Threshold: Updates from the studio...

[phyziczteacher]

Hey everyone,

I'm sorry for my disappearance as of late. I've been so overwhelmed with my dissertation, and the end of school.

I'm not happy with Night Terror enough to post it, but we have made progress on it. Jeremy and I are getting together this Saturday, and hopefully we will iron out the parts that need work, and I can post that.

In the meantime, I will be busy between now and the end of May, but will be a lot more active here once my summer hits. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still here, and am not going anywhere 

Rock on!

[Aswepe]

Thanks Tim for the update. Good luck with the dissertation & (of course) with the music!

[Brian Dobbs]

yeah man, we all can get busy from time to time.  i'm confident that we'll all get back here eventually, especially Aswepe and the Threshold! (you guys rock)

[Brian Dobbs]

hey guys, it's been a while.  Any new updates?

[phyziczteacher]

Hey Brian and Dave (and everyone else),

It has been a long while, and I'm so sorry for again disappearing, but I have good reason 

Update on me personally:

I just submitted my dissertation proposal to my mentor for review, which consists of the first three chapters of the actual dissertation (about 100 pages). I have been devoting most of my free time to that, but finally have a chance to take a break.

I've been having knee pain a lot the last couple of months and an MRI has confirmed that I have a torn meniscus in my left knee, and both knees are suffering from degenerative damage (which ultimately leads to needing knee replacements    ). However, the surgery to fix a torn meniscus only take about a month to recover so that is good news.

Update on us:

Unfortunately, due to my dissertation and Jeremy's work schedule this summer, we have been unable to get together. In fact, he and I talked and it looks like we'll be able to get together for the first time this summer on Saturday. However, I do have something to show you from Night Terror, and figured that since it has been so long, why not show what we have so far.

So, here is what I'll do. I'm going to hold off on posting Night Terror as a whole until Jeremy and I get together to do some more work on it. But, here is a clip of the song that will stay as is, with the exception of adding more guitar work and such. I'm really digging the unison guitar and piano. Just remember there are some rough spots that will need to be redone. I'm pretty sure you guys (Brian and David) will dig this.

http://www.imacphysics.org/nightterrorclip.mp3

I've got a lot of what I need to record my drums, and hope to start laying down some drum tracks soon. At this point it depends on my knees. I've play live with my other band that does 80's cover tunes, and I'm just coming off of doing two gigs in a row, which requires some recovery time.

[Aswepe]

Tim:

Welcome back - dissertation must be a mother.

Night Terror is such a great name from what I've heard so far. This bad boy is scary! I particularly like the straight quarter note hat with the mad Bass Drum beating along with the Guitar & Piano. At 1:14 everything stops but the Piano - Sweeeeeet! A real attention-getter. Those String/Brass stabs work very well as accents too. Slowing it down at 1:42 & then just Piano & Drums - that short section is great. Bass & Drums - ditto. Strings & Drums - Where's the rest???

Just kidding - wow. You guys are determined to make this one better than Portal. I can hear maturation in your writing process. You've learned your lessons well & applied them masterfully.

Excellent stuff - right up my alley. I love it. Of course I'm left to guess how it will start & how it will end. This section is pretty decent to my ears.

More Kudos from Somewhere in Texas.

[Stephan]

Tim, I also dig this a lot!
It's really working for me as the atmosphere and feeling it creates are very powerful to me!
I also like the slow down in the last quarter of the clip!
You got me hooked!

[Brian Dobbs]

UNISON kicks ass!  When I listen to this I feel like I'm traveling through space.  Sorry to hear about your knee Tim.  That really sucks, especially being a drummer.  Glad to hear that you're recovering.  Where's Guitar Hero?

[phyziczteacher]

Thanks Dave, Steph, and Brian,

It was good to hear from you guys. I appreciate the compliments, and I totally agree with you Dave: these new tunes are showing a definite maturation as Jeremy and I are learning from our experience with Portal, getting better with our instruments, and are finally allowed the luxury of writing music with a real keyboard player.

