solarbird | Electronic release and CD pre-orders!

All the mastered tracks for Dick Tracy Must Die have now been uploaded to the website for listening and purchase!

I really hope people will go listen to the final version of the album. It’s been a huge amount of work and an emotional roller-coaster at times, no lie. But I’m proud of it.

This is the electronic release, and you can download it now. I’ve also added to a lot of the liner notes and such, where we have a lot of thanks given out.
CD preorders are also now available. If you aren’t likely to run into me any time soon, and need a CD shipped, pre-order through the website. Pre-ordering the CD also gets you immediate downloads; it’s all bundled together. Yay, immediate gratification! XD
Direct preorders: If you are likely to run into me (say, at Norwescon), or want to pay by cash or cheque, you can preorder by emailing crimecrimeandtheforcesofevil.com. You’ll also receive a download code, so immediate gratification still applies! Mostly. XD

Also, even if you’ve listened to songs from the album before? Listen again. Mastering is a collection of subtle arts, and you can hear a lot of them at work on these tracks. It’s really neat to hear, particularly in the denser studio tracks, and tracks with lots of drum, like “Stay Away” and “Shout at the Desert.”

I mean, sure, some of it is obvious; you’re doing equalisation across tracks, you’re putting everything to CD/download specifications, you’re making sure all the levels are compatible, things like that. And there are technical things, like ISRC codes, that nobody much notices, except that’s how iTunes knows the names of the songs on that CD you just put in the drive.

But some of it’s just surprising. In one case… honestly, I have no idea what he did. But it was like he took an unsharp mask filter and applied it to sound. It was literally like three adjustments, and is apparently a pretty normal thing to do, but… I have to say, it was a HOW DID YOU DO THAT?! moment.

There’s more to talk about, but that’s for tomorrow. To be continued! (つづく)

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil.