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There have been many different kinds of rumors and speculations that famous songs actually contain subliminal messages. Subliminal messages can be used in songs that are verbal or aural in nature, and are delivered either very quickly or backwards at such low volumes that the audience is unaware of receiving it. It is made in such a way so that the audience would not be aware that they are under the influence of such a ‘trick’ and would innocently be mesmerized by the songs they are listening too. Such charges are made not just to rock music, but even Christian songs as well!

A famous subliminal message in music would be the song Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin, that apparently when played backwards contains satanic messages. Apparently, some people claim that when they tried this trick, they could hear the devil speaking right to them in this fashion. This is a form of reverse subliminal messages. More often than not, subliminal message are inserted for entertainment purposes or to increase sales of the album. The reason behind its success is that subliminal does not create a craving for a product but enhances the desire and want for it when it is already there. Thus, since most of the people that attend concerts are fans of the bands performing, they already have a craving to buy their albums. This is where subliminal messaging comes in to enhance that desire and eventually influencing them to purchase it. It has been speculated that Led Zeppelin inserted the message as they thought that if people played the record backwards enough times, it would spoil it and hence lead to increased sales for them!

Other famous subliminal messages in music include one involving The Beatles, specifically the song titled Come Together, which is said to be about sex with John Lennon. Even Britney Spears, in the song “I’m not that Innocent” had supposedly inserted the message “Sleep with me I’m not too young” when played backwards! The rock group Queen’s song “Another One Bites the Dust” is also purported to be talking about drug use when played backwards.

Several years ago, there was a court case involving the suing of a rock group “Judas Priest” which had inserted the subliminal message of “Do it” in their song, which the parents felt induced their children to commit suicide.

Before getting carried away and panicking about the various songs that you have listened to before, the real issue is not whether there are actual subliminal messages included in songs, but if these have any influence on the audience. If you were to hear such a message played backwards, would you be able to understand it, or subconsciously alter your behavior?

Research has shown that when participants listened to messages recorded backwards, they are unable to decode what it actually was when played normally. Their behavior was not altered in any noticeable way. After all, if listening to metal bands that proclaim death and gore do not induce people to go on a murder rampage, it is unlikely that such subliminal messages in music can have significant adverse effects on the audience.

About the Author:

Greg Frost is a leading innovator in the field of subliminal technology and the director ofwww.chargedaudio.com which specializes providing a whole range of subliminal cds for self improvement . Grab your free “Ultimate Success Unleashed” Subliminal Cd today atwww.chargedaudio.com/freesubliminal.html

It’s a typical situation. You’ve been putting a lot of energy in your craft and people are starting to talk about your band. You’ve played a few shows and everyone is asking for a CD. I used to think that in order to release your own CD you would go out and play a bunch of shows and then someone would come out and sign you. They’d take care of everything. They’d set up the recording studio, organize the artwork, and pay for it to get manufactured. That’s not the case these days. 

At present, technology is readily available for any budding musician to record, create, and duplicate CDs. CD duplication involves CD-R media. CD-R prices have dropped dramatically since the first CD Recorders were available on the consumer market. This makes it an affordable option for anyone who wants to copy their own CDs and pass them on to friends, family, or fans. This is a great option for the young band that is still getting their feet wet in the music industry. Duplicating a limited amount of CDs can keep a limited budget in place. 

If your band is at the point were your ready to start selling your CD your best option is to make a retail-ready CD and having it replicated. What is a retail ready CD? These are the same CDs you find in the music stores by the major label artists. They have great artwork printed on CD inserts, a nice tray card insert, silk screened art on the CD, and they are shrink-wrapped. 

The retail-ready CDs are not duplicated, but Replicated. This means that an exact replica of your CD master has been stamped out on all of the CDs. CD Replication is the way to go if you are serious about selling your music for profit. In fact most music stores will not sell duplicated CDs. Think about it this way. It is illegal to sell or profit from duplicating copy written material. If you tried to sell CDs that have been duplicated to a retail store you’ll more than likely get turned down. How are they to know that it is really your band? One of the best anti-piracy practices that CD manufacturing plants have instituted is the verification of copyright and ownership through a International Property Rights Form. Filling out an I.P.R. form ensures the CD Replication plant that they are not infringing on anyone’s copyright. 

CD Replication not only shows that you value your art enough to have it made retail-ready, but also cost effective. I’ll break it down in general. 

