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=================================
'One
Minute With Dec'
"My
Emails Are Written With Good Humour And Should Be Read With A Smile"
[-The views of any
contributor to 'One Minute with Dec' are not necessarily the views of Dec
Cluskey-]
"Truth -
Accuracy - with no Flannel....that is our promise here at 'The Serious Writers
Guild'.
But we cannot vouch for the contributions of others...
Please alert us to inaccuracies and help us maintain our high standards."
Clive
Sanderson [legal dept. Serious Writers Guild] clivesanderson@makehits.com
"Gossip- is news running ahead
of itself in a red satin dress"
liz
smith
"Thanks for all the info - I
must say when I first came across you I thought you were bullshitting like
everyone else these days but so far it's not the
case.
Good on
yer".....Jezza
========================
"Can't wait for the next instalment of
How to make $millions....." George
Hiddleston
========================
"Hi
Dec,
Well, it's been years since
I finished the "make a million" course, and it has done me a lot of good.
It's film visual effects and imaging that fire me up!!
I have applied many of the
principles you advise and can confirm that they work just as well in any arena
:) Three film jobs in six months and I'm having to move into bigger
premises already!" P***
O*****
==============================
"As
always you are ahead of the game. Regards,
Derry"
==============================
A fun record of the phone calls:
It must be the Irish in me, but I love
talking. Members of The Serious Writers Guild have my private telephone
number direct to my studio desk. So, for fun, I am now keeping note of the
length of time the guys are on the phone. Best one this week was
56 mins 08 secs. My Goodness, did that guy get good value.
I was able to sort out a number of difficult problems for him. Sometimes
the problems are not a lot to do with music but to do with the 'business' of
music. The 'making the money'. and that is what I am best at.
I always reckon that the music is the easy bit, once you understand the basic
rules, regulations and methods behind commercial, sellable and money making
records.
Sadly - I have to be straight and refuse to
talk to anyone [who gets my number by trickery] unless they give me their
Members PIN number. But to talk to everyone
would make a mockery of the Members paying their good money.
Nastiness on the Internet:
You will probably know that I occasionally drop in
on music newsgroups on the Internet.
Strangely I do believe in what I preach:
"If you help enough people get what they want, then you can
have ANYTHING you want!"
That is why I encourage anyone who will listen to
give of themselves....give to charity, put a little back in...call it what you
will, but it works for me...always has done. Sadly, there are music guys
out there that snipe and gripe about anyone in our industry who lives by that
philosophy. There is currently a mighty swipe being taken at me, my
members and what I do. They even claim that everything I know has been
gleaned from RMMS. That is the newsgroup in question. Check it
out.
There are many
fine subscribers to that newsgroup, but sadly it is usurped by a tiny few
who are h*ll bent on driving the 'good guys' away. Sadly, the rest of the
subscribers to the newsgroup wonder why the number of contributors is
diminishing. I don't know about you, but I am here on this planet to have
fun, make music and have the best life I can with my family, friends and loved
ones. I do believe I have not a malicious thought in my mind...ever!
If those guys who gripe at the world, gripe at the 'good guys', and gripe at
everything musically successful, would only give 10% of that energy to making
great music they could have all the success and the rewards that go with
it. But would they be happy?
"It takes 50 times more energy to
hate than to love"
'One Minute With Dec'
Those few jokers on the newsgroups tell nasty
untruths about me ...... try to insist that there is enough of my info in
'One Minute With Dec'' to create a career. There probably is, but I am
desperately careful to reserve the 'killer stuff' for 'How To Make A $Mi**ion
From Your Music'...the ten month program. You see 'One Minute' is about
fixing little problems, general chit chat and fun, plus up to date info.
But 'Making $Mi**ions' is about the method, systems and the business of making
those $Mi**ions....a totally different animal !!!!
No matter how frustrated you get, never tell lies
about anyone....be known as a 'straight, regular guy'. All the successful
guys I know are 'straight....and regular'. It's part of being
successful.
"Don't lie, don't cheat - you
can't fool us anymore"
Faith Popcorn
A word of warning and advice for record distribution success:
I had a good Email from Mike Harlington....some
lessons to be learned:
Hi Dec....Just a quick
one.
The word on the street is that our current
"impressive" number one is going to be big!
First run is 150.000 copies,
Same distributor - see!
A quick word of advice to all your
members. Our last release 'Forever Autumn',
as I'm sure you are
aware, didn't do well. We know why, and
we'll be back with it later
this year with a different vocalist.
Success = music,
distribution, plugging, support. In that order.
We didn't
have (as you may recall) distribution due to a well known
company dropping
us last minute, our plugging went out, we attained
high ranking Music Week
positions (number 3 in both the upfront and
commercial charts!), and still
did little to bother the charts.
