Wednesday, August 15, 2007 ...and that was the last we ever heard from him.

Hopefully, you won't be able to say that of this post, but I thought I should let folks know that if posting gets off schedule here, at "Paeter's Brain" or the Podcast, it's because my wife and I will be having our first baby very soon. Although I will take a week off when the baby arrives, I will plan to at least keep the blogs and podcast going with little to no hiccups during that time. But should something be a day or so late sometime soon, you'll know why.

We're very excited to turn our "Dynamic Duo" into a "Terrible Trio", but we'd also really value your prayers. We'll let you know either here or at "Paeter's Brain" as soon as "the package has been delivered".

See ya!

Saturday, August 11, 2007 Be A Part Of Our Podcast!

Help us create the Spirit Blade Underground community!

HERE'S WHAT WE NEED:

1. Your answers to our weekly "Coffee House Questions".

2. Tell us how we can make the podcast and blogs better or more interactive!

3. Become an "Underground Correspondent"! Record a review (books, movies, t.v. shows, ANYTHING!) for us and you may just hear it on the next podcast! (Please limit message length to 3 minutes or less.)

HERE'S HOW TO DO IT:

Record a message with your ideas, reviews or other thoughts at: http://paetersbrain.blogspot.com or http://paeter.libsyn.com/!

Or e-mail Paeter at paeter@spiritblade.net. Don't forget to include your name so everyone will know how awesome you are! (Names will be withheld upon request.)

We hope you'll all be a part of our exciting future!

Friday, August 10, 2007 Could Use Some Help

We've had a great week here, finishing up the track to one song and starting on another. We've had to re-schedule Randy Hesson's first recording session because he grabbed a small cold and needed to get better in time for the musical he's performing in currently. His first recording session should be coming up next Tuesday.

We could use a little help from you! We'd like to have a way for you and our podcast listeners to leave messages for us to play on the podcast. We've tried both Odeo (which seemed to have some problems on their site) and Evoca (which would force us to spend more money) and haven't had any luck yet.

We'd like to avoid giving out Paeter's cell phone number or spending any money. Some blog widgets will allow you to record a message, but then only send a link to a flashplayer containing the recording. We need to be able to save the audio file for use on the podcast.

So if you have any ideas, we'd LOVE to hear them! 

Friday, August 3, 2007 Bad Guys With Lasagna

It's been a great week! Two more actors came and recorded, bringing us ever closer to the post-production phase, where the world of "Spirit Blade" will have life breathed into it again.


Paeter also began recording his lines for Merikk Scythe.


The highlight of the week was undoubtedly recording a "flesh eating sequence" this morning with actor Krystofer James VanSlyke. Cooked lasagna noodles were involved and the results were chilling.


On that note, have a great weekend!

Wednesday, August 1, 2007 Love this stuff!

For a full-time job that isn't adding anything to our house-hold income yet, I LOVE what I do!

I get to tell stories and journey to incredible worlds. I get to interact with other artists and creative people. I get to share what God is teaching me and learn from others at the same time!

Sure it's not all perfect, and I have some crappy days I'd love to forget. But I wouldn't trade what I'm doing for any other job out there!

As always, thanks for your prayers and support as Holly and I continue cutting a path into unknown territory.

Speaking of unknown territory, our first baby (a boy!) will be arriving/emerging toward the end of this month. We'd love your prayers for a safe and incredibly fulfilling birth.

Take care,

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, July 27, 2007 Open Auditions!

After a great weekend of recording with Sean Anthony Roberts, this week we jumped into preparations for "Dark Ritual" open auditions.


We'll be submitting the audition notice on several voice acting and audio drama message boards and you're invited to audition, too!


We have several supporting roles left that will be a lot of fun to play! So don't be shy if you're interested in trying out!


All you need is a microphone that can record clearly and the ability to send us files of your voice recordings in WAV or high quality MP3.


If you're at all interested in getting more information about the audition process and parts that are available, send an e-mail toinfo@spiritblade.net with a subject line reading "Audition Info", and we'll send everything you need right to your inbox!


As always, thanks for your prayers and support! Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007 A Great Weekend!

My friend Sean and his wife were in town this last weekend so that he could record the part of Saolos for "Dark Ritual". Although we worked a lengthy and intense schedule for a day and a half, we had a lot of fun and his performance is incredible.

After we finished recording, I sat down with him for two different interviews. The first is a spoiler free conversation about recording for Dark Ritual, and the second is full of spoilers about the story and his character.

The first one will be part of our show this week on the Spirit Blade Underground Podcast, so be sure you check it out. The second one I'll hang onto and put on the website with spoiler warnings sometime after Dark Ritual's release.

Thanks again, Sean, for a great weekend and for work that will be very memorable to all of our listeners!

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, July 20, 2007 Music and Misc.

This week started off with the completion of various odds and ends and then produced the bulk of its productivity in the realm of music. Both "Veritas" and another song called "Used" were given some attention this week, the latter gaining the most ground.

We're seeing some good patterns so far with website traffic up recently and a dozen or so listeners to the last couple of podcasts.

We're hoping the podcast will help us establish a community a little more and provide something both fun and faith-building for sci-fi and fantasy fans. And although we don't spend much time talking about Spirit Blade Productions on it, we hope that listeners will come see the rest of what we have to offer. If you have any ideas on how we might improve or add to the podcast, please let us know! You can comment here or send an e-mail with your thoughts and ideas!

We would love it if you would consider one or two people this week that you could e-mail a link for the podcast to. We'd love to have more people involved both there and here on the weblog.

Thanks, everyone, for your continued support! Things are going great!

Have an awesome weekend!

Wednesday, July 18, 2007 "Like Finding Moses' DVD Collection"

Yesterday I spent most of the day and some of the night working with an orchestra. Not a synthesizer, but an orchestra. Of course, I've never met any of the players and can't imagine that I ever will. But I'm still using them as much as I can.

What I actually spent my time working with were two music products. One was a CD of orchestra samples. Meaning that some guy got an orchestra and a microphone together and said, "Violins, play middle C!- Great! Okay, now Trumpets, play the G above that!" After recording a multitude of single notes, combined notes, short notes and sustained notes, all at various volumes and intensities, he organized it together into a CD product for people like me to edit into our music however we'd like.

The other product is a CD containing musical phrases played by a live orchestra in a variety of cinematic styles. These files I can either use as they come, or spend time (like I did yesterday) chopping them up into smaller bits to use as samples, giving me more control over the final product.

At least one (and probably more) of the songs I'm working on for "Dark Ritual" will use a blend of dark electronic beats and sampled orchestra. I'll also be using a blend of live and sampled voices to create a men's chorus and mixed choir when appropriate.

I've always loved mixing together elements that seem opposed to each other: Extreme Violence and Christian Fiction, Sci-fi mixed with Fantasy, and now a Classical music sound blended with Electronic.

I'm certainly not the first. Far from it. Danny Elfman has been littering his film scores with electronic production value since "The Planet of the Apes". The bands "Evanescence" and "Red" have both combined hard rock with emotive strings.

It's something I've wanted to do before, and even imagined early on for song concepts (that had to be put aside) in "Spirit Blade". But two things have brought me back to the idea. First, I've grown in my ability to create and mix tracks, making it the right time to stretch myself in this area. And second, the story of "Dark Ritual" calls for an element of the ancient. Our main characters spend most of their time in a world of ancient tradition and dark mysticism, so I'd like the music to reflect that.

Hopefully, when you hear "Dark Ritual", both the scoring and the songs will help transport you to an ancient and mysterious place filled with both power and dread.

Friday, July 13, 2007 Seduction, Songs and Schedule Changes

This was a very active week for us at Spirit Blade Productions. Events of note include:


Our evil villainess for "Dark Ritual" recorded her first session of dialogue with chilling results. I think listeners will love to hate our mysterious female antagonist.


We also made significant forward motion on the sound design for a song titled "Veritas". It will be less melodic than the rest of the songs in Dark Ritual, using a chorus surrounded by various spoken audio clips instead of verses.


Finally, one of our chief players ran into a schedule conflict that will bring him into town for recording NEXT weekend, instead of this weekend.


The next episode of our podcast will be online tomorrow. Things continue to look bright for the future and new possibilities for our company continue to present themselves. As always, when there's something we have to share, you'll find it here first!


Have a great weekend!

Friday, June 29, 2007 Craig Herrman Jr. finished!

We're pleased to announce a wrap for principle recording on the part of David, for "Dark Ritual". Craig Herrman Jr. did a wonderful job and we know you are all going to enjoy his performance.


One of the most intense moments of the production surrounds the character of David, and Craig's work compliments the scene wonderfully.


Also, this week marked the first episode of our weekly podcast! Follow the link at the top right of this screen to check it out, or just jump over to http://paeter.libsyn.com/ and use the player on the right side of the page to start listening right now!


And if you haven't tried out "Paeter's Brain" you can follow the link to that page as well and see what strangeness has been on the mind of our insane leader lately.


