Cat Sitting Still

My preliminary masters are all done and off to my esteemed Ears.  Who shall not be named so they can listen in peace :-) though they will be gratefully acknowledged later.

I am taking the rest of the day Off.

I just may take the whole weekend off.  I haven't decided.  Probably I should get started on the songbook.  But I Deserve a weekend off.

I have been pretty much avoiding Facebook for years.  I have an account and I remembered how to log in a few months ago, but I don't go there much. Recently I got back into reading it and I'm reminded why I shouldn't be.

Facebook is teeny.  The windows are teeny, the posts are teeny, the comments are teeny, and its because of the user interface; if you try to put in more than one paragraph it automatically ends your comment (and I think even your post but I don't remember at the moment and can't be arsed to try it out.) 

So it doesn't encourage any kind of thoughtfulness.  People say what they think in the shortest, most forceful way because they basically have to.  And that's fine as long as its something I agree with.  But when its something I disagree with, it is extremely annoying.  The format makes people leave out all the temporizations, all the background, all the "of course there are exceptions" all the "but on the other hand it does occur to me that"s that might make such a post, or comment, tolerable, or even, on occasion, convincing.

And then, of course, my comments are made in the same horrible user interface and thus have the same problem, compounded by my tendency to reach for exactly the right words, the ones that are the most clear and true, and provoke the most powerful emotional response.  Good approach for lyrics; perhaps not so great for social networking.

This is threatening to turn toxic for me.  I have work to do--work that is impeded by feeling like I have to go back and check what that ass said about atheists, or science, or gays, or liberals *this* time.  I have friendships I would like to maintain that have been, or are at risk of being, damaged by these interactions, at least as far as I'm concerned.  Maybe someday I will have the perfect equinamity to let people be Wrong on the Internet under my nose without feeling the need to try to fix it, but that day is not now.   I either need to go back to never checking Facebook or I need to unfriend everyone who gets disagreeable, and I'm not sure which tack to take.

For now I think I will just go back to not checking.

And I guess in a way it's progress to notice I need to do this before it is keeping me up nights.  So good on me for that much, anyway.

And I could turn around and record a new CD with 21 new songs (most of them written since the "you must be at least this old to enter the CD" cutoff for The King's Lute) tomorrow.  Well, I would want to polish up some arrangements, and practice, obviously, so realistically I could start recording in a month if I didn't have anything else to do. 

But the songs are written.

As problems go, it's not a bad one to have, and I shouldn't complain.  But I can't help but notice this does not bode well for Ever Catching Up.

On the bright side, two concerts at Quarter Tone will not be a problem.  Getting it all properly practiced up may be a bit of a trick, but the material is definitely there.

I have finished the mixing.  (Except for a couple of tiny things--I have a feeling, however, that I will be saying that until everything goes off to the duplicators.)  But today I rendered All My Mixes to wav files--they all peak at -3 dB to leave room for mastering, they all have the same compression and eq and reverb settings, and they all sound pretty much related.

Next I will listen to them all in order to make sure everything is an appropriate loudness and I haven't done something that will cross the listener's eyes in any of the transitions between songs, and check the average loudness to make sure it is okay headroom wise.

And I probably have to fine-tune my eq settings for the mando and octave mando, to make sure they aren't stepping on the vocals and vice-versa.  But since I have everything in effects chains, I can just change the chain, and then change it on each song with one click.  Of course, that can change the levels, so I'll have to check that.

Then I'll master, meaning mostly I may make a few moderate eq tweaks (though really, I don't see why I shouldn't do that in the mix anyway) and then apply a compressor or a limiter to increase the average loudness.  (By making the loudest bits softer, a compressor or a limiter makes it possible to increase the volume of the soft bits without making the speakers distort.)

But I have decided to call this finishing an important stage, and I'm having steak tonight to celebrate.

I took a Day Off today.  My first in I think about three weeks.  I rendered the first nine songs of the album (the ones where the mixing and tweaks are done--the other 12 mostly require only tweaks but sometimes that turns into full-fledged mixing) and dropped them on my iPod by 8:15 am, then drove down to attend the Maryville High School boat launch.

