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The Archive
A service from 'The Serious Writers Guild' at MAKEHITS.COM Written by Dec Cluskey with a little bit opf help from his friends.
This Email first mailed to all Members of 'The Serious Writers Guild' and
subscribers to 'One Minute With Dec' on
24.12.02
"My Emails are written in good humour, and should be read with a smile"
It's that time of year!
Touring, recording, trying to keep up with the Email replies to the questions sent by 'One Minute' guys and the tons of career changing questions from Serious Writers Guild members.
David Anthony has just told me he has three A&R guys at BMG in London frantic with excitement about his new material. They are giving him a load of time in BMG studios. I agree, his stuff is hot.... the time in the studios with top producers plus the A&R department pitching his stuff to the 'powers that be', come on, he can't help but have a massive 2003. The boss of RCA is a pal of mine, so, that little push will help David as well.
There is no substitute for knowledge and hard work!
And David has proved that. He has been constantly learning, writing, recording, travelling up and down to London, flying to Italy, Germany, France. He has routinely offered his services to guys who 'matter'...with no thought for payment. He has done so much work for me in my studio. Mind you, I always pay..I don't believe in Freebies. All this has honed his skills....his production skills were all learned in my place. Even the other day, when he played me his latest stuff, he was gently questioning me on highly technical 0db techniques....you could just see his brain taking it all in....
So, do you feel that you are working as hard as David?
Christmas time and the New Year is the time for looking at your methods. Is the way you are 'doing it' ensuring that you are moving ever forward in your quest for Stardom and Riches? And by the way, you have to have that 'Stardom and Riches' focused clearly in your mind. That is how to have your music recognised, that is how to have your music sought after and that is how to have your music thought of as being 'quality'.
Of all the changes any aspiring music maker should make in the new year it is the 'changing of your attitude to success'.
I see it every day:
I see this 'attitude' problem every single day. Don't forget that I am exposed to more novices and amateurs than practically any organisation in the world. In keeping my promise to reply personally to every Email, I see, very clearly, that to have success you must want it...and want it very badly. There is not one chance that you can have that 'I'm not in it for the money' attitude and succeed....Life, and certainly 'music life' does not work that way.
That is probably the only lesson that can be learned from all the 'Pop Idol' programmes....
it is the guys with the 'ruthless attitude' that get the place in the band....and they don't mind showing it!
So.....
New Year Resolution - Number One:
I will cultivate a 'success attitude' in 2003....'cos Dec says so!
The opposition to the New Licensing Bill in the UK is hotting up:
There are sinister aspects to all the new taxation on performers being pushed through Parliament here in the UK. I was in my local print shop the other day and saw part of a huge mail out to Religious Organisations alerting them to the new law and how it will affect them. That mail-out cost a lot of dosh....
So even before the law comes in, it is costing folk money.
Churches, schools, village halls,
pubs, restaurants, even private houses will have to be licensed if used for
performance events, whether they take place frequently or only occasionally.
Performances for members of clubs or for charitable purposes are also subject to
this legislation, as are recording studios and premises used for
rehearsals. Any performance in unlicensed premises will be a criminal
offence, punishable by a large fine and costs, or a prison
sentence.
Religious gatherings are exempt but here's a prime example of
the madness of this legislation. 100 people attending a church service and
singing hymns with orchestral accompaniment will not require a license. But if
the same 100 people go into the same church simply to listen to the orchestra
(i.e. a concert) it will require an entertainment license. It really will
be
a tax on entertainment.
A thought for Christmas/Holiday:
Call someone who has lost a partner in the past year.
I have always noticed that during the time of mourning the phone will ring constantly. Many friends will call the surviving partner to offer condolences, offer help, offer companionship for the future..."just let me know if you need anything".
Sadly, usually after three weeks, the phone stops ringing. Everyone is just too busy, today, to care. That is a sad fact of 'today' life. So, just call someone now this minute....you will know someone who has had a tragedy this past year. And make a pledge to call that person at least once a week.....in fact, I shall do that myself, this second.
Patchbays- why do I not use them?
From a Member of The Serious Writers Guild:
"Hi Dec, how's it going? (Fantastic, I presume!)
I would really appreciate your advice on patchbays.
What do you use?"
My Reply:
Hi Rory....
I tend to steer well clear of them.
They are singularly the biggest source of aggravation in a studio. When a trainee joins BBC, their first job is to clean the patchbays daily, twenty slides in and out with a dedicated cleaning tool and cleaning fluid....does a normal studio do that?
