Well, it’s been awhile. Time does slip away, but the Studio is no less humming along. I remember there being nothing to show the last time I did a post like this, but that has changed! 2023 saw the first releases from here since Appalachian Winter’s 2020 offering of Winterhewn. A new project, Garbage Bargin’ Margarine Harbinger, finally set its inaugural release, Hay! Reetard! into the wild. I’m still trying to figure out a way to release it to the greater online world due to its wildly rough content. But there was more for 2023. The Stereoplanetary Audio Construct’s Bride of Antimatter was released as well. That was a three album undertaking! Also, in 2024, after well over ten years of slow work, F-14 Tomcat finally got off the ground with its inaugural release of Flight Is Freedom AND a single, “Can’t Shoot me down.” Those are the first two albums (and first single) that featured the drum set, where as before, keyboard voices took that role.

The changes to the studio have been extraordinary. Part of the slow progress for the past few years has been due to how hard it is to integrate an eight piece drum set into the recording workflow here. It used to be a three hour process of tuning, micing, and fiddling with the patch bays to get the drums into the audio interface. However, tuning the set is all that remains. I’ve decided to leave the mics on the set permanently. And here’s the extra awesome part, I now have a switchbay that patches the drums into the audio interface with just the push of a button. Hours of work can be sidestepped in less than a minute! The studio now has as easy access to the drums as any other audio source, and that’s a big deal. Production is likely going to shoot up drastically because of this change.

But that’s not all that changed. Another giant part of the studio’s new finishes are a new DAW (Reaper), and new OS (Mac). I really don’t like joining cults, and Apple is a cult. These people – their sexual identity seems to be entwined with their OS of choice. The problem is, Microsoft sucks and Linux does not have the infrastructure for what I want to do. My last windows machine should have been a beast. It was a failure. Therefore, I’m off MS products for good. With all the bullshit that come with Mac, it generally functions well and gets out of the user’s way. Learning a new DAW is the sticking point, much more than the OS. Reaper isn’t difficult, but the break-in period where I was customizing it was Hell. I hope I never have to learn another DAW again, and considering Reaper works on damn near everything (Linux, too), I’ve found it to be a good choice. Plus, I’ve gotten to know and love this particular software!

That said, what do I think 2026 will bring? Here’s the most likely outcome – Appalachian Winter’s forthcoming album Wintermountains Rise, should be finished early in the year. F-14 Tomcat has a follow-up album, Total Air Superiority that I expect will be done before year’s end. Garbage Bargin’ Margarine Harbinger follow-up, Slurp Rat, should also see the light of day before 2027. Optimistically, High Malevolence could also join in with it’s follow-up, Sightings.

It’s been a busy year in the studio! Now, with drums being more normalized and easy to reach through the Audio Interface, my hope is to return to adding two-to three releases with nearly every year. Tune in at the start of 2027 to see if I’m right!

-D.G. Klyne

WHW Studio