Have a great weekend and we'll see you on Monday for Chapter 8 of our study in The Gospel of John!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007 The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast!

I've FINALLY gotten around to doing it. We now have a weekly podcast called "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast"! You can find the link on this page. The first episode is already posted, so be sure to check it out!

I'll be using the podcast each week to give updates for the company, expand a little on our weekly Bible study and talk about and review various pop culture geeky stuff that I'm into. (Movies, tv shows, games, comics, books, etc.)

So grab our feed on the podcast site, or just click on the player to the right of the screen once you're there!

Catcha later!

-Paeter Frandsen

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Songs and Voices

Another very productive week here at Spirit Blade Productions!


Preliminary sound design for the song "Veritas" is almost finished and Mike Tully's vocal work will be edited by early next week. We also had the first rehearsal with our mysterious villainess for Dark Ritual. Lastly, some guitar work was turned in that will be layered into the song "Necromancy". You can still download the rough cut at www.spiritblade.net, but don't wait too much longer as we will be taking it down again once the re-mixing for it begins! 


You may notice that this post is a little early this week. Our office is closed down from Thursday to Sunday this weekend but will be back up at full speed on Monday. Paeter and his wife are attending the "Truth Project" conference in Colorado for the weekend. They'd appreciate your prayers for a safe trip and for God to teach and equip them for even more effective ministry.


Hope you all are having a great week and are finding yourself closer to God today than yesterday!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Time flies when you're being monotonous?

This week I remembered how easy it was for me to lose track of time while mixing. It can be very repetetive and at times extremely boring, but somehow the time still flies by. (Don't ask me how that one works. I don't get it either.)

I've spent the last two days taking Mike Tully's vocal work for one of his songs and lining up the best takes together. Once this is done I've got a much smaller vocal file to import into the track file. If that doesn't make much sense, in short, I'm doing boring stuff now to make the creative process easier and of better quality later on.

It's great to finally be working on a song for Dark Ritual again. The last song I made for it, "Necromancy", was written before the script was completed. (And technically, that song only exists in an unfinished mix right now.)

Mixing music and scenes each calls on different creative muscles, so I like going back and forth following my inspiration. It keeps things fun and creative and in the end makes a better product, I think. The song I'm working on, as you may have guessed, is for the character "Raan" and is titled "Lead Me". It comes at a point in the story where Raan is alone and feeling pretty directionless in every sense of the word. I'm excited about what we're doing with Raan in this story. With ALL of the characters for that matter.

In "Spirit Blade", we presented all of the characters in a fairly basic sense. A little depth, but not room in the script for much. However, now that we've introduced the characters and you have a sense of who they are in general, we can go deeper with each of them and learn more about their personal flaws and fears. It's a part of the Spirit Blade saga that I've really been looking forward to and hopefully you'll all enjoy it as well!

-Paeter Frandsen

Thursday, June 14, 2007 Veritas

A great week for music here at Spirit Blade Productions. Paeter completed writing for the chorus of a new Dark Ritual song titled "Veritas"- Latin for "Truth". The last two days were spent examining various beat, bass, drone and FX options for the song, testing and loading them onto the computer for construction of the track, which will begin next week.


Not a huge variety of accomplishments this week, but alot of great work done on the new song! We'll be anxious for everyone to hear the final mix!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007 Making Changes

After the crazy recording schedule last week, it's been nice to have a change of pace this week. I've been inspired to work more on music than scenes this week and wrote a chorus for a new Dark Ritual song. It's going to be dark and menacing in its sound and is sung by someone wrestling with the truth.

It will be a change for me, musically, because my songs tend to be very melodically driven. However this song will consist mainly of a strong, memorable chorus, surrounded by audio clips, spoken quotes and other atmospheric effects. Very different from anything I've done, but I'm very excited to be developing it.

God has also gotten my attention this week and reminded me to renew my pursuit of him. To do more than habitually read the Bible and pray, but to do it with a sense of purpose and drive. As things get busy for me, I usually don't miss much of my Bible reading time, but I can feel the passion fade from it as agenda items loom in front of me.

So I'd very much appreciate your prayer support as I'm making an effort to breathe life into my personal worship and study time again.

I hope you're having a great week and living life "on purpose"!

Talk to you later!

-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, June 8, 2007 A Great Week Of Recording!

This week was a very productive week of recording!


Our voice actor for "David" had his first two recording sessions on Monday and Thursday of this week, with great results. 


Michael Tully put in two hard-working days on Tuesday and Wednesday, completing all of his voice work for "Dark Ritual". 


Scheduling is in progress for the rest of the cast and all recording should be finished by mid-August. Meanwhile, Paeter will be mixing scenes as dialogue is completed for them and composing and mixing audio tracks for the various songs included in the project.


An addition to the recording process this time has been to record rehearsal time as well. This is being done in anticipation of more "behind the scenes" documentaries and "blooper reels".


A few steps were also taken this week to schedule Paeter for interviews on a couple more podcasts. More info on those as definitive dates are established.


It's been a wonderful week with a lot happening, and we very much appreciate your prayers as we anticipate more busy weeks like this one.


Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, June 6, 2007 Recording "Raan"

Michael Tully arrived yesterday morning and put in a 12 hour day of recording with me. Of course, it wasn't ALL hard work. He was so focused when we recorded "Spirit Blade" that most of his blooper reel material came from phone messages he left for me. But this time, since the music and script were much newer to him than when we recorded last, we ended up cracking each other up a ton during rehearsal and recording as we tried different things and made fun of ourselves and each other. You can count on a lot of crazy and hilarious outtakes for this project. I'll probably have to put additional blooper files on the website since there's no way they will all fit on a two-disc set along with "Dark Ritual".


I just took him back to the airport and am bummed to see my buddy leaving again so soon. Tully has really out done himself in terms of both his singing and acting. The layers and complexity he adds to Raan through his performance will really engage people. And we're playing up his unique strengths as a singer like never before. I can't wait for everyone to hear him!


After recording, I had time to sit him down for an audio interview that I'll post here or the main website eventually.


We had a blast and finishing recording for Raan is a big step for this production! Thanks for your prayers! 


-Paeter Frandsen

Friday, June 1, 2007 Recording Begins!

Paeter spent this week organizing and finishing up various odds and ends in preparation for a big recording week that will start this coming Monday.


The role of "David" has been re-cast from the original "Spirit Blade" (due to inevitable puberty and voice change of the original actor) and our new David will have his first rehearsal/recording session on Monday, followed by his second on Thursday. 


Tuesday morning, Michael Tully, the voice of Raan Galvaanik, will be flying in from Lincoln Nebraska to spend an intense 48 hours recording songs, dialogue and other fun bits for "Dark Ritual".


We're heading into a very exciting time again as we begin recording with an incredible cast. We would really value prayer during this time and would love it if you chose to mark your calendar to pray for these first recording sessions. We have some exciting ideas, but want to be sure we leave the final agenda up to God.


We'll look forward to updating you on all of the week's recording next Friday!

Wednesday, May 30, 2007 Artist In A World Run By Math

That's what I feel like sometimes while I'm trying to bring stories to life. I love to write stories. I love to TELL stories. And I love the medium provided by audio drama. What I DON'T enjoy is some of the tedium and frustration that comes from computers.

I remember working on our first project using some wonderful audio production software. Wonderful, once I worked the bugs out of it. Downloading patches, updating drivers, error messages that might as well be in Kryptonian. Despite spending most of my time working at a computer, I'm not a "computer person". I'm learning to be, but it does not come naturally to me.

I also don't know alot of the lingo for audio mixing that I'm sure would be helpful to know. I figured out what a "Flanger" was during production on "Spirit Blade" and only recently did I learn what a "compressor" is. (Let me tell you, I'm going to enjoy having that knowledge for "Dark Ritual")

So how am I doing all of this with so little technical knowledge? Well, I'm doing it slowly. At first. And I'm doing it with a clear vision of what I want in quality. So I develop my own short-hand and understanding of all the little mixing/audio/computer details and just keep working and experimenting until what I'm hearing matches the quality I demand of myself and our products.

As I said, it goes slowly at first. But in the last several months of mixing for "Spirit Blade", I noticed that I was completing scenes more than twice as fast as I did when I started out. Not only that, but they were sounding better, too! So with many of the early scenes that I mixed, I had to go back and re-do several things in order to keep the quality consistant throughout the entire project.

I've heard from several people that I should really switch over to using a Mac, especially given that I'm working with audio files so much. But I'm hesitant to do so. Why? Because I KNOW the devil I'm dealing with right now. I've gotten used to its bugs and have come to terms with what makes it crash. In fact, I'm still using the 1.3 version of my mixing software when the 6.0 version has been out for almost a year!

I DID actually purchase the 6.0 version, but only because I was able get it for much less than normal price and it has an auto-tune feature I want that my old version doesn't have. But you'd better believe I'll be using the old version except for the instances I absolutely need auto-tuning!

...and yes. "Auto-tune" is a recent addition to my mixing vocabulary as well.

-Paeter Frandsen