DIY CD Duplication

� 1 Computer with CD Recorder 
� 100 Memorex CD-R 
� CD Jewel Cases 
� Printer Ink 
� Man Hours

Total $1495.00 

Typical CD Replication Package

� CD Replication for 1000 CDs 
� 1-3 color on-disc silk-screen imprint 
� CD Jewel box, assembly, professional quality film-wrap 
� 2 Panel Insert and Tray card 
� Bar Code

Total $1000.00 

These prices are very approximate and are only used for the purpose of estimating the difference between CD Duplication and CD Replication. Lets dig in a little bit. I’ve already illustrated some of the benefits of CD Duplication and the benefits of CD Replication. You can see above that you are spending approximately $500 more taking on the CD duplication responsibilities yourself and only getting 100 CDs!! Having your CDs Replicated costs less and someone else is doing the work. You can spend the time you’d spend on CD duplication and practice your chops or promote your upcoming CD release party, saving yourself $500 that you can use for items like merchandising, t-shirts, stickers, and posters. 

Whether you choose CD Replication or CD Duplication, you’ll need to do some research. There are plenty of resources available for CD Duplication and you probably own everything you need. It is up to you and your band to decide which option is better depending on what level you see your band on. Are you a band that plays parties or small clubs, or is your band seasoned and touring? There are benefits to both. Find a local CD manufacturer in your area and ask for their recommendation. Most CD manufacturers also offer quick turn high quality CD Duplication with printing on the CDs. Keep rockin’!

About the Author:

Blake Stoffregen writes for various websites including Crystal Clear Sound CD Replication. Crystal Clear Sound offers cd duplication and replication services from one off cds to retail ready cd replication.

So, you’re considering a tattoo. It’s quite a step to take. Along with the obvious things to consider like the pain involved, and the risk of infection, I think the most important thing you need to remember is a tattoo’s permanence. One of my favorite Jimmy Buffet song lines is a tattoo is a “permanent reminder of a temporary feeling”.

Tattoos have grown in acceptance and have become much more mainstream in the last ten or so years. It’s interesting that tattoo businesses are now calling themselves tattoo “salons” and tattoo “studios” instead of using the old phrase tattoo “parlor”. In a 2003 poll it was found that 16% of American adults have a tattoo. You see many young women now with a lower back tattoo. Technology has helped advance the popularity of tattooing with better longer lasting colors and improvement in equipment. Helping the popularity also is the emergence of reality TV shows like A&E’s “Inked”. There are even forums on the web for people with tattoos and for people considering getting a tattoo.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of mass designed tattoo art works available, and, if one of them isn’t right for you all that is standing in your way is your imagination and the right tattoo artist. Tattoo artists, like those featured in “Inked” actually get followings due to the quality of their work. One of my favorite tattoos is a Rosie the Robot from The Jetsons. There are of course animal tattoos, flower tattoos, bird tattoos, butterfly tattoos, demon tattoos, cross tattoos, heart tattoos, insect tattoos, skull tattoos and unicorn tattoos.

The care that you receive in a tattoo studio must be flawless. There are measures that each tattoo studio must follow in order to ensure a sterile environment for patrons. Each state may have their own laws governing tattoo studios. Some tattoo studios require their artists to have mandatory training in sterilization techniques. Check with the studio.

Also, how do you choose a tattoo artist? Word of mouth is one of the best ways to find a tattoo artist. Look at their work. Visit the studio, go several times. Look around, do you like what you see? Are the work areas clean? Do the artists seem to be following guidelines assuring cleanliness? How are they interacting with the patrons?

Make sure that you consider the tattoo process thoroughly.

Having a tattoo removed can be painful, and costly too.

Home computer music recording has become extremely popular, both as a hobby and as a legitimate means of live recording and mixing. For the serious musician or recording technician, the computer/software combination offers ease of use and lower cost, and it requires less space than traditional methods of recording.

Recording can be accomplished by using a “mixing board” to pre-mix multiple signals with their corresponding analog effects (if desired) before sending them to the computer, or each “plain” signal can be recorded independently to its own track through a computer audio interface, software effects applied, and the individual tracks then mixed together.

Using a mixer and analog effects, one could conceivably record without the benefit of multiple tracks, resulting in the need for less expensive, more simplistic software. For much greater control and a more polished sound, a quality multitrack software with effects is preferred. 

Although more difficult to learn and use, multitrack software provides many more options for the user. The cost for quality multitrack recording software can range from $40 to several hundred dollars. Don’t let the low prices fool you though, many a great recording has been made with shareware recording software. 

If you aren’t experienced in multitrack recording, purchasing at the low end of the spectrum makes sense. It’s best to choose a product that will accept plug-ins, though. Plug-ins are small pieces of software that provide various functions (typically effects) that can be installed into the multitrack software, providing greater flexibility to the sound engineer. Several companies produce audio software plug-ins of the vst or directx variety that will work with even low cost software. A number of the plug-ins are actually offered free of charge.

