tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8354122.post-1096400772488800322004-09-28T13:30:00.000-07:002004-09-28T12:47:47.943-07:00So it was January 2004 and we had finally finished the record after months of work. We were kinda dragging our feet at that point, so we just went ahead and made the appointment to master at Superdigital in NW Portland, not really knowing what the hell it entailed. We just knew it had to be done. Turns out its a bunch of things. One part is balancing the sound of each track so that they're all about the same volume at their loudest. Another is tweaking the equalization (highs, lows, mids) to sound ideal. This is the point where you mess with fade-outs, tracks that fade into each other, and the exact point where the cd player will start playing when you flip to the track. <br /> <br />The engineer just opens up the files and you see the entire record on the computer screen in ugly, jagged sound waves. Its very strange to think it all boils down to that. All the months of work you put into a record and its just a buncha lines on a screen. <br /> <br />The rest of the winter and spring were crammed with work and school, so we didn't get a whole lot done. Nick did some watercolor paintings for the artwork, which he describes as "shitty, but in an artsy way." We really didn't have the resources for professional graphics design, plus we're going to be appealing to indie rock kids who revile unabashed professionalism, so we thought this angle was the most practical. <br /> <br />Nick and I decided on the company DiscMakers (<a href="http://www.discmakers.com">www.discmakers.com</a>) for the record's duplication. The CD digipaks (you know, the cardboard packs that fold open) seemed to stand out the most, especially for a very tactile style of artwork, and they run about $1800 for 1000 records. It's a lot of money to throw down without much capital, but if we sell them for $10 a pop, which is cheaper than most places, we're making $8.20 net on every record sold. Which ain't too bad, provided we can actually SELL them. <br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8354122-109640077248880032?l=murphymusic.blogspot.com'/></div>Timothy Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08138528307880086691noreply@blogger.com0