Another manic, and mammoth day. I feel so tired that my eyes are spinning spirals, yet I've managed to complete most of the technical registration work for the new Flatspace album, update all (50+) of my album data on a certain listings site, while registering the Flatspace remaster (or most of it, some data is pending upon pre-release) with PPL - PPL the worst and slowest music website for editing or administration. The PRS and Musicbrainz are a joy to use by comparison.
Most of the day has been spent creating the last 12 iTunes Digital Booklets. These were hard work, harder than yesterday as the source material is older, less standardised, and I felt the need to re-standardise it and update things like the track data, copyrights, bleed areas etc. etc. Stupid Computer Music, that old album from 2009, has never looked better. I re-mastered the album art while assembling the iTunes booklet. Other albums (like the Finnegans Judgement EP) have been reworked too. Here's the new Stupid Computer Music art:
Small changes, but important ones to bring the resolution and quality up to standard. This album, like The Twelve Seasons and other early (pre-stream) albums, had 20 CD copies pressed once. I'd like to do that again one day.
Now I must desperately try to relax. I slept 10 solid hours last night, and I feel yet more exhausted now, but elated too. It feels good to have completed the 44 iTunes booklets in record time. A few remain, but those are for forthcoming albums... like the up-and-coming Gunstorm remaster and The Modern Game. My back catalogue, at least, is more ordered.
One thing I'm facing now is a new system for filing older albums, those which have been or are due to be remastered. When is a remake a new album? Synaesthesia has 4 versions, but all are quite different, not really 'remasters'. Most of my remasters to date have had new vocals or new instrumental parts, but now I'm entering an era (starting with The End And The Beginning, and the new Flatspace album) where the mixing, track balancing and mastering (volume and limiting; I never compress tracks, never albums) are the primary differences. I must be careful to ensure that remasters are always better. Some by established artists are almost criminal, like the pitch-corrected remaster of Queen's debut album! Of course, I'd never do such a thing, remaster or not!
Onwards I charge.
