Today was the delivery date for the DVD. I didn’t quite make it. Friday and Saturday were supposed to be the last days at Neil Douek’s, finishing the surround mix, leaving me with Sunday to make a few last little changes and check everything over.
Unfortunately, the mix overran on Saturday. On Sunday morning, after just three hours of sleep, although we had all our premixes complete and everything was balanced up, it still wasn’t sounding as good as we both knew it could. Unable to keep my eyes (and more importantly, my ears) open any longer, I retired to Neil’s spare room for a couple of hours’ kip. I drifted off to sleep – interrupted only by Neil’s two-year-old daughter bursting in and trying to tell me something about her t-shirt – hoping that I would awaken to find that Neil had waved a magic wand and the mix was sorted. After dreaming of an audio waveform with peaks which kept distorting no matter what I did, I awakened to find that Neil had indeed waved his magic wand. He had applied some light compression to the entire mix, bringing up the quiet passages and generally giving the whole thing more punch.
Fantastic as the mix now sounded, it still needed work, and once again we found ourselves seated at the computer as the wee small hours graced the clock face. After another deficient night’s sleep, we finally got it licked at about eleven this morning (Monday). Having not planned on staying over for three nights, I was glad to get home this afternoon and change my clothes.
Wysiwyg don’t mind that I haven’t been able to deliver the DVD today. I need to spend tomorrow and probably Wednesday testing and checking before I hand it all over.