Band Demos
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!
Technorati Tags: band promotion, music, bands
May 16th, 2007 at 5:07pm
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
May 17th, 2007 at 6:11am
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??
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:33pm
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.,
May 26th, 2007 at 12:58pm
Correct-a-mundo.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:55pm
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.