The Whalen Family: January 2010

Questions/Answers

l. to r. Jared, Nathan

l. to r. Naomi, Sarah

1. Are you 'mirror twins' ? Mum has trained all four of us to write with our right hand so we do not know if any of us were left handed. The girls are mirror twins in at least one way. One has an ingrown tooth in her mouth pointing to the left and the other has her's pointing to the right.

2. Do you have facial feature differences? Yes, Nathan seems to have a smaller and longer face than Jared. Jared has a broader forehead. Nathan has more of 'head' in the back. Sarah has a freckle on her right cheek that Naomi does not have. Naomi's right cheek lifts when she smiles and Sarah's left cheek lifts when she smiles. Naomi's face is pixie and petitte while Sarah's face is a little thinner.

3. Do each of you have different personalities? As far as we know, No. Every twin has the power of influencing their own twin.

4. Are you fraternal or Identical? They are indentical (both sets).

5. Which one is older? Naomi is older than Sarah by 18 minutes. Jared is older than Nathan by 3 minutes.

6. Is there any difference being a mother of twins and being a mother of single siblings? Carrying the children was the greatest challenge, and of course double the work as infants, but the blessings are doubled as well.

7. What is the difference between identical and fraternal twins? Identical twins come from the egg splitting and becoming two separate people. Fraternal twins are hereditary and happen when two different eggs are fertilized. Identical are always the same sex, but fraternal can be either.

8. When are the twins the most fun? When they are newborns and babies and you take them places. Everyone enjoys seeing twins. It was really fun when our twins were small, because they were 20 months apart. Two sets of twins was rather an unusual phenomenom!

... "Come on Home"

This is an email from when we were going back and forth with Todd. Sarah's comments in black. Susanna's comments in red. Todd's comments in blue. We find it comical looking back on it now. Thought some of you would enjoy this!

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Good Afternoon Susanna!
I have to put in a last word about the laughing on "One of the Family". It sounds like you are cackling and you hear no one else cackling except you. Do you truly want to have to hear that 20 years from now? Please recondsider!!!!!! I miss you, ~Sarah
----- Original Message -----
From: Susanna Whalen
To: David Whalen
Sent: Saturday, November 28, 2009 9:58 AM
Subject: Fw: CD, second draft with changes
Susanna Whalen Cardinal Welding, Inc. 895 East Taggart Street East Palestine, OH 44413 Phone: 330-426-2404 Fax: 330-426-2403 Email: susanna@cardinalwelding.com--- On Fri, 11/27/09, dragonfliesmusic@aol.com <dragonfliesmusic@aol.com> wrote:
From: dragonfliesmusic@aol.com <dragonfliesmusic@aol.com>Subject: CD, second draft with changesTo: wesing10@yahoo.comDate: Friday, November 27, 2009, 10:24 PM

Hello Whelans : ) Underneath the final, red comments for each song (I thought that was Suzanna, unless I'm mistaken) I typed in blue the revisions that have been made.

track 1. Wonderful, Wonderful is Jesus:
The guitar is especially awsome on this one. The violins on this song sound "tin -y", horny or "flute -y" , ... I can't decide. What we would really like is a warm wood sound if possible.

I agree with this possibly more reverb on the voices??

Violins have been woodified (for tech-talk's sake, "I took out some of the high-end EQ, brought the room microphones up and raised some of the mid EQ, widening the Q of the mid band.....that could very well be Chinese....personally, I like "woodified" better...), a touch more reverb added to the vocals, with bit of a longer decay on the reverb.

track 2. Why the Night:
I can hear way too much breath and breathing on this song.

Don't stress too much on that... I love this one!

I took out some of the high end EQ, and brought up another EQ band between the mids and high's to take out some of the breathiness.

track 3. Whiter that Snow:
I don't know if this is possible but... Could you straighten timing through 1:13 - 1:16? This turned out very peaceful and I am happy with it otherwise.

Here at Dragonfly Studio, we pride ourselves in doing the impossible (especially when people ask politely....a luxury that I'm not used to, lol) - timing was straightened out.

track 4. When I Survey:
The violins on this song sound "tin -y", horny or "flute -y" , ... I can't decide. What we would really like is a warm wood sound if possible. The guitar is overpowering the violins. Susanna is singing real breathy like. Could we get it (the breathy stuff) taken out or toned down? Naomi's violin (harmony) is overpowering Sarah's violin (melody/lead).

Don't worry too much about the guitar..... the breathiness does need help though and the violins could be a lil more bigger reverb sounding as in maybe a large auditorium???

-Repeated something similar with the violins here as I did with "Wonderful, Wonderful is Jesus", and added a touch more reverb to them.-Dropped the brightness of the guitar down a shade, and lowered the volume near the end (I assumed that you meant that the guitar was overpowering the violin near the end, where they become a bit louder).-Definitely agree with the "too much breath"....my ears must have been getting tired when I was mixing this song. The compressor had too high of a ratio so I backed it down to 1.1 (it was at 7.1), and I also took some high end out of the vocals. -Dropped Naomi's violin level down a bit.

track 5. One of the Family:
Love it Love it Love it! Especially the last chorus. During :22 - :23 a violin hits a wrong note. Compare to 1:35 - 1:36. I really do not like the laughing at the end... :( sorry!

Nomi and I both like the laughing...... maybe bring it out a lil louder so people wouldn't turn it up and miss it.

Fixed the bad note at :22, 23, brought the laughter out a little bit more and mixed it a bit differently

track 6. Mothers Bible:
We lost the violin at 1:31 and would like to hold out 'til appropriate length. Also at the very end the violin stopped short... would like to hold it out too.

-Transplanted a copy of the same note from the end of the song and pasted it onto the end of the cut off one.-Lengthened the end note via transplant and crossfade.

track 7. Master of the Wind:
We still really want an "eagle scream" when Susanna sings "soar like an eagle through the sky".

I loooove your thunder...... maybe a lil more rain in the beginning and middle of the song???

-Eagle Added-A lil more rain added throughout parts

track 8. I'll See You Again:
The mandolin is too much and the harp too little. This song seems to drag. Could we add strings? Every time I listen to it I like it better... so maybe we should forget the strings. Tell us what you think.

I really would like some strings here..... how about downsizing the mandolin A TON on everything except the intro and interlude??? Bring out some warm harp and add strings underneath?

-Muted the mandolin in parts to create a sense of pacing.-Lowered the mandolin in general, warmed up the harp a bit.-Added some reverb to the mandolin room mics to give it more ethereal feel and sense of space.-I wasn't sure if by "strings" you meant coming back in to lay down some parts on the violins, or if you meant that you wanted to do something digital. If the latter was the case, I went ahead and wrote some string parts and recorded them into it (just let me know if it's not really what you had in mind).

track 9. Home Where I Belong:
Susanna is very breathy while singing her verses. Could we tone it (breath) down or somehow cut it out?

-Executed a "slip edit crossfade" onto every instance where Susanna breathed.....I'm not sure why they were poking out like that. Maybe next time, Susanna, you could just not breath for the whole duration of the song. Hah.

track 10. Consider the Lilies:
The guitar is overpowering the violins in this one. Also... (goes copy and paste) (smile!) The violins on this song sound "tin -y", horny or "flute -y" , ... I can't decide. What we would really like is a warm wood sound if possible.

-Lowered the tone of the guitar a bit-Similar change in this one on the violins as in the other instances that it needed changed.

track 11. Come and Dine:
I love the happy spirit! The violin is overpowered by the piano and bass.

I changed the EQ on the violin to make it poke out more, and tweaked the piano and bass....Truthfully, I'm a bit frustrated with how the mix of Come and Dine is going. I'm not sure if it's because we're using the digital piano (as opposed to the real one) or what. Let me know your thoughts on the new mix......

track 12. Broken Rose:
Nice! ah really nice!

You guys are the best.....Todd

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anyway, Please pray for us while we continue to work on the Family cd. So far it is going well. The girls have been laying down scratch tracks and pretty soon we'll be ready for the whole family to start.