Here we are at the end of the road. Time to thank you for staying with me throughout the journey (I’ve had some interesting comments en route, thanks for those). Time also to hope that you’ve found at least a bit of what I’ve said useful and can apply it to your own music.

And time to thank everyone who’s contributed to the making of the Banging The Rocks album, not least Fran Ashcroft for mastering the record and helping with some great tips for the mixes.

All we have to do now is market the CD. We’ll start with CDBaby as they can get the record into all sorts of useful places, and we also have some contacts we’ve built up over the years we were with Rising Records that can help us distribute the new album. We’ve always done a lot of our marketing, so we’ve contacts there too.

I guess we’ll do some traditional stuff like playing gigs (if you want us in your town, you need to ask!) and then we’ll have to consider radio plugging, making videos, maybe something really modern like streaming a live show over the internet. Finally there are the reviews to gather and the media attention to attract.

So, the work doesn’t stop once the product is finished, does it? And what’s the point of making an album you’re really proud of if no-one gets to hear the songs.

To end with, a quick request. Please come and visit us at www.sharppractise.com and check out the songs on the Banging The Rocks album page. And please come to our myspace site and listen to the full songs there, which we’ll put up in rotation as the weeks go by.

All the best,

Nigel

So, the lyrics are up on our website, the songs are now available there too, and one by one they’ll appear on our myspace site as well. So, there’s only one more job to do and this album is ready to roll.

That job is to make alternative mixes to keep the songs fresh for radio. For example, if you like a particular song you may get bored with it after a while, but what if you’re offered the album mix, an acoustic mix, a stripped down mix and an instrumental version? Four ways to enjoy the song and keep you interested? Four has got to be better than one!

So, it’s off to the mixing desk and, thanks to the memory in the auto mix facility, a relatively simple task to make those other mixes. It’s amazing going back to the basic tracks how you find little nuances that are there, building up the big picture of the album mixes, which come out in even greater detail when you strip some of the songs down.

So, an interesting exercise and one which brings us full circle.

Next time’s entry will be the last of this series as the album is now pretty much done and dusted and ready to roll. I‘ll talk about marketing to wrap things up next time – an often neglected area but one which really is vital to the success of a record. In a nutshell, it’s all about knowing and accessing your audience and not wasting your efforts and resources on trying to appeal to people who wouldn’t buy your music in a month of Sundays!

So, until then, I’ll wish you all the best.

So, it’s the first set of adjustments made, a cooling-off period and then a second set of adjustments. Very close to the finished article now that will be ready for mixing.

My wife has got to the state where, having heard these songs repeatedly for four months while I’ve been mixing them on and off, she would like to have a break from them for a while! Me, I’m still patient and full of enthusiasm – I really think we’ve got some strong material with good radio potential.

So, it’s time to tidy some other things up. For example, the Sharp Practise website needs sprucing up. And once again I’m very lucky to be able to call upon Mike Barnett’s services to keep the site something that we’re very proud of.

I’m also at the stage where I can send him the lyrics for the new album to display as a taster for the record – after all, those words aren’t going to change now.

The other thing to start thinking about now is the artwork for the CD cover – I have something that I think will work well, bearing in mind that no final decision has been taken on the album title yet. I want a title that reflects three things: one, this is a rock album; two, for all our efforts over the past ten years we’ve still not made the big breakthrough yet; and three, there should be a cultural reference that people will pick up on.

I let you know how we get on with this next time – unless anyone has any suggestions they’d like to make in the meantime?

OK, I’ve made those adjustments. It’s time, as in all the best game shows, to phone a friend. Or in this case, e-mail one.

Fortunately my friend is Fran Ashcroft, an experienced record producer with a great ear. And I’m very lucky that he is prepared to review my mixes before they go through the mastering process.

So, what’s the prognosis? Well, mostly not bad but could be better. Despite all my efforts I seem at times to have a dominant snare drum on some songs, so I need to back the stereo mix of the kit off to bring that into line.

Other than that, there’s the odd place where an instrument or a vocal is too loud or soft, or where there’s a touch too much reverb. Fran is very good too at giving precise adjustments e.g. b vox down 2db, 30% less reverb on the guitar and so on. So, with automix and the recall features on the AW2400 it’s fairly easy for the most part to make those changes.

And when you do, boy does everything noticeably sit better in the mixes. So, thanks Fran!

I know we don’t all have the luxury of having an experienced producer to call upon but my tip here is to get someone else to cast a dispassionate ear over your mixes before you finalise them. You may get imprecise advice e.g. turn the voice down, the guitars are too far away etc, but any advice from someone whose ears you trust has got to be good.