July 2nd, 2006 at 2:11am by Baconstrip
The band demo sure has changed over the years. In fact you should replace the word “demo” with – “best friggin’ kickass professionally done & sounding recording humanly possible ready?for market and distribution!” If you want to put?get band behind the 8 ball before you even start put out a band recording or worse yet some boom-box distorted recording at practice or a gig. Another misake I see made quite often is putting out incomplete stuff with no vocals, scratch vocals, guide tracks and what have you. DON’T DO IT! It immediately tags you as amateur, unprofessional and not a serious band. How do you expect to compete with all the great sounding recordings out there with an incomplete or a crappy sounding demo?
You have to have a great demo. Period. Either fork up the cash it takes to get 2 or 3 songs done professionally or take the time to learn how to do it yourself. Those are the only options. There is alot of good software out that with effort, practice and care can yield you a great sounding demo. Sonar (the latest Cakewalk offering) is extremely flexible, easy to use and has a ton of features and so is Samplitude just to name a few. You can also pickup some older digital gear that still yields excellent results such as ADAT recorders, Tascam DA-38′s or DA-78′s. Of course if you have the cash some of the newer all in one recorder/mixer/cd burner 8/12/16 track hard disk recorders seem quite capable of doing the job.?
Another mistake bands make all the time is posting a poor looking and poor sounding video of themselves online. Seeing some camera phone video or the ever so popular single camera on a tripod stationary crap sounding video of your band taken from the back of the club showing both people rocking out to your band is a definite no no. I am always perplexed at bands that have great sounding demos and recordings then post absolutely horrid sounding and looking live videos online. You should be treating the look, image and and video of yourself the same as recordings – only put out the best possible.
Remember this and it rings true both in the audio and video realm when it comes to your band: Something is not better than nothing. Spend the time and get it right!
Agree with you. But remmember what’s metal today and back in ’90-ies ! Today is all up to money . And there is a big problem with all that shit, record label first take care where band came from , than they think to listen their musick etc.
And one more thing, today record labels looking for some crapy shity metalcore acts , and dont know… i am pissed off in general.
Noone look today for good quality acts its all just up to money. If i want to give 10.000$/euros, i’ll sign my band to Century Media or SPV without any problems…
Hope one day quality will be more important than quantity .
CheerS1
B
Please remember to include all band information, who, what, where, contact details ON THE CD/TAPE A and R and the likes get so many cds etc they open the case put it in play like then loose the case – now if the information is on the cd no problem – if its not – well –
Who Are You??
You want to see a shitty sounding and looking video……check out the one we shot in the middle of winter in a BARN!!!!!!!!!
in Wisconsin no less.,
Correct-a-mundo.
Back in 2003 an A&R rep for Capitol Records told me the exact same thing. This was after taking a listen to my daughter’s “deno”. God, we had no idea. He said there is no such thing as a demo anymore. The CD you present for consideration has to have the quality of recond industry standard and all songs must be great songs. And true, putting up a poor recording or video is a serious mistake. People will remember and that is what they will take away with them. Bad idea.
I wish more bands and artists would realize this.
Before sending anything to get listened to I feel any music on your space or site is good music. Sure if its done with a room mic with hissing, unaudiable fades and crap like that … don’t post. But, if it gives a general sense of what your band is about go for it. Doesn’t need to sound like Rick Rubin had a hand in it.
Ofcourse if you are ready to send your stuff to a label it should be 100% as good as you can get it. Most listen to the first song briefly, the second for about 20 seconds and possibly jump afew tracks if you have more than 2 or 3. And if they actually listen to 3 tunes your the lucky ones.
Funny though you spend all that time and money into a product and get signed they just make you do it all over again anyways … but who would really complain then?
And when it comes to having GREAT sounding quality on your myspace or site don’t worry if a label or rep stumbles onto it. Again they’ll make you do it again. Just don’t be the idiots to send a poor quality cd to a label. It only floads the world of more trash in their bin.
is this a screaming afterbirth demo?