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Wow. So there you go huh?

 

It's possible that last nights session was it. More or less. Except for the tweaks that Pete wants to make. 

 

Oh. And also whatever other tweaks we make over the next week.

 

But, more or less, that's it.

 

Last night, Mr Rix very kindly dropped in to provide some suggestions on his Bass parts and other bits and pieces. Here's a fly on the wall moment as Pete, Mike Rix, Theo and Rosie talk about Same old Blues.

 

If you listen to the discussion and Multiply that by the last 26 sessions, you'll have an idea of how this stuff goes.

 

 

 

Now we're seeking song order input from our 'Ears' , listening in depth to the tracks and making the last notes and adjustments.

That means we should be heading for mastering soon, from there to pressing and a few weeks after that, it'll be ready to share.

 

Wow.

 

Three cheers for Mr Doherty, he's made a heck of a record.

For all our 'Ears' out there (you know who you are), the semi final mixes will be out this week.

 

What does that mean?

 

These are the mixes where we have made all the changes we think we should make and now we give them some breathing space before finalising them and sending them off for mastering.

 

This allows us to pick up on things we missed, rethink ideas we had (eg: that idea seemed good at the time, oops), so there could still be several weeks delay between this 'semi final' mix and the release version, and much as we have done for the previous albums, we're looking for help from our 'Ears''.

 

If you've participated in the Ear program before and want to be involved in this one, drop me a line.

 

You'll receive a Semi Final Mix CD with the songs in alphabetical order plus your own set of hand made order cards, yes your own Pokemon style deck of cards with the song names on them that you can shuffle into the order you think best for the CD release.

 

You'll listen, make notes, set a CD order and hurrah!

 

Yes I know these days it's all about play lists, that's OK, that means each listener makes the same call when they load it up onto their digital device.

 

The kinds of questions we ask for a CD order include:

 

I get in the car, put a CD in and what's the first thing I want to hear?

 

How does it go as a road music album?

 

Does the first song set the tone for the album?

 

Do we put the 'best' song first? How on earth do you decide which song is the 'best 'song?

 

Our usual process is to collate the results, have a think about it, argue, try a few different approaches and then do whatever we think is the right thing to do. 

 

After some cutting pasting and editing, the lyrics to the songs on the next album are all up online and can be found in the Lyric section.

 

This will be helpful if you would like to know the words to our songs.

 

This will be helpful to me when I would also like to know the words to our songs.

 

Yes, thanks to a smart phone and our mobile-website template, I can now google the words when I next get stuck.

 

Please note that the lyrics are subject to change. Whenever I get them wrong, they become whatever it was I just said, but then immediately revert to the correct version thereafter. 

 

I'm glad I could clarify that for you.

 

If you've ever wondered what I just said, well, now you can check what I should have said.

The casual observer might see these pictures

IMG_2237

 

and think, Hmm...having a flutter on the horses?

 

IMG_2236

 

Whilst listening to the mixes in the car ,the only paper Theo had to hand when was the form guide, so for his session, we consulted the Form for Notes on Percussion.

 

IMG_2233

 

And also the cross word. 9 Down, '4 letter word for Floor Toms sound...hmmm..'Boxy?'

 

This session was Theo's chance to fix up the sounds of some of the drum parts, adjust a few fills and as he put it 'Try to impress my Brother'.

 

Y'see, Theo's Bro is a Drummer too and during the editing on Light In the Distance ( I think), one of the drum fills was deleted, and as it was Super Impressive, Theo wanted it back.

 

The only problem was having to remove an earlier fill.

 

Theo and Pete couldn't find one they wanted to sacrifice, so to sum it all up, Theo left out the most super impressive fill because of all the other super impressive fills. Go figure.

 

He also pointed out the fill tribute to Pink Floyd, hidden away in one of the songs, playing a very specific Nick Mason drum roll. Very amusing. 

 

Making some minor adjustments to the drum makes a big difference in the sound. Yikes.

 

With that session completed, we're gearing up for a session in the coming week that should pretty much finalise the mixes. Yep, I assume there'll be more back and forth, and probably a few more minor tweaks but like it or not, we're almost done.

More Articles …

  1. Hired Guns & Borrowed Glory First Full Mixes are in!
  2. HG & BG Session #26 - Yet More Stuff!
  3. Party until you're overcome by the Doof - hard of hearing gig report.
  4. A Guessing Game!
  5. Mixing Sessions – A recent conversation
  6. Collaborating online to make our videoclips
  7. Stormcellar at the Orana hotel, Newcastle Saturday 28th July 8pm
  8. Flashbacks to the Freakouts or how MJEB turned the Bondi Gig into a rave
  9. 9 down, 4 to go
  10. Mixing report #2 - It's the Hats
  11. Mixing Sessions report #1
  12. Stormcellar at the Royal Hotel Bondi, Saturday 21st July, 8:30pm