You'll notice in our songs from Portal very few places where there is not a guitar playing. Since a lot of those songs were written in the old days  with just drums and a guitar, Jeremy had to fill all of the space. Now with an accomplished pianist, Jeremy has a lot of breathing room, which I think shows up nicely in Systematic Breakdown. There are several places where strings and synth are filling the space, and Jeremy is free to add very cool soloing riffs. I just wish we could get together more often!

To answer your question Brian, summer is Jeremy's busiest time of year workwise, so that's why he's been MIA. In fact, we didn't get the chance to get together last weekend like we had hoped. If only I could win the lottery, and then we could just write music all day every day 

I'll update you guys when more has been done, and I'll get to checking out your work in the other threads during this week.

Rock on everyone!

[Brian Dobbs]

your descriptions have me wanting more samples, haha.

i know what you mean about scheduling.  i don't think i've gotten together with my peeps in a month or two.

[marcdesgagnes]

Hi everybody!

Wow!!!...No.....WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!...Ok, I really needed to add this with caps locked! loll Hey Tim, man, your work is incredible and very impressive! I must tell you that you just found another follower in me! I was listening to the intro of Systematic Breakdown and I want to ask you this: Is there any special sound preseting or EQ for recording keyboard tracks as rich as yours? I was completely shocked with my jaw wide open when I heard the song.....Ok, maybe the quality of the synth is in for 50% of the job, but I'm pretty sure getting the right EQ is the key......

Mark

[phyziczteacher]

Hi all,

It has been yet again awhile since I've posted. I'm still having to devote most of my free time to this damn dissertation! 

Marcdesgagnes: thank you so much for your comments. You know what is cool about the mix right now? We try very hard to record the instruments the way we want them to sound in the final recording, so we use the eq's and adjustments on the actual software interface. I do this, because I feel the less you have to screw around with eq'ing in the post production phase, the better quality your sound will be.


Now for an update on me:

I had knee surgery on my right knee, and they removed a big mass of tissue that was behind my knee cap. That is why my right knee was hurting so badly. It has been two weeks since the surgery, and I played drums yesterday and was amazed! I couldn't remember what it was like to play without pain, and last night my right knee felt great! It had a little soreness from the surgery, but the pain that was there is completely gone!

I have my left knee scheduled for surgery Oct. 2nd. I can't wait, because I'm going to have two healthy knees again!!!!!!

So, my target date for the completion of my dissertation is late October or early November. Once winter hits, Jeremy and I will definitely be able to hit the writing hard. I'm so anxious to get back at it, but some things come first right now unfortunately 

Rock on!

[Brian Dobbs]

Tim, glad to see you're still with us, and that your knee is feeling better.  As always, we're looking forward to hearing more from your camp.  I featured Systematic Breakdown in my last video blog that I emailed about today.  Kansas, right?

[Aswepe]

Tim:

Good to know you're still with us. I was beginning to have my doubts there for a while.

Again, best of luck with the dissertation & as always, looking forward to new tuneage.

[phyziczteacher]

Hey Brian and Dave,

I promise I won't permanently disappear    I consider you guys friends, and friends don't just bale out! 

I can't wait for the time when I can put a lot of focus and energy into writing with Jeremy. I just have to get this darn dissertation finished!

Also, very cool blog Brian. I liked the excerpts you included for everyone, and yes, we are from Kansas. Kansas City is easiest to remember too.

Rock on fellas!

[Brian Dobbs]

Hey Tim, how are things going in the Threshold camp?

[phyziczteacher]

Hey Dave, Brian, and all of my Solo Album Forum friends,

It seems things have taken a turn for the worst for me physically. I haven't been here in a long time and it's probably because I didn't want to face the reality of things.