For the more serious enthusiast, the computer (pc) should contain at least a Pentium 4 or Athlon 64 processor, 200gb, 7200 rpm IDE or Serial ATA hard drive, 1 gigabyte of dram, a good video card, and a high quality sound card. Any on-board video should be disabled in the cmos setup and a quality graphics card with at least 64mb ram installed.

A flat panel monitor with a 19″ screen is preferred over a crt. With the large viewing area, the video resolution can be set at 1280 x 1024, enabling more of the audio recording software to be viewed on the screen at one time.

On-board audio (if available) should also be disabled and a high quality sound card installed into the computer. Also, invest in a pair of quality, amplified, near-field monitors. These speakers are designed specifically for music recording. Remember, if you’re serious about your recordings, you’ll want the music to be reproduced as realistically as possible.

A computer audio interface of some sort is a real necessity. It should have 1/4″ inputs for instruments such as electric guitars or keyboards, as well as XLR inputs for microphones. 48v phantom power should be avaiable for condensor mics, as well. A mixer could even be plugged into the audio interface if more flexibility is needed.

More and more, musicians are realizing the high quality and low cost of producing their own recordings, while those interested in the technical side of recording can see the benefits of digital recording, mixing and mastering.

The question: “What features should I look for when choosing audio recording software?”
The answer: “It depends on what you want to record.”

There are many low cost recording programs available that can be used to record from existing media (tape, cd’s, vinyl lp’s) or from radio and internet broadcasts. Even these low priced software programs have editing features and native effects that can be applied to the recording.

Live recording is best accomplished by using multitrack recording/editing software that incorporates tools and effects suitable for application to live voices and instruments, one of the most important being compression. Compression is essential to level the extremes in volume that inevitably occur in live recording.

Several features/capabilities should be considered when choosing software for live music recording (listed below).

Required features:

1. Recording – record multiple stereo tracks

2. Editing – edit a track’s waveform

3. Mixing – mix multiple tracks into one stereo track

4. Effects – native (built-in) effects such as delay, reverb, fade in, fade out, flanger, compressor and various high/low filters

5. File conversion – convert to/from the most popular music formats such as wav, wma, mp3

Additional useful features:

6. Plug-ins – accepts 3rd party software plug-in effects and tools

7. Ripping – pull individual tracks from music cd’s

8. Burning – copy recorded tracks to cd audio

Optional features (depending on need):

9. Midi – record midi instruments (midi keyboards, synthesizers, guitars)

10. Video – synchronize audio with video files

So, in conclusion, if you are recording music to computer from pre-recorded media, you can certainly get by with software on the low end of the price spectrum. But, if you want to create professional sounding mixes from live music, you’ll need the higher level of sophistication available in a quality multitrack recording program.

Cost shouldn’t be an issue in the choice as the difference in price between the low end software package and a quality multitrack program can be as little as $10 – $20.

A business plan will guide you into greater depths in your business, and will allow you to be on the right track. When a business is organized you minimize the risk of downfalls and you can move forward step by step towards the goal. Business plans are also written when an entrepreneur is seeking funds for a project.

The first step towards writing a good business plan is to have complete knowledge about the product and what needs to be done. Normally a small business plan will need to have a lot of spark in it, so that an investor will take an interest in it. Though the length of a plan does not matter, it needs to be precise, and it also needs to have as much information as possible.

A plan will need to have a time frame for the growth of the company, or has to mention exactly how it would reach the goal that has been planned. The reason of the plan has to be specific, and the details about the company have to be honest, as sooner or later they are going to find out who you really are. And if the plan is specially for seeking funds, you will have to be clear how the funds will be used.

Besides describing the nature of the business, other legal aspects have to be included. The people involved will have to mentioned, as well as their experience. The plan should include specifically what the company has currently, and should also include how it thinks of expanding. Marketing will be another important aspect in the plan.

How you will market, and what exactly is the audience target you have in mind. If this is made clear, it also speaks about how many resources will be required initially, and also how much you can recover. The profile of competitors is a must, as it will give a glimpse into what the company needs to do in terms of duration to reach a specific goal.

Without any inhibitions, you should also list the strengths and weaknesses of the company. This will allow a third person as well as you to understand which areas need to be worked on. A summary of the financial status would help greatly, and this will project the company in real light, thus making the process for growth easier.

About the Author:

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Tom Barker is an Internet Entrepreneur developing own projects and offering his services to Online Businesses. One of his projects can be visited at Digital Resale Shopand the Digital Ebook blog.