Finishing The Album: Step 31 - Files Are Burned

This is really the last step in the big hand-off to Bill for final knob turning. Tonight I burned all of the source files and project files to DVD to be mailed out. The idea is that Bill will copy all of these files to his computer, pop open the most recent project file, and work his magic.

Any changes he makes, if he wants me to hear them, all he has to do is send me the project file. I then drop that file into the appropriate folder, open it in CuBase, and I'm off and running.

I also gave Bill my project manager speech today over txt message. Seeing as how he did not reply, I've got to believe he was unimpressed by my efforts to micro manage his time!! The basic message was "You've got until the end of the month to make changes. After that, tough toe-nails". The upside here is that any frustration Bill may feel over not having enough time to do "perfect" mix-downs is trumped by the fact that we are free to release an infinite number of mixes over the web, torrent, or whatever.

The problem as I see it is that left to our own devices, we will NEVER finish the album. The fact that the first one took us four years, and this second one has taken roughly 16 months longer than we had expected is proof of that. I honestly believe that we could tool around with this thing for the next two years and still not release it, if we allowed ourselves. I say again: Better to have a finished project that isn't perfect, than a perfect project that isn't finished.

Now, the natural counter to this is that Bill is a busy man. He's got a family, a job, and airplane, and a number of time consuming obligations. I get it. But here's my counter to THAT counter: will there ever be a day when that is NOT the case?? We must do the best with what we have got, and I believe the mixes are ALREADY really solid.

Ok, that's enough of me trying to rationalize my micro-manager stance. I hope Bill understands that my sole motivation is to get the album finished by the end of June.