It was a gorgeous day for it.  Temps in the mid 80s, so not too hot (which it is perfectly capable of being, by now) and a gorgeous sunny day with the lightest of breezes.  The woodshop boats were nice, as they always are, and half of the boatbuilding students were missing because it was the Very Last Day Of School, which made things relatively peaceful.  Even though two of the students did manage to tip their canoe with great shouts of distress.  While fighting over whose fault it was they couldn't steer, if I remember correctly. 

Moxie was beautiful, and handled quite nicely, and everyone admired her, as is only her due.  I let Martin take her out, and he brought her back saying how nicely she handled and how well she tracked.

Martin retired--well, I think it's a couple more days before it kicks in officially.  However it turns out he will still be teaching his two favorite classes (woodshop and boat building) part time for the next year at least.  And if that works out well, maybe for a while after that.  So I haven't lost my "in" at Maryville High.  (Whew.) 

We had burgers and hot dogs for lunch--and plenty for everyone and then some, since half the students didn't show up.  Martin's assistant (whose name I can't place at the moment) tried at one point to startle me into the water by sneaking up behind me and grabbing my ribs while I was sitting on the retaining wall getting ready to drop down into knee deep water, and warning Martin's grandson (six) to stay back so if I slipped and fell in I wouldn't land on him and hurt him.

"I was going to throw you in" she said.  I looked at her for a moment and said "If you had, I would have thrown *you* in."  I was quite serious, because I didn't think it was a very nice thing to do.  But I left it at that.

The afternoon drew on and I decided I had to leave, and said goodbye to everyone, and as I was getting ready to paddle back around the point to the take-out, she said "Next time I will throw you in." 

"And I'll throw *you* in.  Don't wear jeans,"  I said.  Because if she'd thrown me in today, she would have learned that wet jeans are quite uncomfortable.

The songs don't sound that great in the car.  Some of it is just adjusting levels, but some of it is that the harmonies come apart in the car noise, and I don't think there's anything mixing can do about that.  I was somewhat cheered to discover that a filk CD I'm quite fond of has the same problem, though.

Now I am going to bed.  Tomorrow I will start work early to try and catch up.

There is a cool project up on Indegogo (kind of like Kickstarter)--it's a book about making a living with your art--but it's sort of a graphic novel.  It features three jaguars, the Artist, the Business Manager and the Marketer, called the three Micahs.  The author / illustrator is an artist and a writer, but I think it applies to lots of different fields.  I certainly feel like a lot of it applies to me, anyway.

You can see more about it here

I signed up for the paper-book level.  Take a look if you're interested, and pass it on if you think your friends might be!

To be subtitled: I am taking a break from mixing.

I have been trying to meditate.  It is basically paying-attention practice.  I sit (or sometimes do other things) and think about my breathing.  Just notice it, going in... going out.... going in....  It's not the most interesting thing in the world, which is kind of the point.  My mind keeps trying to take off and think about other things.  "Like a puppy" say the meditation books.  And I keep directing my attention back to my breath.  Meditation, at least for me, isn't about the paying attention to the breath.  It's about the refocusing attention back to the breath.  It's all about the trying again.

Maybe when I get better at it, this will be different.

But in the meantime, it occurred to me to wonder, how much else is really all about the trying again?  How much of persistence is really just refocusing wandering attention back to the (objective)?

Speaking of which I'd better refocus my attention back to my mixing.

I have finished my work except for evening practicing.  The Jefferson County Library has confirmed that they want me to give a 1/2 hour concert for their Library Summer Program opening day celebration on June 6th.  So practicing would be a good idea.

Much of the day I was quite ridiculously happy.  Or maybe quite sensibly happy, given that, after all, my life is quite good.  Just... happier than usual, is all.   I contacted the library about something else and happened to mention the concert and the librarian (not having spoken to her assistant about the program) said "oh I think we're all booked up."  And I was like "okay--I wouldn't mind having the time off" and went away happy.  And ten minutes later she called me back and said "actually I just talked to my assistant and you're part of why we're all booked up; you will come, won't you?" and I was like "okay, I'll give a concert.  That will be fun."  And went away happy.

Maybe the meditation is working.

It is 10:30 pm on Sunday, and I finally have my work for the day done.

And I've worked out a rocking countermelody for "I Meant To Do That" and melody and chords for my new song "Drying Line." 

