After a fair amount of blagging and pestering, 7 gigs have been confirmed before Christmas. We’ve reserved November to write and record, and even to remix our debut tunes Tracks and Daylight Robbery. In the process of finding venues and booking gigs, I have started to make ties with other bands in the hope we will be offered to play gigs with them in the future. I have included in the e-mails that either Dave or Marc are prepared do unspeakable sexual acts in exchange.
Money issues haven’t improved, with little money coming in from our Sun to Tue jobs. Marc still owes Dave and I hundreds of pounds and I have signed back on to the dole with no business tutoring maths over the summer. Dave’s the only one who seems to be doing all right, but his credit card’s been maxed out after buying equipment and £200 of tickets for the Watershed gig.
When they're not too busy scaring my pants full, Marc and Dave have been competing to get the larger fanbase on Facebook and MySpace respectively, although Marc has since been blocked from sending messages in Facebook due to spamming friends of other bands to become our fans, despite being warned 7 times in a row.
The moment Gypo Jack was mastered, and after Marc and I had finished Face-raping each other, all the sites were updated and large music venues were contacted to try to get gigs. The second after we get the other tunes mixed to the same standard, we’ll start contacting BBC and NME unsigned bands correspondences with hope we will be played on the radio. We found the biggest improvement in the processing of Gypo Jack was the effect of stereo imaging, which can make a chosen instrument appear to come from behind you. If you’re interested in the rough physics, here it is:
Sound is produced by pulses of compressed air, like an explosion underwater would create a shock wave. In a stereo system, a sound can become louder if it comes from both speakers at the same time, because the compression waves from both speakers will double the pressure when they meet. If the wave from the left speaker is released a bit later than the wave from the right, the pressure waves will interfere and the sound will change. If a compression is released from the left at the time a rarefaction (low pressure, opposite to compression) is released from the right, the air will be equally compressed throughout and the sound will deaden. This means you can hear only the sound that is outside the interference region, which makes your ears think the source of the sound is coming from a point further round, even behind from behind. This effect makes the sound feel much fuller, as though you’re within the source of music rather than outside it. It also creates space, which allows you to hear every instrument clearer.
Or as Derren Brown would say, “It’s just a trick”.
