Slow Day

[catsittingstill]

I had a lovely weekend at Patternbuilder's house. The weekend included some filking, and Patternbuilder encouraging me to think about another CD.  She pointed out that nowadays people sell mp3s through places like CDBaby and iTunes, so coming up with the dough for a CD run might not be an issue.  She pointed out that this might even be feasible as a way to make some extra money--if there are 500 people out there who would buy a clutch of mp3s because they're by me that would be a noticeable difference in the discretionary cash.  And I have a lovely Zoom H4n, which can record wav files and playthrough and multitrack, and I could put the results in Garageband which does all kinds of clever things it didn't used to, so this could be a more polished thing than _I Promised Eli_ which was made with a lot less in the way of capability, still without requiring a whole lot of investment (except for the time issue, of course, which is considerable, but I have time.)

And it occurred to me while we were talking, that on the fourth floor of the Library building at Carson Newman I had seen a door marked "Sound Studio" or some such.

So this morning I went over to Carson Newman and verified 1) that they have a recording room of sorts--not perfect by any means but much better than anything I could manage at home) and 2) that I am permitted to use it, as long as I arrange it ahead of time.  So I have gone through my songs and picked out four or five to practice up and arrange and figure out how I'm going to record.  The studio is available 6:30 to 10 pm Tuesday and Thursday nights at the moment (other times too, but the sound isolation from the rest of the building is not ideal and the nights are likely to be the quietest times.)

So I guess I need to practice.  And probably writing some more songs wouldn't go amiss but that is more likely to happen if I practice more.

And today, since by the time I was a Carson Newman I was halfway there anyway, I walked over to the hardware store and talked to one of the guys there about stopping up the hole under the furnace where I think the animals got into the crawlspace.  He suggested I cut a length of 2 x 4 and wedge it in place with expanding insulating foam.  I need to crawl back under there (sigh) with a tape measure.  On the other hand, if 2 x 4 will really do it, that would be a lot less unpleasant to handle than hardware cloth (which I believe would do the job if I could fasten it in place but I don't like working with something with that many teeth.  2 x 4s don't have teeth.)

And then I came home, thought I really should get to work, laid down on the bed for just a minute and woke up two hours later.  That weekend whirlwind of activity wore me out.  So I didn't actually get much done today but I checked out some things.

Comments

[keris]

Yay album thoughts! And note that if you need seed money for duplication I'm happy to chip in (I'm a believer in private sponsoring of the arts by people like me who have money but not the talent to actually write songs and books and stuff like that).

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Yay music!

Not that I can promise I'll have money to buy it, but still...MP3s don't have to go out of print.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

There is the long tail issue, yes. Plus mp3s can frequently be bought one or two at a time, as an extra dollar or two becomes available.

[hms42]

Yea! I look forward to whatever you decide to record. Maybe some snogs that didn't make an echo's children cd?

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what snogs are?

[hms42]

A typo of the word 'songs'.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Oh...I should have seen that, yes.

My plan was to record songs I've written since I moved to Tennessee, so they won't be on previous Echo's Children CDs.

I've never liked those bands that put out CDs that were half songs that were on other CDs of theirs--I always wanted new stuff. So I doubt I'll be re-recording anything myself. Probably not even the stuff on _I Promised Eli_ (though I could definitely do a better job on it now, with the better equipment and so on that I've got available.) But I won't rule it out completely.

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

I'm very interested in any solutions concerning digital distribution of a song collection. The technical problems of hosting may now be under control but when I've raised the subject, there are usually objections:
1) Many people prefer paying for a physical object
2) People like to read liner notes and view artwork
3) There are qualms about mp3-only format vs. owning a full-range audio version as a master copy
4) There's a feeling that someone investing in a physical CD is more committed
5) Some number of people are still not on broadband

My current position is that I might do something anyway but that it would be for the purpose of putting out canonical versions of new songs rather than making money. That raises the different problem of whether other musicians would want to help out on something that's not "serious". It's not like contributor copies of things that are freely distributed are much of an incentive. :-)

Another tool you might consider is Reaper (http://reaper.fm/), which now has a reliable Mac version. It doesn't have Garageband's loop-oriented approach to creating music but otherwise is competitive with much higher-end products. The price is low and there is a fully-functional free demo.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Thank you for mentioning Reaper--I will check it out. I hadn't heard of it before.

I would envision burning a few physical cds to take to any given performance for people who want something in their hands right then. They would be computer cds, of course, without the pretty printing on the CD itself. This could be a solution for people who don't have broadband--hopefully they would at least have e-mail and could contact me and arrange for me to mail them a cd.

