Final Album Mix: Done

STUDIO SESSION VIDEO LINK

We had a goal for our return to Sound Sanctuary Studios yesterday, and that goal was simple: listen to all the rough mixes of my songs, and give my co-producer/engineer Phil O'Keefe instructions on any remaining changes required. Then, we expected to leave, and for Phil to make those changes sometime over the following week before having them ready to send off to my mastering engineer.

Seems easy enough, right? Well, I did what I should never do, which is to underestimate the ninja-like engineering skills of Phil. Not only did we accomplish the task above, but we actually finished the entire final mixes of all eleven songs. Yes. You read correctly. Phil made all changes on the spot. The mixing of the album is done. Done. Done, I tell you. Done.

Phil will be packaging all mixes in the next day or so and getting them over to Bill Plummer, mastering guy of the gods. This means that despite the tightness of our schedule in getting the album out by our official release date of December 11, we got some added bonus time in wrapping up the album's final mixes in a single day.

More importantly, the mixes sound... I don't even have words to describe how they sound, or how happy I am with the result of all the effort. I can only assume that after going through mastering, I'll have zero doubt that this album could not have gone better in any aspect. I love every single song we did. For the sake of historical accuracy (that no one probably gives a shit about except me), here's the order of songs we chose for the final mix, based on what we estimated would be the easiest through the most difficult.

1. Waxing Gibbous
2. Come Around
3. Always Tomorrow
4. You're Like a Cloud
5. The Sand of Redondo
6. Falling Down
7. Thanks Anyway
8. This Afternoon
9. Fade Away
10. Waiting for This
11. Lines on your Eyes

What actually ended up happening was that most of the final changes were much easier than we thought they'd be, but that's only a testament to how great Phil's original "rough" mixes were. In every case, there were really only a few small but important details to go through. By 11:00PM, Kat and I were getting in our car to head back home, tired but excited as hell at how well the day went.

Next step: the mastering. My hopes are high.