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Oh thank f.

Patience yadda yadda things take the time they do yadda yadda blech pfft.

Yay. There's nothing more for me to do.

Oh. Art. 

We'll do a limited CD run just cos we're so old school.

Videos? Hmm. Did a few so far. Maybe now that the AI at YT auto generates a video for each song what do I need to do? Maybe nothing.

Meanwhile, and I kid you not, we are already tracking new material. 

'Signposts' has taken 2 years to complete. Yeah that's right. 

Not including 'collections' (releases made to deal with the Spotify Playlist era of music), we maintained our 1 year average for a release due to the Sweet Grace of Mercy EP and the Best of Downtime albums. 

During COVID and the circumstances, I continued collecting guides and concepts and we kept working them up. We only ended production by drawing a line under the songs for 'Signposts' and getting on with the practical work required to complete a release.

Now we're back to reviewing and developing.

With the change in tech its now just as easy to do a guide in 'studio' mode as opposed to my previous method of using a phone to record the ideas :) now we track them straight in.

That means I am already tracking 4 songs. Gotta admit, the tech is awesome. Prince would have released 100 albums with this stuff.

FYI I have been using Reaper and Izotope and Plugin Alliance, thanks to Cellar Dwellers Pete D. and Michael L. for pointers on all of the above. 

For 'Signposts' what I saved on studio time I spent on...Sitar. Horns. Keys. Facking djembe. 

Perhaps for the next project we might try and keep it simpler. 

Naaaah.

Heh.

So close. Long story, the heck with it, final bounces, let's go.
Ah. Need Ben's 2nd mix of Strange Pleasures.
Ah.
Waiting on the song.
Ye gods this feels like it is taking forever.

Also: new songs.Gotta make space.

I aaaaaint waaaiting on a laaaady
I'm just waitin on an....engineeer...

So theoretically we are now awaiting a review from AJ on the mixes, then any tweaks, an export and then mastering.

Using the cool new filters I tried some Fake Mastering to prove to myself that the correct place to lift the bottom end was at that stage, rather than during the mix. I tried messing with Devils Preacher and noped out and thought hmmm....i wonder if the bottom end could be lifted in mastering and you know what? Even with my limited fiddling, whammo. Worked.

I tried an imaging tool to spread the signal wider and then used a Big Bottom end mastering preset and wow.

What part to leave to the specialist, knowing the relationship between the 'mix' and then the 'master', is the object of contemplation in the temple of Mixing. At the very least, I am stepping back from 'improving' the mixes further.

Meanwhile, I have been youtubing all our songs omg its easy and I never have to make another music video.

People using YT as a jukebox just wanna hear the song not look at videos, so the job of the music video has changed.

We're not selling some band image, a lot of our stuff has been artsy fartsy or experimental or LOOK! Buttons! From Anime to live action, narrative to experimental. And now?

Easy. Ah yeah. kick back, cup of tea and let the AI do the work. Hell yeah. Soon enough it will be doing the songwriting as well (they are already doing that) so we might only need to press a button and whammo. This bodes well for me getting a nap.