I have a degenerative disease that is attacking my joints. We don't know exactly what it is, because those things are hard to pin point, but it's much like Rheumatoid Arthritis. It has attacked almost every joint, and I didn't notice it until around November when my doctor decreased my pain meds, because I had my last knee surgery, so we were trying to see how things held up.

Well, I had a few gigs, and it took me literally five days to recover. My ankles, knees, fingers, wrists, elbows, neck, back, and even my intercostal spaces were in pain. So, it was a blessing that the pain meds were reduced, because I had never felt the ankles, fingers, elbows, and wrists hurt that intensely.

My grandpa also passed away (the husband of my grandma who passed in August) Dec 1st, so I was dealing with a lot. My doctor had me start a medication to see if it helped with my pain, but after three weeks and no sign of it relieving the symptoms, he said it's not going to work. So, he started me on another one (these are anti-depressants that have shown success to help relieve the pain from people with RA or fibromyalgia). Unfortunatley, coming off of one and starting another one has caused quite a bit of pain itself, and it is just a matter of getting through the hell to see if relief is coming.

So, I've had to retire from the 80's cover band (New Years was the last gig I was committed to play), which sucks, but you have to what you have to do. I fully intend on playing with Jeremy and writing music, but I can't do anything with that until I get a handle on this pain.

So, sorry for being gone even long this time, but as you can see, it was for good reason 

Best Regards,

Tim

[Aswepe]

Tim:

Sounds like you've had more than your fair share of the S**t sandwich life can sometimes force us to eat. Sorry dude.

Hope the docs can get the pain under control - that's a biggie there.

Hang in there & don't give up hope. Don't stop moving forward even if you have to slow down sometimes.

Best Wishes...

[Brian Dobbs]

Tim, I opened up the forum yesterday just to glance through it (I usually don't browse much during weekends), and my mouth literally dropped when I read your post.  I stopped midway through and got my wife's attention and showed her.

I have a few thoughts running through my head right now, but not really sure how to sum them up just yet.  I feel grateful that you even took time to come here and update us with what's been going on.  I really was beginning to wonder.

I want to say a few things, but not all at once.  For starters, that just sucks.  What a terrible deal, and sorry to hear about your grandparents.

More later...

[Brian Dobbs]

I had to take a little while to process this.  Tim, a story like yours really resonates with me, as I'm going through some health issues as well.  While none are as severe as yours, I sometimes wonder if I will continue to play drums, and how that will affect the band.

I've thought about possibly including another board on this forum and focus it specifically on health issues that musicians have, and the challenges they face because of it.

For now I think I'll hold off, as the membership still seems to be quite low for that right now.  I will keep that idea staged and bring it out one day.

[phyziczteacher]

Hey Dave,

Thanks for your words of encouragement bro.

Brian,

I appreciate your concern as well, and feel for you too. You know, two years ago I could play drums for six hours and not be phased by it. A year ago I could play drums for four hours and be pretty worn down and my back and knees would hurt. The last full gig I played this past Dec 12, I grimaced with pain through the last set and a half. It is amazing how gradual of a process this has been, and it didn't hit me until a few months ago how it had been building for two years.

I know that I can still play drums, but for how long and how long after will it take to recover I don't know. I can't imagine hanging it up for good, and I really don't think it will have to come to that, but the way things are now, it is hard enough just to teach, which simply consists of walking around and talking a good portion of the day. So, for now I am taking a break. When I get my sub-basement rearranged using new shelving my father-in-law is installing, I'll set up a small recording studio for the drums and go from there.

I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me and affect my mood and everyday life. It is depressing me right now, because chronic pain is a drain on energy, happiness, and just plain life in general. I have good days and bad days with my mood. When I'm lying in bed unable to sleep due to the pain, needless to say those are my worst days. I do lie there thinking sometimes why me and why now, but this one thought always brings me back around: I'd much rather be dealing with this, then having a doctor tell me I have six months to live because I have inoperable cancer. If this is the worst God throws at me, and I live to a nice age, I can be happy with that. I'll just do everything I can to make sure the quality of life is as good as possible, which meant having to give up the 80's band right now.

It kinda feels good to get these thoughts out. I'm interested to know what's going on with you, and it doesn't matter whose story is more severe. If it is bothering you enough to make you face making drastic changes, then it's worth talking about. If you want, send me a private message or you can share it here too since there aren't any updates from the Threshold studio right now 

Till next time my friend,

Tim

[Brian Dobbs]

thanks tim, PM sent.

[D3im0s]

Oh, man, I can't really tell you how sad made me the reading of this thread. Yesterday I just skipped it saying "Oh it's too long I'm gonna read it later leisurely" but now I think I sould've read it immediately... I think you're doing good saying that it could have been worse than this, but surely this is a very big "issue" (sorry, just wake up, can't find the proper words), especially if it keeps you from playing. If something like that happened to me I think I would have gone into a big depression even if there isn't just music in my life, because just thinking that there could be something stealing me the pleasure to play music piss me off...

Keep rockin...
V.

[Brian Dobbs]

D3im0s, I appreciate the time you took to catch up with Tim and Jeremy of Threshold.  I myself began to  wonder what happened to them, but as Tim explained, an indefinite hiatus was necessary due to medical problems.  Music is such a powerful thing, and when it's stripped from you, it hurts.

[phyziczteacher]

Hello everyone!

Wow has it been a long time, but I have great news! I have been playing drums almost every day for three weeks now! I started Lyrica June 1st, and gradually increased my activity as it began to calm my pain. I started slow with a stationary bike (like 20 minutes a day), and I threw drums in a little over three weeks ago, and I am up to an hour of exercise! Actually, sometimes I'll play 45 minutes to an hour on the drums after doing 30 minutes on the bike.

The awesome thing is, I wake up the next morning with no joint pain!!!! It is amazing!

So, probably starting Octoberish, Jeremy and I will kick it back into gear when his job schedule becomes less demanding. Oh, and by the way, I finished the dissertation in May, so I am officially Doctor now! So, having that out of the way, I have a lot more free time. I'm just working on my chops and developing some killer double bass chops that I can't wait to unleash for this next album!

Sorry it had been so long, but I appreciate everyone's concerns, patience, and support! You guys are awesome!

Rock on dudes!

[Brian Dobbs]

EPIC WIN!

[Brian Dobbs]

Haha, seriously, I literally said, "Oh My God," when I logged onto the forum today.  Dude, that's so great to hear man.  I mean, ahem, Dr. Man.  Haha.  I was just thinking about some of those demos I heard a while back and thinking how bad it would be if they never saw completion.  Rock on man....Dr. Man.

[D3im0s]

Hello everyone!

Wow has it been a long time, but I have great news! I have been playing drums almost every day for three weeks now! I started Lyrica June 1st, and gradually increased my activity as it began to calm my pain. I started slow with a stationary bike (like 20 minutes a day), and I threw drums in a little over three weeks ago, and I am up to an hour of exercise! Actually, sometimes I'll play 45 minutes to an hour on the drums after doing 30 minutes on the bike.

The awesome thing is, I wake up the next morning with no joint pain!!!! It is amazing!

So, probably starting Octoberish, Jeremy and I will kick it back into gear when his job schedule becomes less demanding. Oh, and by the way, I finished the dissertation in May, so I am officially Doctor now! So, having that out of the way, I have a lot more free time. I'm just working on my chops and developing some killer double bass chops that I can't wait to unleash for this next album!

Sorry it had been so long, but I appreciate everyone's concerns, patience, and support! You guys are awesome!

Rock on dudes!

THUMBS UP!!

[Aswepe]

Congrats DR. Tim!!! Hopefully a pay raise will soon follow.

Great news medical front also.

Now, get to work on some tunes (Please).