| Previous
| Next
![Questions and Answers [Number 4]](qanda.gif){kind=small}
"Dec, that American guy has now called to say he will have my songs on my conditions, not his"....... Rory O'Connor [Serious Writers Guild Master Class member No: MAS063040]
The Best Questions and Answers on the NET...real worries and real doubts, suspicions answered by DEC. You may hate Dec or LOVE him but can he help you? DEC helps all those who ask! Can he help you?
"Success in Music allows you to give to charity...here, Dec lends his support to The Ghurkas at The House Of Lords, Westminster, London...helping to set up medical stations in Nepal"
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) "My Roland VM 3100 digital mixer is still making noise and it's pi**ing me off, do not know how to shut it up???"
(2) "Am I right in saying that January is a good month for release as sales are at their lowest?"
(3) "My Chinese friend has been ripped off by a couple of managers. What advice can you give her?"
(4) " I really want to write jazz. Is there a market for what I want to do?"
(5) "Guess what? I too don't understand the 'vocal arrangement' thing."
(6) "You do crap on about being careful buying new gear...why?"
(7) "Have you got any advice on sampling for me?"
 |
(1) Hi Dec. Anyway my Roland VM 3100 digital mixer is still making noise and it's pi**ing me off, do not know how to shut it up??? Nick Hall |
The most noise on mixers comes from the effects units . They must be driven hard...i.e. the inputs led's must be peaking in the red and the outputs at maximum. The mix setting on the units should be fully 'wet', in other words the unit is only delivering effected signal and no original.
Apart from that if every channel is operating at 0db and every module is delivering maximum, the result should be 'silent'. Of course, effects units will never be totally silent, so you have to be careful to mute them during quiet passages and mute them at the end of tracks.
An overall noise suppressor is invaluable. I use a Boss NS50. I have it on as the tape starts, then on the first split second of music I bypass it and do the same at the end of the track.....a split second from the end I engage it again...that way, total silence at the start and finish...where it matters most. you have to adjust the threshold and decay so that the noise suppression matches the reverb dying away...if you have reverb carrying on at the end of the track.
Regards
"where the 'lil guy gets the same chance as the big guy"
| |
(2) Hi Dec, Thank you for your advice re. Christmas songs. I figured that, but nevertheless, it wrote itself as I drove home - a strange hybrid of Wham and Slade with a singalong hook like Band Aid's !! Am I right in saying that January is a good month for release as sales are at their lowest? Andrew |
January is traditionally the month that new recording artists are launched on the public. The Industry feels that after the Christmas rush of record buying the momentum slows....however, in the past few years this has not been the case and some big artists have made killings in the early months of the year.
As regards the 'Christmas Records', Record Companies fight shy of these, as the winner at Christmas scoops the pot and nothing else sells!
The Radio and TV stations get innundated with mediocre 'Cliff Richard' type crap, so refuse to play any of it, concentrating on the 'Slade' song and the traditional Christmas party, singalong toons...and then only play them in the final week before Christmas.
The Christmas hits of the past few years have been normal Hit Toons that just have that 'classic' feel to them. Even then the release timing has got to be 'perfect' so that sales peak in Christmas week. The 'Robson and Jerome' version of my Number One 'I Believe' was the classic 'mistake'...it peaked too soon...but they scooped the pot with the album! By the way, that single cost £4 Mill. to promote!
I repeat: "It is not worth it to spend time on a Christmnas toon that is 'easy to write' and easy to conbvince yourself of it's worth. It's better to analyze and evaluate current hits and write similar to, but better than one of them. always mindful of having an innovative, never been done before flavour...PLUS raunchiness".
regards
"where the 'lil guy gets the same chance as the big guy"
| |
(3) Hi Dec. We've just had 'Popstars' over here in Canada...interesting. What I am going to do, is send over the package to you, and if you feel it has nowhere to go, then please tell me and I will pass your comments to Kylanna. If there is an opportunity for her and you or another person in the music industry in the UK, then that is good too. I have no ulterior motives other than trying to help someone who appears to have been ripped off by a couple of unscrupulous people in the trade, and who deserves to be given the opportunity of maybe making progress and not being screwed financially by the less than honest. John [Canada] |
We had the same 'Popstars' here...it's been all over the World. Good show...some 'Pro' truths in it, but at the end of the day it was a Television Show...and not particularly real life.
I am always suspicious of artists who say they were 'ripped off'...in my experience it generally means that what they expected didn't happen....in other words, they expected a manager to take them by the hand and, with no effort from the artist whatever, release a Hit Record, make a fortune in six months, buy ten cars and six houses, and arrange a world tour of Stadiums.
John, that I find in 97% of cases...
