One of my early goals with this website was to share some projects in progress. It seemed like it might be fun, an illuminating gift for those with an interest in creative process. But with that in mind, it didn’t take long for me to realize there aren’t many unfinished things I actually want to share, because (wait for it), they’re unfinished. Duh. And the curse of romantic idealism strikes again!

Nevertheless, here I am doing it. Two Hearts is a recent composition, and one that took some effort for me to get a feel for. There’s a fine line between delicacy and passivity, cliche and comfort, and this song made me look carefully at both of those dynamics. The recording is a single guitar part (doubled), and a few vocal passes for laying out harmonies.

I made a couple temporary mixes I wasn’t particularly jazzed about, but this time, the sticking point was a question of what effects to apply to the tracks. When all you have in a recording is guitar and voice, the sonic setting can have a tremendous impact on the overall feel, and that was certainly true here. On this mix, I used a plugin from PSPAudioware – PSP Echo. It was my first experience using the software, and I found it did a fantastic job of creating a subtle effect that fell somewhere between delay and reverb, putting the track in a really nice space.