Victory - Passenger seat edition.

[Mathieu Benoit]

FAK!!!!!!!!!!!!! So Victory was released on Country 94 this morning, except there was a BIG problem.

For those of you listening in your car wondering why you needed to sit in the passenger seat to hear the song... Here's what happened:

I run the master to the station at 5pm because I'm told they needed to load it in the system and test it and stuff first so that it'll be ready for the premiere in the morning.

I get a panik call from the radio station that the disc is blank at 7:37am.

OK, hold up! Two things:

1. No it isn't.
2. It's a data disc.

I explained to the guy that I was supposed to give it to last night that there was a high quality mp3 and a wav file on the disc as never heard back from anyone as to what format they wanted. He said he'd take care of it. Apparently he was new or something, and he couldn't figure out how to load it into the system. So they decided to put it into a CD player. It's about then that I got the call. Alain burned her an audio CD from his laptop and all was well.

I was at home waiting to hear the single on my stereo (no pun intended) system. The interview was good and uneventful. The song comes on and my heart drops as my attention is drawn to only the right speaker. Where the hell is the left channel? ARGH!!!!!

I guess the left channel of the CD player never got plugged in and no one bothered to test the setup.

I'm beyond mad... I'm just so deflated by that. 1000s of people waiting to hear the premiere of the single and that is what they hear. Even if it's a mono clock radio there's still a 6dB drop...

Problem is that people will presume that the broadcast was fine and that the studio messed up, because everything else before and after sounded fine.

I'm really upset about this. I know, I'm just being over-dramatic...

[/vent]

The other thing is that Bobbi Lee feels really bad about this, and I wish she wouldn't. It wasn't her fault, she's been the best thing about this whole experience. The system should've been checked, I did everything I could on my end to get this right.

[Mathieu Benoit]

They apologized to us on the air. It's a start...

[edit] Well, not exactly to us, they apologized for a technical error earlier on their end.

[macrae11]

Incompetence is a bitch.

[Mathieu Benoit]

Incompetence is a bitch.

Awful wordy today!

[macrae11]

Ah go screw yourself.

So have they played the correct version now?

[Malcolm Boyce]

For anything even semi important, no amount of hand holding for broadcast is too much. You would wonder how most anyone at a radio station couldn't figure out how to get whatever they needed off a data disc and into their "system". Isn't that what getting it there the night before was supposed to be for?

Hopefully the apology wasn't too far after the initial broadcast...

So what exactly did they want from you if a data disc wasn't it? On another note... They don't have a permanent disc player as part of their playback setup? One channel never got patched properly?

[Mathieu Benoit]

Isn't that what getting it there the night before was supposed to be for?

Indeed that was the impression I was given.

Hopefully the apology wasn't too far after the initial broadcast...

90 Minutes later. I know that Bobbi Lee was just as upset. I'm not blaming the radio station as a whole. However the person I delivered the disc to should have resolved any and all problems the night before as was previously planned.

So what exactly did they want from you if a data disc wasn't it?

They may have been expecting it by way of Gorilla-gram. See example below:

[Mathieu Benoit]

Ah go screw yourself.

So have they played the correct version now?

Indeed they are, and they are playing it A LOT and also plugging the names of the people involved and such, they want to make sure that everyone that put their time into it was recognized publicly. They are going to be sending it to their sister stations as well. That is a Country Star first as far as I know. We may have started something here...

[Malcolm Boyce]

So what exactly did they want from you if a data disc wasn't it?

They may have been expecting it by way of Gorilla-gram.

No... I'm serious. Did you ask? As I said earlier, In 2009 I would have assumed a data disc with either .wav or .mp3 files would be fine, but now I'm curious how they could blow that.

I mean, I could completely understand if the disc you made had something wrong with it, but that doesn't sound like the case.

In the case of what happened with you, the only additional thing I may have done is provided an audio CD as well going in, but as things turned out, once you made them one of those it still didn't help.

[macrae11]

I know most radio stations these days get their delivery's via DMDS, but they must still rip audio CD's at some point correct? And I know I send mp3's via email to stations all the time, mostly for ad work, and there's never an issue. Is it as basic as someone didn't know how to drag and drop a file from a CD?

I find that unfathomable in this day and age.

[Mathieu Benoit]

No... I'm serious. Did you ask?

Yes, but I never got a response so I gave them two options. 320kbit mp3, and 44.1/16 wav.

I thought those options would cover the bases. I mean I haven't sent them anything new yet and it's on their "system" now. So obviously my disc was adequate to the person with the right skills.

In the case of what happened with you, the only additional thing I may have done is provided an audio CD as well going in, but as things turned out, once you made them one of those it still didn't help.

