Set 33 is Finished

You can visit the King Pigeon site to snag a torrent or listen to a streaming version.

It almost didn't happen! Had a big crisis in the middle of the day with seemingly insurmountable audio issues, and even wrote and briefly posted an apology on this blog saying it would be delayed once again. (For your enjoyment, I reproduce that earlier blog post in italics below.) But yes, it's done, and at last I am free to contemplate other things. :-)))

Another Delay for the Set

So, a big :-( No Set 33 on 10 February. And no more announced release dates until it's finished (this is turning into "DJ King Pigeon: Turn Off the Dark"). The artistry behind this set is magnificent--easily my best work. But the post-production has been disastrous, and I'm sort of stunned right now regarding what I'm going to do about it. Need a couple of drinks and some rest--and most of all several more days to review and repair (if that's possible).

So there you have it--the biggest problem with a 3.5 hour set. There are literally not enough hours in the day to deal with any major issues.

Set 33 - Progress Report

Guess what I'm listening to for around the 20th time in two weeks? That's right--Set 33! I'm in Hell!!!! ;-D No! Scratch that! NO winkie face! I'M IN HELL!!!!!

The last 48 hours are the worst. One day everything sounds fantastic, the next everything sounds wrong. Monday night was all fantastic--Tuesday night was all wrong, this due to reviewing the set on my "bassy" headphones and finding the levels not as perfect as they were on by "trebly" headphones. And I have only until around midnight tonight to get it all straightened out. Schedule is to finish listening this morning, make a round of volume edits during lunch (each such edit a terrifying experience since these have the potential to ruin the set), and then listen again in the afternoon. Then I head back to the motel, pay for my next week there, shower, pack a change of clothes, and come back to the office to edit and listen once again. If all goes well I will post the set by 10 PM. Then I'll have to check the downloads to make sure they are working, give a download another listen (though most likely I'll spot check it), and then announce it to the world around midnight--that is, 7 AM in Romania, 6 AM in Paris, 5 AM in London.

One thing is certain: the transitions sound remarkable--recording is now DONE. Nothing needs re-recording.

The problems at this stage always lie with the sound levels, and for reasons I've written about on this blog before...well...the bottom line is that one is doomed to fail. Either the set starts off too soft, or it winds up distorting. All I can do is accept that on a technical level the set cannot ever sound as good as I dreamed it would, and to hope that the listener enjoys the DJ'ing on display. So if the first hour is too soft, get an amplifier! If it's distorted in spots, consider it an "underground" touch. ;-)

While there is always a sense of disappointment in the final result due to the aforementioned, I always find that when I return to the set a week or two later I am quite happy with how it sounds. I'm a bit myopic right now, hearing only the trouble spots, and unable to enjoy all the fireworks on display. Like, hahaha, this transition I'm listening to right now, where a trance song suddenly turns into the perfect banjo-pickin' accompaniment to a rockabilly tune (who knew?). Lots of good stuff here, and I need to keep reminding myself of that during these tough final hours.

Set 33 - Progress Report

Monday begins the final week, or more accurately, half-week of work on Set 33 before it is unleashed on you poor unwitting victims. This is the crazy time, where sleep becomes only a pretty concept.

I'll be spending lunch today making edits per notes made over the weekend, and then I will listen to the set twice on two different heaphones, which will take a total of 7 hours to get through, which means I'll be up until around 2 AM. I may spend the night here in my "studio," an empty office down the hall where three plush chairs in a row plus a snug sleeping bag and two pillows make for a surprisingly decent bed.

Then, I will wake up for a regular day of work tomorrow, spend my lunch break making edits per the previous night's listening experiences, and then drive the set again after work a couple of times until 2 AM or so.

On Wednesday I will make edits again at lunch, and then will likely post the set sometime in the evening--but without announcing the set's presence publicly. This gives me a chance to listen to it once again to make sure that nothing got lost in translation during the posting phase. I'll probably fret about something or other, and so then make another (hopefully small) round of edits and repost. Probably around 2 AM or so (9 AM Eastern European Time, 8 AM Central European Time, 7 AM Greenwich Mean Time) I will officially announce the set's presence, and that will be that.

It's exhausting to think about all this right now on this dreary and bleary Monday morning in Atlanta, but as I get closer to the goal (and see a light at the end of the tunnel), I know I'll find the strength to carry me through. :-)

DJ King Pigeon - Set 33: The First 20 Minutes

Set 33 release pushed back to 10 February

Set 33 Update - For DJs Only

This blog entry is on a subject that will be, for most, even duller than my usual topics, so unless you're really interested in how I record a DJ set you should skip this. :-D

The set 33 flyer is finished, a bad comedy promo video has been produced, and so at last I can focus on what matters most: the set itself.

The WAV version of Set 33 is too enormous to be saved as a single file in Sony Sound Forge (this happened with Set 32 also); it hits its limit around the 3 hour mark. So, work must be done on two separate files which, after conversion into smaller file-size 320 kbps mp3s, are then joined as one. Since one wants to make all changes to the superior WAV file versions, the clunky process in the final days is: work in WAV, convert to MP3s, join the MP3s, listen to the whole thing, note problems, go back to the WAVs to fix, and repeat.

The process of sound equalization is a bit like sharpening focus on a particularly blurry image. The first adjustments are the most drastic, and subsequent ones get finer with each go. Volume levels are the toughest part of any DJ set, and are particularly tough with long ones because of the tendency for the volume to creep into distortion territory over the set's course (this is because one prefers to err on the side of having a transition come in slightly loud rather than slightly soft, and those slightly loud entries accumulate as the set progresses, nudging the overall volume up more and more).

Some transitions will have to be re-recorded. Re-records usually go quite smoothly, because I know what I have to, in essence, "beat"; and I've been through the experience once already.

A 3.5 hour set obviously is very time-consuming to review, and listening to the set in its entirety on different types of headphones (ranging from great to crappy) is the only way to gauge whether things are flowing right with the levels. During the work week I have time to listen to the set only once per day, and then make adjustments.

This is the price you pay for making epics; the time is never there to get everything perfect.

But as some French guy once said, Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien, and this set will, in the end, be très bien--maybe even chouette. (@v@)

[UPDATE - Bad comedy video deleted, because 1) it was bad, and 2) the release date for the set has now been pushed back, in part due to issues described above--there is not enough time for me to fix everything that needs fixing by Thursday.]