Crippled by Fear at rehearsal

Last night at rehearsal the band got together to discuss any final tempo or arrangement changes in I, Awake before Kevin begins recording drum tracks. Because there are a few places where the time is fairly loose, we decided to have Chris and Steve do their respective guitar and keyboard parts in these areas before handing things over to Kevin. Chris and Steve hope to tackle that sometime this week.

We also spent a little more time working on Crippled by Fear with Steve. There are a lot of keyboard solos in this song, so it was good to bring Steve up to speed on the chord changes. We managed to get through it pretty much to the end, and Steve was able to solo to his heart's content. It shouldn't be long before this one's performance ready.

Falling Edge

Steve Fowler, R.I.P.

It is with great sadness that I announce the death of fellow guitarist and friend Steve Fowler.

Steve was a great friend, and I feel honoured to have had the chance to know him, work with him and share music with him. Among other things, Steve was a great guitarist - one of the finest I've ever known, and a talented producer.  He helped build my custom electric (well, built most of it really), engineered and produced most of my early classical stuff, and helped me get started playing live classical/fingerstyle jazz stuff (hell, he taught me most of the arrangements, some of which I still play). I thank God for putting him in my path.

Eternal rest, grant unto him O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him.

Chris Rupert (guitar) - Falling Edge

Hammond parts done, rehearsal last night

Recording of I, Awake is moving right along, as Steve finished up recording one section of organ last week. This particular section is largely improvised at rehearsals, so we thought it wise to record Steve's part first so that the rest of the band could sync up to it, allowing a tighter recording. Steve's Hammond/Leslie combination started acting up near the end of the session, producing some interesting sounds of destruction on some of the takes (which we may actually use...). With this section now complete, we'll start recording drum tracks very soon.

The band had a solid rehearsal last night as well. We went through I, Awake with ease (finally!!), and spent some time rehearsing Social Engineering and Crippled by Fear. With I, Awake now rock solid, we'll be concentrating on ironing out some of the problem areas in these epic tunes.

Falling Edge

Organ parts begun

Steve began recording one section of the organ parts for I, Awake on Monday night. We were fortunate to be able to actually use one of Steve's Hammond organs with a Leslie speaker, and are really happy with the way things turned out - the organ tone is too sweet (Steve's playing isn't half bad either...)

Unfortunately Steve didn't get everything that he wanted recorded, so he's going to try to finish up tomorrow. More on that as it develops.

Falling Edge

Falling Edge on Dante’s Prog Blog Inferno

Falling Edge received a nice mention at Dante's Prog Blog Inferno.

Ready to record I, Awake

Well, after a fair amount of hassle and an unusually long delay between posts, our web page seems to be up and running smoothly. Hopefully it'll stay that way for a while...

The band had a great rehearsal on Monday, and is now ready to begin recording of the final CD cut I, Awake. Steve plans to record some of the organ parts first, after which Kevin will begin laying down drum tracks. Steve hasn't committed yet, but there is a possibility that he'll use (one of) his vintage Hammond/Leslie organ/speaker combinations for the organ parts. We hope to begin work on Steve's tracks early next week.

The band also made great headway in Social Engineering, nailing it at rehearsal this week, with the exception of one small and very difficult passage. It won't be long before this one is performance-ready, though.

Falling Edge

Crippled by Fear on Monday

The band continued fine tuning I, Awake this week, with Kevin adding more drum variations for the rest of the band's perusal. We also made a slight change in one of the guitar and keyboard runs, choosing to end it early and replace it with drums.

We also continued rehearsing Social Engineering and even got into a little bit of Crippled by Fear, running through and jamming out some of the different sections with Steve for the first time. We're looking forward to working on this one, as it's the only song we haven't actually played with Steve in the band (with the exception of Not That Far Away, which has no keyboard parts other than a solo).

Falling Edge

Good rehearsal Thursday

The band had another great rehearsal on Thursday. Things were a little slow to get started, as we discussed different options for a live keyboard setup for Steve. Once things got rolling we burned through I, Awake with only a few glitches along the way (no small feat for a 15 minute long song), and did a pretty fine job of Social Engineering as well, stopping to work on some of the more difficult timing sections.

For the gear heads who may be reading, Steve decided to bring his newly re-acquired Yamaha DX7 (with E! upgrade board) to practice, which worked out nicely. He'd been using a Korg keyboard controller to play through samples on a Mac or PC laptop at recent rehearsals, but was finding this a little cumbersome and at times unreliable. In most cases the sounds were top notch, but there was some difficulty with lag and unexplained glitching. He commented later in the night that he found it much easier to just control different patch changes from the DX7 itself.

Falling Edge

I, Awake getting ready to record

The band spent more time on I, Awake last night at rehearsal, and things are coming along quite well. Some tempo uncertainties were brought up and worked through, and it's getting to the point where little new is being added to the arrangement. Kevin is still finalizing drum parts in different sections, but other than that this song is pretty much ready to record, which hopefully we'll be able to begin doing in the coming weeks.

Falling Edge

More progress made at this week’s rehearsal

The band had another good rehearsal on Monday, playing straight through I, Awake. While there were a few tweaks necessary, this one's pretty much done now with no major areas to work out or arrange. We'll probably spend a few more weeks banging through it so we can try out some possible different ideas before we set into the daunting task of recording it.

We also spent more time working on Social Engineering, and are making more progress through this song as well, as Steve becomes more familiar with the odd time changes throughout. Steve also made use of some samples from the original recording which will allow him to play using the exact same keyboard sounds as in the original.

Falling Edge