WebKittyn Warbles
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Wednesday Warbles
The GoDaddy/Verizon dns issue is not solved, calling Verizon support will result in nothing more than an hour or so of unnecessary testing even though this is not a problem with my computer. I hesitate to call them, I've been through it too many times. The great solution at Verizon is credit a free month and send the customer on their way. Whoopee. Keep the 41 bucks and please reset your dns servers. I think it's an omen, it was the first thing I checked when I got on here this morning and I think it was an omen to the rest of the day.
I think I'm having a rare insecurity day. Bleh. Or it could be food poisoning. Fell asleep disgustingly early last night (for me - it was before Greta came on so I'd say around 2:40 am or so). Woke up at 4:45 to Bill O'Reilly and the weirdest headache/nausea combo. It wasn't really a headache, it was an intensely sharp pain in the back of my neck, top of the spinal cord sort of thing. It physically made it hurt more to lie down and I felt like I was going to puke. Stayed up for the first 40 minutes of Imus and woke up again at 10 to 9 with slight pangs. A few too many trips to the commode and I wonder.
Tonight's the show. Last week someone I don't know IM'd me and asked me what exactly goes into the show each week, he said it sounded well put together. Just like I did with the creation of a BoRCom blog, I figured I'd describe the process from start to finish. I'm anal, I put way too much time into picking things apart so take a lesson from the anal, people usually worry too much. Then again, I could simply be deluding myself and I and my show could both suck. Only the Shadow knows, and Duke but he's not talking..
(anatomy of a WebKittyn Wednesday inside or .. a lesson in being anal, don't do this) The setup. I have a "Mango Radio" sub-directory in Warbles. Each week a new folder is made, this week was Show 5.
The show. I usually start on Saturday or Sunday. Take the requests off the forums and go through my unorganised and all over the place major playlist and pick out the songs. That can take anywhere from an hour to three hours, there's usually a lot of time spent on Allmusic verifying release/write dates, making sure I spell musician's names correctly and making sure I have all the right band names for songs I'm not familiar with so I can post the playlist three weeks late and eventually add the songs and stuff to the wiki. Name list, save in Show 5.
Once the list is final, it's usually off to Limewire to find the songs I don't have. This varies every week, this week there were 11 I didn't have. I don't just grab the first copy and run, I always grab 3 of the same song so I can guarantee I'll get one that sounds halfway decent. Depending on how many songs I have to grab this can take a few hours.
Get all the songs and make a winamp playlist. Save in Show 5.
Once all the songs are collected I sit and look at the list on wordpad and try to break them into blocks that work with each other. After I've gotten them into blocks I figure out the order in the blocks. I'll play them on winamp, jump to the end and see how it mixes with the song I'm thinking about. Shift them around in Winamp and on the breakdown list, everything has to be in order. This week I started doing this around 2 and I was still at it when the clock hit 6.
Once the order is set, I usually mix the blocks. I have Gotard here for that, being a professional DJ has given him an ear I don't have for mixing. Most of the really good mixes are his idea. Except for anything rock, he doesn't seem to get mixing rock *sniggers*. We argue over songs coming in too early or too late and I try and remind him that there are people out there who want to hear the whole song to the end so not everything needs to mix. This isn't a wedding or a bar mitzvah. This process takes anywhere from 3 to 6 hours, which is why I try to get it done on Sunday. There's some interesting cursing during this process as the musician in Gotard works with 'bum bum bum' and beat while the geek in me works by points on the wave.
After the song blocks are mixed and put aside it's time for the voice clips. When I tell you I angst over this I'm not being a drama mama. I had a blockage of the head this week, It took fourteen bad clips before I got one I thought was good enough to use and that was just the first one! Sometimes it flows, sometimes no matter what I do it sounds like shit.
This is the hardest part for me, each voice clip that makes it to the show represents at least 6 bad ones that sit in my 'mango radio fuckups' folder. This part of it takes anywhere from 3 to a record 7 hours.
Once Gotard finally convinces me the voice clips are fine (I'm never happy with the way I sound, I always think it could be done one more time and a little better), it's time to put the pieces together and finish the puzzle. I have a system for this, too.
Open a new file and copy the opening song in. Add in the voice block after testing the mix factor a few times. Being the ever-suspicious, every block is saved as its own block after the voice goes in (mixA, mixB, etc.). After a block is set with the voice clip we listen to it to make sure it's alright. By the time the actual show is recorded, I've got 5-7 mixes. Factor in the conversion time once the file gets big and this is a good chunk of time.
Sometimes it works smoothly, sometimes there are issues. Last night I got cocky, we had been at it for 5 or so hours and we were at the point where the second-to-last block was added to the master mix (mixE) and I saved it but didn't load it to winamp to check first. I figured it was so close to the end, what the hell. Added the last block, the final vocal clip and closing song and re-saved. Converting a 2 hour and 7 minute mp3 takes time.
Loaded it up to winamp and went to listen to it. It passed the Gotard test but something seemed off to me. Went back to re-check the voice clips and lo and behold. I hadn't liked Clip9 (clips are numbered as they go, that was the 9th attempt for that block), there were a few points where the mic banged against my glasses and made the slightest sound. I heard it, didn't like it, made Clip10.
Unfortunately when I pasted the voice clip in, I pasted Clip9 instead of Clip10 and then went on to finish the show. Uh-oh. Gotard said it was alright, leave it. I said no, it doesn't sound good, it sounds sub-standard. Only problem was the voice part started during the last few notes of the song (Paper Lace, the Night Chicago Died), cutting it completely lost the end of the song and pasting it over made it sound like 2 WebKittyns, which the world definitely does not need. Release the panic beasts.
I was doing the hysterical frustrated tears thing at this point, the obscenities were flying and I was ready to call the whole show off. Gotard calmly asks me 'does that thing have a fade?' Not wanting to pick that time to learn how to use another function of an already tricky program, I told him to shut up and sulked for a few seconds before asking him quietly "alright, what the fuck are you talking about." Huzzah, fade! Fade out over that last little bit and add the right clip. We have success. Thank you, Gotard.
Captain, we have a show. That's a wrap. Done in time for Rockstar INXS, too! Start the 4 hour upload which I will sit here for. Last week I made the mistake of thinking it was alright to go to bed while it was uploading only to wake up and discover the Shitten had danced on the keyboard and the download had been interrupted.
That's the anatomy of a WebKittyn Wednesday. Sometimes I really like the end product, I personally thought last week's was the best of the 4 I've done so far. Sometimes I don't think it's all that great but I've never released anything I thought was bad.
Do I suck? Perhaps. Do I have fun sucking? Yes. I do have fun putting it together and releasing the occasional blooper and thinking there are actually 5 or 6 people out there who enjoy listening.
So if you haven't already, come by Mango Radio tonight and give it a listen. I'm usually online when it's on so please feel free to IM me with either kind words or to tell me I do in fact suck.
Hope that answered your question, new friend. Yah, it's work but it's internally fulfilling and fun.
-
Would now be a bad to mention that I just wing it.
2 notes:
1 Great Shitty Radio Banner
2 I was listening to your blooper outtakes and the last one may have inspired me to up the profanity on my show.jeckles on 09/24 at 03:22 AM
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