Result: crackles and pops.
I use a simple patchbay in our live concert rig for reverb/FX units and drum modules, plus drum triggers. That is relatively trouble free, although the sound engineer can always access the rear of the units should a socket on the patchbay fail.
I try to organise the studio in such a way that I rarely have to reconfigure. I cheat a little by having fly leads from the rear of all the recording and play back units [DAT, CDR, CD, Mini Disc etc]. They are all bunched together and labelled so on the odd occasion I have to use one, that is normally not in use, then I can bring it into service with another longer fly lead to the desk or the main studio monitors input. It's a way of working that has evolved over the years and seems to work for me.
Studios, who have clients every day, need to have a good quality patchbay to reconfigure quickly and efficiently. [It doesn't look good to scramble under the mixing desk looking for that elusive lead].
I also find that having cheeks on the rack units that are quickly and easily removable are very useful [I use Velcro pads for this, with made to measure side cheeks of melamine - painted black. Looks good and is efficient for fault finding and access to the rear end of units.
The choice is yours for patch bays. Bantam or standard quarter inch jacks? Bantam leads tend to be specialist wired and expensive to buy. You trade this off against the increase in the number you can have in a standard patch bay panel.
Also, do you hard wire to the back of the patch panel or use the 'jack socket in the rear' type. Cost can be a consideration, and also the fact that there are twice the number of jackplugs to fail.
You will understand 'normalising'...it's worth getting it right. And if you are soldering yourself, have a quick lesson from a 'pro' electrician. You will be shocked to see how little solder they use and also that good work is always reflected in preparation. The less solder the stronger the job. It's all to do with the stress factor on joints. Less is more!
Call Studiospares for their catalogue and you will see the vast range of 'pro' patchbay units. But at the end of the day, if you can do without? It is worth considering that every solder joint and every plug to socket connection decreases the signal strength...a little known fact.
Studio engineers feel that the patch panel saves the inputs on the rear of units from failing. I accept this, but in my studio [and in the concert rig] we never use the sockets on the back, preferring to have short fly leads permanently inserted with female, in-line plugs on the end....I even do that for my Atari in the studio. I use a short male to female midi lead so that the midi socket on the Atari is saved from wear or damage.
Hope this helps...
Well that's it.....
Thank you all for the wonderful support you have given me through the year....'One Minute With Dec' has set a new standard on the Music Internet.
A Special thank-you to the many members of The Serious Writers Guild...now in 26 countries....a fine bunch of songwriters, music makers and performers...dedicated to professional excellence and success.....
To you all....have a wonderful holiday season....and let's all have a thought for those in need. No matter what that need is.
"Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea
that life is serious."
Brendan
Gill
Regards
Dec
"It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven
being good
at billiards or golf."
H. L.
Mencken
============================================
Tip of the Week: "Never be tempted to use a digital mixing desk in a 'live' situation....no matter how good the resident sound engineer says they are....
You guessed it...despite all my pals warning me, I tried one the other night...total nightmare!"
============================================
You couldn't make it up!
The UK's lunatic Government strikes at the music industry again:
"While the Government discusses the amount of taxation to be heaped on performers through the new Licensing Bill, they have announced a retirement package to be awarded to one man, a close friend of the Prime Minister....Lord Irvine. After five years in office he will receive a retirement package of £90,000 per year and a lump sum of £180,000."
[Please lobby your local MP re. the forthcoming draconian Licensing Bill planned which will affect YOU]
============================================
Gag of the Week [don't know where they get them but they keep rolling in!]:
"Zebediah
was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers, called
pullets, and eight or ten roosters, whose job was to fertilize the
eggs.
Zeb kept records, and any rooster that didn't perform well went
into the soup pot and was replaced. That took an awful lot of Zeb's time; so,
Zeb got a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a
different tone so that Zeb could tell, from a distance, which rooster was
performing.
Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency
report simply by listening to the bells.
Zeb's favorite rooster was old
Brewster. A very fine specimen he was, too. But on this particular
morning, Zeb noticed that Brewster's bell had not rung at all!
Zeb went
to investigate.
The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells a-ringing!
The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover. BUT, to Zeb's
amazement, Brewster had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up
on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.
Zeb was so proud of
Brewster that he entered him in the county fair. Brewster was an overnight
sensation.
The judges not only awarded him the No Bell Piece Prize but
also the Pullet-surprise!"
============================================
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