Ok, so, the music’s done – the recording, and mixing, but there’s still one final process and that’s the mastering. It’s important to get mastering done because it really does make the difference between an amateur sounding recording and a professional sounding one. Generally, mastering is done by specialist mastering engineers but it can also be done by a skillful mixer if they know what they’re doing. Most of the literature I’ve read and teachers I’ve spoken to have said that it’s better to get a fresh pair of ears to finish off your song. Many places do a free sample of one of your own tracks to see if you’d like the whole thing done! I could talk a lot about mastering, but I won’t…let’s just say it’s the icing on the cake.
The last gig we did was…dire… The soundman was nice but the desk wasn’t set up to get loud…Whenever the lovely soundman tried to push up our vocals or the laptop it was feeding back. It was so quiet… It’s not professional to cry on stage though so we soldiered on.
One thing I remember someone told me a while ago about his old band that were similar was that, the kind of act we are, we’re completely at the mercy of the soundman and the sound system. It brings up a question myself and Web were asking in that…is it better to do fewer, better gigs? Or to open yourself up to doing more gigs that might not portray you in the best light? There’s pro’s and cons for both.. More gigs means more exposure, assuming it’s good exposure, and the place is set up right for your style…Less gigs means perhaps more incentive for ‘fans’ to come to your gigs as they’re not as often? At the moment we’re trying to do at least one gig every two weeks… Except before and after Christmas where we’re only doing the one in those months.
I ordered some merch! Bottle opening keyrings! 3 different designs. Also in the process of looking at getting badges done in the same designs. It’s possible there’s too much detail on the designs for them to look good on a 1″ badge though but time will tell. 
This is the butterfly design. Web’s friend that lives in Ireland designed it and I computerised it (it was hand-drawn). It’s a butterfly with a jack cable for a bum! Amazin’.
Ok, that’s enough for today.
Peace out campers! xxx
helpfulbeth 