The boat launch for the boatbuilding class down in Maryville is cancelled and they're going on Friday instead.  To tell you the truth, I'm glad--I'm too tired to put a canoe on the car.  Maybe Friday will be better.

I spent the last few days mixing the new vocals for Providence Skies--and mixing the octave mandolin for Providence Skies because I noticed I hadn't; I was just using the third take straight. The new monitors are nice.

I also did the tweaks I noticed for the first three tracks of the CD when I was listening through everything in order. Some things I was able to fix or improve, some, not. I'm trying to get everything mixed and tweaked to send out my Ears CD to my first listeners. 

By the way, if people with mixing/mastering experience are interested in receiving a copy of my new CD (just the music), listening to it, if possible in more than one environment, and getting your observations back to me within a couple of weeks, I would appreciate your advice.

Today I will start mixing Atheist's Anthem vocals (again--I forget if this will be the second time or the third) and do the tweaks on three more songs, and try to write up a first pass at the liner notes.  And finish the current batch of proofreading.

Some of the work I was planning to do on the CD this week I can't do because I don't actually have the files I thought I did, but this is okay because there's plenty of other stuff I *can* do; I just need to re-order my schedule.  However the process of discovering this took some time so I didn't actually get much done on the album yesterday.

The chicken came out lovely and brown and moist (as usual for this method of cooking).  Keeping it in its cooking dish and wrapping it in a towel kept it warm the appropriate length of time.  And while it was cooking I succeeded in finishing the day's allotment of proofreading.

The LWV meeting was not as well-attended as we expected, but we still had I guess about fifteen or twenty people.  We agreed to keep our current streamlined organization and announced plans to hold a candidate's forum in June and monitor the November election for people having problems with the voter ID law.

Then came the concert!  The Methodist Church where we hold our annual meeting kindly provided a sound system and a very pleasant person to run it, whom we insisted come to the potluck with us, and whom I made a point of sitting next to, because I figured we had at least one interest in common.  it turned out, as we chatted that she is a flat water kayaker who lives just up the road from me, so we exchanged phone numbers and maybe I have someone to go canoeing with!

The church is in fact (as most churches are) a pretty dismal space sound-wise.  It's remarkable how few public buildings are designed with their sound space in mind: the Unitarian Church in Knoxville is even worse.  But this church made up for it with plenty of mics and mic stands.  I should have given more thought to mic placement, though--because of where the monitor speaker was and how I set up I ended up pointing the instrument mic at a part of the instrument that didn't give good sound, especially as regards the octave mandolin, which sounded positively thumpy.  Next time I will take more care with that.

I had practiced fairly diligently in the ten days or so before the concert, but it didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked.  I had been practicing the instrumental pieces particularly intensively but fell off the tune several times.  People were very nice and clapped anyway, but it was a disappointment.  I suppose I just need more practice, but squeezing extra time out of the day is difficult.

They liked my song about Seneca Falls, and the two library songs, and I finished with That Kind Of Mouse, which they enjoyed very much. 

If I perform there again, I may see if it's possible to display the lyrics on the screen they have near the stage.  L. (the woman who ran the sound board) said she puts videos up there in conjunction with performances as part of their contemporary worship service so it may be possible, and might add to the enjoyment of our older members who probably had particular trouble making out the words.

So over all I'm pretty happy with how it went, but glad today will be less overcrowded.

So.  I'm a feminist.  I believe that women are full human beings with full human rights and should have the full range of human options when it comes to our choices.

I like a lot of things that are considered "masculine" like woodworking, and pants, and short hair.  I don't like a lot of things that are considered "feminine" like high heels and makeup.  But you know, that is me--my personal tastes.  It has nothing to do with feminism as I understand it.

When I was younger I despised (or sometimes pretended to despise) feminine things--because I had absorbed society's belief that feminine things were less important, less competent, less worthy than masculine things.  Shop was important and interesting; home ec was dull and foolish, and girls who settled for that were patsies.  But, you know, that wasn't feminism; that was its opposite.  (Though it did push me to complain to my Mom, who then went and pushed the school until they announced that any boy who wanted could take home ec and any girl who wanted could take shop, which was both a good outcome and a feminist move.) Now shop was important and interesting (or at least a lot of fun) and I'm glad I took it, but learning to sew and cook also would have been useful when I needed those skills, just like learning to type and drive came in handy.

There's nothing wrong with anyone of any gender choosing the feminine option--as long as you're doing it because that's what makes you happy.  It's when you're doing it because you're socially pressured to do so, or because the option available to men isn't as available to you, that I have a problem with it.  And even then my problem isn't with you--it's with the situation and the people causing the situation. 

Feminism should be about widening the field of choices available to women--indeed, in the larger sense, about widening the field of choices available to *anyone*--not about substituting one constrained set for another constrained set.

We're also overdue for an Alice Day post, I think.  I've had this one on the back burner for a while, which makes it easy to put up.  The Seneca Falls song is coming but I'll have to record it, and I don't know that I'll have time to do that this week.

I Am Like You
lyrics and melody by Catherine Faber 2012
a capella mp3 here

         D                     A
We are alike, in strength and need;
     G                 D                  G               A
The tears we shed are salt; if something cuts us we both bleed.
               D                 A
Our lives are dear, and all too brief,
    G                  D             D         A      G
We both reach out for happiness; we both must suffer grief.

 A            D                A
   I am like you, you are like me
              G              D                           A
   With our spirits held in common, in our shared humanity.
                  D                A
   We can choose love, instead of strife,
        G               D              G    A        G
   And work to bring together what we value in this life;
A             D
   I am like you.

We can give pain; we can give mirth
We can give comfort, love and knowledge, as a measure of our worth.
We live our lives, and take our shot:
Let's make this life the best we can, in case it's all we've got.


The world is wide, the sky is old--
Fairness, freedom, care, these fragile values I will hold
Our mayfly lives can heal or kill;
Our choices here define us as a force for good or ill.

So I've spent the last three days eyeball-deep in Reaper, cutting and pasting suggestion tracks that my Wonderful Collaborator sent me to send my suggestions back.  This has been wonderful fun--all the fun and interest of playing with sound tracks; none of the fiddly little grumpiness of getting every transition perfect.  But it has kept me busy.

And in the meantime all the regular commitments I made with my life are still active.  I am giving a concert at the League of Women Voters Annual Meeting (kind of out of the usual for us, but people seemed to like the idea, so...) so I'm practicing for that.  I promised to roast a chicken so that we would not end up with buckets of leftover KFC this time; it may have been poor judgment to combine that and a concert on the same day.  My schedule this week does not particularly encourage me to take today off as regards either the album or the proofreading I promised.  I promised to write a song for the League (which ended up being not so much about the League but about the Convention at Seneca Falls in 1848 that is widely seen as the start of the women's suffrage movement) and that's done but I'm hoping I know it well enough to perform it because I only wrote it a week ago.

And now Mossy Creek Network is trying to get started up again, and urgently wants to meet this week, and I had to tell them "not Tuesday" (the day of the LWV meeting. )  Because I need to get my mixing done and I need to do my proofreading and I want to fit at least one more practice in, because last night's, while it went well considering I had been working from 8 am to 9 pm with breaks for lunch and dinner(it was my day to work 3 hours in the morning at the Rural Clinic, which kind of added to the load) did not go as well as I would like for the day before a concert.

And I got a book called "Just One Thing" about things to meditate on (sort of) and this week's thing is "Be On Your Side" meaning take care of yourself: treat yourself with kindness and compassion.  I don't think I generally have a problem with that, but I kind of wonder if I should start pushing back against all these worthy organizations I would like to support and get some of my time back from them, at least until July.

So I mentioned in my last post that I was going to be recording yesterday--as things stand it was my Last Session (though finals continue until Thursday of next week and I suppose there is a chance I could have a Really Last Session--No, Really I Mean It This Time.)

I think things went reasonably well.  Whether the results will be an improvement on what I had before is a bit harder to say, since what I had before wasn't bad. 

In the case of Providence Skies I had to listen to it several times (being on my hands and knees with my head under a table is not really conducive to my concentration and I had to get the levels the same on both recordings) but I do hear a difference.  My best guess, given that the levels on the old recording are reasonable (not as hot as on the new recording, but reasonable) but it sounds kind of thin, is that I was simply standing too far from the mic last time.

Atheist's Anthem--that's simply a very challenging song to sing.  I may have done a better job this time and I may not. 

