Challenges I encountered while trying to get the ZDF CD pressed

The Zé Dos Frangos International CD Release Party is in one month, so I was a little nervous about getting the CD done in time, especially since it's my first time to press a real CD. I mixed and mastered the CD on my Mac and brought the final mixes with me when I moved back to the US two weeks ago. Here are some problems that took a bunch of my time to solve.

Problem 1: SD2 Files
I brought all of the CD tracks with me from Slovakia prepared for burning, but why did I bring them in Sound Designer 2 format? This is the default output format for Waveburner, the program I used for final sequencing. I couldn't open them with iTunes or Quicktime on my PC.

Solution: Borrow Angela's MacBook and convert them to WAV files with iTunes

Problem 2: MP4 files
I wanted to include the video for Feel My Mustafa on the CD, but I needed to play it with a Flash player (SWF).

Solution: Download the free video converter called Super

Problem 3: Burn Audio and Video to the same disc
Some free programs like ImgBurn and InfraRecorder can burn audio and data to the same disc, but I had to burned a lot of test CDs until I realized that they were making what's called a Mixed-Mode CD. In a Mixed-Mode CD the first track is data, which will destroy you if you have the volume up when you press play. The only way to truly separate the audio and data so that the CD player won't read both is to put them in different sessions. In a Mac, this will look like two seperate CDs in the Finder. With Nero 9 I was able to created a disc image of my multi-session disc.

Solution: Download trial version of Nero and use profile CD Extra

Problem 4: Paying $200 for software I'll never use again
I created an Autorun file for my CD using a trial version of AutoRun Pro Enterprise. The output seemed fine, but then the reproduction house called to say that it wouldn't run because I hadn't paid for the AutoRun software!

Solution: Pay $30 for AutoRun Expert and redo the whole thing

P.S. CD Duplication is CD-Rs, CD Replication is with a glass master. Thanks to New Cyberian Systems, Inc. for all of the good info on their page.

Planning The Krst

I've been working hard this last week on plans for the Zé Dos Frangos record release party. It will be an international event occurring in Lisbon, Bratislava, and Austin simultaneously. Connected with video and audio through the intranet, each party will be able to interact with the other two and swear in foreign tongues thus giving context to the journey that brought about the album Portugal/Slovakia.

The date and location have not been set, but at the moment I hope it will be around May 16th and am looking at the Cherrywood Coffeehouse in Austin, Galeria Zé Dos Bois in Lisbon, and am still searching for a venue in Bratislava.

Novy album kapely Zé Dos Frangos

From Mustafa:

Prave vychadza album kapely Ze Dos Frangos – volne k stiahnutiu tu: www.zedosfrangos.com

Na tomto albume som hral bicie + moj dobry kamarat basovy hrdina Stefan Condik tam hral basu + nadana slecna Kristina Vavrova spievala nice vocals + hrkala shakerom.

A v neposlednom rade sam pan autor gitarista skladatel klavesovy mag Nathan Lively from Austin TEXAS.

Spieval a cely album nahral zmixoval a namastril. Prosim zajdite na web www.zedosfrangos.com pozrite si video a stiahnite si album zadarmo. A dajte mi vediet svoj nazor.

Srdecne vam dakujem a spolu s clenmi Zé Dos Frangos pozdravujeme.
ZÉ DOS FRANGOS

Hot Action on Gitarové Fórum

Slovak Zé Dos Frangos bassist Stefan Condik, better known as Pista, has stirred up some hot action on the Gitarové Fórum. My Slovak isn't that great, but it looks like some people, including a guy named Fly, like "Feel My Mustafa." Hopefully Pista will keep us updated.

Portugal/Slovakia - Free Download

The new Zé Dos Frangos album is finally finished! It took a month, which is actually relatively fast, but we were working on it from dawn till noite each day. The album will be available as a digital download and in physical form on the 28th of April, on which day we will also be throwing an international record release party full of euro-flavoured glee. Until then, download it for free from our homepage. Grande Dik to everyone that participated in it's fruition. You are bless'd.

SXSW2008 - Radio Station Radar

I've been feeling jealous reading all this chatter about SXSW and coincidentally I came across this foto of me doing an interview with the radio station Radar from Lisbon, Portugal. I thought it would be cool to post the interview on my site, if only for people to laugh listening to my crazy Portuguese with an American accent, but so far I haven't been able to get any response from the people at Radar.

New ZDF pictures from the last concert

Mustafa sent me a bunch of fotos from the last concert. They are dobré. I'm not sure who took them, but thanks to that European. Check them our here.