journal
Foiled by Saran Wrap
By Dave on Tuesday, May 15th 2007 5:30 pm
So today is the big release day, the shipping envelopes are all labeled for the presales and promos I'm sending out. Custom forms are filled out, press kits all printed up and ready to go, and business letters written for distributors.
I have no CDs.
As of Noon they would be ready for pickup sometime after 2. Then at 3 I was told the CDs were assembled but hadn't been shrink wrapped but they could have a partial shipment ready for 5ish. Now at 5:30 they went home without calling me back to let me know the status. Nice.
In the end I suppose one day makes no difference but for tonight this is annoying.
Now taking pre-orders
By Dave on Friday, May 4th 2007 12:44 am
I've been busy getting the site ready for the big release day. First thing is I'm setup to take pre-orders now. I've also added a discography page that has all the details on Abstract Expression plus info on the CDs I've done with Electrum.
And I've come up with a silly marketing thing with the 50's print ad look and a most unlikely tag-line for Progressive music.
Tomorrow night I'm hoping to have Digital Distribution up and running for folks who prefer their music delivered through this series of tubes.
Preparation
By Dave on Wednesday, May 2nd 2007 1:29 am
So I was able to sign off on the artwork proofs today after one small correction. With any luck I'll be able to have a firm release date tomorrow.
While waiting for the CDs to arrive I'm doing all the many things an independent musician has to do in order to sell and market their own music. I'm collecting the addresses of reviewers who would be interested in the disk, finding all the internet radio outlets that might give it a spin, preparing banner ads, prepping this website, writing a press release, getting setup with pay pal and digital distribution on soundclick, etc...
Since Net Dot Music is helping out with distribution I'm getting a ton of help from Gino, but there is still much to do that doesn't involve playing my guitar.
And I thought making the record was tough!
I've been thinking about how much I want to write about this part of the process in this journal. Is it of interest to anyone what goes into marketing a CD or is it like the two things you don't want to see made "laws and sausages"?
Also been having thoughts of doing an EP in the not too distant future. There is clearly something wrong with me.
Took a trip to the duplication plant today
By Dave on Saturday, April 28th 2007 12:12 am
I've spent the last few nights making last minute tweaks to the final master for Abstract Expression. I've been obsessing over and fixing real and imagined digital errors, moments of sloppy low end, and various flaws... and listening repeatedly to the tracks on as many systems as I could get my hands on. My wife joked they will get the master from me when they pry it out of my cold dead hands. Luckily it didn't come to that.
On the way to the Superdups I put in the classic Rush album "Permanent Waves" and I could swear I heard digital clipping on that...which in all likelihood isn't there. That is the sort of annoying head space I've been in - ultra critical listening mode. I did hear some flaws in that recording that were there and I'd not noticed in the 25 years I've had that album. So its good to know the pros aren't perfect and that no one notices that sort of stuff.
Anyway my master passed "the test" for digital errors at the plant with flying colors and the artwork is submitted. Everyone there was great as usual, this is the same company we had both Electrum CDs pressed at. Hopefully all the final sign-offs will be completed by early next week and the CD will be in production in a few days.
In the meantime I've replaced all the junky old demo mp3s with two complete songs and a sampler of clips from cd on the mp3s page. Enjoy.
That's a wrap!
By Dave on Thursday, April 26th 2007 12:32 am
Track listing
Internal Combustion (4:42)
Don't Mind Me
(4:35)
Hieland Road (4:32)
Pleiades (5:38)
Depth of Autumn (5:57)
Picnic at the Slag Heap (2:19)
The Main Attraction (5:18)
Somnium
(15:16)
The Water Discipline (4:59)
Total Running Time
(53:16)
Tentative Release Date of May 15th.
"The Death of Hope"
By Dave on Sunday, April 22nd 2007 1:27 am
Geddy Lee has called mixdown "the death of hope" and in my past experience no truer words have been spoken. This is the time when you realize that you can't fix this or that moment of annoyance or when you find your self dithering back and forth over minutia. You mix too late into the night trying to get it just right and then realize the next day that your ears were tired the night before and what you did was all rubbish. And the worst part is you listen to the same songs so many times you become sick to death of your own music - to the point where you start to question if the whole project is even worth doing at all.
Mixing down the last Electrum CD was a nightmare. It took weeks and left scars. I remember one night while working on "A Fugue State" I actually fell asleep right in the middle of a mix.
Well I embarked on the death of hope this week for Abstract Expression. And so far...and I hate to jinx it..it is going pretty well. Right now I have 8 songs mixed in what I believe will be their final versions. I was able to do 3 songs today alone. By and large I'm very pleased with the results. It won't be the best sounding record in anyones collection - but it certainly won't be the worst. And for a guy in his basement you can't ask for much more than that.
One more to go, but this is the long one so I may be in for some pain yet. Somnium is in the roughest shape mix wise.
The artwork is also in progress and the first draft looks pretty good.