>>I have been debating what to do about intros. I was thinking about making
>>them their own tracks so that you could skip them if you wanted to.
>
>Well, on our CD (not yet released), we've got a Richard Shindell song with
>a long intro that we put on another track. The rest of the intros we have
>are usually over the music, and that makes it hard to put them on a
>different track. Of course, we're also making it an enhanced CD with liner
>notes in html because the physical packaging is going to just be an
>envelope-type case and not a jewel box.
One great thing about CDs is that they provide you with a third option (if we
consider (1) including the intro at the beginning of the song track, and (2)
making the intro its own track). The way CDs are made the 'start' and 'end'
codes for songs don't have to correspond to the beginnings and endings of
data, so an intro can be placed in the countdown time before a track. The
start code is at the beginning of the song, and the end code for the previous
song is at the end of that song, so the intro ends up in a sort of no man's
land in between. This way if a listener (or DJ) is going right to the track
the song will start without the intro, but if the record is playing straight
through the listener will hear the entire thing. The first time I encountered
this was on Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever, where you suddenly hear his voice
half way through the album suggesting that CD listeners should now take a
moment to pause and allow vinyl listeners to turn their albums over, or
something along those lines. It also makes possible the hidden track
technique that puts a song in the negative space before the first track.
Since it has no start code at all, you will never hear that song under any
circumstances unless you put the CD in, press play and scan (not skip)
backwards to find out what's there. I only know of a few CDs that have hidden
tracks in that way. Sort of fun, I think, though it annoys some CD players.
It seems like a pretty good way to do things in terms of intros, though (and
doesn't annoy CD players).
See y'all in Kerrville,
David LaMotte
Web Site: www.davidlamotte.com
Booking: WorkinFolk Agency 1-800-296-6686, WorkinFolk@aol.com
CDs/tapes: SoundsGood 1-888-495-6575, SndsGd@aol.com
Just to say hi: LowerDryad@aol.com