The Big Review - More Fallout

Still a little more fallout from the big review. We included OP1F (name still in process) in the review. He had some choice words for everyone (especially the spacecraft). Topper had always been more supportive (gently nudging everyone in the right direction). OP1F sort of told it as he saw it.

Voices – Why did you pick such complicated voices. It is not that hard, simplify so the words come through. Keep the qualities you liked, but just dial them down.

Question on whether to pull first album – In general, you should only put out work you are proud of. If we were proud of it back then, it should have been put out, if not we should have corrected it. It is already out there, but there is always the question of someone new stumbling on us and getting turned off due to it. This would require more discussion.

He went on to point out that even though the new music is better by a large margin, it has some inconsistencies. The biggest one he targeted is some awkward pauses. This was normally at loop transitions. Most of it due to a loop being recorded more as an end loop (so we are thinking end). He suggested we actually play each loop twice (so the recording is twice as long). Then we can cut the first loop and play it over and over, and end with the last one. This way the one we use will have been fully played through. Dark thought this was a supreme suggestion.

Question on Length of Albums – Do not get so caught up on that. Today many releases are one song long. This is to keep a steady stream of music coming out. He did not have a problem with the shorter albums.

However, along this line (and the question on pulling music) he did suggest that when possible, we could record a bunch of songs and then pick the ones we like for the release. This will not work on the next album as it is direct story. However, it would have worked for Intergalactic Road Trip. Instead of forcing songs onto the album, we could just pick from a larger set of songs. This way we could still experiment, but if it was not up to standards, just pass over it. Another more than reasonable idea.

In the end, they thought he was tougher than Topper, but fair, and the criticism was not knocking down, but trying to offer improvements. So, this seems to have been a more positive process than we even thought last week. One additional take away is that Flash started to call OP!F Critic or The Critic. That name has not stuck either, but is a different direction.