The software, hardware and tips you'll need to put together your music demo   Article written by Arny Bailey       Back to Cover

One of the first things you’ll ________

need to be ‘out there’ is a demo.  No one, and I repeat no one, is going to take the risk booking you for a paying gig without first listening to ‘what’ it is your promoting.  OK, so there may be a coffee shop or two that might allow you an acoustic setup and a corner stool, but that’s about it.  Image is important, but no promotional packet is complete without an audio sample.

If you’re just starting out, this can be a bit daunting but don’t let this get you down.  There are several ways to get your music on a CD that can run from very cheap to very expensive.
 
First, let’s start with the end product.  These days, you need to be able to hand someone a CD.  With schedules as busy as they are, you must understand that whoever you’re handing this to is most likely going to listen to this in their car (if they listen to it at all).  Some car stereos take MP3’s and some don’t.  It’s best to hand them a CD with .wav files.  If it won’t play on their car CD player, then the CD (and effectively you) will be pitched. __

Music Demo Disk

You'll defintely need one of these.

I heard of a band who decided they needed to make sure their demo wasn’t pitched so instead of handing an important booking agent a CD, they handed them an IPOD Shuffle with their music already on it.  What a great (albeit pricey) way to be heard and remembered!

What’s the cheapest route to getting a demo CD?  How does “free” grab you?  If you’re looking for a budget ____

Big Daddy's in Woodinville

You can record your live music FREE at Big Daddy's.

answer that can actually come out quite nice, I strongly suggest you look around and find a venue that has an “open mic” night for new bands and see if any of these record the performance.  Big Daddy’s Place in Woodinville, Washington does just that. www.bigdaddysplace.com  Each Thursday night, bands can pre-schedule a performance that is recorded on a CD and handed to you at the end of the evening.  I have personally done this 3 times in the past __

decade to get some live CD cuts and haven’t been disappointed.  Here’s a sample of ABOUT FACE playing there many moons ago so you can get the general idea of the quality of the recording that can be provided. Big Daddy's 1 - Bad Case Bite

The final mix on the CD can sometimes be a bit off depending on who is at the board that evening, but typically you can get some great song segments that make excellent demo tracks. _____

Now, they cannot make a crumby  band sound good, so you need to be rehearsed and ready to go.  It can take a few months to get booked at one of these venues, but if you currently have nothing, this is a great way to get something fairly decent for literally no money out of pocket (other than the cost of the CD).

Also, I have found that the CD’s often come in one long track so you need to bring it into some sort of audio recording software to cut it down song by song or segment by segment.  For this, I have been using GoldWave www.goldwave.com. You can download a free trial which may even get you through what you need to do but the software is only $45 and well worth the price.  There’s dozens more out there to choose from so do some homework. 

There are many other venues have open mic nights where new bands/musicians can perform on an off night but most do not have the ability to record.   For these venues I suggest simply recording live from a __

recording studio Spendy home recording studios are nice but not mandatory.

table using a recording device similar to the Tascam DR-1 ......

Tascam DR-1 The Tascam DR-1

....... or the Edirol (Roland) R-09.

Edirol R-09 The Edirol (Roland) R-09

These or other devices work great and cost about $300 or more.  If you cannot afford this, then I suggest placing an ad on Craigslist and find someone who can do this for you for cheap.

My first experience with recording live was simply running the “tape out” RCA’s on my board into a digital mini-disc recorder.  This only works if you’re running all instruments direct to the board and mixing them equally.  If not, all your levels will be off.  However, if your running direct for a rehearsal, this can do a pretty decent job.  Here’s a sample of something ABOUT FACE recorded this way at a gig back in 2000. Take It Easy Bite

Live recording can be a great way of getting a demo but most musicians these days have home recording studios.  These set ups allow recording on multiple tracks simultaneously or individually to a PC, MAC, or laptop.  By doing so, you have the ability to mix down, and add layers and effects to the overall mix or individual tracks.  As such, the quality of the recording can be amazing depending on the hardware, software and the ear and understanding of the engineer (you).