When the manager actually wants them to prove their talent, get pictures done, get rehearsed, get songs written, get their 'arse in gear', in other words, they suddenly feel they have been ripped off ....so they get another manager. That manager will be tarred with the same brush, because he will want exactly what the first manager wanted: "SOMETHING TO MANAGE".
I shy away from that side of the business as I know exactly and precisely the way 'wannabe's' think....they want success for nothing!
The ones who get the success are the ones who study their art, live sleep eat and dream it, work their socks off in rehearsing, then performing, writing, recording, pack venues, sell white labels, accumulate massive fanbase/database and finallly come to the attention of proper management and agency.
Finally the Record Companies fall over themselves to get to them...and there you have it! In other words, they prove that they have something that the Public actually will buy.
Totally different to what 97% of wannabe's think!
Regards
"where the 'lil guy gets the same chance as the big guy"
| |
(4) Hi Dec. I have been writing lyrics for music for the past 10 years for recording artists but I really want to write jazz. Is there a market for what I want to do? . Thanks in advance Rasheeda |
You don't give me your age and you don't tell me whether you have had success with the TOONS you have written for various artists. Rasheeda sounds like a girl's name..I may be wrong but 'a' at the end usually means female.
From your mail I figure you must be about 18 years?
For each letter/'mail/phone call I get saying they can't write lyrics and can only write melodies, I get one saying the opposite....can't write lyrics.
So I may start a service putting lyric writers and melody writers together.
You are young by writing standards as the art of writing commercial 'sellable' Toons is something picked up with vast learning and vast experience.
I would suggest you don't write specifically in one genre [jazz] as this limits your commercial appeal. Jazz has only a tiny following towards mainstream POP/ Hip Hop, R &B, Country, Gospel. And in countries like the UK even smaller!
Be broad based in your writing and concentrate on writing ONE successful commercial 'in yer face' HIT. By having one hit then the doors open and you can then broaden your writing style and maybe create a following for YOU! Rather than the artists you write for.
There are ways of getting to TV and Film Producers but usually only when you have a success behind you. You must have 'complete' toons and not just lyrics....lyrics without melody are just POEMS! So you need to collaborate.
A Web Site is only an adjunct [an addition] to a successful business, otherwise it is exactly the same as having a name insertion in Yellow Pages...Understand?
My 'Serious Writers Guild' is successful in 12 countries and is hugely successful on the Internet because it is a genuine help to writers and performers....I did not start it on the Net and then hope for success...does that help?
To have a successful Production Company you also need to know PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES inside out...and this you only get from massive learning and experience...I may sound all 'gloom and doom'...I am not, I am pointing out that the way forward for you is to understand that you have to study and learn your art...listen to HITS, analyse HITS, then imitate them...write only HIT POTENTIAL toons and never write 'just for fun'...that is a luxury I have never had...everything I do, and have done in the past is done to MAKE MONEY!
Regards
"where the 'lil guy gets the same chance as the big guy"
| |
(5) Hey Dec. Well what can I say? Thank you so very much. THANK YOU! You know, I could always do some writing (newsletter style) for you to return the favour - if you'd like? I have read, and now re-read your email. It all makes perfect sense. The bit about the image never used to be a problem, until I was battered down for years on end by these 'muso' friends!! I love being different! I will send you pre demo material - it will be recorded on a tape recorder or possibly on 4 track. I would say 'is this OK with you?' - but I think I already know the answer - if there's a hit song there, you'll hear it a mile off! Guess what? I too don't understand the 'vocal arrangement' thing. I was looking on your web site yesterday at a reply that you had written with regards to vocal arrangement. Do you mean all the vocal 'backing' that goes with the song? Apart from the main vocal line? - harmonies, 'answer phrases', etc,. If not, I really will need this explained to me - sorry, how many times have you had to do this?!! (You don't have to answer that one!) Also, the 'solo' career thing. I want to be in a band - I too am aware of the 'give the public a choice of faces / personalities to love / hate'! Initially I would like to team up with a co-writer though (as I said in my letter) I think this is really important for me and my sanity! However, I don't want to sit still in the mean time and I need to earn money, even if it's from busking - hence the 'solo career' (ha,ha!!) I wouldn't dream of presenting myself to a record company in my current guise!! Thanks again. For the first time in my life I feel like I'm on the right track - with a mentor that I can relate to and trust! Just out of interest - when you come across a hit (not penned by yourself) what is the procedure? Sally PS: Quite encouraging is that the songs on the CD were written between 1993 and 1999!
|
Hi Sally....
"I could always do some writing (newsletter style) for you to return the favour - if you'd like?"
Yep! Good idea.......
Vocal arrangement? Whehhhhh!
