So a few weeks ago I did something that I realize now, should have done much earlier; I packed up my cable boxes and dropped them back off at Time Warner...

Yes, I got rid of cable television and don't regret it whatsoever. I have, since then, been doing something I really missed and used to do all the time, listening to records...I mean really listening to records, not skipping through tracks on my iTunes library, or thumbing through my ipod on the subway...I mean putting a cd in my cd player, sitting on my couch, and listening to the record from front to back, uninterrupted. Listening to records in this manner is the only way you are able to actually experience completely what the artist and/or producer were intending you to experience. You should be left with a feeling that the complete album leaves you with. Not with a feeling of how tracks 3, 7, 10 and 14 were. Listening to a album like this should take you on a trip (if it was done correctly) and is much more of a rewarding experience then just listening to a few randomly selected tracks.
While being excited to rediscover what was always one of my favorite pastimes, I found myself a bit upset and then depressed at how the idea of the album is almost completely lost now. Mainly due to the album dissecting options consumers are offered to buy their music. Even more so, I usually attend most of the mastering sessions for records I mix and I see first hand the passion and work involved by the artist with getting the album as a whole to be presented correctly. Anyway, this brings us to this week's topic (sorry for the tangent needed to take you here):

Sequence and Sequence Timing

The Sequence -order of the songs- and the Sequence Timing - how songs play off of each other (ie. spaced, cross faded, etc) is the final, and one of the most important, stages in making a record. It is what makes a record a record or album and not just a bunch of songs. This important stage usually happens in the mastering studio after the tracks have been mastered and you should really have a good idea what the record sequence is going to be before you get into the mastering studio. Usually the artist will be experimenting with the sequence as the record is getting mixed, creating different playlists, burning different cd's, etc. It's necessary to do this to make sure the record will have the flow, and tell the story as you intend it. Also, after the record is complete, you should be left with whatever feeling you wanted to create. It's very similar to movie, an out of sequence scene can ruin a film or create a entirely different feeling then the one you intended.
Sequence timing is equally important and usually happens as the final stage in mastering. Again, it is useful to experiment with this before getting into the mastering session so you have some rough idea. Also, it is useful to experiment with this as it sometimes effects mix decisions. You may want to do a specific fade out with a breakdown knowing that the track that plays next is going to start hard and all out, creating almost a startling effect, etc. Again, getting the sequence timing perfect is extremely important in creating the right feel for the record. This also parallels to timing in movie scene editing as the same scenes can be edited together with different timings to create completely different feelings and emotions when viewed together.
So although we didn't get into anything mix specific or super technical in this weeks blog, my personal experience these last few weeks, of re-appreciating the art of crafting a complete record, compelled me to hopefully enlighten some of you, who maybe have never purchased a complete record because the 30 second iTunes snippet didn't catch their interest. Do yourself a favor and buy complete records I really don't think it's going to destroy you financially. It's fine to get them from a electronic vendor, but get the whole thing. You owe it to yourself and to the artist, who spent a long time mulling over these decisions to create for you a perfect hour or so experience which is their record or album. I once thought I was going to see a mastering engineer launched through a window over his thinking the spacing between two songs was "close enough" in his opinion.

P.S. Although I did get rid of cable I will be watching Lost this upcoming fall, that show is dope.