"We are in negotiation with a record company at present. I put this down to the massively improved quality of our recordings, songwriting, production and my approach. The changes in me are fantastic.

I have made some incredibly good connections recently, I have learned a wide range of studio techniques, got to grips with midi, and built a decent little studio in my home, with kit which you recommended, and got me started on, and my attitude to business, music and life has been improved. Thank you Dec, I want more!"

Dave Menzies [Member No: NET0555030W]

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"Dec pins the emblem of The Water Rats on John Lodge, the 'Moody Blues' man....wrote 'Knights in White Satin' with Justin Heywood. John is now a member of that unique Show Biz Order."

You may hate Dec Cluskey or LOVE him but can he help you? DEC helps all those who ask! Now in 29 countries. Can he help you? you just have to ask, you know.

Quick Reference: check the numbers of the questions then scroll to the answer.....why not ask your own question? This is only a tiny indication of what you can get from:

(1) "What would be your thoughts on trying to be successful in country music while living in the UK?"

(2) "Just wondering what your thoughts were on organisations such as TAXI?"

(3)"My band is off on a small tour of NYC on the 3rd of May! Any advice?"

(4)"How do I set up a one day festival in my area, West Lothian in Scotland?"

(5)"Mixers - I keep seeing references to things like 32x8x2... what does this actually mean?"

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	(1) Hi Dec, I am learning a lot from your courses- and I'm only at lesson number Two! I particularly appreciated the point about paying more attention to vocal arrangements. Point taken! One question: I like a lot of different types of music. My folks were born in Nashville, so I'm particularly keen on country music (esp. alt.country Ie.g., Wilco, Ryan Adams) / "classics" by George Jones, Hank Williams, etc. / and different types country-rock (Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, etc.) What would be your thoughts on trying to be successful in country music while living in the UK? Thanks for your thoughts Mike Bryant
	Mike Country Music is a no-go area in the UK...always has been, although there have been notable hits through the years...but there has never been a consistent Country market. My own band were touted as a 'Country' band when we launched first but, although we used a lot of Country techniques, we, very quickly, settled into being a 'Country tinged' Pop band...with our own distinctive style. Music guys never seem to notice that almost 70% of chart music has Country undertones....in fact anything with guitar has either a rock flavour or a country flavour....because that is what a guitar will do....push it in one direction or the other. In the Fifties/Sixties, a guitar could also push in a third direction ....'folk', with Joan Baez, Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary etc. The major Boy Bands will always look at the successful Country catalogues for 'cover' material. Just slow the tempo, add great production, great samples, strings and a 'today' vocal arrangement plus a touch of R&B styling...and there is a Number One Hit [check out Ronan Keating at the moment]. So..... Country does not sell in the UK, but country tinged Pop is rarely out of the top Three. By the way, the main reason that Country does not sell is exactly the same reason that Country enthusiasts will not pay more than £3 to go into a Country venue! Regards Dec dec@makehits.com Where do the Pro's go to check the Hit Potential of their material? Answer: The 'MAKEHITS' Demo Consultation Service. Check out www.makehits.co.uk/demo.htm .... now you can have the professional service for professionals.
	(2) Hi Dec, just wondering what your thoughts were on organisations such as TAXI? Have members had success with such organisations or are they considered a waste of money? kind regards, Dom Kennelly (Probationer)
	Hi Dom I always refrain from any criticism of the many music 'help' sites out there. It shocked me when I wrote my first program to find that not one of the sites addressed the problem "How do I make the money out of this Industry?" And that is exactly what The Serious Writers Guild does...it shows you the way that we do it. We have been asked to remove parts of our answer to this question by one of the many Music Guilds on the Net...we respect their wishes, we have no wish to comment on other sites and merely answered the question, put to us, with truth and honesty - as we saw it. We also unreservedly apologise for any perceived damage done by our honest comment. I tried to contact 'American Song Contest' yesterday and just got a polite Auto Responder saying they do not answer Emails to that address....amazing! Dom, if and when you want to 'punt' songs do it the way I say in 'How To Make A $Million From your Music' ...it is the proper Industry Standard way of punting songs...the way the professional guys do it, day in, day out. There is no magic....but you have to have everything right in the first place...as you will learn...it is only about 10% to do with the music [however, 99.9999% of novice songwriters get even that bit wrong!] It is not about right time, right place, knowing the right people or 'luck'....it is purely to do with having a 'product' that people WANT! Regards Dec dec@makehits.com Where do the Pro's go to check the Hit Potential of their material? Answer: The 'MAKEHITS' Demo Consultation Service. Check out www.makehits.co.uk/demo.htm .... now you can have the professional service for professionals.
	(3) Hi Dec, My band is off on a small tour of NYC on the 3rd of May! Any advice? Simon Dangerfield
	Hi Simon Have as much good merchandise, CD's, Posters, Glossy pictures, brochures etc. on sale on a minimum of three tables in line [it makes a line!] Get yourself a Poloroid camera, make up folders by printing a greeting message on one side of 120 gsm, good quality, paper. Cut out the square hole for the poloroid picture to be seen when the A4 paper is folded in two [your copy-shop can do this for you] ....use pritstik to glue the two sides together so the picture slides in the top....fans love a picture with the band. Sell them with a percentage to Charity [and make sure you give it to your personal charity] This is always the last thing you offer after they have bought all the other goods, in line. The whole object of all this is to gather names, addresses and most of all Email addresses. Each night take a digital picture of the audience [make it part of the show] and tell the audience it will be posted on your web-site, so they can get copies by downloading...that will encourage more Email addresses. Regards Dec dec@makehits.com Where do the Pro's go to check the Hit Potential of their material? Answer: The 'MAKEHITS' Demo Consultation Service. Check out www.makehits.co.uk/demo.htm .... now you can have the professional service for professionals.
	(4) Hi Dec How's life treating you? I have what I'd imagine isn't one of your standard requests. Before I ask, I'd just like to say that being a member of the 'Serious Writers Guild' has not only inspired me to go onto greater things but also to help my fellow musicians. What I am planning to do is set up one day festival in my area, West Lothian in Scotland. The area has a population of around 160,000 but in musical terms contributes little. I want to change that by organising this event, giving local talent the oppurtunity to perform with more established acts and putting the area on the musical map. I have been in contact with the relevant organisations ie; PRS, West Lothian Council, Scottish Cultural Enterprise etc and I am now at the stage of putting together a budget in order to move things forward. That is why I need your help. I would be very grateful if you were able to put me on to relevant people with regards to PA, Lighting, Staging, tent hire etc for such an event. I also notice from your Bachelors website that you provide such services. Would you know off hand approximate costs for these things for an outdoor event with a capacity of say 5000 spectators. I know my request is quite hypathetical at this stage but any help or advice you could give me would be gratefully appreciated. Colin Baxter [Scotland]
	Hi Colin You need to be pretty certain that the festival will be allowed by your local council [they are a nightmare] you will be confronted by 'noise constraints', pollution, rubbish, health and safety, portable toilet requirements, entry/exit from roads, policing, security, car parking, congestion, local inhabitants' inconvenience complaints, after-festival damage assessment. You will really need to get all that in place before approaching any of the Event people for sound/lighting/ staging/catering/ generators etc. As pricing an event like this is complex and time consuming. It is a golden rule in our business: "The music is the easy bit". None of the Pro companies will wish to get involved in pricing unless you have all the necessary planning in place. You should understand that they get dozens of well-meaning enquiries and rarely does one come to fruition. I can certainly suggest companies, but I would advise that you have an overall designer/planner/coordinator who is used to this sort of event to act as a consultant. It is a minefield of complexity, if you are not fully aware of all the angles. This is not the type of event that organises itself! So....it's 'permissions' first, budgets last! Regards Dec dec@makehits.com Where do the Pro's go to check the Hit Potential of their material? Answer: The 'MAKEHITS' Demo Consultation Service. Check out www.makehits.co.uk/demo.htm .... now you can have the professional service for professionals.
	(5) Dec, I've just finished converting my garage in to a soundproof (well almost) practice room/studio. I'm now at the point where I'm looking in to buying kit for it, and I'm getting confused over mixers. The pre-requisite seems to be obtaining as many aux. outs as possible, but I keep seeing references to things like 32x8x2... what does this actually mean?? You've made clear your opinion on the Soundcraft Spirit range, but is it a good buy for starting out, bearing in mind my budget is pretty tight at the moment? Thanks! Matt Allen http.www.diesel10.com
	Hi Matt I don't know where the rumour started that I don't like Soundcraft Spirit [grin!]. I use one myself...as does Norman Cook and many more. I have stated that 'Spirit' are the foreign built [built to a price] mixers whereas Soundcraft are the British built, high spec., studio and live mixers. They are two different animals, under the same banner. The continuing fault with Spirit mixers [from my own experience] is the poor quality of the insert points. These are the send and return jack sockets and also the line inputs on each channel. They are very prone to break-down and must be kept serviced and clean. You are quite right to want the highest number of auxiliary send and returns. Spirit are good in this respect. The best is Allen and Heath...their latest models have 10 aux. sends. Be a little careful of the aux. specification, as a lot of the time they say six but it really means 4 plus two that you can use in a different format....in effect that means that at one time you may only use 4. My main mixer has 6 sends with 4 stereo returns...see what I mean? The other two aux sends are dedicated monitor/foldback sends. This means that you can use them, but you have to return the effects into two channels each...that means you lose four channels, if you use all 6 aux. at the same time. I tend to use a separate mixer for drums, percussion and samples....this gives an additional 4 aux. to my set up. Of course each channel has a send and return, so I can use a separate effects unit or compressor/limiter for each individual channel [compressors of choice]. 32/8/2 This means 32 available channels for microphones, sound modules and possibly extra effects returns. Those 32 channels each have a row of grey buttons above each fader where you can 'send' each channel to either the main left/right or any one of the 8 groups. Each of these groups has a fader in a separate section of the mixer [usually coloured differently for ease of use]. This is very handy for grouping, say, the vocals all together, then the drums all together on a separate pair of group faders and say the strings together. This means that in quiet passages, of a mix, you can pull the faders down and have total silence...so important today. The 8 groups should also give the facility of 'strapping' a compressor over each pair, or individually, which means inserting a compressor through the send and returns of each group. This all adds to getting that finished 'record' sound. Finally, the 8 groups will send to the main left/right which is the final '2' of the 32/8/2.....obvious, isn't it? This two should, finally, have the facility of strapping a compressor over or [a favourite of mine] the Behringer Ultrafex.... a very professional bit of kit which amateurs do not know about....it is stunning [approx £90]. It adds fabulous gloss and clarity to a nondescript mix. Do not be talked into 'Finalizers' and other such 'end of mix' compression units....once you put that on the track you cannot take it off in mastering....you have been warned! Don't do it! They are strictly for amateurs. Always have your best mixes professionally mastered. You can strike up a good relationship with a top studio or a mastering house and always have your best stuff mastered....the difference is chalk and cheese to what you can do yourself. As regards soundproofing, it is more important to eliminate slap back and reverberation in the room. Aim for a totally dead room...so that when you clap your hands there is absolutely no slap-back. Round out the corners, try to have no parallel walls, use a lot of carpet and curtaining ....place fibreglass roof insulation on the walls and pin cheap Hessian over it, use your imagination to create a stunning designer finish...staple old duvets [die them black?] to the back of any doors. Bookshelves with lots of books are the niftiest way of breaking up parallel walls.... Lastly, ensure that your monitor speakers are isolated from other surfaces and are well away from any walls. Yamaha NS10's, although not manufactured any more, are fetching a premium price...they are the Industry standard. Isolation Pillars, for the monitor speakers, are available from Studiospares...perhaps the most important equipment you need. Regards Dec dec@makehits.com Where do the Pro's go to check the Hit Potential of their material? Answer: The 'MAKEHITS' Demo Consultation Service. Check out www.makehits.co.uk/demo.htm .... now you can have the professional service for professionals. dec@makehits.co.uk When you get involved with DEC you get ten months of two knowledge packed books a month, stunning advice, today's methods for writing music, making music and promoting it. 24/7 access to the man himself. And you get a 'LIFETIME' guarantee. If you ever pay DEC for anything, if you are not happy at anytime in your life with the product then return it for a complete, no-quibble, courteous refund! DEC means it! That's not only a guarantee it's a personal promise "There Is No Catch" "There Is No Risk" Become a Member of the 'The Serious Writers Guild' PROGRAM CLICK HERE Every Sunday in your Email box FREE - Get the latest issue NOW! 'One Minute With Dec' - quality tips, tricks and professional, money making, know how in one minute..the widest read, weekly, delivered music Ezine on the Net (just CLICK HERE fill in the simple survey - that's all ) Dec's advice : Get in touch personally. Email dec@makehits.com to discuss what you want to achieve in music. http://www.makehits.co.uk/qanda13.htm -- Revised: 27 May 2003 Copyright © 2003 The Serious Writers Guild. All rights reserved. Maintained by: makehits.webmaster@makehits.com | Previous | Next