It's all done on computers I know that, so I gave them files that computers understand. I was told the person that can get it on the computer was in until 6pm, I gave it to said person at 5:03pm. I explained EXPLICITLY what was on the disc and he said great, and that he would take care of it. If he said I need it send by carrier pigeon at that time I would have grabbed a pigeon off the sidewalk, duct taped the disc to it and handed him a pigeon. My point is, that was the time to say "Sorry we need _________". I left presuming that he had it covered.

[Malcolm Boyce]

...but they must still rip audio CD's at some point correct?

I would hope so, and any kid with a computer knows how to do that.

Is it as basic as someone didn't know how to drag and drop a file from a CD?

I find that unfathomable in this day and age.

It sounds like it, and I agree.

No... I'm serious. Did you ask?

Yes, but I never got a response so I gave them two options. 320kbit mp3, and 44.1/16 wav.

I thought those options would cover the bases. I mean I haven't sent them anything new yet and it's on their "system" now. So obviously my disc was adequate to the person with the right skills.

So it may be like a lot of things in this biz. What they "need" depends on whom you ask.

In the case of what happened with you, the only additional thing I may have done is provided an audio CD as well going in, but as things turned out, once you made them one of those it still didn't help.

It's all done on computers I know that, so I gave them files that computers understand. I was told the person that can get it on the computer was in until 6pm, I gave it to said person at 5:03pm. I explained EXPLICITLY what was on the disc and he said great, and that he would take care of it. If he said I need it send by carrier pigeon at that time I would have grabbed a pigeon off the sidewalk, duct taped the disc to it and handed him a pigeon. My point is, that was the time to say "Sorry we need _________". I left presuming that he had it covered.

It sounds like a, they didn't care enough to have it done correctly kind of thing. I bet whomever at the station is responsible for this whole promotion would love to hear the little detail of your story.

[Mathieu Benoit]

I bet whomever at the station is responsible for this whole promotion would love to hear the little detail of your story.

She knows in great detail exactly what happened, department heads are being brought in. Lots of ass kissing going on now.

[Malcolm Boyce]

I bet whomever at the station is responsible for this whole promotion would love to hear the little detail of your story.

She knows in great detail exactly what happened, department heads are being brought in. Lots of ass kissing going on now.

Excellent.

[Jef]

You can't fix 'stupid'.

[Mathieu Benoit]

You can't fix 'stupid'.

Sure you can. It's called a hammer.

[RoadDog]

Have a spine! Name names so we can have a public linchin' ....

[clinton]

Wait....so, if I understand this correctly, you're pissed off at some radio station cause they played a song you recorded but it wasn't the version you wanted them to play? Is this correct?

[Greg H.]

Wait....so, if I understand this correctly, you're pissed off at some radio station cause they played a song you recorded but it wasn't the version you wanted them to play? Is this correct?

He's pissed off because the radio station played it in mono with a stupid technical error instead of in stereo, so everyone that heard it only heard it from one side of the mix.

[Malcolm Boyce]

Wait....so, if I understand this correctly, you're pissed off at some radio station cause they played a song you recorded but it wasn't the version you wanted them to play? Is this correct?

He's pissed off because the radio station played it in mono with a stupid technical error instead of in stereo, so everyone that heard it only heard it from one side of the mix.

Casual listener hears radio station sounding as it usually does... Hears announcement of the big winner's song, produced locally at Fluid Audio, as part of the radio station's own promotion, and then hears it only coming from one side of their "stereo". More importantly even in "mono", listener hears a severely messed up version of the mix as it only includes the information included in that "side" of a "stereo" mix. This was the big "premiere" of the recording and as Matt said, the big problem was everything before and after sounded "normal" with their thing being f'd up. It clearly makes them look like the morons. It would be very different if Fluid weren't so visibly tied to the project, but they are.

As I already hinted, I'm sure the folks who were hands on for this little promotion were/are thrilled to hear about this little flail.

No, lives weren't lost or anything. It is, however, a lame handling of a pretty substantial investment on behalf of the sponsors of this event.

[Mathieu Benoit]

Malcolm summed it up pretty much, Clinton.

It's disheartening when you consider how much time and energy I've invested in this project to try to elevate what people think of Saint John production. The whole point I was trying to prove with this project was to demonstrate that people didn't have to leave Saint John to make music. That there are studios in the area that have their shit together. I did the best I could on my end working really hard to get everything "right" as best as I could and then a careless mistake undermines all that hard work.

I'm mostly over it now, it is what it is. I have my hands full with this weekends project so I've decided I really need to let go of that and focus on more important things for now.

[clinton]

sorry to hear it man, that sucks.

[Mathieu Benoit]

sorry to hear it man, that sucks.

It's ok, man. But thanks for your concern though. Worse has happened to me I'm sure, and no one did technically get hurt or die or anything so I think I can move on. The single is still carrying on very strong and that's the main thing.