Greetings

I am by nature (Virgo) and by work experience (26 years of PC sales, support and consulting, which I got out of doing a few years ago), something of an analytical type (kinda of an understatement but..)  As many and hopefully most of you know, I have been working on a new CD, titled Last Sun.  I have been working on it since the end of November of 2007.  Baring unforeseen problems, I should be wrapping it up and getting it off to the duplicator's this week.  Just a few final mix tweaks and finishing up the art work, is all that is left to do.

As I was driving back from a gig today, I got to thinking about how much work and time I had put into this project.  So I ran the numbers and this is what I came up with.

Total weeks (including this coming one) = 46.  Total days = 322.

Hours per week, I'm figuring 14 as an average.  Some weeks were less, some were more, but factoring in the composition and development time for the songs, as well as the recording and mixing times, I think I'm pretty close.  That works out to 644 hrs of time which translates to a little over 16 weeks of work, figuring a 40 hr work week (or should I say the mythical 40 hr work week, because  being self-employed for the last 18 years, there ain't no such thing..!!)

There are 12 songs on the CD and 50 total minutes of music.  That works out to 53 and 2/3 hours of work per song and a little shy of 13 hrs of work per minute of music.

Sure there was a lot of learning going on.  I did close to 40 recordings to get the 12 songs.  I'd sure love to be able to sit down and do a perfect performance each time I record, but as I'm sure that many of you know, that doesn't always happen.  I'd like to think I'm getting better and more efficient with the mixing end of it, but there is always something new there.  I started to stray a little into the world of MIDI, which despite my computer background, I never had any desire to learn.  Maybe I'm doing a lot of things the hard way, but learning what doesn't work, sooner or later leads to learning what does work.

The end result, well I think overall it's a strong musical statement.  Not 100% perfect down to the last note, but I think all things considered, it came out well.

So was it worth it?  My thoughts are yes. I'm hoping that other's feel the same.  I'm already starting to think about the next CD and what directions it will take.  I figure, while the faucet is running, might as well keep filling the glass, cause you never know when the well will run dry.

Thanks for reading and comments are always welcome.

Tony