Liner notes would be easy--a pdf or an rtf file would do the trick. Art--I don't have the money to pay someone to do art, or the skill to do it myself, so there we are.

I suppose it might be possible to sell AAC or WAV versions in addition to mp3s, I would have to check. In any case, a CD is not going to have more data than the electronic version of the song as it comes off the mixing computer.

To tell you the truth, I'm a bit intimidated by the legwork involved, since I probably should check out various distributing options before I start recording. But it would be smart to make sure that all that effort will have some return before I put it in.

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

"a CD is not going to have more data than the electronic version of the song as it comes off the mixing computer"

True, but mp3s have less data than the optimal output from the mixing computer.

Usually I record and mix with high quality files. My H2 has input that's better than CD quality and my *cheap* studio equipment is, by specifications, at least twice as good as the H2. I can render mp3s from that, but if I were to create a CD I would be going from very high quality to reasonably high quality rather than putting mp3 compressed data into CD format.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

In the past I've recorded and mixed .wav files, and then used those to burn an audio CD. As I said above, I suppose it is probably possible to sell those higher quality audio files using a digital distribution method for people who want that. However there also seems to be a market for mp3 versions of songs in many cases. Perhaps I could sell both.

[egoldberg.livejournal.com]

I still listen to your (and Callie's) music - even last weekend - and hope you record more.

Still tickled to have had even an "informal" album named after me. And you know you can cheaply burn CDs for filk cons. Tom Smith can probably talk from extensive experience in this whole area & would probably be eager to share his wisdom.

Eli

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I am a little shy about approaching Tom, who is a professional and probably gets pestered all the time by wannabes. But you're right that he would know the ins and outs of doing something like this.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

...? Cat, m'dear, I am only a professional because I'm doing this to pay the bills. I don't think I've let it go to my head, swaggering around with my posse and flicking cigar ash at The Little People. :) What d'you want to know? (You can PM me if you'd like.)

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

*hug* I never thought you had a bad attitude, Tom.

It's more that I'm shy about bothering people. Also my introversion expresses itself as a high energy barrier to initiating contact.

But thank you for the encouragement and yes, I will cheerfully pick your brain now that I know it's being offered :-)

[sexybass.livejournal.com]

Personally, I like a physical CD in my hands and I would have issues against mp3 format as it is compressed and not up to standard. I am just old fashion I guess. I also like the lyrics in my hand to read while listening. I know that it is costly and we just spent a fortune doing the Dandelion Wine CD but there are ways of cutting back on the costs without losing quality which is what Sue and I plan to do on the Stone Dragons CD. I have my own mastering softwarre as well and will think about doing the mastering myself this time. Anyway, I am very excited you are thinking about recording a new CD and can't wait to own a copy.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I understand your preferences and realize there are many people who share them. It is just a question of how much money I have to sink into the project to begin with, and how much time and effort I can devote to storing and shipping physical product to individual buyers.

I have not made any final decisions, but would like to look into digital distribution as one way around my limitations.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I *like* buying physical CD's at conventions. It's fun to have a physical souvenier of the event or the musician, and CD's are what I play in the car. Meaning, for instance, that depending on when things are issued, I could drive home from OVFF this fall listening to a brand new Amy McNally CD and a brand new Cat Faber CD to keep me awake.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) It is possible to download files and burn them to your very own CD, which you could then play in the car. And that way you could (possibly) listen to a brand new Cat Faber CD on the way TO OVFF, and a brand new Amy McNally CD on the way home...

But I will keep your words in mind.

[antinomic.livejournal.com]

When you say it's a go, I'll preorder immediately. Any CD's are immediately ripped into my ITunes, and from that point just need to be stored. So format is unimportant.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) I'm pleased you're interested, and will bear your words in mind.

Do store the CDs, though--I recently had a hard drive lobotomy that would have cost me all my ripped mp3s and spent several days comforting myself with the thought that I still had the CDs and could if necessary rip them all again.

Electrons last forever if properly maintained but I'm not good about maintaining them.

[antinomic.livejournal.com]

I have had a major loss as you described. Never again. Now my multiple backup drives cost more than many computers. One is a networked drive at the other end of the house. It would take a total house fire or an EMP to lose my data. And in any of those events, I have bigger problems.

[pondside.livejournal.com]

darn yeah we'll definately buy!

Sorry about the crawlspace!

[filkferengi]

Your "not much" sounds like lots of recon, actually.

When you're picking filkertom's brain, be sure to ask about bandcamp.com. They offer your stuff in lots of formats, which would make folks happy. Also, it lets folks set their own price, so they can give you extra, potentially making you happy. Everyone wins!