Thanks for your note, Danny. We thought long and hard about the value
of CDs in today's market. We have manufactured and distributed them
ourselves. We've had them handled through distributors and paid a
royalty. The former was intensely labor-intensive. The latter left
nearly totally broke because we (1) never got paid and (2) what
wasn't sold got dumped into a secondary, heavily discounted market
(like Tuesday Morning or Target) resulting in a devaluation of our
efforts that was depressing.
With the web possibilities exploding, we found a way to have our
titles downloaded right off our site, offer many more than previously
(coming up on 40 titles with about 5 more to go), we actually get
money from PayPal deposited into our account EVERY day as orders
accrue, we don't generate any more plastic jewel boxes, inserts or
CDs. And we no longer have to stock items, store them, inventory
them, or ship. And best of all, we know what we are selling at any
given moment.
What a terrific way to go. We've only been doing this for a little
over a month and are happier than at any time in the last dozen years
futzing with all the other problems we chose to endure. Let us know
if you need any more information and we'll be happy to provide.
Bernie
>I too enjoy Bob Katz's book. Highly recommended.
>
>I'd say a proper listening environment goes a long way to helping you
>master. Just knowing what you've got can be revelatory sometimes.
>
>Dan is spot on in noting that mastering is about assembling the big
>picture...sequencing, pacing, making it all gel.
>
>I use compression sparingly sometimes because nature recordings are
>often quite dynamic in raw form.
>
>Danny
>
>
>--- In Rob Danielson <> wrote:
>>
>> At 9:22 AM -0800 2/26/07, Dan Dugan wrote:
>> >
>> >Some thoughts:
>> >
>> >Whereas mixing concentrates on each "song" or segment of the
>> >production, mastering tries to make the whole album work together by
>> >sequencing, level adjusting, and equalization when needed.
>> >
>> >You try to make it work both at high level on superb speakers or
>> >headphones and at low level on a little system or in a car. That
>> >usually means reducing the dynamic range, better done by mixing than
>> >by any automated process like compression.
>> >
>> >-Dan Dugan
>>
>> Well summarized. Mixing is immersion in tonal balance and dynamics
>> for me. I don't see a need to master if each of the mixes to be
>> grouped, succeeds. Differences in qualities that are consist with the
>> settings are desirable. A bad mix is very evident when played next
>> to a good one.
>>
>> Perhaps documentary video mixing comes the closest in practice in
>> terms of really dealing with live recordings, but with only a tiny
>> fraction of the nuance to spatial depth and imaging. Movies _could_
>> be doing it but they don't seem to-- with live recordings at least.
>>
>> Mixing always makes me appreciate astute in the field micing-- its
>> very, very hard to make a good recording if the mics were not very
>> favorably placed. Its always fun to observe another recordist work
>> with well-mic'd material.
>>
>> I will use compression on occasion in a multi-track mix, but when
>> there is only one, "sublime" layer, the settings I need to tame the
>> peaks seem to affect the dynamic range too severely, change tonal
>> balance and compact the spatial planes more than required. I can only
>> define about 4-6 spatial "planes" in mix _without_ compression, so,
>> 98% of the time, I get out the old scissor icon and address each
>> transient peak as an event.
>>
>> Many audio processing "plugs" are aimed towards an effect opposite
>> from what I'm after-- which can be telling and educational to explore
>> in itself. No mic/recording chain or plug is perfect. I often wonder
>> if there are couple of "revolutionary" plugs waiting to be made that
>> do understand what nature and field recordists want from their
>> recordings. Young recordists, learn to code! Rob D.
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>"Microphones are not ears,
>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>A listening room is not nature."
>Klas Strandberg
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
--
Wild Sanctuary
P. O. Box 536
Glen Ellen, CA 95442
t. 707-996-6677
f. 707-996-0280
http://www.wildsanctuary.com
|