Everyone who donates, or supports me in any way, gets rewarded with a free album of their choice.

Today I am very pleased to announce that, so far, the ashleymorgan.com 2009 micropatronage initiative has generated a substantial amount of money. Enough to fully support my work as a musician.

This money has been used, and will continue to be used, to fund my current album.

Thank you. Thank you to everyone who helped in any way whatsoever. Thank you to the people that linked to me, to the people that donated sums large and small, to absolutely everyone who has been involved with getting this project up and running.

None of this would have been possible without your support. You have proved that independent musicians can succeed and flourish when they use the correct tools to connect directly with their audience. Thank you.

And for that reason I have changed my manifesto, replacing the word year with the word cycle.

I think you can guess what that means.

I faced a choice. I could either rush and push to release an album at the end of 2009 or give it the time it needs, the time it deserves.

The album will be released when it is finished. Not a moment before and not a moment after.

Enjoy the new design.

Three pieces underpin the tone of the album reflecting the three women that always were and always will be, literally, my life. Each piece will flow either to or from, directly or indirectly, one of these three roots.

And blood is the one thing that binds them all together.

My mother, my wife, and my daughter.

My blood.

Pretty, isn’t it? The Rupert Neve sE RNR1. I’ll let the sE Electronics press release handle the introduction.

The sE/Rupert Neve collaboration Ribbon is the first of several mics being readied for production in this Rupert Neve Signature sE series.

The RNR1 offers revolutionary performance, courtesy of a unique blend of discrete circuits and purpose designed, transformers from Mr. Rupert Neve, and the best capsules and chassis design that Siwei Zou and sE have to offer.

The RNR1 mic has all the qualities engineers love in the very best Ribbons … warm and silky lows and incredible depth and air to mid frequencies, but with a clarity and impact in high frequencies that reveals vital harmonic information normally missing.

Legendary audio engineer Rupert Neve adds,

I have worked for some time on the designs for this new range of microphones – the concepts of which are actually already being implemented in our own Rupert Neve Designs 5088 Console – namely utilizing Discrete Single-Sided Circuits and my custom designed transformers.

This new approach to analogue sound processing has required extreme care in its manufacture and meticulous alignment of the embedded discrete opamps and the delicate microphone elements.

I am delighted with the early fruits of this collaboration and look forward to the series of revolutionary products that will follow.

Siwei Zou, renowned classical musician and sE Electronics founder says,

This collaboration has been a dream come true for me. I have known Rupert for many years, and have discussed with Rupert many times his theories regarding microphone development and design. To get the opportunity to couple Rupert’s exemplary and time tested approach to electronics design with my own passion for excellence in sonic reproduction and acoustics, has been incredible. I think that the results speak for themselves.

A ribbon microphone designed by Rupert Neve, with dual-transformer amplifier circuit architecture, one between the ribbon transducer and the amplifier circuit, to optimize the impedance loading of the ribbon, and another on the output of the amp circuit.

Is this the perfect jazz trumpet microphone? I think it may be time to find out.

Why is the piano the key? Because it’s the only piece of equipment that the player cannot carry with them. When my quartet arrives in the studio three of us take out own equipment. Our pianist doesn’t. For obvious reasons.

I’m fortunate, and it really is nothing but good fortune, to live within 20 miles of the perfect live room with perfect grand pianos and perfect piano microphones.

Recording double bass and drums in a jazz environment isn’t anywhere near as hard since they react well, often very well, to a minimalist approach.

Which leaves me. Since recording will be split between the aforementioned perfect live room, where the quartet work will take place, and my own home studio, where one or more solo pieces will be recorded, I need a microphone that is good enough to work in two very different environments, producing excellent results in both.

I need the perfect jazz trumpet microphone. If, indeed, such a thing exists.

And it’s not an easy choice.

If forced to choose a tonal direction, picking an sweeping adjective to describe the sound I’m looking for I constantly arrive at one word.

Dark.

A standard condenser probably won’t cut it. The high frequency overtones will almost certainly be too harsh, overpowering the warmth of the darkness.

A tube is the next logical step.

But I secretly covet a ribbon.

Renowned and revered by anyone who has every recorded a trumpet, a ribbon microphone can manage and control the overpowering highs that can wash out depth of tone. A high quality ribbon is my personal studio holy grail.

The search has begun.

That is why Big Arena Records has today relaunched as a blog for independent musicians. Running an independent label seemed such a good idea at the time but it was always destined to fail.

Visit bigarenarecords.com for more information.

Watching my daughter grow is the greatest privilege that I will ever know.

As the 2009 album starts to take shape I look back on the music that has been written over the last few months knowing that every single note has been inspired by her.