Session Two with Mark Guenther at Seattle Disc Mastering went well. We fixed the short list of problems I’d discovered, added track IDs, and also made a couple of small adjustments in equalisation for tracks two (Hide From Me) and twelve (Shout at the Desert), all in about 45 minutes.

And now I have Release Candidate 1 in my grubby little mitts! Once I’ve played it a couple more dozen times, and ripped it a couple of ways to see how it behaves, then, well, I’ll either find something I think needs to be fixed and get it fixed, or I won’t, and we’ll print the two golden masters. I went to Best Buy and played it on about a dozen CD players, and I’m pretty happy.

I’ve had a couple of people bring up pre-orders! Yay! Obviously, you can pre-order by being a $30 Kickstarter backer, and that’s super-awesome! But also more expensive than regular pre-orders. Those will start once the Kickstarter project closes. We have a booklet to print (and for that matter, to finish laying out – aheh, better get on that!) as well as actual physical duplicates to make and all that.

It’s amazing how many little decisions go into making a CD. We’re looking at a new type of CD case – easier to assemble, less fragile, more likely to be undamaged by shipping, cool things like that. I’m told they’re common in Asia and Australia, and am checking with people I know on the ground there to find out. I saw things that match their description in Japan, but used for games, rather than music. I’m hoping they’re available for CDs and look good, because they’d be a hell of a lot easier to assemble.

photo framegrab courtesy Leannan Sidhe

I’ve got a monophonic but I think pretty decent recording of my guest appearance with Leannan Sidhe, by the way. So I may have a free download for you guys in a few days. Watch for it!