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

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.

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.

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:

———————

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.

It takes arduous work and perseverance to the learn guitar and there is no fast and easy way, but some procedures are much more adept than others, resulting in quicker advancement. The main chief tip, though, is no matter what you do don’t admit defeat

1. Set Aside Your Own Space
Distractions can play havoc with your concentration and focus, making any practise session worthless. Learning to play the guitar is hard enough so make it easier by finding a space where you can be alone without any outside noise or interruptions.

2. Equipment
Ensuring that your guitar is tuned correctly is paramount at the beginning of any practise session. Preparation is essential to good guitar playing and it is imperative to make certain that your instrument is in good condition 

3. Understand Your Instrument
Surprising, as it might seem, not all guitars are the same, every one has a different tone and sound. Learn to know and understand your guitar, what every part is called and its different function. Appreciate your instrument and, although it’s an inanimate object, learn to respect and care for it. Even though you might not appreciate it now it will make you a better and more experienced guitar player.

4. Recognize Your Level Of Expertise 
Frustration can soon set in when, after a few weeks of practising and learning, you cant play the same tunes as Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page or any of your other guitar heroes. Realism has to kick in somewhere and the sooner the better. Learning to play the guitar is not an overnight thing. It takes time. Start with sensible goals, leave the advanced playing until later and progression will come with a growth in confidence. Show persistence at this point and you will reap the benefits later and it will be even more rewarding.

5. Pick Your Style
Being able to play a piece of music made famous by one of your favorite guitarists is an unbeatable sensation. When, and only when, you have completed the fundamentals and you are set to move on to something harder it’s time pick a style of music you like and can identify with. Most songs are generally accessible as sheet music from a variety of sources and it’s another level in your education. This is an exhilarating stage in your progress. 

6. Set Goals
One of the best ways to focus you concentration on you progress is to set mini targets. Pick a time period for when you are going to play your first song in front of family and friends and let them know about it. This helps give a reason for your practise sessions and certainly grabs your attention the closer to the date of your debut performance. Once you have performed and enjoyed being in the spotlight it will give you a boost in confidence. It’s no surprise, but your playing will improve after. 

Keep in mind, learning to play the guitar is a continual progression, but should always be fun, and if you continue to advance consistently there is no knowing how talented you can grow to be. With any luck, these tips will prove useful and you will have many years of playing satisfaction.

About the Author:

Learn more about playing the guitar or any instrument of your choice at www.learn-and-play.info a popular website full of tips and advice.

The sad thing about learning improvisation, is that many people put a lot of emphasis on the fact that they must first learn to master chords, notes, read music, and be able to play other peoples music well, before they can get onto the more important task of creating their own masterpieces. The result of these thoughts usually ends with the person becoming so caught up in getting everything right that they feel afraid to improvise, and compose simply because they fear getting it wrong, or creating something that sounds terrible.

Why Improvisation Is Important
Improvisation is vital to a musician, because it is a lesson taught in creativity, and it develops an ear for hearing music on a whole new level, and copying it. For those who want to learn to compose, creativity is the most important aspect of being a composer, it is even more important than knowing keys, notes, chords, or even reading music itself.

Improvisation at its greatest can be found in jazz music. If you want to learn about improvisation, be sure to listen to some of the classic jazz. Jazz is the type of music that was mostly improvised, and added to. It was rarely played to a set out strict music sheet, but evolved as it was being played, and only got better each time the musician played it.

How To Improvise
Improvisation is nothing more than experimentation, and creativity. We all have those two things. Don’t be fooled into thinking that, in order to improvise, you must first know all of the chords, or notes used to play your instrument. Improvisation can be started off as early as when you have learned your first couple of notes, or chords.

The best way to use improvisation is to experiment with the chords or notes as you are learning them. If you are taking lessons, use some your practice time to try out different chord, or note combinations. Try anything you like, experiment. Improvisation is all about learning the art of non-conformity to the average style of music, and how to learn to use your creative talents to make an expression of yourself.

How To Deal With The Internal Critic
Everyone’s a critic, but we are our own worst critic. Most people are afraid to try new and different things simply because they are afraid to fail. The first time that you improvise, you will probably sound terrible, and maybe even the second time, too. This isn’t failing, this is learning. As you get better at playing your instrument, you will also get better at improvising. If you start off learning how to improvise early, you will only get better at it as you learn more chords, or notes. By starting to improvise early on, you will never be concerned about when the right time to start improvising is, simply because right now is the best time to start.

Don’t be afraid of what other people will think, either. If you are afraid of someone criticizing your first attempts at improvising, just play your instrument when nobody is around, until you are more confident, and ready to share your music with others.

Taking Improvisation Into A Musical Composition
Once you have mastered improvisation, it is only a small step to take it to the next level, which is creating music of your own. Once again, composing music is a lot like improvisation, and to master it you need to be creative, and understand that it may not sound perfect at first. But with a little creativity and some tweaking, you have the potential to make the music in your head come to life through your instrument.

Conclusion
Composing is nothing more than letting yourself be creative, and letting that creativity to make your music unique. You don’t have to be able to play as well as well as Mozart to start to improvise, and from there begin to compose music. Mozart started out just like you, improvising, learning, and then composing.

So let your creative talents flow, and remember that you don’t have to get it right every time. But you do have to want to succeed.