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Demos for Dummies:
Several Cheap and Effective
Ways to Create Demo Reels at Home
By Clarke Keown – 09/01/04
The Time Is Now!
So your band has been together for a few months now and you've even
played a few gigs? It's time to record a demo. You can only play in so many "Battle
of the Bands" shows before realizing that you'll never make it to Madison Square
Garden that way. Ahhh, the big problem that always plagues the next big band. No
money! Well you're going to have to come up with some cash. Now, I'm not promising
that these techniques are going to get your CD into the front doors of Sony
Music, but when used effectively, these types of recordings can get you gigs
in your local scene, and they are very useful rehearsal tools.
Is It Your First Time?
Well, I'm going to skip right over the single microphone going
into a boom box to record your band, because I figured that one out on
my own and you probably did too. I won't knock that technique, because
it was a very useful one for me when I was starting to learn guitar. No
matter how lo-fi the sound, these sub-par recordings helped me hear my
shortcomings as a guitar player and made me seek help as a future musician.
So where do you go from here?
Four Track Attack
It took me one
or two passes on tape to realize that I needed to read the manual in
its entirety. Well, my world opened up after that. In a nutshell, four
track cassette recorders are really great for simple recordings. They
also give novices a really good foundation for what multitrack recording
is all about. You can also go from very simple one and two track recordings
to more intricate four track recordings to even more intricate recordings
using "ping-pong" features found on most of these machines.
Below I've listed ten of my top tricks/hints/comments
about these inexpensive yet versatile machines: • To get the best sound from your recording, most of
these machines have fast record function. Use Type II 90 minute tapes,
(I like Maxell XL II S.) and only use one side since the machine will
record on both sides of the tape. Have lots of tape on hand. You will
go through a lot of tape at first.
• Use the best mics that you can buy, borrow, or steal.
A good all purpose starter mic is a Shure SM57. It will work fine for
vocals, instruments, guitar amps, etc.
• Since noise is a factor in the analog world, try to
run some of your inputs directly into the machine. A great way to record
bass is to run the bass directly into the four track and adjust the
gain accordingly.
• Try to make your recordings in a sonically suitable
room. A good, small, carpeted room will work great. Try to keep away
from windows and rooms that parallel busy streets.
• Clean the heads on you machine before each session.
(The manual for the specific model that you have will have specific
instructions on how to do this.) Dirty heads can ruin hours of hard
work!
• Along with the head cleaning comes head demagnetization.
If you're like me and use your four track religiously, over time it
will build up magnetic crud on the heads which will cause degradation
in your recordings. There will be instructions on how to do this in
your manual, but this is a tricky job and you can cause damage if you
don't know what you're doing. Your local music store can probably help
you with this if you're unsure of yourself.
• K eep I t S imple S tupid:
Don't try to do the work of a 24 track studio on your little machine.
Overuse of effects can muddy your final mix. Also, even though you
can ping-pong tracks, (Ping ponging is the technique of bouncing tracks
down to one specific track to create room for more than four tracks.)
I wouldn't recommend it very often. Bounced tracks tend to sound muddy
and are difficult to mix after the bouncing is done.
• Use effects wisely. A little compression and reverb
can go a long way.
• Experiment with different miking techniques. Amplifiers
in the bathtub, singing through a bullhorn or fan, and close and distant
mic techniques are all viable things. The sky is the limit!
• Don't work on one song for too long. After two or three
hours the ears tend to get fatigued. Take a break, or better yet move
on to something else. It's amazing when you come back to a song the
next day with a fresh perspective.
Onward & Upward
So now you've milked that four track cassette recorder for everything
its worth and the heads have gone bad. You still haven't recorded your "Big Hit." It's
time to upgrade. At this point in my not-so-illustrious recording career
I went digital. There are quite a few companies out there now who are manufacturing
four, eight, and sixteen track digital hard disk recorders in about the $1000
range. It just really depends on which bells and whistles you want. There
are lots of options out there. Roland, Fostex, Yamaha, and Akai all make
comparable desktop units that offer, built in digital effects, virtual tracking,
automated mixing, and lots of storage space and memory. I suggest that you
go to your local retailer and twist the knobs on some of these units before
you make your final decision.
Here are a few things to ponder when using one of these devices:
• Make sure that you know how much memory the unit has.
(When I bought a Roland VS-840, it was new and exciting, but it also
recorded to zip disks. Yes, an interesting format, but when I use all
8 tracks, with effects etc, I can barely fix one song on one disk.)
This really isn't much of an issue any more with the newer recorders,
but if you want lots of storage, make sure the unit comes with lots
of storage. (And see if it can be upgraded.)
• Consider buying a unit with a built-in CDR. This really
makes mastering a breeze.
• Don't skimp on cables. Now that you're dealing with
the pristine world of digital, treat it as such and treat yourself
to some nice cables.
• Don't over effect. With multitudes of digital effects
at your fingertips, the tendency is to think that more is better. If
your music didn't sound good going in, all the effects in the world
aren't going to help you.
• To avoid wasting all of your tracks on drums, try miking
the drums and then running them into a small (try a Berhinger 4 or
6 track Eurorack) mixer prior to the recorder. You can run the drums
stereo or mono out from the mixer into a mono or separate stereo tracks
on the recorder.
• Experiment. Now that you're not using tons of tape,
you can do all of the experimenting that you want!
Another Cool Option
Every band/musical artist should have a decent quality practice
P.A. These come in several forms. Most smaller P.A. systems have 4-8 channels.
I would suggest that you spend the extra coin and get a nicer one with
8 channels, built in effects, and make sure that it has tape outputs.
When you buy your P.A. spend some extra dough and get a home component
CD Recorder. (Sony, Phillips, TDK, Harmon Kardon to name a few.) This
is a pretty rough way to make a recording, and it takes some patience
at first, but when you finally get a good mix down, you can keep it set
up and rolling during your rehearsals. So basically, through trial and
error, you'll mix your band using the eight channel P.A. (three or four
channels for drums, one for bass two for guitar and one for vox.), run
the tape output to your new CDR, and vavoom, you've got a CD immediately.
This is not only a great rehearsal tool, but I've actually heard some
really nice recordings made this way. It just takes a little patience
and drive.
The Next Level
Where do we go from here? Well, after you've exhausted all avenues
of home recording, (And yes I realize that I've actually left out computer-based
recording software. The field is way too vast to even touch on in this
article.) And you still haven't created your Mona Lisa, it might be time
to enlist the help of a professional. There are recording studios in
just about every big and small town in America. Get out your yellow pages
or hop on the internet and shop around. Most studios offer package deals,
and some offer demo deals. Many of them will also help with musical arrangement
and production of commercial CDs. It just depends what you want to do
and how much you want to spend. |