There are literally hundreds of hardware components and software tools that it would take a novel to list them all.  Also, everyone has their favorites.  In recording, the general idea of price equals quality may be generally true, but unless your recording movie scores or looking to land a recording contract, you can get a lot of bang for your buck by buying cheap and playing better.. 

First, consider what you already have to use, such as a PC, Mac or Laptop.  Either of these can work well but you need to understand the limitations of each, specifically processor speed and sound interfaces.

Processor speed may not make a difference in quality of sound but it’ll sure ruin your life if it keeps dropping out every time you start recording.  

If your PC/Mac/Laptop is fast enough and has enough available hard drive space, then the audio interface is the next decision and can come in the form of a card (cheapest) to an external desk top or rack mounted unit. 

Since I wanted to record directly to my laptop and needed a way to get in, I landed on an Echo Layla unit which allowed 8 channels simultaneously and a light pipe in for future expansion (newer models even come with 2 mic inputs on the front of the unit).  This

plugged into my PCMCIA (people can’t memorize computer industry acronyms) slot (now called PCI) and has been AMAZING.  This is the first and only item I’ve ever installed that was pretty much plug and play. Audio quality is great and it is simple to use.

The next choice I had to make here was software. There’s tons to choose from here and although some may be better than others, they all WAY better than that 4 track recording set up The Beatles used to record Abbey Road.  Unless you’ve had extensive availability to demo several different programs to determine what is going to work best for your application, I’d suggest asking friends what they use and go with that.  Let’s face it, when you can’t get it to work, you’ll need to call that friend over to help youJ

For me, I went with Sonar www.cakewalk.com.  Not because I thought it was better than other applications, at the time it was simply that I knew more people using it and knew I would have more support.  Of course, all my Pro Tools pals said, “Huh?” but it was just where I was and the deal I got at the time.  I have been pretty happy with the set up and it interfaced REALLY well with my Echo Layla.

Cakewalk Sonar 7 software
I'm not producing movie scores.  I’m typically just cutting demo tracks for my band promotion and audio tracks for my wife’s online power point presentations.  For this, I figure I’m using it to about 20% of its’ capabilities.  Frankly, I could have even gotten by with way less.

Being able to record 8 tracks simultaneously, allows my entire band _

 

Echo Layla
The Layla, by Echo Audio in conjunction with a digital recording suite, is a great way to turn your laptop into a recording studio!

to record.  Piping left and right out of our Roland V-Pro drums, left and right for the keyboard, a single bass and two guitar channels still gives me a spare input.  I can come back later and record vocals making sure the mic’s don’t pick up any ambient sounds from the instruments.

Mixing down requires a really good set of monitor speakers and a pretty dead room, but I can get pretty decent results from a nice set of headphones. Wild Nights Bite  I also have a friend who has a better set up then me and graciously offered to “mix down” my tracks on his set up.

There’s a ton of cool features on all these programs.  I recently came across a “Tape Simulator” effect that I had overlooked for years.  It gave the recording the very faint hiss of the old tapes and really warmed things up just like the old reel to reel.  It really sounds cool.

Although quality of recording is important, don’t forget that most of the killer albums we fell in love with when we were young were recorded with significantly less technology.  You can spend thousands of dollars producing 24 bit depth sound only to have the listener use $10 ear-buds on a MP3 player.   Expensive recording software may make you sound more clear or warm, but if you stink, it’ll only mask the smell. 

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Arny Bailey

 

MEET THE WRITER - ARNY BAILEY

MEET THE WRITER - ARNY BAILEY

President of In Form, Inc. Media Design and Chief Editor of Weekend Musician is a licensed architect practicing in the Pacific Northwest and weekend musician currently fronting ABOUT FACE, a classic rock cover band and The Grand Delusion a Tribute to the music of Styx and Journey.