UPDATE 10/13/07 - Who is Aresko? A character I feel increasingly distant and detached from. I still feel very strongly about the Aresko “project”, but the trouble is it’s just that: a project.

I’m trying like crazy to give it the time and commitment I believe it deserves, but so far it has been little more than a black hole to me in terms of time and resources; like a car you’d love to kit out only you never seem to be able to get past the “nickel and dime” maintenance routine.

Part of the problem is that I do too many other things – I’ve spent virtually my entire life learning stuff, and now there’s not much I can’t do. So nearly every day it’s a given that someone somewhere is going to ask for my assistance. And it’s a given that I’ll say, “yes, sure. I’ll be glad to help” (i.e. do­ it), and so fades away another day. And I feel good helping out. But I feel bad thinking about all the surfaces I haven’t even scratched yet; all the things I’ve committed myself to that I just can’t seem to catch up to. And all the while this music is driving away at the back of my head. And I can’t do anything about it. Nobody ever says, “I’d like you to work on your music.” That’s something I’m expected to find time for on my own – and it’s perfectly OK… just as soon as priorities 1-2-3 to infinity are accomplished.

Of all the things that I can do, nothing holds the same meaning for me that music does. Nor am I capable of hating anything more when I’m in the mood to hate it.

I’m a frustrated man, helplessly watching the grandest of all his dreams swirl slowly down a giant toilet and I don’t even feel like I’ve started yet.

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To help to illustrate my point just a little bit, I’ve put together a page called ‘Another Kind of Studio’. If anybody cares, it demonstrates a scant few of the projects that have detracted time-wise from the music.

I am still hard at work learning my new gear, and I have done some experimenting with some new sounds and styles, but I weary of promising albums. It would take a chapter to explain why these never seem to materialize.

I’m also in the midst of a complete studio redesign. I’ve always custom built my own studio furniture, and a brand new layout about half complete is spread out upon the drafting table. I plan – no, I will have a page set up to chronicle the construction and remodeling stage. Perhaps it will benefit a fellow musician in some way – that’d be cool. After all that I have high hopes (almost frantic hopes) that I’ll finally, finally get back into the studio fulltime, and with serious intent.

If this dream never happens… what’s the use?

UPDATE 7/22/07 - Uhh... oops! I sort of lost track of where my domain renewal date was, and then *poof!* no more website. I say this to explain first, and apologize second. This apology is to any of you who may have attempted to access the site whilst it was down, and specifically because of the ads my domain provider threw up in the interim. I myself was shocked when I saw them, as they were, in a word, on the extreme opposite spectrum of the views held and expressed on this site. I am changing my domain provider over to another that I know for a fact does not do that - I will no longer give this company my business.

UPDATE 6/9/07 - Here it is, yet another new site. This one adds sections for reviews, articles (longer reviews), and finally a dedicated space for studio updates called "Studio Notes". Currently these areas are, admittedly, a little on the sparse side as there hasn't been much time lately for writing. But rather than just wait and wait forever, I've decied to get the changes up now, and work on filling it out later.

So if you're at all interested in the AlphaTrack from Frontier Design, or it's nearest competition the Presonus FaderPort, I've recently spent quite a bit of time with both of them. You can find my complete raving in the "Review" section, and don't be suprised if I find a clear winner.... Opinions are not veiled here.

UPDATE 2/18/07 - I'm pleased to say just how far I've come in the "regeneration" of the studio. Much gear has found it's way to new owners through ebay, and each and every cent has been reinvested directly back into the studio. My old way of recording, formerly with a Roland VS-2480 and various pieces of external audio processors has now once and for all been replaced with Cakewalk SONAR 6 PE on a brand new, home-built computer workstation. Interested in specs.? OK, I'm more than happy to oblige!

I based it on the new and wonderful chip from Intel: the Core 2 Duo (the E6600, 2.40 gHz). Intel DG965WHMKR motherboard (nothing fancy, just functional), 3 Seagate SATA drives - a 160GB system drive, a 320GB Synth/Sample drive, and lastly a 320GB recording drive. 4 Gigs of OCZ Gold RAM, ATI X1650 Pro iSilence II (no fan!) with 256 MB GPU with dual DVI outs feeding 2 Acer 19" widescreens. Then I added a few little "necessities" like X-Keys pro (to make those tedious shortcut keystrokes a little easier), a Kensington Expert Trackball mouse (should have done this a long time ago), and last, but by no means least, the Logitech G15 keyboard because it glows in the dark! Great for low light mixing sessions (helps me concentrate).

Then I have also added the CME6 keyboard controller, soon to be re-upgraded to the VX series if it EVER comes out. For additional control, a Frontier Designs 'Alpha Track' is on the way. But what about audio I/O? Ah, for that all important task I managed to track down the E-mu 1820m Studio - that's the PCI card, the Audio Dock, and the awesome Emulator X software sampler. It took me quite some effort to track this baby down, and after some initial frustration in setting up PatchMix DSP to work with SONAR, I have concluded that I LOVE this thing!

That's about all for now, though I hope in time to add some pictures of the studio and its various transformations a little later. And perhaps in time a video tour - who knows? But for now... I have to go learn all this new stuff!

UPDATE 12/1/06 - Well, as it so happens, it will be a long time before any effective change will be seen, felt or heard on the side of the listener; yet rest assured that on this end at least, ever constant changes are underway. All projects are suspended indefinitely due to a very great changeover of gear now in progress. I'm going a very different direction in order to be able to produce the kind of music I first envisioned when starting out. Through all this I'm very strongly considering completely remixing and remastering all my work, in so far as the projects 'Emotion' and 'Contemplation' are concerned. This will, of course, entail much time and labor, but with the end result being greatly improved quality overall, and much closer to the kind of production I'm after. My apologies for the constant wait, but this is something I must do, and not being compelled or constrained by any label or producer other than myself, this is to me what it is all about! Now if you will excuse me, Technology awaits......

UPDATE ?/?/06 - OK OK... Finally the new site is up! It has been completely redesigned to easily grow as more projects are added, such as the new ones you will find through 'The Music' link. Look around - some things are more or less the same, but most things have changed, and quite dramatically. Check the new 'Update Archive' link below for all past updates. From now on, all old updates replaced by new ones will be found here. Thank you for all your patience as I learned all this html stuff - I think I've finally got the hang of it, and this will help inestimably in enabling me to bring updates on a regular basis and keep things looking much like how I see them in my head.

UPDATE 6/18/06 - Ah! An update at last! Yes well, unfortunately this update is little more than to let you know that an update is in the works. We (meaning me) are working very hard to bring a much needed face-lift to this site. The changes will not so much affect the appearance of the site as much as add pages and content.

I fear I am very much alone here as my webmaster/brother has run off and abandoned me in the deep recesses of CyberSpace, leaving me to swing blindly in the tall towering forests of html. So as I attempt to learn this..... please don't hate me.

Two new projects are in the works, both nearly ready: 'Emotion', and 'Contemplation'. 'Emotion' is rather more contemporary than 'Spirit Driven', whereas 'Contemplation' is substantially less so. 'Contemplation' is the easy-going instrumental collection I've been promising for so long now, and 'Emotion' is just something that happened during the two years along the way!

My next attempt will be to get some mp3 samples up, and just do some general and much needed touch-ups to every page.

UPDATE 10/12/04 - This update notice is a little late in coming, mostly because I just finally had the thought to add it to the front page so you could more easily see what has been changed without having to click through every page. For now the most recent update is that purchasing information is now available on the Purchase Page. You can order through Amazon.com, CDBaby.com, or directly from us via PayPal. Also, check back in the next week or so for a couple of new samples on The Future Page from Aresko's new upcoming album.

Also, you can click on the "Who Or What is Aresko" graphic for a little history of the artist, as written in his own spare time.