If I hear one more 'supposed' writer of music ask that questrion again I'll scream....
It is, without a shadow of doubt the BIGGEST reason for non-success in this industry.
You either understand it, and hear it or you don't...it is not B/V's or vocal backing...it is an integral part of the whole vocal presentation...
My Goodness, I almost get angry when I have to write like this....Listen to ANY top ten record...take away the drums, percussion, now take away every shread of musical instrumentation...what are you left with?
A swathe of gorgeous vocals made into an intertwining HIT vocal arrangement that stands up on it's own...that's where the HIT is......easiest thing to do is get Nsync: "No Strings Attached"...the last track is exactly that...they have just 'dumped' all the music and left the vocals...as if to say to 'wannabes'.."This is how it's done!"
Also Westlife did that on their single of 'Flying Without Wings'.....they might have said after the track: "Listen you dickheads, this is how you make a hit record...now stop making crap single voice demos and make proper hit records".
I had a Member of my 'Serious Writers Guild' drive all the way from Liverpool to Eastbourne to see me, just to ask that question; "What is Vocal Arrangement?"....I spent three hours explaining....You know what? She went away still not understanding.
You see, I've been immersed in the Pop Recording Industry all my career so vocal arrangenent is just the first thing I look at...then again it's all in my writings.
Answer to your question: When you write a Hit the procedure is automatic...you become a Star whether YOU perform it or someone else does! A HIT makes you musically immortal.
"the songs on the CD were written between 1993 and 1999!"......I'm NEVER wrong! SEVEN years is an eternity in Show Biz!
Regards
"where the 'lil guy gets the same chance as the big guy"
| |
(6) Hi Dec! You do crap on about being careful buying new gear...why? Roger
|
Well Roger!
What can I say?
When I talk, like my in my last Email to you, I always feel that it gives a Member great 'knowledge', so that when the time comes, say an Aunt died and left you $4.500, you then know what the 'proper' equipment is to advance your career.
For instance:
A guy locally (great keyboard player, I use him a lot), he had a tragic childhood with his mother, so his Grandmother brought him up.
They lived together until last year when she decided to move into 'secure accommodation' for elderly people. She gave my pal her house. He decided to move to a flat closer to the town center (he doesn't drive) and after buying the flat had £20,000 in cash left.
Today, all that cash is gone...spent.....nothing at all to show for it.
Why?
Because he just didn't have the knowledge! He bought keyboards that pals said would be brilliant....then sold them back to the shop at a knock down price....he spent a fortune 'producing' himself at the big studio in town....now, if he had the 'knowledge', he could have set himself up very nicely with £20,000. All he had to do was ask the right advice.....and he has my number!
Tragedy is he is not a Member...and even more tragically, is not the sort of guy that will listen and learn....wants to do it all his own way, or the way his pals tell him to do it....how much success have they had? Or has he had?
The answer to those questions is very obvious.
Regards....and that kitchen table of yours must be weighed down!!! [grin]
PS: If you decide to move into MIDI, then use the Industry Standard programme Cubase...it really is not worth while looking at anything else! Unless you go down the 'Protools' road.
Regards....
"where the 'lil guy gets the same chance as the big guy"
| |
(7) Hi Dec >Hi Dec I got an expanded EMU sampler which I love but have you got any advice on sampling for me? I usually just go straight from cd into the input but my mate goes via his desk and eq's it before sampling and it does sound pretty fat. What do you do? Cheers Nick [London]
|
Nick....
This is an old chestnut!
I used to fr*g around with samples, thinking I could improve on them..EQ, EFFECTS all that stuff and eventually I came up with a great phrase: "Always Believe the Sample". The guy who did the recording originally (and particulalry when you are talking about dedicated samples like on a Roland U110) spent hours, days, weeks getting it absolutely authentic.....then we come along and start EQ'ing it to heck....NOPE! Don't do it! Better than Dr Dre? I don't think so!
I have an excellent 'reference' CD from Abbey Road Studios which is a great tool for seeing how 'real' instruments 'should' sound....it certainly opens your eyes!
so.....
'Believe the sample'
Regards...
PS: Why go off 'Industry Standard'.?..Akai is Industry Standard sampling! I always keep everything I work with to Industry Standard and you will find that all studios do....Nick, always try your best to keep to that...it really pays off!
Regards
"where the 'lil guy gets the same chance as the big guy"
Ask Dec
Send an email to dec@makehits.co.uk and ask Dec a question today!
Previous Q & A's [CLICK HERE]
http://www.makehits.co.uk/qanda4.htm -- Revised: 02 AUGUST 2003
Copyright
© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 The Serious Writers Guild. All rights
reserved.
Maintained by: makehits.webmaster@makehits.com