Well, dear readers, it is late so I must post these here notes in a hurry. It is late because I spent the entire evening mixing the first of three STAGE benefit live recordings, which we have to have in hand by the last week of April in time for the STAGE benefit they’re doing that week. This is a daunting task but we’re trying our best, which is all we can do. Part of the problem is that these were not recorded by me, so we’re dealing with the way they miked the band and everyone else, which is, for us, not optimal. When I record live shows, I always take extensive notes about flubbed lyrics and/or notes that we might need to fix in post production, but these shows are not current, no notes were taken, so we constantly are faced with the decision whether to cut a number because the lyric might be wrong or to use it, hoping everyone, including the lyricist, will understand that it’s a live thing. We began with the easiest and best sounding of them, the 2007 Sondheim show. There are some very good people in it and most of the performances are fine. We had to work really hard on the opening number, which really sounded bad in the rough mix my engineer had done – but by deleting about thirty seconds and then being very careful with the mix, we got it sounding pretty good. The rest of it was easier and mostly sounds excellent now that we’ve finessed each and every mix. It looks like every song will make the album, save for maybe one, because the singer was clearly under the weather and it’s someone I know very well who I think would be very unhappy to have it – but I’ll leave that decision to director David Galligan. So, we got the whole thing done and then tonight we move on to the Bacharach show and tomorrow night to the Andrew Lloyd Webber show – my engineer tells me that the band on each of those is not quite up to the band on the Sondheim – this frightens me, but we’ll just have to figure it out and finesse and do my little trickery as we go. The plan is to finish, get Galligan to sign off by Thursday, and then get the files uploaded and to the mastering guy, who can start on them immediately. As he finishes each I’ll have him send the master to the plant, then begin the next. Hopefully it can all be out the door by mid-next week.
Prior to that, I’d managed to get eight hours of sleep. Then I got up, answered e-mails, had two visitors, then finally was able to get out of the house at two-thirty. I did some errands and whatnot, picked up a couple of packages, and had a nice meal o’ the day at Hugo’s – hadn’t been in quite a while and it was especially yummilicious. Then I came back home and began choosing songs for the next Kritzerland show – I’m almost wishing I’d chosen Comden and Green, but we’ll do that one after, although I could still switch it up. I think I’ll stick with my instinct and do Broadway Bound mashed up with a sort of Unsung Songwriters thing. At least five of the songs will come from the Broadway Bound album, which has some really good stuff on it. Then the rest will be things like songs from The Yearling, Minnie’s Boys, The Grass Harp – you know, composer/lyricists who never quite made it to hit status on Broadway.
I also began watching a motion picture on a homegrown DVD, something we’ll be issuing on CD, but I’m nervous now – so far, in the first fourteen minutes of the film there’s exactly forty-five seconds of music. Hopefully the music will be of sufficient length to do a CD. If not, I’ll have to search for something to pair it with. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get another good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I have lots o’ stuff to do – errands and whatnot, eating, having a meeting, hopefully picking up packages, and then mixing STAGE CD number two – a Burt Bacharach evening.
Tomorrow will be more of the same and then mixing the third of the STAGE CDs – Andrew Lloyd Webber. I’ll then approve all packaging and we’ll get it to David Galligan to approve, too. The rest of the week is meetings and meals, two Melody rehearsals and a bunch of other stuff, including seeing a show or two.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do errands and whatnot, have a meeting, hopefully pick up some packages, eat, and then mix a CD. Today’s topic of discussion: What was the very first thing you ever purchased via the Internet? What was it, when was it, where was it – and how was the experience? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, with one down and two to go.