"'There's no room in life for ego, it's a false sense of being,  

 but it's nice to tap in every once in a while''.     John Mulholland.

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 (1)  Beyonce Featuring Slim Thug .... Check On It  ... Columbia 

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I've always inderstood this business to be about 'Industry Standard'.... in other words, don't limp along, wait and buy the proper stuff [at the right price, obviously].

You can pick up a decent G4 for around £200 [$280?] ... which, when stripped down and reinitialised will give you more than adequate power and memory for most medium to large ventures.

I have seen and heard some stunning results from the bog standard Midi Man box with Pro Tools .... if you want to go up to all singing, all dancing 24 in 24 out then that is not all that mega expensive ... say £500-£700.

As I always say, some folk scream at the expense, but then when you consider that spending £1,500 can, with good learning and good attitude, create a career that can pull in £1Mill a year?  The maths simply don't add up.

After the Mac G4 and the Midi Man comes a decent mixing desk plus monitors and power amp [NS10's plus the biggest power amp you can afford.... but we won't get into that argument?].  I have always said don't touch Behringer or Mackie desks.  Stick to Soundcraft or Allen and Heath .... but then again, I have heard great results from the new generation of Eurorack Behringer desks.  Extremely quiet and efficient.

As regards mics., the Industry Standard Shure SM58 has made bundles of Hit Records.

Well purchased outboard FX units [combined with the onboard Pro Tools stuff] plus a couple of Industry Standard Keyboards/sound modules [Triton, Yamaha Motif and Kurtsweill PCR2] can give a frightened 'today' sounding studio.  The Midi is well taken care of with anything 'Edirol'.

The onboard Bomb Factory compressor plus a few well bought out-board compressors will make for a highly desirable sound.

Mastering on a Industry Standard CD recorder and you have a massively powerful studio which can give 200 times the quality and the power that a 60's/70's studio could produce.

But then, have we got the patience to learn the business the way it had to be learned in the 60's and 70's? 

Sadly, most guys expect to switch it all on and make hit records?  No....No.....No!  It has to be learned. 

Regards

DEC [Cluskey]
mailto:dec@makehits.co.uk

'Makehits Demo Consultation Service' the Industry Standard critique service used by the industry to tell will a project make money...Dec at his best! A full CD of Dec's comments plus a 17 page critique and a copyright certificate.  Check out http://www.makehits.co.uk/demo.htm or call UK 01323.728005 [+44.1323.728005]

Regards

Dec 

You may use any part of this 'One Minute' in your own publications...we simply require you to add:

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'One Minute With Dec' is written each week by Dec Cluskey. Dec's advice?

Get in touch personally to discuss what you want to achieve in music dec@makehits.com

web: www.makehits.com or call +44 (0)1323.728005

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The gags: .....  Tech Support questions? 
 
Tech Support

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in the overall performance, particularly in the Flower and Jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

 In addition, Husband 1.0 un-installed many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as: Football 5.0, Rugby 4.3 and Cricket 3.0.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs; it simply crashes the system.  I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, to no avail.

 What can I do?

 Signed,

 Desperate

 ------------------

Dear Desperate

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System. Try entering the command: C:/I-THOUGHT-YOU-LOVED-ME to download Tears 6.2, which should automatically install Guilt 3.0. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. But remember overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1.

WARNING: Beer 6.1 is a very nasty program that will create Snoring Loudly.

CAUTION: Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law. This is not a supported application and will crash Husband 1.0. In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. I personally recommend Hot Food 3.0 and Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck,

Tech Support