A good day of full activity. Life is so short, so precious. Doing things is not the problem, but choosing what is best to do, which whim deserves our attention.
I started the day by installing AviSynth v260 in an attempt to see if it would fix the various lock-outs and crashes which AviSynth had perpetrated on the Love Symphony films, and on 'Norman Bates', and FOTTI. This worked, so I completed dividing the full Love Symphony film into 9 parts on a per-track basis, at least in the scripts.
Then, I took some new photos for social media, and an official artist image for the music platforms. I like to have a specific look for each album, so needed some for The Dusty Mirror. These worked well and were completed unusually quickly, but the ISO was rather high (it was accidentally left at the video setting), so the photos were rather grainy. No matter, as it adds a smoky and older look to them which is something of a refreshing change.
Then lunch, and back to the remastering of the Fall in Green album. The music is so good. Rarely does music bring me to tears, but our music (and Deb's words!) does repeatedly. I'm crushed with even greater sadness that so few people will hear or appreciate its (and her) brilliance, but we live in hope. I've made many small changes over the past two days; small adjustments to vocal volume, and to track levels. Here, two tracks distorted a little due to the volume boost, so I removed that boost (as Bjork's mastering engineer should have). 'Sky Robes of Celeste' has a louder crescendo, but I've lowered that a little, to raise the volume of the speech, and I've added some twinkly stars to the end which blend into the next track.
After that, a pause from that job, because one can't master in one go. These subtle things need many listens over a long period. I went back to the Love Symphony films and found that FFMpeg wouldn't work with AviSynth v260! I uninstalled it and reinstalled the latest AviSynth+ and, lo and behold, the formerly problematical films worked fine. If that's solved this problem then today's edits will prove truly valuable. I'm hesitant to install a new version of AviSynth+. It feels too delicate to touch.
I re-rendered all 9 films, and prepared them for a future YouTube release on this, the 10th anniversary year of the Love Symphony film. The first film took about 3 mins to render. On my old PC running FreeMake, the same act took about 50 minutes!
After that, a new proof-listen to the full Fall in Green album, and two small changes to the overall balance.
I was reminded today that the care system needs fixing. We have a system where aristocrats, who do nothing for society and have attained their station though no merit, are given free food and accommodation, and a life of peace and kingly comfort, being attended to at all times by a staff of, often highly qualified, servants on subsistence wages. The aristocrats are 'those in care', the servants are the care workers; and this unjust system, less just than the aristocratic world before the French Revolution, was instigated by the socialist left who in theory were the ones opposed to this exact injustice. It is amusing how time inverts philosophies. I'm reminded that the Democratic Party in America used to be the more right-wing, more libertarian party.
Enough of such thoughts.
