Dreamwalkers: The Value of a Brilliant Sound Engineer, Patrick Russini

Hello to all my Dreamwalkers out there,

Last year, while doing my best to produce our Dreamwalkers album, I received a consult from Patrick Russini that expanded my knowledge and qualitatively improved the sound of the project. The fact that Patrick was available this year, during a pandemic, to produce and engineer our album has been an amazing blessing of this time. 

Tonight we had planned on working on two songs, Debbie Stern's "Good To See You, Gone," a song which tells a story of divorce, and how people really feel, and Tony Sheppard's "Road Song," a wonderfully original instrumental piece bringing elements of surf, jazz, and country rock in an effervescent blend. We tried very hard with Debbie's song, too hard in fact, and we had to kick back and let The Heartbeat, drummer Daniel Polyak, reach deep into his heart and come up with something beyond what any of us could have imagined. Bravo, Daniel.

The Road Song was a much trickier process. To be honest, the scratch track was not very good and we did not catch it at the time. I can't speak for anyone else, but my guitar was not in time, and the speed of the entire track was so variable as to be unfixable, despite Patrick's valiant efforts to do so. In fact, the best (and bravest) thing Patrick did was to call it bad, and suggest we re-record another scratch track, as it's a wonderful song. Sometimes, you just have to speak the truth. I was prepared to make the call, but Pat's ear and expertise are beyond mine, so I was glad to hear he agreed with my assessment. 

The really cool part is everyone agreed. They all heard it too. It's nice to know as a group, we are committed to excellence. Everyone is putting in time and no one quit his or her day job. Why else do this? The drum tracks will be done soon, and things will pick up speed. I'm so glad brilliant sound engineer Pat Russini is with us. 

Peace,

Dr Dreamwalker

After I took this photo, I realized John Lennon and Paul McCartney were supervising our recording session.

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