Almost time to close now

Well, thats it. All is done. I didn't get a chance to post anything over the last few days, as the workload was just too much, but the final final FINAL mixes were completed on the 23rd June. Mastering was done on Wednesday and finished on Thursday 25th, at about half 10.

Incidentally it would appear that Michael Jackson was kind enough to hang around just long enough to see the completion of this project.

The booklets and inlays arrived from the printers at about 4.00 on Friday, which I'll admit was starting to cut it a bit fine for the release on Saturday night! The printed disks arrived on the Friday night courtesy of Drew. The first completed version was born at 4.56pm on Saturday 27th!

The launch event - Pirate Night at the Sal - started at 9.30 on that same evening. And that went ... well, thats another story really ... but it all went very well. This story of the recording is now pretty much at an end, although I feel a "what I would do differently" coming on, but essentially this blog is now complete. Looking back its interesting to see the whole story unfold, from the beginning idea through to having the finished product in my hand. I'd strongly suggest a trip to our main website, www.skeletoncrewrocks.com to check out the finished tracks on there.

G'night!

S-Crew

Mixes complete!

Finally, the mixes for all 10 songs are complete. This has been a real long slog, with a total of 47 different mixes produced (yes, thats nearly 5 per song for the mathematically challenged) totaling 3 1/2 hours of listening. Now, if I were Metallica (yes, if I were all of the arse-clenching po-faced self-important popular beat rock pop combo sellouts) I would simply not bother, pick my favourites, master them to the point of unlistenability and then put all the remainders on multiple disks and sell the whole lot for more than a taxi driver's yearly income. But I'm not, so all the mixes have been waded through, and now we're on to the mastering ...

I long to have this done. So that I can do something else with my evenings. Like watch some TV. Or sit in the garden. But it will all be worth it in the end. It will, it will, itwilltwilltwilltwilltwilltwilltwill;)

Wrong again

NEVER say everything is done until you listen to it. As the backing vocals to Crazy sounded akin to a classroom of children hollering. I think we had been eating this for dinner prior to that one ...


Now redone, and sounding like angels ...

Backing Vocals are complete

We have now (re)done the backing vocals for all the songs. And in true form, saved the really hard ones for last. The more complex the harmonies, the better the chance that it will all fall apart at the seams when you put a microphone in front of people...

And sometimes of course you just have to distract someone.

Mixorama 1

Mixing has now been completed for the tracks Bring It On, World Turns Upside Down and Soul. 3 down, 7 to go and currently 19 days to go until the whole shebang has to be ready. The CD design has been finalised and the artwork largely completed and ready to send off.

It'll be a close one, and thats no wigglies.

All shout together ...

Last friday we put in a long evening doing backing vocals as well as general rehearsal. We have now tracked all the backing vocals for Bring It On, Soul, If This Is It, World Turns Upside Down and My Life, My Rules.

Those that have been following the blog will probable be aware that there is a post in March of last year where it appeared that all the recording had been done. Just as with great power comes great responsibility, so with a new singer comes new timing and new harmonies - so the work that we did has been consigned to the dusbin.

In time honoured tradition, Steve and Graham mass debated furiously over the correct number of counts to wait for before coming in on a wrong note.