WHILE IT might be reasonably argued that a bad musician always blames his Pro-Tools, there s no underestimating the importance of having good gear. A beginner will learn his or her instrument much more satisfactorily with a decent instrument, a band will always play better with good sound, and in recent years, acts like Garbage and Portishead have proved that good songs can be made even better when treated with up-to-date technology.
These days, it s not only the instruments and PA systems that are selling, but sequencers, samplers and Portastudios. However, most retailers will be only too glad to help you navigate this ever-expanding universe. And with competition growing more fierce, back-up and repairs amenities are becoming a more integral part of the service.
The Soundhouse on Crow Street in Temple Bar has everything the working musician might need, including guitars, amplifiers, keyboards, drums, FX, Pro-Audio hardware and samplers.
We stock a lot of Fender, Hohner, Washburn and Encore guitars, spokesman Cormac Smith explains. We sell a lot of these because of the price range: everyone has to start with a basic entry-level guitar.
You can get guitars that are a lot cheaper, but it s false economy. It ll cost you more in the end because you re going to want to upgrade again very, very quickly. You need something that s going to encourage you to play the instrument.
Cormac also stresses the importance of looking after equipment:
A hard case is obviously going to give your gear a lot of protection, especially if you re gigging, he points out. Keeping guitars in tune is important. If the guitar is left lying it ll go out of tune and the neck will warp, so it s important to keep it in tune, change strings, and keep the fretboard clean.
Drums need the skins to be changed regularly, cymbals need to be cleaned. We do all accessories: cases, strings, skins, plectrums, tuners, cables, slides and jack-plugs, and there s a full back-up service with a fully equipped workshop and two full-time technicians here for repairs to guitars, amps and so on. In addition to all that we hire out anything from a plectrum to a full PA system. Once we have proof of address and identity we can hire anything, as a rule.
The recently refurbished and restocked Soundhouse has also had a membership discount scheme in place since 1994. This service includes a discount on all marked prices, previews of sale and clearance bargains, and better prices for trade-ins and used equipment. Also, purchases over a specified amount entitle buyers to special recording and rehearsal deals (The Soundhouse is affiliated with Sun Studios, the Temple Bar Music Centre and the Sound Training Centre).
Protex have been supplying sound and lighting systems to bands, theatres and clubs in the Limerick area for three years. Shortly about to change their name to AAAL (All Audio And Lighting), the company first went into business supplying flightcases. We re changing the name, because alphabetically, marketing-wise, it puts you at the top of the queue, explains Mike Sheehy, and marketing means a lot!
I was a professional musician for twenty-odd years, he continues, but I felt that there was a lack of expertise in the area in terms of advising on sound, and from that I discovered that people wanted lighting as well as sound systems. Over the last two years, our main work has been nightclub installation. I m in the process of putting PA systems into two live venues at the moment, but it comes in cycles. I supply everybody from the small DJ starting out to a full touring rig. We also do a bit of consultancy for noise levels and we have a full service department.
Mike is not over-enamoured by some of the changes that have taken place in the live music scene in recent years.
From a professional musician s point of view, it s much worse than the disco scene in the 70s, he claims. I doubt very much whether you could make a living on the road now. It was possible for rock, pop and traditional bands to gig their way around the country and make money in the 70s. They mightn t have made a fortune, but now people going to gigs are looking to see Point Depot-level lighting and sound, and they only want to pay local prices. I would hate to be a young person trying to make a career out of music now.
The other big swing has been the change to Midi-Files, where a guy gets up behind the keyboard with a backing track done for him by somebody in Germany or England, and it s pure karaoke. A good bass player or drummer now is as rare as hell. The younger guys attitude is, We don t need em, we ve got Midi-Files! Having specialised knowledge is the only way forward. But I d hate to discourage anyone, because the music business is the most fun you can have this side of sex sometimes maybe even more!
Audio Warehouse are professional audio dealers, supplying mainly musicians and studio owners. Their trade is mainly in studio equipment, synthesizers, and Midi Hard Disk recording. Audio Warehouse are also the retail section of a bigger organisation called CTI (one of the key Pro-Audio suppliers in the country).
Anybody who rings us and gives us their details goes on our database, guarantees spokesman Dave. That means they get free access to workshops, seminars and presentations from manufacturers on specific areas like sequencing or sampling. We also do a bi-monthly free draw; last month a student walked out of here with #400 worth of effects just for giving us his name!
People are studying the items they buy far more carefully before they purchase, which is the sensible thing to do, he continues. Very few people tend to buy just one item now, they buy systems. If it looks like a guy s making a mistake, we ll put him right rather than just selling him the box and letting him out the door. Even if somebody doesn t want to update, at least he has the opportunity of interfacing the equipment with either existing or coming technology.
Dave advises first-time buyers to make sure that you re getting all the back-up you should get. For instance, with Akai samplers, because we re Akai s main dealers, if somebody buys one from us, we can actually offer the entire sample library free of charge. If somebody buys one from the UK with their credit card, they don t get that, because you actually have to come in and download it yourself.
The sample library is about #1000 worth of audio samples which you can have for free. We ll give you a cup of coffee and a set of headphones and you can spend your life there!
At any given time we would have five different samplers on demo, maybe 30 different audio effects processors. We also stock Tascam Portastudios which give young musicians an entry into multi-track recording at a fairly affordable price. We would also do stuff like Akai and E-mu and Yamaha samplers, some of which would start at #599, as well as Roland Hard Disk recorders, and Korg, E-mu and Yamaha synthesizers. Plus, we hire equipment at all levels.
Tony Davitt Music is based in Ferns, Co. Wexford and has been in business for nine years.
The service is mainly sales of all types of musical equipment, explains Tony Jnr. That goes from keyboards to PA systems, to guitars, everything really. We do Fender, Korg, Roland, Takamine and so on. We also have a lot of people getting recording gear, from the smaller four-track to bigger studios. With home recording gear, obviously, it works out a lot cheaper to do a demo yourself. We also rent a lot of disco gear DJ mixers, lights and that kind of thing.
Tony would advise first time buyers to spend that little bit more on getting reasonable gear. You could probably buy a guitar for #70, but it s not going to be very good, he points out. It would be worth spending even the extra #30, especially for someone starting off, because better instruments are a lot easier to play and to learn on. It s the same as learning to drive if a car is cutting out all the time it s a lot harder to learn how to drive it.
Tony stresses the importance of thinking ahead when purchasing equipment.
If someone is buying, say, a PA, you have to think a year down the line, he advises. If you just buy one set of speakers now, you want to ensure that you can build on that later.
He also accepts that the market is changing rapidly: The biggest change would be people using backing tracks and stuff. One time people didn t want to know about it, now you have smaller, one-man crews. When we started, it was mainly local people coming around, but now we get a lot of people down from Dublin, Cork and Waterford it has spread out a lot in the last few years.
I think these people see that if we have something they re looking for, it s at a fair price, and there s a good repairs and back-up service as well. Then they tell their friends about us. It s all word of mouth. We sell at the best price we can, and we look after the customer.

