More album work today. Finalised the cover and have received tracks from almost all of the artists. It's amazing how they vary in style and ways of working. I'm trying to balance the relative volumes to set them all about the same. Most are fine, but one is notably quieter and one notably louder than the others.
I've also recorded the piano parts for Sky Robes of Celeste, at last, after playing it for most of yesterday. I took the keyboard down and set it up on a separate stand, with piano stool, all at the best height. This helped a lot; my previous best takes were played while standing up, but the strain on my left leg was considerable (I need the right for the sustain pedal, so most of my weight while playing is on my left leg). I also listened to a rehearsal from the 2019 premiere of the track, to note the structure and pacing. There was a solo in the mid section so I've added one here too, improvised while recording, no time to compose one.
Overall this, take 12, was ideal; or at least sounds it, I can't really tell until Deb adds her words. 12 short takes yes, but spread over 12 hours or so... this time matters. If I make anything look or sound easy, it isn't. It's hard hard hard. I told myself this as I put back the keyboard and re-plugged everything in after setting everything in a new place just for this recording. There can be no short-cuts.
My custom-made music stand fell off during moving and broke into pieces! So much for Titebond. It seems that the glue barely penetrated the shiny MDF surface. I will screw it this time. When anything has problems, is imperfect, action must be taken to fix it, improve it. Again, no short-cuts.
At 3pm, the final cover was revealed:
The last change of green writing did make a difference. I've also started a design for the cover of the single release of Christmas Smells. I don't have much time for that.
This evening we're off to Macclesfield. October was a very busy month. November will be busy too, hopefully not as busy. I'll (probably) spend about 6 days in Macclesfield this month, mostly sitting in the Macc Art Lounge.
