Friday, January 19, 2007

GOOD DEMOS DO THE TRICK

The vice-president of A&R of a major record label is sitting in his comfy leather chair in his corner office listening to CDs (which by the way is how they typically spend less than 10% of their time at work). The first thing he pops into his CD player sounds great. The lead vocal cuts right through the mix. The guitars are warm, but edgy. The bass is round, fat and punchy. The kick drum gives you a heart attack with each beat. The snare pierces like a hollow point bullet. The mix is perfect. The musicianship is superb. The song is very good and the packaging is top-shelf. Four color artwork on the cover. Great liner notes. Very professional.

The next product is one of those clear-shell, cheapo cassettes with a hand written label. A little sloppy on the presentation. Most likely, the demo was made on a 4-track in somebody's bedroom studio. The drums sound distant and muffled. The guitars are raunchy. The bass is okay. The musicianship is sub par, but it has some feel and emotion to it. The song, however, is unlike anything this man has ever heard. It's truly unique, and very infectious. The lead vocal is captivating and the singer is sweating emotion from every pore.

Which of these demos will the A&R person sign? The latter. Why? Because it's a hit song. The first demo had everything going right for it but the song. An "A minus" songs is good, but it isn't good enough. You need to have "A plus" songs, and nothing less.

Record companies are in business to make money. They bet a portion of the farm on every release. You can bet dollars to donuts that they would much rather bet on a hit song than a demo with great engineering, great production and fancy packaging. You can also bet that they would rather put their money on an artist who has "star quality" than one who obviously spent a small fortune on their demo.

What's the lesson here? Buy yourself a home studio system that you can afford, and learn to use it well. You might spend a few (maybe several) thousand dollars in the process, but you would have to spend that on one round of demos in a "real" studio anyway.

But remember, it's not important to become a gear junkie. Gear won't get you signed to a record deal. Great songwriting will. A unique artistic vision will. Star quality will. A zillion dollars worth of gear will not.

For your purpose, the use of your home studio requires that you get as familiar with it as you are with your car. Feel comfortable with it. Have a good command of it, but don't plan on driving it in the Indy 500. You only need the gear to make a good clean demo of your music.

Assuming you master your studio, there are some other things you'll need to know. First and foremost; songwriter demos don't need much production. A solid rhythm track with a great lead vocal is often all you'll need. A full production can often hurt a song pitch more than it can help. Leave some room for the listener's imagination to do it's thing. If a song demo is fully produced, it leaves the listener with only one way to hear it -- your way.

 

No comments: