Since the engagement with Trey on 13 June 2025, I've seen the necessity for designing the tool
(collection of tools) with a chief consideration for "the uninitiated"; possessors of an unscientific
approach to music composition. Without trying to be punitive in my appraisal of him, the conversation
revealed a disinterest in taking measurements, relying on compromised ears (he has hearing damage),
having no interest in ergonomics (a suggestion to situate the rack containing the preamp and EQ strips
at arms' length and having the fed cabinets on the same plane, so to make it easier to dial in the
sound of each tonal facet was heard and non-replied), and he doesn't utilize these cabinets for
recordings (!). He's spent money and materials, invested time and labor in constructing cabinets in
the interest of having a bombastic live sound, yet the "live sound" suffers in quality from the
deficits I've listed. Studio recording, rehearsal precaution and live sound engineering all go hand
in hand, and to be wholly apathetic to one (rehearsal precaution - during show rehearsals, of which
we used to hold when we were playing shows often, others and myself would make suggestions for Trey
to be more proactive in a few different areas, like having backing tracks backed up across at least
two devices, and to refrain from disorganized measures like skipping haphazardly through introduction
samples. These cautions were undeviatingly ignored and the result was me checking out from his
efforts shortly after the discontinuation of my own) and half-baked in the other two (using VSTs
exclusively for the recorded tones renders the developments in the fields of live guitar amplification
hardware entirely futile - to use guitar amps solely for live music applications is some profound
concession in my opinion; the last third, the piece of the pie fifty percent of concern gets funneled
into being the live show, suffers from the ill health of the other underlying layers, feeble from an
approach that treats them as means to an end instead of processes that are to be savored, belabored and
optimized.) is a recipe for really nasty french toast.
This delivers us nicely to the summit of an illustration of what my idiosyncratic compensative
tools serve for me and anyone with the desire to be more effective, consistent in targeted areas. I
attempted to and succeeded I think in conveying to Trey that, while he and I are of the persuasion
that I can see through a project to the end, I am not interested in continuing along a track of friction
and exhaustion for the remainder or even another leg of collaborative musicmaking - note that I
differentiate between solitary and collaborative. I refrain from collaborations out of a prevention
of recreating a displeasurable situation for both myself and others - I have less energy on tap than
I used to, meaning that it would especially be more frustrating for other parties to sit, watch and
wait as I fail to materialize initiative in motivating them and myself. So, even having ceased these
commitments, I still catch flak from a gnatlike two dimensional yokle that takes medication incorrectly
and requires medical intervention; I'm descending into insults because it is frustrating to observe
a capable colleague miss so widely and take away from his path of carelessness and inefficiency
(he thinks that he's still efficient despite having to be handheld through mixing procedures and
recording facilitation, live shows, song compositions and surely more) that I'm inefficient and
broken; undisciplined. Of course I understand that release is the most important stage of a labor;
the work is deprived of meaning if it goes unseen, unheard, unreleased. This is where I have no quips
with acknowledging Trey's superiority in making that happen, "professionally" or not. He needs help
with that too; and all of these requirements, these needy traits would be insignificant - easily
excused if he weren't so ungrateful. He leverages socialability to compensate for the vast gaps he
leaves - if there is some sort of strategy there, in 'faking it until making it' then I suppose I
should have flowers at the ready next time for the man, but its difficult to respect such a plan
when its so capitalistically configured to squeeze people like me to fill gaps and be so egotistical
as to not recognize the disparity between what it is he's doing versus what I do, where one is a house
of cards, so easily blown down with completely forecastable erosions and meltdowns (being a bastard
to me and his other lackeys and having labors hang in the balance of deteriorated infrastructure) and
the other is a temple of self-sustainability and self-fulfillment. Yet another breakage between the
visions of his and mine is in the notion of creating art for oneself and creating art for others; I
belong to the former camp. I firstly make music as it is something I enjoy doing, and each undertaken
project is rooted in satisfying a specification of quality I've set - I am unwilling to compromise
in these regions, as if it is unsatisfactory and gets proceeded regardless, it will be a regrettable
thing. I am justified in arbiting my output; the matter turns grey when others are involved, and
without ego I uphold being consequenceless, in having exceptionally minimal or no dependencies as a
resolution.