BEING SENSIBLE

Sensible Music Ireland was set up in March 1996 as a partnership between John Munnis and Mark Kennedy, two men with a wealth of experience in the local and international live arena. The company serves the live industry with a comprehensive range of backline for hire, and the studio sector with a microphones, FX, dynamics and multi-track recorders.
The company has also come to specialise in location recording. Their most ambitious project to date was the live recording of the Faith Of Our Fathers concert at The Point, an undertaking which required a full 2 48 track analogue set-up utilising Dolby SR, two Otari MTR 90 s, 56 channels of Focus Rite mic amps and a vast array of high quality microphones.
Sensible Music Ireland Ltd also had a significant involvement in this year s Dublin Blues Festival and past satisfied clients include Westland Studios, Windmill Lane Recording, The Corrs, Hothouse Flowers and The Cranberries.
As well as the rental business, there is also a Sensible Music Sales operation in Ireland. The company are Irish distributors for Amek Systems and Controls, SCV Audio products, Oktava and Byetone microphones, as well as being agents for BASF tape. They also specialise in complete design, supply and installation for studios and live venues. Other successes include the sale of a Langley 501 which was recently installed in The Red Box. n

CD MANUFACTURING
At the apex of their game

APEX Duplication have been operating for over 15 years, originally dealing mainly with cassettes, but in recent years the bulk of their orders have switched to CDs.
We offer a CD and cassette manufacturing service and a print service as well, says Joe O Reilly. We take it in from the level of DAT, disc, artwork or film, whatever the customer supplies. Two years ago we were still manufacturing more cassettes than CDs, now it s the other way around. A lot of new artists are making more demos in home or smaller studios, and now they re manufacturing more CDs for promotion at gigs.
The cost of doing that before had been prohibitive, but it s not as expensive as it was and it s more worthwhile having it on CD you ve got more of a chance of radio play, which you wouldn t have with a cassette.
Joe suggests that clients should take all precautions to ensure that the product is ready for the manufacturing process when it is delivered to Apex.
They should submit the complete master, he maintains. Sometimes people come along with different masters and they want to change running orders and stuff that slows down the process. It s better to have it done in the studio when they finish the recording. Everything should be ready and decided on at that stage; it saves a lot of problems.
As regards artwork for print, often people don t know what specifications the printers would be working to. If they want to make up film or artwork they should really come to us and ask for a specification for CD or cassette inlays. If you re going to a CD plant with the wrong type of film, even if it s a millimetre out, it can cause major headaches.
I think as time goes on we re establishing a good name for service in the business, Joe concludes. If the word of mouth is good, you find new customers coming in who found out about us through someone else we did work for. Service is the key to it.