Simple, our initial plugging did
us proud, the commercial plugging, before
release, showed little support,
they simply couldn't re-capture the initial
interest.
Just so
we can demonstrate. We have another record label, very new.
Another
label - different music style. We have good music, we
have
distribution, we did an initial plug and are now getting Radio 1
support plus
some V. BIG DJ's are playing the track out.
So tell your members: Get your
distribution sorted
first, and get contracts done so they can't drop
you. Then get on it.
Finally...OK, we flopped, another
lesson learnt, make sure your vocalist doesn't
get cold feet! [note
from Dec: the original vocalist simply would not perform
live...unbelievable]
We lost national TV the other day
because of her, so we are releasing the
next track on time (mid June) then
Antoine's next track, then another track
by a former chart act, then
'Forever Autumn' again, with the new mixes
and
vocalist.
Speak very soon
Mike
Harlington
Managing Director
C2K Music Group Limited
C2K Records
Limited
C2K Publishing Limited
Level Recordings
Limited
(See, I even do the companies your way!)
Mike
Balancing all the balls at once:
I have pulled off an amazing deal with one of the
majors for a 25 track release by my band for next Christmas. I am 3
tracks short, so I am working 16 hour days at the moment. And still
writing 'One Minute With Dec'....plus the phone calls and 400+ Emails a
day....wheeeeeh! I must be mad....but I enjoy helping enthusiastic music
makers.
It is quite amazing how R&B influence and Hip
Hop creeps into almost every genre of music. By forcing yourself [as I do]
to use minimum 6 great samples in a track, and being conscious of Hip Hop
influence, the track HAS TO BE 2004. Try it! You
will be shocked.
One of the tracks is a luscious, warm, soft
track. By using an outrageous Hip Hop snare [I shortened the sample
dramatically] it has given the toon and delicious 'bounce'....so important for a
successful track. I co-wrote the track with Reg Guest [he wrote the LULU
Smash 'Shout']. I say co-wrote, laughingly. I wrote it and he just
tidied it up! But as I say: "if the guy even adds a comma to
the lyrics he deserves a bit of the action." Be known as an
honest, generous, person in the business.
"Get Wisdom, and with all thy
getting get understanding"
The Bible
Support a Member?
Hi Guys,
Thanks for your support at the Bull
& Gate two weeks ago. Our next gig is going to be on Thursday 6 May
at the Hope & Anchor in Islington. We are going to be onstage at
8:30.
For more info and a flyer go to http://www.bedface.com/flyer/hopenanchor.html The
other two bands for the night are: 'Birdman Rally' (http://www.birdmanrally.co.uk)
and 'Amber Light'.
To all of you who have not been to our web
site yet. The password for the media section
is: bedfacepass
Looking forward to seeing you again on
Thursday Take
care Bedface
Best Demo Consultation Service in the World?
You bet! www.makehits.co.uk/demo.htm
. Every single guy who has sent us a demo for my observations, advice and
comments which I record onto an hour long CD, has sent us a
stunning testimonial....I also write a 17 page crit. and issue a copyright
certificate.......listen to this:
"I have yet to give you some very good feedback for the
demo consultation of the song 'Fire'.
In short, I was
deeply impressed by the whole format and didn't expect you to go into so many
details. Your comments were very encouraging and although you have given me
another long list of things to do, you have also helped me by sorting out
which tasks are not necessary."
Dean
Adams
Check out this Member's web-site:
One of the Members in Germany is set to take off big-time...he is following
all my program stuff to the letter and boy is it working.....to prove the point
have a look: www.marcelbrell.de . Is that a
good site? Or is that a good site? He learned EVERYTHING from 'The
Art Of Live Performing' at www.liveperforming.com .... and
does his first major gig this week. Watch him
fly. Charts:
UK
1) 'F**K IT' ... (I Don't Want You Back) Eamon <G>
2) "Air Hostess" ....Busted [can they hold off the rise of
'McFly'?]
3) "My Band" ..... D-12
1) "Yeah!" Usher Featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris
2) "I Don't Wanna Know" Mario Winans Featuring Enya & P
Diddy
3) "Burn" Usher
AUSTRALIA
1) "My Band" ..... D-12
2) "Left Outside Alone" .... Anastacia
3) "Black Betty" Spiderbait [don't know that
one?]
A chart observation:
Is it just me or does everyone
think that Franz Ferdinand is taking the p*ss? Is it me or do Busted sound
like The Monkees, in their latest chart toon?
Eminem's Detroit crew
effortlessly take the top album spot with their second full length release, 'D12
World', but their single, which only just failed to topple Eamon last week,
drops to No 3, denying them the double whammy. The Streets make a triumphant
come back with a fantastic single, but it seems that their commercial success is
still trailing a little way behind their critical success, and the top spot is
denied them too. More surprisingly, the mighty Busted can't topple Eamon either,
even in his third week on the top spot.