And I'm not in terribly good voice this spring.  I don't know if it's hayfever or what, but my throat feels a bit scratchy and sore and I get tired quickly (singing--walking I'm still doing as well as ever.)  I wouldn't particularly notice it if I weren't recording (and didn't have a concert Tuesday).  I did all the right things--drank water the night before, drank a lot of water in the morning and cut my caffeine consumption in half, all that stuff.  I think that helped.  But I didn't feel my usual self and I may not sound my best.

But anyway, things went reasonably well.  My next step is to concentrate on the bass and guitar stuff sexybass sent me so I can send him an e-mail after the weekend with comments and suggestions (something a bit more specific than "Wow! This adds so much!" would probably be helpful), so it will be a while before I can mix yesterday's recordings and say *how* well.

I listened to everything intended for the album in one go on the speakers.

I spotted a few things I will have to fix but most of them are mix-fixes.  However I would like to re-record the vocals for Providence Skies.  I don't know what went wrong when I recorded them but they sound kind of thin (better when I push the EQ about 2 db at about 2.5KHz but at that point I'm basically just making them louder and I think it's better to try again.)

I would also like to re-record the vocals for Atheist's Anthem, which seem to be a trifle out of tune.  My re-recording session yesterday didn't go all that well and I would like another try.

I have one more recording session left.  It's tomorrow.  Wish me luck.

I got less mixing done yesterday.  About half an hour, I think, mostly deciding I didn't want to make any more changes in Sociopaths.  Somehow it only seems like mixing if you change something--maybe I ought to think of it as "mixing and evaluating" because listening to something, trying changes, and then deciding you liked it better the original way really does take time and energy and therefor ought to qualify as work.

At any rate the reason I did so little mixing is because I decided I really Had To write that song for the League of Women Voters like I'd been saying I would, seeing that the Annual Meeting is a week away (as of yesterday) and it would be smart to practice it some before I perform it.  It was going to be about the League of Women Voters but it ended up being about the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 that is usually thought of as kicking off the whole drive to get women the vote.

I actually bought a book about the convention and the beginning of the women's rights movement, which I'm about 40% through.  I've read up through the convention and a little bit past it, and I know the rest is going to be pretty depressing because, well, the convention was in 1848 and women didn't get the vote until 1920 which suggests some pretty severe setbacks along the way.

Writing the song took me about three hours I guess, which was kind of a chunk out of the available time, but also a load off my mind, with the meeting coming up, and then I had to go proofread to get the day's chunk of proofreading done.  

And today I'm going to re-record the vocals for Atheist's Anthem because it seems to me like I'm kind of drifting subtly in and out of tune on them, and I would be happy to get something better.  And I have the recording time reserved and nothing else that seems to need it right now so why not.


I will put up the new song pretty soon but I need some time to get the countermelody down properly.

And I spent a couple of hours setting them up.  It's not that they were complicated in and of themselves, but the directions said to set them up in the middle of a short wall so I had to move my desk, and level with my ears, so I got my adjustable sawhorses out of the garage, which meant brushing all the cobwebs and shavings off them, and getting a board, and moving the desk meant moving a bookcase, and some crickets had crawled under the bookcase to die in peace sometime since we moved in, so I vacuumed the carpet, and you know how these projects can get.

But I figured the speakers would probably work better if I set them up the way it says in the booklet, and the money I spent on them would be wasted if I they didn't work properly.

I measured everything out, got the desk in the middle of the wall (it's half an inch off, okay? But I moved it five times and I'm done; it's in the middle of the wall), set the speakers in an equilateral triangle with my head (roughly--I didn't actually measure it carefully.  But it's about right.) And once I got them set up, I listened to them.  They sound nice; I like them fine.  Then I listened to my mixes on them.

And I don't hear anything I want to change (yet-I haven't listened all the way through everything.)  I actually hear more problems with the headphones than I do with the speakers.

So I don't know if that means I did something wrong, or everything right. 

I spent a certain amount of time over the past months gloating over the things available from my library, and specifically over e-books that I could check out.

I am transparently not the only one, as most of what I considered the good stuff was checked out and had people on the waiting lists, which might be anywhere from one to forty people long.  I added my name to a number of those lists, several times over the past few months.

