the hours passed. My friends had left the bar, I had no phone (that was functional, anyway), and I decided to walk the bar one more time before closing out my tab. As I closed out, the bartender handed me my card and told me to have a great evening, no charge. I turned around and my friend had just found me and was ready for her ride home. You really can't ask for a more perfect evening. I didn't spend any money and I enjoyed a concert complete with VIP treatment and a free bar tab. Sometimes it all just falls into place.

Introductions

My name is Chris Ahrens. At the time of this writing, I am 32 years old. I live in south Austin, but I plan on moving to the west coast this summer. I love girls who drive trucks, and somehow I have made it this far in life without getting married or having kids. I will be using this space as a vehicle to blast my thoughts out into the ether.