The ink hasn’t even finished printing on Dick Tracy Must Die, and I have a new tag in my studio filesystem:

workprint-dinofthieves

muah ha ha XD

I have a serious, last-second problem.

iTunes’s Sound Enhancer, which is on by default, and everywhere, picks something in “Shout at the Desert” that on every other playback device I can find spends most of its time being an accent noise, and turns it into a continuous presence.

It does so mostly when cranked on headset, which is why I’ve never noticed it before. I have to play it at levels substantially louder than I like to listen to headsets, but levels that many other people consider just fine. Turn off Sound Enhancer, it goes away. Play the song on exactly the same hardware but outside of iTunes, it’s not there. You need iTunes+headset+loud, and then PLEASE ENJOY MY FESTIVAL GEYSER OF 659HZ KTHX.

This is where I hit my head against a wall a zillion times.

What the fuck do I do about this? I can’t ignore it, too many people use iTunes and it’s on by default, so I guess I have to engineer around it. But I want that noise in there! Just not, you know, RANDOMLY BOOSTED THROUGH THE CEILING.

Help?

Go check out this Wayward Coffeehouse update:

It is with great sadness that we must now report that we have been told that the property owners are refusing to repair the building. Although as far as we know the damage is well within the scope of repair we have no control over this decision.

But we believe in what we created with Wayward Coffeehouse and want fervently for it to continue. We have received your messages of support and encouragement and know that there is a need for Wayward Coffeehouse for the communities we embrace. We are reviewing our legal options in the matter and pursuing other means of reopening. But it is not an easy path.

Okay, so this isn’t strictly band related, but I’ve played with her so it counts: like me, my friend Shanti is working on her first album. Her music is completely unlike mine – where I’m doing elfmetal, punk, and RAEG, she’s doing laments, harmony, and bittersweetness.

She has some really talented people working with her, too. I’ve heard a bit of the rough cut from her first substantial studio session, recorded just last week, down in Oregon. It’s much better than anything you’ll find of hers online – even her own sample tracks, which were recorded months ago. She’s really brought it up a level.

Intrigued? Over here, you’ll find a Kickstarter project to get the next stages of her project funded. She’s hoping to have the album out by Easter. Go give it a look. I think she’ll make something good.

It’s late, so I’m going to quote Tony of Vixy & Tony, who posted about their benefit concert this Sunday:

The Wayward Coffeehouse is currently shut down due to damage resulting from a nextdoor fire and its extinguishing efforts. They’re a small independent business, trying to get their place fixed up and reopened. And each day that the laborious process with the insurance companies, the building owners, and the repair contractors drags on, they’re losing money. So we’re here to help!

We’re having a house concert at House Cerulia on Sunday, December 19th at 6pm, with all proceeds going to the Wayward Phoenix Fund! We’ll do an evening of great music, pass the hat, and hopefully have other cool stuff going on…

The Wayward is well known in Seattle geek circles as a great place; run by geeks, home to the Seattle Browncoats, and friendly venue for such bands as Vixy & Tony, Skinny White Chick, and, of course, this past September, the supervillainy of CRIME and the Forces of Evil. And aside from the pass-the-hat (lol, I typed pass-the-hate XD ) around the benefit concert, there’ll be a raffle-auction of various snazzy items! Such as:

• An Advance Review Copy (ARC) of Late Eclipses by Seanan Mcguire, autographed (release date March 1, 2011)
• a full set of the first three October Daye books by Seanan McGuire, autographed
• Jewellery from Unorthofox Trinketries
• Several Firefly/Serenity related craft items by members of House Cerulia, as there should be
• A still-in-shrinkwrap Lord of the Rings Extended Edition DVD set that we Criminals, ahem, acquired, and…
  

  

  …an advance review copy of Dick Tracy Must Die, put together just for this benefit.

  Come out, if you can. Here’s the Facebook event page. If you can’t, throw the Wayward Phoenix Fund a few dollars directly.

Anna’s book Faerie Blood is on Google ebookstore now, which means you can also get it at places with Cafe Press machines, in actual paperback! Go! Buy! Read! It’s good. MOVE IT SOLDIER

In band news, while we wait for the mastering engineer: 1) somebody hit the band site by googling for “i fight crimes and the forces of evil and that means you sailor moon.” I wonder what they thought of My Boyfriend? XD 2) Also, I think I’m going to do “Old Black Rum” for the next Trad of the Fortnight – I spent some time rehearsing it yesterday – but I’m going to change some lyrics, because lulz. And 3) last week, at the Norwescon white-elephant gift exchange, I got this toy:

…and some of the distortion effects are actually pretty neat. I like the not-called-a-Dalek-voice one in particular. So I’m gonna hack it into a proper effects box – XLR input, all that crap. I already bought the parts! Pics will certainly follow.

What’re you hacking today?

I need to pick and record my next Trad O’ the Fortnight! Got any requests?

Every couple of weeks I pick another traditional song – preferably about piracy, revolution, riot, drinking, one of the classics – and do a simple recording of it as a bonus for people on the fan mailing list. Members get a free download link. It’s easy and fun! (Click here and fill out the form to join!)

It also gives me something to do while John McCaig at panicStudios has the finished album tracks in his mastery little hands, or however that works. It’s a mystery to me, which is why I’m letting a professional do it. XD

I’m going to put some of these traditional song covers up for pay download, eventually. I’m looking for an album cover, and a title, mostly for organisational purposes, since this won’t be an official album.

I’m thinking some sort of photo of antique lockpicking/thieves’ tools. I kind of like this tool:

(Public domain, but credited Shaddack)…and I could do a lot of work to change the photo around to something more suitable – it’s public domain – but this tool is sadly a bit modern. It’s from the 1950s, and these songs are centuries old, not mere decades! Pfah!

Anybody know of someplace with the right kinds of tools? I could photograph them myself, that’d be easy and fast. I was in an antique store earlier today, but, oddly, they had no criminal implements! Other than an accordion. What the hell use is that?

What do supervillains do on their days off? This time of year, same as everybody else:

Third Batch

Yes, I make my own cards. Photo cards are kind of weak, but I haven’t drawn anything to speak of for a few years, so it’s all I’ve got until I finish the heat ray. And at least photos are easier – I gotta say, once you join the Guild, you end up with a big of card list. And you better not fuck it up! Particularly not the one you send to Satan ClawsHIM.

What do you do for the holidays?

I finished the last remix today (“Shout at the Desert” – mostly a few vocal tweaks and bringing up the lower-pitched pipe organ, yes, we have to pipe organ tracks in this thing) and we’ve just sent the track set off to the mastering engineer.

Holy shit, I recorded an album. O.o I want to say “Holy shit, it’s finished!” but it’s not, because there’s still lots to do – the mastering, of course, but also the cover, the booklet, all that.

But the music part – that’s finished. That kind of breaks my brain.

Keep watching for more news.

Oh, separately, this TRON-inspired ice hotel in Sweden looks amazing. I mean, damn:

I think I’ve found our new lair. Muah ha ha!

I’ve uploaded the second-to-last remixed song – “Let Me Help,” the second song I recorded, got remixing and a new vocal performance, joining “Thought You Knew” in the “desperately improved” clubhouse. The difference isn’t quite as large because by “Let Me Help,” I’d started to understand timing a lot better, but people who’ve heard both (particularly side by side) say “oh yeah, that’s much better.” Enjoy:

I’m on schedule to deliver to the mastering engineer on Monday, which is, you know, awesome.

But mostly today is about cake:

Because I’m making cake for my neighbourhood association’s wine tasting party tonight. It’s Portal Cake. I call these two layers “delicious” and “moist,” but they’re really named “lies” and “deceit.”

(I can’t wait for Portal|2 to come out. I hope it’s as good as the demos looked. XD )