The Marillion experiment didn't
last long. Their fans bought the single into the charts last week but they
have dived a full 25 places this week....did they run out of
fans?
Singles casualties:
The Bees,
Goldie Lookin Chain, Armand Van Helden, Enrique and Kelis, The Darkness, Snow
Patrol, Breed 77 and Black Eyed Peas
Singles New Entries:
Busted, The
Streets, Him, Boogie PImps, Dogs Die In Hot Cars, Alex Cartana, Plummet, Gemma
Fox ft MC Lyte
Fastest Falling Single:
Marillion, who fall 25 places
from No 7 to No 32
Highest Climbing Single:
Britney, who climbs 9 places
from 27 to 18
Music/Show Biz News:
Leslie Grantham: Probably the best known
face on UK's soap shows. Caught with his pants down on web cam playing
silly games while chatting with a total stranger. I couldn't help but
smile at the thought of his wife's conversation with him over dinner that night
as she read the papers. They even published the photos! You can't
wriggle out of that.
Bobby Brown: The judge in charge of the
singer's spousal abuse case ruled yesterday that he has seen enough evidence
about the alleged crime to justify going forward with a trial to determine
whether or not Brown should serve time for striking his wife, Whitney Houston,
last December. No trial date was announced. Brown was told to turn himself in to
authorities on July 10 or 11 to be fingerprinted. He will then be released on a
$2,000 bond. Houston was with her husband in court when he got the news
Subscribers Section:
Hi dec, many thanks for your
call about C*****, it was much appreciated.
I know you have hinted before that you don't like
"graphics", so I had them virtually "flat" last gig and also cut down the
reverb (C***** doesn't need much anyway) and used delay @ 170m with
excellent results. In fact as time goes on I find I'm using reverb less
and less- I read somewhere that the correct use of delay is far more
effective for vocals.
one more point, dec, if you've got time. What is
the equation on ohmage. I use two 8 ohm speakers with a 1500 watt powered
mixer with the option of a further pair for larger venues. I realise this
is a lot of impedance and I would probably be better with them @ 4 ohms.
I don't use bass bins as these are excellent RCF full-range speakers. I
apologise in advance if you are going to cover these points in
"Masterclass". I'll just have to be patient!
many thanks as ever, dec. B**
M****
My Reply:
B**.......Yes I do cover these points. But
as you will find out The Master Class is 'wild'.....only for the top guys...who
are going places. The methods simply would not be understood by anyone who
has not done the 'How To Make A $Mi**ion' program.
It's not that I don't like graphics...it's that I hate the
misuse of graphics...which happens 99% of the time, whenever they are present in
a rig. I have possibly only seen them used correctly once or twice.
Wembley -
for my band, and Sydney, Australia for Spandau Ballet.
They are so misused that, whenever we use a strange concert
rig, I will automatically ask the engineer to defeat the graphics...he will moan
and groan but eventually [thinking he will prove me wrong] defeat them.
100% of the time, in other words, EVERY time, the rig will
suddenly burst into life....the engineer will always thank me....but on his next
show he will put the graphics back in! I don't care...it won't be my
concert.
You see, the mics. are the result of 10 years+ of research and
development, the desk is the result of 10 years+ research and
development...similarly the amplifiers, the crossover units and finally the
speaker cabinets...all designed and purchased to give the best, flattest,
'correct' sound....then some 'dick' comes along with a £125 graphic and cocks
the whole deal up? Top engineers do not use graphics [only in a dire emergency].
In major venues, the touring show will have a guy who 'just'
looks after the front of house amplified sound, in other words, he makes sure,
with spectrum analysers and mega expensive graphics that the rig is presenting a
flat frequency response for the sound engineer....this is always adjusted on a
night by night basis starting from totally flat. Even then, the mic. for the
spectrum analyser should be moved to various spots near the engineer as the
response will vary considerably in most venues.
Thus, the front of house,
mix engineer can have, near as damn it, the same mix as last night and every
night....
For instance, Wembley accentuates 100Hz. All the top engineers
know that, so they can easily filter that out by just using a Shure SM58 mic.
and actually humming that frequency....easy! That is what the pros do!
Sadly, run of the mill engineers will leave last night's
settings and then add or subtract more...usually just to get more volume...never
to get more quality. Eventually you end up with so many frequencies dipped out
that the rig sounds crap....sounds loud, and how he wants it. It'll sound
good to the engineer, but crap to a studio guy like me! And to the public.
That is why pub rigs always sound so dull and woolly, with the voices buried
deep in the mix. I haven't even mentioned the fact that that engineer will NEVER
listen to the charts, so he is making the artist sound like HE wants them to
sound...usually 15 - 25 years out of date.
EFFECTS:
Always remember that we spend an age getting 'all' the effects
working to enhance the vocals on a recorded track...I have 13 units available.
So, it is never a case of a certain delay or reverb patch being correct for a
singer. Echo or delay is so 'old hat'.
Each song is different, each song 'feel' is different....
Tragically, the guys who will offer advice on reverb etc. have
never had a HIT in their lives! Resident studio engineers and gigging engineers
will ALWAYS say that "we never use effects nowadays!" Oh yeah? Listen to Justin
Timberlake, Darkness, Destiny's Child, listen to Eminem, Timbaland, Sugababes,
Dido. They say that because they never listen to 'today's' music...they are
totally out of touch, and never read a manual for any modern day effects
unit...so they have not got the knowledge. They merely see effects as 'reverb'
turned on or off. It will increase the chances of feedback in a live gig so they
won't chance it.
My advice on 'live' effects is to have a number of differing
patches set up, that are instantly available and can be called up between
toons...that is how 'Bachelors' work....we use three units in a live situations,
for the voices alone, and the engineer has a script of the patches used on each
toon. The drums etc. have their own dedicated units.
The most important patches today are the 'multi imaging'
effects....Beyonce? Also, the extremely long, delay effects that just sit there
and you only here them when there is a break....but meanwhile they are
'thickening' the vocal sound. You only get the long delays with top of the range
units.
In big stadium gigs, the engineers will have a dedicated
digital Yamaha desk just for the effects returns and usually for keyboards, so
that the effects and the specific keyboards for each toon can be instantly
recalled. They will use a script for this.
Speakers etc.
There is no point in worrying yourself about the relationship
of ohmage to watts and SPL's etc. It's a black art which only scientists
understand..not the gigging musicians who will bore you to death with their ill
informed 'knowledge'. Check out www.makehits.co.uk/art011.htm
and www.makehits.co.uk/art021.htm
for correct info.....by the real experts.
The only three things to understand are these:
1) You need the most powerful amp/amps you can afford to drive
any rig...wattage will never damage a speaker EVER! It is small amplifiers
'clipping' that damage speakers, also clicks and bumps from idiots plugging and
unplugging while the rig is 'live'.....suicidal for a big rig.
2) An amplifier descending to DC will fry the coils of any
speakers in line...so you MUST fit DC protection on each speaker. Available very
cheap from Maplin. [A Member can supply these...just Email me for
details]
3) You must think of speakers as 'sucking energy' from the
amplifier...so, if you put two 8ohm speakers in series you will effectively half
the impedance and be presenting 4ohms to the amplifier, so, the lower resistance
[ohmage, impedance] will suck more energy and therefore give you twice the
loudness [ not volume...a different thing]. The danger here is that the more
speakers, the less the ohmage and you would need a very expensive high quality
amp to drive at 2ohms or less. Think of the lower ohmage as allowing a car to
freewheel down a hill...the less ohmage the less resistance in the wheels...so
eventually the car will gather speed and destroy itself...that is the best
analogy. The amplifier will drive itself too fast and too hard with no
resistance to stop it.
Gigging musicians do not understand the principles involved -
but hire companies do. That is why hire companies will, typically, supply amps
rated at SEVEN times the wattage of the speakers....so that the amps will NEVER
clip and thus ensure that the speakers are safe.
End of lecture...
regards
"What is the use
of running when we are on the wrong road"
proverb
Regards
Dec
You may use any part of this 'One Minute' in your own
publications...we simply require you to add:
Start ============
'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
Finish===========
============================================
The gags [A silly kid's
one?]
"Wear a hat when feeding seagulls." - Rocky, age
9.
"Never tell your mom her diet's not working." - Michael, age
14.
"Don't pick on your sister when she's holding a baseball bat." -
Joel, age 12.
"When you get a bad grade in school, show it to your mom when
she's on the phone." - Alyesha, age 13.
"Never spit when on a roller coaster." - Scott, age 11.
`Remember the two places you are always welcome; church and
Grandma's house." - Joanne, age 11.
"When you want something expensive, ask your grandparents." -
Matthew, age 12.
And our favourite:
"Remember you're never too old to hold your father's hand." -
Molly, age 11
============================================
How to set up a Demo consultation
with Dec?
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service the Professionals use. Even available for voice and
guitar!
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for a full critique and appraisal. We will then send you a unique PIN number to put on your letter or Jiffy Bag. This will ensure you get
immediate attention. This is also for security reasons. We do not open
unsolicited Jiffy Bags.
For full details click on this
link: www.makehits.co.uk/demo.htm
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The Serious Writers Guild,
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