It’s a date – 220811

Sponsored by the letter L.

So I’ve finally come to a decision – the album is to be released on 5 September 2011. Business commitments in the real world dictated that date, which is fair enough

For those of you who like to look at album artwork, here’s the cover…

I don't know much about art, but...

It’ll be available to stream/download from Reverbnation and Bandcamp from that date (and possibly a little before that date, if you’re vigilant) and from other online emporia thereafter.

There may even be a sneaky-peaky online preview of some of the tracks over the next few days. Stay tooned for further details…

If you want to participate in the Facebook launch “event”, click here.

I have a bit of work to do before I embark on what I laughingly refer to as “promo”, but that’ll all take place over the next few days.

Wish me luck, eh?

Regards,

djp

Artwork/Mailout – 070811

Sponsored by the numbers 0-9 and no letter at all.

I think I’ve pretty much signed off on the artwork. I’ll let things “settle” for a day or two before I decide I’m happy with it.

In the meantime, I’ve started putting together the e-mail addresses for my promo mailout. This is based on my media/blog trawl last year. Which yielded only one review. A nasty, sarcastic one at that. Still, Optimism 1 – Experience 0, eh…?;-).

Regards,

 

djp

“In Heaven For A Conference” – 040811

Sponsored by the letter O.

Got an unexpected “window” this afternoon and had a go at remixing/remastering …HEAVEN in CE5, Cubase VST/24 and AA3.

I had to radically rethink my approach to the mix and as a result, the emphasis between the various instruments has changed quite significantly. But it’s most satisfactory now compared to previous versions of the track.

Ripped a complete new version of the album onto CD-R and went for a spin up the M7 in the Prius with the (surprisingly good) hi-fi up full blast. I think the essence of a good mix, IMO, is that nothing inappropriate catches your ear, and I think I can safely say that at this stage, I have ironed-out all the audio kinks out of the album.

That being the case, I think I can now sign-off on the album and concentrate on doing a spot of artwork. And about time too…;-).

Regards,

djp

Photoshoot – 260711

Sponsored by the letter L.

I’d planned to take some shots yesterday, but the weather was awful, so I scrubbed that idea. This morning wasn’t looking too good either, but in any event I was busy doing a session for Peter Fitzpatrick, so that put paid to that.

However, the weather improved considerably this afternoon, so I grabbed my trusty Canon camcorder and my tripod and headed for the hills to shoot about 10 mins of video. When I got home, I “grabbed” the video using Windows Movie Maker and captured a dozen or so frames. Unfortunately, only a few of the frames are really serviceable (I should’ve washed my hair, or cut it, or both, and I’m not exactly Mr. Photogenic anymore, if I ever was…), so I may have to go back at a later stage and have another session. Still, I have plenty of time to do this (sez he, hoping nothing untoward happens between now and September…).

Regards,

djp

Tracklisting/Location scouting/”The Cop Car Hand Heel Wheel Turn”/”In Heaven For A Conference”/”Vichy Circles” – 220711

Sponsored by the letter A.

Burnt a new CD with a revised tracklisting (minus …COP CAR…). Works fine and comes in at a tad over 50 mins. I’m going to have to tweak the mix for …HEAVEN… – the guitar part is that little bit too high in the mix. I also want to take another look (as it were) at the fadeout for VICHY… – a bit too drastic. I’m very happy with everything else, so we’re nearly good to go.

Spent a lot of the morning touring around, scouting locations for a photoshoot. I was going to take shots at a beach, but the nearest likely location is at least a 120km round trip from here, and I want to do everything discreetly, and being missing for the guts of a day is not “discreet”. Looking locally, I have found three spots where I should be able to take some interesting shots. Camcorder all charged up and ready to go – hopefully on Monday, if the weather holds up…

Regards,

djp

Future Plans For Yesterday – 140611

Sponsored by the letter A.

Mixed and mastered the track in CE5, Cubase VST/24 and AA3.

Took me rather a long time to do this, as apart from one or two unavoidable interruptions, I decided to do a “spot” of re-editing of the track, which ended up being “a lot” of editing. Ended up with a bizarre mix which sounds like Jean-Michel Jarre in a dub stylee. Experimented a lot with effects automation and even got to use a ring modulator plugin for (I think) the very first time. Interesting results!

So, this, effectively was the last day or mixing and mastering. I have a potential tracklisting in my mind, but I won’t announce it until I am absolutely sure that I’m happy with the final tracks. I also want to take a bit of a break before going down that road, so I will not listen to any of the masters until the start of July, just to clear my head. Instead, I will concentrate on doing a bit of design/artwork.

You might think that I’d go and have a quiet celebratory pint tonight to mark the effective completion of the album. Unfortunately, tomorrow is a work day, and there are a tough few days ahead of me au bureau, so I’ll need to keep my head clear…

…for now…;-).

Regards (and thanks for sticking with me so far…),

djp

Artwork 01

Sponsored by the letters F, G and I.

I’ve been “tipping about” (as we say here) with the notion of artwork for the album. The album cover itself is sorted (the logo at the top of this page is a part of that), and I will use that design (but with the colour altered) for the King Fidget EP when that eventually comes out. Not sure about the font, though…I might do some further experimentation over the next while.

In the meantime, I hope to do some mixing/mastering tomorrow.

Regards,

djp