April 4, 2012
95/100: #listening

About fifty percent of the time, Lord Smithfield’s ophthalmology check-ups turn into minor surgery. Yesterday was one of those times. Being so, I made a few more trips across town than planned.

Still, I was able to get started on the mastering for the new album. The first stage is a listening stage. I print hi-res versions of the best mixes and listen to them in different environments. This gives me a “big picture” glance at the project. It also let’s me know where there are deficiencies or surpluses in various frequency ranges.

Overall, this record is in better shape than both Spring or Malamander at this stage. Malamander was something I did for fun and then decided to dress up for release. Nearly every song on Spring came from a different recording session—mastering was difficult with that one. On this new record, there are a few one-offs, but, generally, the songs cluster into twos and threes very well.

I performed the iPod test first. That seems to be the most important one these days, seeing as how most people listen to music in a compressed, small format. Barring a few small blemishes, the record performed well. I took a walk in the park and made notes on my phone as the songs played.

I’ll perform two of the three remaining tests this morning. A home stereo is a good place to examine the depth and sonic quality of the mixes. Computer speakers offer a down-and-dirty way of checking things out. I’ll perform the car test on Thursday. After all the tests are complete, I’ll prepare a “final mix” collection and begin mastering.

I’m having a difficult time deciding on a sequence. That will come in time. One of the cool things about listening on the iPod, as I’m sure you know, is the shuffle feature. Often, listening to mix revisions on shuffle yields unexpected sequencing possibilities. I’ve almost decided on a title.

I like making plans as much as anyone. I know that life shows up. It most certainly has over the past 95 days. Being so, I’m giving myself until the end of April to print the master disc.  This has been a fun project.  I’m looking forward to sharing it with you.

9:19am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZPNQLyJ3qh1O
Filed under: listening The Return of Spring Voyage of the Malamander mastering 
January 25, 2012
25/100: #progress

Yesterday, I had a chance to dig in to the album I’ve been working on since December.  The project is mostly a redux of out-takes from The Return of Spring. 

If you’re familiar with the history of Spring, you know that it is the third installment in a seasonal triptych that began in 1996 with The Lessons of Autumn.  The second part, The Promise of Summer, was released in 2002.  

This out-takes album, so far, is comprised of ten tracks that were recorded during the Return of Spring sessions, but for whatever reason were abandoned.  Only one track, “Snake Eyes” (which appeared on the last podcast), had been mixed at the time Spring was released.  

Three of the songs—“Water & Wine,” “The Great Divide,” and “Out of My Mind”—were tracked on the same day as “Pullman,” “Fallin’ in Love Too Fast,” and “Focus, Part One.”  

“Come Alive” is a rock counterpart to “Everything Is New.”  ”Sparks” was tracked during the same session as “Alphabet People” and “Snake Eyes.”  

When Spring was at the pressing plant in September, I began tracking four songs that were laying around, in contention for Spring, but didn’t make it to the tracking stage.  The songs are “Pillar of the Sun,” “Paper Staircase,” “Seminole Train,” and “Walking on Elm St.”  

My goal is to have these songs wrapped up by January 31st.  As a group, I’d say they are about 70% there.  I should be able to make adjustments over the next few days.  

The biggest challenge is making the disparate tracking elements mesh in a way that works for the collection.  It’s easy to get a song sounding great on its own.  In the context of album flow and content, mixing is sometimes like negotiating.  

Once this first stage is complete, the collection will have a definitive sound.  With that established, I’ll track three additional songs in February and three more in March, wrapping on March 31st.  

On these new sessions, I hope to have some fun stretching my limits.  The six songs will all come from the Morning Pages demos from 2008.  These sessions produced the song “Lost?” that appeared on Malamander.  

Over April, I’ll be mastering the project.  I’ll take a month to do this because mastering is like that.  

9:30am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZPNQLyFLMJL0
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: The Return of Spring The Promise of Summer The Lessons of Autumn Redux 
January 12, 2012
12/100: #deadlines

“Work expands so as to complete the time available for its completion.”— Cyril Northcote Parkinson, The Economist (1955).

The above adage, known as Parkinson’s Law, has been on my mind since yesterday afternoon.

While artistic endeavors have a general free-flowing nature, it seems essential to set an arbitrary time limit upon the flow. Otherwise, creativity can barely be shared. And, at best, inspiration becomes just another fleeting idea that seemed like a good idea at the time.

There were two central problems with the Return of Spring. First, I made some engineering errors in the initial sessions.  Second, I had no deadlines.

I mention the first, admittedly tangential issue because half of the songs I’m completing for this year’s album are “do-overs.” “Water & Wine” and “The Great Divide” were recorded during the “Pullman” session in 2007. “Come Alive” was tracked during the January 2009 sessions that produced most of Spring.

What turned Spring around from being a never ending work-in-progress to a real album was using a deadline. Malamander, in some respects, was a palate cleanser. I had become so frustrated with Spring that I considered throwing the whole project out. I found myself searching. The mountains are a nice place to take creative inventory, by the way.  White-water rafting does wonders for the skin. 

Unexpectedly, I wrote a new record in the process. That fall, I gave myself an arbitrary deadline of recording three of these new songs each month. Mastering took a one additional month. The record was complete and registered with the Copyright Office in the last days of December of 2009.

Beginning in October of 2010, Spring received a similar application. I completed songs in threes and, by May of 2011, the record was complete.

Yesterday, I had a five hour window in which to finish the first three mixes for this year’s album. Mission accomplished. I especially like two of the three mixes. I’m tempted to go back and tweak the third one. That would, however, break the principle of having a deadline.

Yay, for deadlines.

9:30am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZPNQLyEf8hlw
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: deadlines Parkinson's Law The Return of Spring Voyage of the Malamander 
Liked posts on Tumblr: More liked posts »