Blog: The MAN Doesn't Want You To Do This

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I don't like to moan... but I'm going to A LOT, for LO! I have spent a huge part of this week trying to get parts together for the manufacturers of our forthcoming second "Rest Of" album, "Forest Moon Of Enderby" and it has been an ALMOST UNIMAGINABLY HUGE PAIN IN THE ARSE.

This is ALWAYS the case when getting things together for manufacturers, but this time i thought it would be EASY. "I've got a snazzy new computer with an up to date version of NERO on it!" I thought, "So doing the mixed media CD will be PEASY this time!"

INCORRECT. It turns out that the lovely new version of NERO I have on my new computer has DISABLED this option in its "elements" version, so that you have to pay HUGE AMOUNTS OF CASH to enable it! And, of course, the old version which did this happily NO LONGER WORKS ON MY COMPUTER. Why, it's almost as if THE MAN planned it that way!

I eventually managed to THWART The MAN by loading Nero onto a Very Old Computer and doing it there VERY SLOWLY. It SEEMS to be OK tho, and with that I turned to the artwork. "This WILL be easy" I laughed to myself. "After all, I have BOUGHT a BRAND NEW version of Photoshop to do it! It will be but the work of a moment!"

BUT NO. Turns out I have bought Photoshop ELEMENTS which, of course, had DISABLED the function to work in CMYK colour mode i.e. the colour mode you HAVE to have things in to send it to the printers. You can upgrade for ABOUT SEVEN HUNDRED FCUKING POUNDS!!!! Seven hundred quid to do something my OLD (slightly less purchased hem hem) version did PERFECTLY HAPPILY! And old version which - OH OF COURSE - doesn't work with any current version of Windows I have.

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS time I think I've got round it by BEGGING the manufacturers to have a look at it for us but MY GOOD GOD since when did it become OK for people to sell software that doesn't do HUGE CHUNKS of what you actually WANT it to do? It's like Word For Windows ELEMENTS which doesn't let you utilise the VOWELS.

In case you haven't guessed, this is pretty much my LEAST favourite bit of the whole process - and I haven't even MENTIONED the HIDEOUS SACRIFICE OF LIFE TIME that is GETTING BARCODES - and does serve to remind me that maybe there IS a reason that some bands prefer not to be involved in this aspect of things. NGGGG!!! And I'm going to have to do it all over again in a few months for the Dinosaur Planet album! I may finally CRACK and start CHASING UP all those Major Label A&R offers that must surely be getting lost in the post!

posted 24/6/2010 by MJ Hibbett

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