So where are we at with Chipsurf Pipeline?

So where are we at with Chipsurf Pipeline? The tracks have been mastered, tagged, and uploaded. All the album art is done, save for the CD cover we are going to provide with the digital download. That is mostly done – it just needs a few minor tweaks. We have been talking about whether or not it makes sense to keep all the songs available individually. Because we place an emphasis on the story driven aspect of the album, simply getting a few songs off the album would not have a desired effect. At the same time, we want to keep some songs as singles – just not all of them. In terms of cost, we also do not want to devalue the album, as we are quite proud of it, but also recognize that it is a bit unique and certainly not mainstream.

So, we are trying to work through a few of those ideas. I don’t believe it will take very long. But at the moment, John is traveling around for his day job and since our day jobs pay the bills, they tend to take precedence. I suspect we will drop the album in a few days time so it won’t be long now! It will take slightly longer because we decided to do a quick launch ceremony wherein we’re both there to “flip the switch” as it were, but I think it will be worth the wait!

There are a few songs on the album that we have intentionally saved for the album release and they are begging to be heard!

What’s going on at Victim Cache?

Some of our fan are probably wondering why we have not yet released the album yet. I want to SOOO bad but we want to do it right and it’s been a busy month for both John and myself. January has been the busiest for John at his day job since I can remember, and I’m still recovering from my wisdom teeth removal as you may have seen on Facebook. We are both still alive and well and dedicated to releasing Chipsurf Pipeline as well as continuing work on our new album. Though the new album has no official name, we have been calling it Hero or Hero Album for the moment if that gives you any clue what it may be about.

We also are pretty excited to be working with the Hackerspace San Antonio to help bang out some workshops, mostly for our work with chip-synths. That should be rather fun and a good start to what I hope is a pretty awesome relationship moving forward. Those guys do some really cool things and help facilitate lots of neat workshops. They are currently in the process of putting together what appears to be a fantastic set of Arduino classes and workshops. If you are in the San Antonio, TX area, it’s definitely something to check out!

But back to the topic of Chipsurf Pipeline, I would love to say we can have it out by the end of this week, but John will be traveling for his day job this weekend and we have decided to rework at least one intro for one of the songs for the album so that things fit a bit better. We are still excruciatingly close to releasing the album but, as I have said before, we want to do it right! Regardless, thanks to all our fans for sticking with us while we all patiently await its arrival! One last note, we have been asked if we are still planning on doing a Kickstarter project for the album and the answer is most definitely! But we wanted the digital version to be done first so we can focus on figuring out the best next steps without having to do multiple things at once. We’ll get there!

Out-Takes!

Since it is taking longer than we thought to perfect the track-listing for Chipsurf Pipeline, as well as other odds and ends before we formally launch the digital version, we thought we would offer up some out-takes from our Kickstarter filming sessions. We’re not done with the Kickstarter video itself (which means maybe we’ll have even more out-takes!) but some of these are cute. Enjoy!

Recording Done, Onto Track Arrangement

We finally finished all the recording and mastering of all the songs off Chipsurf Pipeline and it’s now very close to a digital release! What’s the hold-up? We have been trying to figure out the perfect order or the tracks. Part of what we wanted to do with the album was tell a bit of a story. Even it is an indirect part of the album, we very much wanted to get that part right. That, along side all the other odds and ends, means we still have a bit of work to do.

We hope to have it out this week but if not this week, soon! Thanks to all our fans for having patience while we work to perfect things!

Onward!

We are wrapping up our mastering of Chipsurf Pipeline and are already starting to look at what our next album is going to look like. So far, the direction we are headed with it is incredibly exciting for us. We wanted something that kept to the roots of Victim Cache and the sound we established with Chipsurf Pipeline while taking things in a new direction. It would appear that we have, so far, met those goals with what we have put together so far. Worry not chiptune fans, there will still be liberal use of chip-synths, although we will be using more post effects on them and likely more of the extended capabilities of our MidiBox SID and FM synths.

It is too soon to give away too much of the details until we have fleshed things out a bit more. Plus we haven’t even officially finished Chipsurf Pipeline yet! Expect us to wrap that up in a month-ish. After that, we will be focusing on our Kickstarter project for it in an effort to get it professionally mastered and pressed onto vinyl. More details to follow on that front once we finish up our Kickstarter promo video. It’s being filmed by us and, as we are musicians and not film-makers, it is taking some time to put together.

At any rate, we are excited about the present and the future and hope you are too!