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Conference napalm::commusic_v1

Title:* * Computer Music, MIDI, and Related Topics * *
Notice:Conference has been write-locked. Use new version.
Moderator:DYPSS1::SCHAFER
Created:Thu Feb 20 1986
Last Modified:Mon Aug 29 1994
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2852
Total number of notes:33157

240.0. "First Commercial Sold!" by CHAMP2::DDREHER () Wed Feb 05 1986 22:22

Home Studios can make Money!

I sold my first commercial for $2000 about a month ago.  I heard it on
TV-38 last night for the first time with video.  A friend of mine works in 
advertising and asked me about doing jingles because I had upgraded by
TASCAM 244 4-track to a TASCAM 38 8-track (I saw Ted Czotter's and had
to have one).  At first I was leary of 'selling out' and 'jeopardizing
my artist integrity' but $2000 is not bad for 30 hrs work.  It helps
subsidize my 'hobby'.  Don't think I'll give my job up at DEC just yet,
though. ;^) 

The format of most commercials is similar.  Mine is 18 bars and is exactly
29 1/2 seconds long.  It starts with a 4 second 'full sing' of the main jingle
line, the does an 16 second 'loop' were the spot is overdubbed by an
announcer "This month prices will never be lower...",etc. and then has
a full sing at the end.  The commercial was for Spags's dept store.  The
idea of a jingle like this is to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

All keys, bass and drums were programmed using a MSQ-700 sequencer and a 
LINNDRUM. Synths were a JUPITER-6 and a JUNO-60 (I'm a big Roland fan) 
MIDI'ed to the MSQ.  The JUNO has a DCB plug, so I have a DCB <-> MIDI 
interface called a MD-8.  My wife sang on it.

Funny thing about this is that I'm really a guitar player and there is no
guitar in the jingle.  I can't play keys or drums to save my life, but I 
can program 'em.  I love this technology.


Dave

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240.1MENTOR::COTEThu Feb 06 1986 10:453
Congratulations!

Edd
240.2SAUTER::SAUTERThu Feb 06 1986 12:487
Congratulations from me too!  You are now a pro, with all
of the hassles and rewards: ASCAP, tax deductions for your
equipment and possibly the space they occupy in your home,
insurance, etc., etc.  Would you be interested in sharing
your sequence with others?  I am pretty sure I can copy
it to an Apple floppy in Roland format.
    John Sauter
240.3SIVA::FEHSKENSThu Feb 06 1986 13:208
Congrats!  How'd you get the gig?  Did you hook up with Spags directly,
or their ad agency, etc.?  Did you have a demo to show beforehand?
How were their needs characterized? Etc.  I've got pretty much the same
setup you've described (MSQ-700, Tascam 38, Super Jupiter etc.) and as
I develop my skills it'd be nice to know how to ammortize some of the
equipment costs, to now justified solely as a "hobby".

len.
240.4OLORIN::CZOTTERThu Feb 06 1986 20:096
Super Dave! BTW, if you need help on your next commercial with recording
the keys, feel free to call me. If you pay me a dollar maybe I can deduct
all my keyboards as a business expense as well. That would save me
thousands of dollars in income taxes.

Ted
240.5CHAMP2::DDREHERThu Feb 06 1986 20:3531
re: 2

I think it would be easy to transfer sequences.  If your computer can
accept a clock signal and can record in real time then we could connect
the MSQ-700 MIDI out to your sequencer's MIDI in.  Then we could use your
SBX-80? to start both devices and keep them in synch, recording the sequence
in real time.  I think this aproach would work to tranfer MIDI data from 
a variety of sequencers.  I have a library of stuff from Bach to cover tunes 
to originals.

re: 3

My contact with Spag's is a former drummer that used to be in a band with 
some other musicians I used to play with.  He is now in the advertising
dept at Spag's.  He basically does print, like Sunday paper stuffers. He 
knows some people at TV 10 who do commercials.  One of these guys just left 
TV 10 to form an advertising agency with some of his client base he built at
TV 10, including Spag's.  The idea is that when an account is landed,  the 
agency will be responsible for print, audio, and video.  My studio is going
to do the audio, as long as they and clients are happy with the work.
They had previously worked with 24-track studios, but the cost was expensive
due paying studio time, engineers, song writers, and musicians.  I can
deliver just as good a product as they can, at lower cost and fewer logistical
headaches.

This was the first job to prove myself, and hopefully other assignments
will be forth coming.  The next one will be a holding company that owns
a couple of shopping malls, and wants to start advertising on radio and TV.


Dave
240.6I think I heard it....MENTOR::COTESue me if I play too long...Fri May 02 1986 12:397
    Dave,
    
    Is that you that I've heard incessantly on channel 10?
    
    Good stuff!
    
    Edd
240.7JUNIOR::DREHERWed May 07 1986 05:248
    That's the one.
    
    The EQ was terrible for the TV version - no high end.
    The radio version came out better...
    
    Thanks...
    
    Dave