Rethink...

Well, I've finally come to the conclusion that I can't master my own album.

After many days spent mastering, re-mastering and starting from scratch again and again, I've decided to have a professional do this. I've discovered that mastering is very different than the engineering I'm used to on the "frontside" of a piece of music.

While in the throes of this epiphany, I stumbled on this YouTube vid that made me chuckle, especially the bit about having your work professionally mastered! It's by a band I've never heard of and whose music I probably wouldn't ordinarily seek out but everything said is very sage advice indeed! Total respect - these guys use a lot of modular synthesis and processing! Many musicians never figure half of these things out:



I can't say I disagree with a single thing said. :D

...I do wish I had had a bit more humility from the get-go and decided earlier to have the new album professionally mastered and saved myself an infinite amount of screaming-and-hair-pulling frustration!

Mastering and patience...

Patience is indeed a virtue. It's a shame that it's such a scarce commodity these days.

I'm finishing off my first new album of music in about four years. The mastering of each song requires numerous (many dozens) of playthroughs as I tweak very subtle settings. My wife has surprised me by her unusual understanding and, most of all, patience. Though I'm certain some of these tunes are driving her nuts at this point, she has been supportive all the way through this arduous process. I consider myself extremely fortunate! :)

My goal is to finish up "Shadow Bridge" by the end of this next week and then start the CD duplication process.

Choosing cover art has been interesting as well. I started out with around twenty designs. At this point it looks like this one is vying for the lead right now though the logo may go through a number of permutations: