(1)

Hi Dec

My church is recording our first album live on the 9th August and all the songs have been written by us - the band... Basically, we are releasing it independently and are doing all the leg work ourselves - have even set up our own publishing company. We are outlaying all the finance for the project anyway in the beginning and we are actually a charity... however, we will be paying them royalties for their songs which, I think, is only fair and the right thing to do.

What do you think about having them sign such a disclaimer saying that they won't try to claim anything after the recording and what do you think the disclaimer should say?

I know of a very large church in Australia that has all their writers and people involved sign a disclaimer and it seems to work for them - they have sold millions of albums and the writers have been paid their royalties.

Thanks again for everything...

L******

Your best course is to have sight of the Australian document.

You say you want to pay royalties to the writers?

The writers will be paid by the Publishing Company [you] from monies collected by PRS from MCPS. To have the records pressed you [the record company] will have to have an MCPS license for the record. The money you pay for that will then come back to the Publishing Company and the writers agreed share shall be distributed to the writers.

The singers and musicians would be paid a fee [in theory]....this would be the end of their financial involvement. Or they could be paid a percentage of the sale price. They could waive the fee and/or the percentage as you are a charity.

They and the musicians would receive PPL [for radio and venue plays of the record] and VPL [video and TV]. This would be paid from the license fees picked up by PPL and VPL from radio stations/TV/venues. The singers/musicians would have to register their interest with PPL/VPL.

So, the only disclaimer needed is re. the profit from sales.

I hereby agree that all profits from the sales of the recording titled:
******** recorded by ******** and released on ******* label on ******* [date] shall be for the benefit of ******* Church Charities.

This recording sales shall include CD, cassette, video, DVD, MP3 and all other possible reproduction systems available at the present and in the future.

Name[BLOCK CAPITALS]:..................................
Signed:.......................................... Date:...........
Address:
WITNESS
Name[BLOCK CAPITALS]:..................................
Signed:.......................................... Date:...........
Address:

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)

Hello Dec

I'm in the process of developing the live show using some backing + click track. I'm encountering a few challenges which I'm hoping you may have some easier solutions to...

Firstly...

I want to get a stereo B-track & click (if using the hard panned MD solution obviously you can only get a mono mix + click) what do the pros use?

Secondly...

Monitoring??? Scenario: we sometimes use our own gear/pa sometimes not, so we're faced with (like most bands) varying degrees of equipment/engineers

One thought I had was to use our own onstage mixer to channel all our onstage sounds sound - @ unity mix!!! - (got own midi triggered vocal FX, triggered drums, btrax etc, gt's, bass, vocals, kit) so we can have a fixed in-ear monitor mix for us all (there are times when we each need to here the click).

This way I thought we could save our ears being blown out by inexperienced engineers + have same monitor mix always. We would then send via direct outs each instrument channel & Fx to the foh desk via stage box.

Dec, does this sound feasible in a live/touring situation?

Warm regards :-)

S*** G C***** (artist/songwriter/producer - V7)

The pro side of the business has long since stopped using 'clicktraks'...a waste of space. Unusable. the only ones who ask for click track are ancient, set in their ways musicians [usually cruise ship musicians].

You are making your life overly complicated with the plan you envisage....I repeat...it is all in the writings. Keep it as simple and idiot proof as possible...and listen to my experience. I've been doing this a long time.

The simple method is to use the minidisk player either on stage or FOH. Most bands use it on stage with the keyboard player stop/starting. The feed goes up the mulitcore by stereo DI box. It goes to FOH mix as normal and back to the wedges. If the FOH desk is properly set up for a unity 0db, straightfader mix, and the aux rotaries are similarly in the same straight positions then the mix on stage is precisely the same as the mix in FOH allowing for FX on the channels. The engineer should mix on the input gains and merely use the faders for fine adjustment through the show. That way the mix is perfect in foldback and Front Of House.

If the faders are anything but in a straight line the engineer is a 'dick'. All top engineers work by the straight fader principal...end of argument.

You should have one of the aux. on the minidisk channels dedicated to send back to the stage box and then onto a dedicated stereo power amp for the drummer. One speaker outlet from the drummer amp goes to his earphones [they are wired to mono] and the other to a dedicated wedge or speaker box on the stage behind the vocalist and near the keyboard player/players. [we use a Marshall 4X12 for this purpose....we also daisy chain wedges to each keyboard player for realism]

The drummer, thus, has total control of his own earphones and also the minidisk speakers. This is the result of 30 years of experimentation and knowledge.

With a good consistent system for starting the minidisk, this system is idiot proof...in any situation, even on tour with a strange hired in rig. [I merely pass my hand over my head - as if rubbing my hair]

The only problems we ever encounter is a side stage mix....100% disaster in a one night situation. Side stage mixes do not work in any one night stand...they are great for a tour [after about the fifth night]...but a nightmare for a classy, rehearsed, precise show.

To use in-ear mix you have to have an extremely clean, mega expensive, desk. Unless you use such a desk [Midas etc.] then forget the idea completely....you will become a nervous wreck....you will also be driven mad with 'inherent noise'. They are also mighty dangerous in the wrong engineer's hands. Think about the poor unfortunate British Eurovision entry this year. Their career was destroyed in four minutes.

In reading your Email, the best investment you can make is a 50 metre multi-core plus 30 channel stagebox and a 50 metre mains cable to connect the FOH mixer to your stage ring main [you do run your own ring main on stage?]

There is no way in a million years that you can have a 2003 mix from a stage mixer. End of story!

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)

Well Dec...

The time has come for me to show Uruguay and the world what I'm made of. The hit has been recorded. The live sound is great. Attitude OK, dresses OK hairs OK (well there really is a problem here since I'm becoming BALD and I only am 22!! I must confess this worries me a lot, I started a hair treatment but they don't warranty nothing... any sugestions???)

A**** for Uruguay

There is nothing you can do about fine hair...other than having it cut really tight or shaved....both work. I have always had dreadful hair....but I work at it very hard...I use the best hairdressing people and have the best colouring.

Go to the most trendy hairdressing place in your area and ask their advice for styling - make sure to tell them you are in the music business and let them hear a sample of the style you play. Shaved looks good so long as the clothes are trendy and 'soft'. Aggressive clothing makes a shaved head look aggressive....think of David Beckham...he wears soft clothing when he chooses a shaved head look.

Hair treatments do not work unless your problem is low blood circulation in your scalp. The best ones work by encouraging blood flow ....they dilate the capillaries just under the skin of the scalp. That is why they are not recommended for folk with blood pressure problems. If it doesn't work in a month it is never going to work.

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)

Hello!

I wonder what type of compressors i need in my setup? I really want to compress drums so they sound LOUD and HARD, but also use it for vocals etc. Maybe I need more than one compressor? What do you reccomend Dec! M***** S******

If you only have one compressor available it would be probably best to use it as an 'end of line' compressor....the sort you would put over the whole mix.......BUT!!!!!!

A huge word of warning for you. It is extremely foolhardy to compress a mix. Because - once it is compressed, it is impossible to uncompress it. Too much compression can be as bad as no compression at all. You are best bringing your good sounding masters to a proper mastering studio where they will added the final compression and enhancement touches

A possible way of using one compressor would be to use it to compress or limit each track as it is being recorded [I am guessing you are not using a PC to record?].

Alternatively, use it over all the vocal channels. 'Insert's it over a group which is taking all the vocals. That way the vocals will be harder, more 'in yer face' and also the lead vocal will sit much nicer in the whole vocal arrangement.

Of course - a compressor would really make the drums sound wonderful.....

So you have a lot of choices there....I know what I would do. I would save quietly and after some research I would buy a number of compressors:

1. Behringer Composer [industry standard, affordable compressor much used in live and studio situations]
2. Drawmer [slightly more up-market but available at a good price on Ebay]
3. DBX [again, more up-market and available on Ebay] LA Audio [make excellent 4 in 1 units....good sounding and vicious]
4. TLA Audio FAT 1 [my current favourite...mostly valve and very in yer face]

   Just one caution.....ensure that the compressor has a noise-gate built in as many compressors can be noisy....a gate ensures that they are silent when a signal is not going through.

   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)

Hi Dec!

I am getting really frustrated with trying to polish up my vocals to sound like they do on commercial cd's. I own a Rode NTK Valve Condensator microphone, and it is bullseye in terms of EQ and placement in mix, but it is also VERY VERY HARSH (some would call it "crisp" perhaps) and I always end up draging the EQ down a whole lot to smothen out that harshness.

But of course in doing so I damage other aspects of the vocals, making them duller and not to well fitted in the mix.

How DO pro's polish up their vocals? Maybe it is impossible with my current microphone? I have heard other people's mixes with it and they've sound even worse!! I want them to sound soft and "round" and smoooth - and it's not my room it's padded to the extreme.

p**** s

You are sounding like dozens of other recording guys who 'miss out' on the initial principals of recording. Of necessity and to respect members of my 'Serious Writers Guild I can only give you simple advice and not the whole deal [members pay a lot for the dynamite information] I give total detail of great vocal techniques in 'How To Make A $Million From your Music'...but you will have guessed that? All the magic is in front of the microphone....the performance, the electricity, the 'hit'. The microphone has NOTHING to do with it. One mic. is just as good as another. The Rode condenser mic. is excellent.. Strangely, we [the 'pro' side], strive for 'hardness' in everything we record. We use compressors just to do this...hard and 'in yer face'...check out any Dr Dre mix, Andy McCluskey's work with Atomic Kitten...Justin Timberlake. I'm afraid your problem is that you have not got a 'gigged' and professionally knowledgeable voice. This can only be got by gigging, by having tons of studio experience and learning the techniques of Justin, Robbie, Christina Aquilera. You must have as many if not more vocal tricks and techniques in order to stand half a chance of getting the full 'pro' results. I repeat...it is nothing to do with the microphone. When I record, or perform live, the EQ is absolutely flat! But the vocals are CTF [Compressed To F***] sorry about that, but I just love Norman Cook's way of describing outrageous compression. I use lots of differing microphones for different vocal ideas...I always A/B/C test mics for a new singer I might work with...and it is amazing that possibly the cheapest mic. may sound the best. We do not just use one microphone - just because we were told it was 'good' and it was 'expensive'.

dec@makehits.co.uk

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/qanda15.htm -- Revised: 23 January 2004 Copyright © 2003-2004 The Serious Writers Guild. All rights reserved.
Maintained by: makehits.webmaster@makehits.com

| Previous | Next