releases
Jack of Shadows (1995) technical and production notes page 1 of 2
Jack of Shadows (1995) technical and production notes page 1 of 2
Notes added 2005 in color: these are the diary entries from 1996 when I was trying to get this CD produced. I really do things a lot different now but it was fun to go back over this again....
Friday, 13 Dec 1996 Well, Friday the 13th almost proved a bit disappointing but the printer came through at the last minute with the final batch of materials for all the tape and CD packages. I am going to put together all the free copies for friends and relatives (Happy Xmas!) and anyone who wants to be the first on their block to order one may do so. Be the first! (See the Releases page for a little more information about this.)
Thursday, 11 Dec 1996 The crack team at Good Vibrations has come through and delivered all the CDs, tapes and boxes and jewel cases. The only thing left is the (vital) printed stuff which I have been PROMISED for tomorrow. Sure hope so.
I started a song download page at the time...now you can get a couple of them at the Jack of Shadows page.
Had to work out some bugs; especially with my attempt to create some small sample files. The larger .wavs and the MPEG-2 files sound OK but the 8Khz/8 bit ones are awful. Stay tuned... Is this archaic or what??? This was actually before MP3 became such a universal standard for audio files.
Wednesday, 4 Dec 1996 Well, everything is in the hands of the printer and the manufacturers now. The current estimates are that the printing will be done at the end of this week, and the CDs and tapes next week.
On listening to the proof CDR back...I certainly hear a lot of things I would have mixed differently, but if I tinker forever then the release wouldn't be for ANOTHER year. I'm pretty happy with it.
Friday, 13 Dec 1996 Well, Friday the 13th almost proved a bit disappointing but the printer came through at the last minute with the final batch of materials for all the tape and CD packages. I am going to put together all the free copies for friends and relatives (Happy Xmas!) and anyone who wants to be the first on their block to order one may do so. Be the first! (See the Releases page for a little more information about this.)
Thursday, 11 Dec 1996 The crack team at Good Vibrations has come through and delivered all the CDs, tapes and boxes and jewel cases. The only thing left is the (vital) printed stuff which I have been PROMISED for tomorrow. Sure hope so.
I started a song download page at the time...now you can get a couple of them at the Jack of Shadows page.
Had to work out some bugs; especially with my attempt to create some small sample files. The larger .wavs and the MPEG-2 files sound OK but the 8Khz/8 bit ones are awful. Stay tuned... Is this archaic or what??? This was actually before MP3 became such a universal standard for audio files.
Wednesday, 4 Dec 1996 Well, everything is in the hands of the printer and the manufacturers now. The current estimates are that the printing will be done at the end of this week, and the CDs and tapes next week.
On listening to the proof CDR back...I certainly hear a lot of things I would have mixed differently, but if I tinker forever then the release wouldn't be for ANOTHER year. I'm pretty happy with it.
I really intend to get some audio sound samples up, but haven't yet had the time. Perhaps around Xmas time... What do you think about format? .wavs, .mpg2s, or what?
The fix to my mastering error was trivial for Larry to do, as I had hoped.
Monday, 11 Nov 1996 Last week I took my final mix on DAT tapes to RJR Digital/Good Vibrations in Bonita (a few miles south of San Diego). These are nice guys and very professional. They did the label artwork for the CD and cassette on the spot. Greg is their extremely talented designer, artist and all around Quark wizard. Mastering guru Larry turns the knobs and runs the Sonic Solutions mastering software.
They started on the mastering using their Sonic Solutions CD Premastering system. My DAT tape went into the Panasonic SV-3700 DAT recorder and out through the Sonic interface into their Macintosh, thus everything staying in the digital domain. Larry suggested I listen to the effect of adding a dab of Lexicon 300 reverb on some of the tracks...just a couple %...to smooth things out. I must admit that it did help, and let him do what he thought was best. (Interesting observation: The Lexicon 300 is probably worth more than everything in my house...)
Unfortunately on listening to the CD-R they cut, I realized that I had forgotten to tell them about a false start on one track. I expect it will only take them a few moments in the Sonic system to fix it, but it's a step that would not have been necessary had I been better prepared. To fix less than a one second error will cost me another $40 or so... grr!
Continued on page 2...
The fix to my mastering error was trivial for Larry to do, as I had hoped.
Monday, 11 Nov 1996 Last week I took my final mix on DAT tapes to RJR Digital/Good Vibrations in Bonita (a few miles south of San Diego). These are nice guys and very professional. They did the label artwork for the CD and cassette on the spot. Greg is their extremely talented designer, artist and all around Quark wizard. Mastering guru Larry turns the knobs and runs the Sonic Solutions mastering software.
They started on the mastering using their Sonic Solutions CD Premastering system. My DAT tape went into the Panasonic SV-3700 DAT recorder and out through the Sonic interface into their Macintosh, thus everything staying in the digital domain. Larry suggested I listen to the effect of adding a dab of Lexicon 300 reverb on some of the tracks...just a couple %...to smooth things out. I must admit that it did help, and let him do what he thought was best. (Interesting observation: The Lexicon 300 is probably worth more than everything in my house...)
Unfortunately on listening to the CD-R they cut, I realized that I had forgotten to tell them about a false start on one track. I expect it will only take them a few moments in the Sonic system to fix it, but it's a step that would not have been necessary had I been better prepared. To fix less than a one second error will cost me another $40 or so... grr!
Continued on page 2...
