Even though things have been quiet at jamesnotjim lately, I still consider this a live project. In fact, I've been thinking quite a lot lately about some things I want to do here. But, as with every other thing in my life, it has, of late, taken the back burner in favor of my most important project, raising my son, Haden.

Update: If you're on Facebook, you can become a fan of the project via this link.

Bassplaying.com is in the middle of our third Bass-in-a-Box project (BassIAB 2007.3). I've made some progress on a track for that. And I've made some progress on a couple of James, Not Jim compositions, one of which is very nearly ready to record.

I got up early this morning and worked on all of these projects before jumping in the shower and getting ready for work. So, already, the TonePort is paying off. It's allowing me to record at times when I wouldn't ordinarily be able to. And it's really great to start off the day playing bass. It's like a morning workout of a different sort.

I've bought a new piece of recording gear this week:  a Line6 TonePort UX2.  It's an audio interface (to replace my old MidiMan AudioBuddy) which also comes with some great software called GearBox which allows me to record silently, via USB, rather than micing a cab.  Gearbox includes lots of amp and cab models from Line6's POD line.  I've spent the past two evenings dialing in sounds for my bass and guitar and testing how well it records with Ableton Live.  So far, I'm super-happy.  I bought this thing mainly so I could record in the middle of the night without bothering anyone, and I think it's going to be perfect for that.

So, hey, maybe I'll actually record some new music for you.  What do you think?

I had taken the precaution of backing up my Live 5.2 library before I upgraded, but I didn't feel like trying to fix a computer problem. Part of the reason I switched to Live from Acid is, for the most part, Live "just works" and lets me focus on recording music rather than fixing technical problems with my platform. And I've been using that as an excuse to not record ever since.

But I decided I needed to get working on some new projects. Over at bassplaying.com, we're doing a little experiment called the BP Recording Project. The original idea came up in this thread. We worked out the details in another thread and people are posting their results to this one. The basic idea is simple. One member of the site posted a file of a computer generated song and we're all taking it, adding a bass line, posting the results, and discussing it. It's not really so much about the song itself as it is an experiment in how different bass players approach a song. And since I wanted to contribute, I had to fix my DAW.

And fixing it, it turns out, was dead simple thanks to the fine folks at Ableton, who posted a Live Pack to fix the problem (the Live 5 Compatibility Pack). I just downloaded and installed it and now all the tracks I did in 5.2 work perfectly in 6.0.3 (I went ahead an upgraded while I was at it). And now I'm inspired to do some work.