I've been busy on the CD artwork and have managed to complete everything for the 4 page cover. The original front cover design was tweaked a little as it occurred to me that lush green fields looked more akin to Daniel O' Donnell's latest release than something from a progressive rock artist.
It's now much more Black Sabbath than Danny Boy which is where it should be to match the music.
At the beginning of the month I got to finally spend some time with my old friend Steve Dunn as he kindly invited me up to Gloucester for the Summers End prog festival, with no less than Steve Hackett headlining. We were both a bit dazed when at the end of his incredible set, he hung around and chatted to us. We got some great photos, one even sneaked on to the back cover of the album.
Music wise it's been a bit of battle in the mixing and mastering department. Lee Abraham was very kind in offering some very good advice in the use of filters. "Filters, filters and more filters" he said. It was a bit of revelation last weekend when I realised that the resonant bass freqencies were stopping the other instruments being clear in the mix. Some filtering tamed the bass and allowed the other frequencies some more space. Certainly works, and you can now hear the individal bass notes being played rather than the continuous drone of low frequency.
Unfortunately it's been a real back and forth act between mixing and mastering. You mix it all up, but mastering reveals some problems you couldn't hear before so you have to go back. Worse still is when mastering reveals some playing errors or vocal problem that you have no option to go back and re-record.
It's all there though I think. I've been listening on as many different systems and headphones as I can. The Master CD was burned last night and I'll be critically listening to this over the next few days to make sure everything is A OK. Fingers crossed.
Next Step, Duplication and Release!