Six of them have become available in the past week or so.  When that happens I have 3 days to check them out or they go to the next person on the list, which is fair enough.  I think I didn't get to one of them in time, and I'll have to get back in line and wait some more, but that's not a real problem, since I now have a plethora of books on my reader. 

Hopefully I'll be able to get to them before they go back to the library.

In other news I have dealt with 20 pages of the 47 page initial chunk.  Actually they are 24 pages now, because I mark the deletions rather than making them myself and include bracketed comments when I can't figure out what the author was trying to say.  This slower, but the plan is to make it easy for the author to overrule me if he (or she but he in this case) decides it adds to the handmade charm of the paper that he can't decide between "Loop 2" "loop 2" "Loop2" and "loop2." for the same loop.

I have also been mixing like a mad thing. ( Long digression on How I Mix for those who are interested )I feel like I'm nearly done, which probably means I have several weeks of hard work yet to go.

Profound thanks to everyone who made helpful comments and suggestions (and offers of help!) on both DW and LJ with my layout issues.  It looks like things are in the process of being sorted out.

In the meantime I swallowed hard and ordered speakers to listen to the mixes through.  Amazon was offering me a one month free trial of Amazon Prime and this seemed like a good time to have free 2-day shipping so I took them up on it.  I will give this free movie streaming thing a try while we have it.

And I just got a bit of work proof reading a technical document.  Good time to have extra money coming in; moderately difficult time to be spending time on something that is not the album but I think I can fit everything in.

My first choice for an artist was too busy for my commission, which I always knew was likely, but said it was okay to incorporate tiny elephants in the album art, so cool. 

And I thought of an artist I follow on LJ (I was alerted to his existence when he was having a "free icons; tips accepted" day) whose art and style I really like, and who is going pro, and asked him if he would do it, and he agreed!  Yay!  If he says it is okay I will link to him so you can admire his art.

I asked around and Oasis CD has more recommendations than any other company (in my admittedly small sample space) so I called them yesterday and then spent a couple of hours pacing around the house biting my nails.  Layout wise they want the art in one of four programs and the cheapest one is several hundred dollars.   Price wise without figuring that in, the cost is... more than I was expecting.  Not out of reach, but 30-40% more than I thought it would be. 
( Wibbling... )

This project keeps getting more expensive.  Though I suppose I could think of it as capital investments.  And speakers.  Just like I was a real sound engineer.  Hmm.

When someone never mentions a particular group without in the same breath bashing one or more members of that group, it gives (me and possibly other people) the impression the speaker is prejudiced against that group--an impression that simply asserting that one is not does little to dispel.

It has recently occurred to me that this, at least in the long term since I was already trying to do better, might apply to me too.

I like to think I am not prejudiced.  But minds are deep and only the top layers are visible.  If I am prejudiced, that is a part of myself I do not wish to feed.  If I am not prejudiced, that is an impression I do not wish to give.  And if there might be a prejudiced person reading this (which I suspect is pretty unlikely, but it's the principle of the thing) I don't wish to give them the impression that I support their prejudice.

I have been trying for some time to express my ideas in a positive way--because they can be good without other choices being automatically bad ones, and because people bashing my ideas and my group has certainly done nothing to change my mind.  I think I have been doing better, which is probably not the same as I have been perfect.  Perhaps I could do better yet.

So that was my difficult thought for the week.

Have you had any difficult thoughts you want to talk about?

Well, I had a lovely weekend in Atlanta, visiting Alice and Beth and Marie.

They showered me with favorite eats and drinks, listened with interest to my grandiose plans for future projects (Marie is actually going to be undertaking something similar to the Octave Mandolin Box only with a bicycle, so we may put our heads together on that) and generally.  Beth and Jenna guided me to a local fabric store where I got inexpensive lining material for a vest I plan to make for a con costume.  On Sunday we went past a gun store (to see if a gun case would do for the Octave Mandolin.  Beth maintains the young man at the counter was deeply surprised when I opened the banjo case to reveal--a musical instrument.  I was not watching his face at the correct moment, and he must have mastered himself quickly because when I looked at him he just looked thoughtful.  Alas they did not have *any* hard cases for guns, so no dice.

On Saturday Alice and Beth threw a lovely housefilk that drew quite a crowd--over a dozen people, I would say, though I didn't actually count.  I had a wonderful time trying to play along with quadrivium and weirdsister (and hopefully didn't mess things up too much) and getting them to play along with me on a couple of things also.  Autographedcat did my favorite song of the part of his repertoire I know--"Follow That Road" and Carly played a couple of nice songs--she is really excellent on the guitar--before she and her new puppy had to leave for another gathering. Asg_qa_s7 had a couple of very funny (and very flattering) filks.   And FilkFerengi suggested that when I put up the songbook for my album (which I will do) I might consider having a songbook for related songs if people wanted to send them in.  Which seems like it might be fun if people are interested in contributing.  Asg_qa_s7 expressed interest--if there is anyone else out there who would like to be in on it, let me know.

asg_qa_s7 also brought a mimmoth-sized Real Steam Engine and the mimmoths all crowded on it and around it (they couldn't possibly all fit on it, though they would have tried if I'd let them) to have their photos taken and then wanted to try to drive it, except Thag who hid in the bottom of the bag.  I think he isn't used to technology. 

The housefilk was much decorated with good things to eat and drink and good company and we didn't break up until about eleven or so.

On Sunday Alice and Beth and I went to the Dogwood festival which in these days of changing climate now happens well after the petals of the dogwoods have fallen.  It was interesting and fun and I bought a CD of instrumental guitar, but I am about peopled out for a while.  Four people per square meter makes me nervous.

Woke up at 4 am and couldn't go back to sleep.  Which is not as bad as it sounds because I had handily enough time to change the strings on both instruments so I could do the re-recording of Boats have bones and the recording of the extra just-in-case song.  And still read LJ and such.

Recording seemed to go reasonably well except I'm not in the best voice today.  I have Wednesday and Friday of next week reserved just in case any of the things i have yet to mix requires re-recording.  I think I have accomplished as much in that area as I can today.

Now I must pack and be off for Atlanta.  Have a good weekend, all!

Yesterday and today I spent  putting together mock-ups of the CD cover and tray-card and the face of the CD so I can get a quote from One Of My Favorite Artists for CD art.  Perhaps it will be way out of my price range, but if I don't ask, I can't be pleasantly surprised.  And if I have to do it myself because I can't afford art, having the mock-ups will make it easier to be thinking about what kinds of photographs, from what angle, would fit in those spots, so it's not time wasted.

Anybody have experience with CD replicators and want to recommend a company?  So far I'm looking at NationWide Disc, mostly because of the ease of their web interface (and they have the option I want, which is bulk CDs, and bulk covers and tray cards, so I can buy jewel cases as needed and stuff them, while the remaining 900 or so CDs don't take up as much space.)

I also spent time listening through everything I intend to put on the CD (though some things are missing parts.)

This gave rise to a couple of unpleasant surprises, which is one of the reasons I did it now.  I still have a little recording time left (I think) and since I used the wrong mic on Boats Have Bones and the noise floor is very high (something I inexplicably did not notice while I was mixing it, but your ear gets used to stuff) I can re-record it next week.  And since I apparently forgot to mix Atheist's Anthem after I re-recorded it, and I need to mix my part for Common Ground (it's one track, but I will need to cut back and forth between takes) I can do that soon, instead of trying to fix it at the last minute (which would be about June 26th or so, when I intend to send it to the replicators.) 

I have also discovered that the compressor function I've been using makes me buzz on the high notes.  It's different from the crackle I was getting when I was recording at 44.1 KHz with the Zoom, but it reminds me of it, a bit.  I can solve the problem by removing the compressor, but vocalists generally need some compression.  I can reduce the problem markedly by increasing the attack time of the compressor to about 50 milliseconds, but I'm pretty sure it won't work on the consonants if it takes that long to kick in, and the consonants tend to need it.

So I'm going to sit down and go through every compressor function Reaper has and try to find one that will let me set the attack time to 3 ms without making me sound weird.  But I don't think I have the spoons to do that tonight.

I haven't been sleeping well and I've been very tired.  I think I will go to bed early tonight, because I have to record tomorrow.  And then I will drive down to Atlanta for a housefilk which sounds like it will be a lot of fun.

I hope you folks are all doing well.