The RPM website’s countdown just dropped below 11 hours. By the time I get home from work it will be around five hours. PANIC TIME!!!

Last night I mixed two and a half songs. That’s it. On Monday I was up working until 1:00am. I got four hours of sleep, tops. I planned to have a similar marathon last night, but around 10:00 I fell asleep with the laptop in my lap and the song I was working on playing at an obscene volume in my headphones. I did manage to wake up before dropping my laptop, so that was lucky, but I admitted defeat and put it away. When I got up this morning I finished the song I was working on.

The current counts are as follows:

• Seven songs finished
• Four songs ready to mix
• Four songs still need lead guitar
• Three songs still need vocals and lead guitar

Well the seven songs in the bottom two bullets are now officially dropped.  The songs waiting for leads can have rough mixes done to post to the fawm.org site (not fawm.com, that’s a porn site) but they aren’t going on the RPM Challenge album.  I need to mix down the four songs that are ready to mix tonight before I fall asleep.  It might take some caffeine, but I should be able to get it done.  They are going to sound worse than normal because I will have to blow through them quickly, but they should get done.

After the mixes are complete I need to come up with a running order.  I’ve been sort of doing that as I go, using the tried and true “best songs first” method.  Nothing artsy for me this year.  No time for that!  I have the cover art done.  I used an app that I’ve used in the past.  Unfortunately they watermark the shit out of things now so I caved (without much thought) and bought the watermark-free version for way too much money ($4.99!).  Once the running order is set all I have to do is upload each song to my RPMchallenge.com account (which I have also been doing as I go) and make a playlist and fill out the 2018 album section.  Then I’ll be done.  After that I’ll run off quick exports of the four songs that are missing lead guitar, upload them to soundcloud, and post them on my fawm account.  Then I will have both February music projects complete.

Once I get home from work I’ll have about five hours.  I think I can do it.  Maybe.  If nothing else comes up.  Maybe.

My brain hurts as much as my ears and my fingers.

I recorded four lead guitars parts tonight and then mixed three songs.

I have four songs finished completely and another seven ready to mix. On top of that there are still four more ready for lead guitars but I am thinking of adding one or two of them to the dropped list.

Two more days and then time runs out and it’s over. I have enough ready to mix to turn in a complete RPM Challenge album, and I can rough mix the ones that are waiting for leads still in order to have a complete FAWM. As long as nothing gets in the way of mixing time over the next two nights I will finish on time.

I am still not confident of success though.

Now that day 26 is almost over, here’s day 25’s recap.

I recorded lead guitars for four songs. My finger tips were killing me. That left me with one mixed, four ready to mix, and 10 ready for lead guitars. Also, three others outright dropped.

I managed to sneak in a few lead guitar parts today. The weekend was not a total recording loss. Three days left. I’ve never cut it this close before.

I mixed one song. I still have 4726372 more leads to record and then 875466433567 more to mix…. in less than four days. Crap.

Absolutely nothing.

Now that, boys and girls, was a Day!

When I woke up this morning I had 18 songs in progress, four with vocals, and not a single lead guitar.

When I go to sleep tonight there will be 18 songs in progress, 15 with vocals, and three with lead guitars that are all ready to mix.

My throat is sore, my finger tips are shredded, and my ears hear nothing but a dull buzz.  Damn!  I’m gettin’ too old for this shit, but it was a pretty fun day.

I should be feeling super confident about finishing on time… but I’m not.  Why?  Because there is a chance I might not have even a second of time to work for the next few days.  Ouch!

I have recorded nine songs worth of vocal tracks today. Holy shit! My ears are completely shot and my voice is in even worse shape. In total I have 13 down and still five (or seven?) to go. I’m going to have some lunch and watch an episode of Westworld or something and hope my voice comes back to me.

Yikes!