SteveXFR Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 We've decided as a band that it's time to record a demo to get some gigs booked. We're an all originals doom band so we're loud and dirty so there's some discussion about whether to record separate tracks or do live recordings. I like the live idea. Will the less polished sound be a disadvantage or advantage for getting bookings? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor J Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Ideally, you want to present your band with the best first impression possible. If you think what venues and promoters should hear is different to what potential fans should hear, maybe you need two different recordings. For original doom stuff, a lot of your gigs will come by talking to other bands, keep that in mind. Find some other bands you like the sound of and talk to them and also whoever recorded them, ask their advice. Personally, I'm of the mind that clean recordings can easily be made heavy and dirty but a dirty recording can only ever be dirty, sometimes at the expense of heaviness. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mykesbass Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 If you are all originals then change the mindset a little. A demo for gigs is cover band territory. An original ep is for airplay, selling at gigs, and digital distribution (as well as getting gigs). So make it the best you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveXFR Posted October 16, 2022 Author Share Posted October 16, 2022 3 minutes ago, Mykesbass said: If you are all originals then change the mindset a little. A demo for gigs is cover band territory. An original ep is for airplay, selling at gigs, and digital distribution (as well as getting gigs). So make it the best you can. We don't really intend to do any further recording or sell music. This project is just about having some fun and playing some gigs. I guess it's not difficult to get some guitars recorded at home, drums will be a bit more tricky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mykesbass Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 1 minute ago, SteveXFR said: We don't really intend to do any further recording or sell music. This project is just about having some fun and playing some gigs. I guess it's not difficult to get some guitars recorded at home, drums will be a bit more tricky This is where chatting on a forum becomes so much more difficult than having a chat in real life, so please don't think I' m being argumentative for the sake of it. I still think you need to re-think this. Making a recording can still be primarily for getting gigs, but it will be getting you gigs as it increases your credibility as an originals band, and not because you can play a half decent version of Sex on Fire/Brown Eyed Girl/Crossroads. Getting the gigs will also be through raised awareness from myriad internet radio shows (plenty of genre specific ones out there) and social media. Also, think of the recording process as part of the fun. My last band did rhythm track live to guide vocal, the vocals and guitars added on top. This got us good traction in the rock/blues genre, ended up doing a tour, some nice supports, and played the Skegness Rock & Blues festival. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveXFR Posted October 16, 2022 Author Share Posted October 16, 2022 4 minutes ago, Mykesbass said: This is where chatting on a forum becomes so much more difficult than having a chat in real life, so please don't think I' m being argumentative for the sake of it. Oh yeah, want a fight about it? I get what you're saying and maybe we need to discuss it as a band. Unfortunately, the recording experience with my last band was no fun at all which has put me off a bit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franticsmurf Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 We had some studio time gifted to us (we helped a local college teach students to record bands by being the band - in return for repeated set up/soundcheck/mic placement etc as each student had a go). We spent most of the time recording and mixing three original demos instrument by instrument but on the last day we decided to record the whole set live. Vocals in a separate booth and on separate tracks, everything else mixed onto two tracks. We went through the set twice and had a decent set of live recordings at the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uk_lefty Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 For a covers band I'd try to get a recording done at a gig where you have a decent venue with sound man/ lady and some mics picking up crowd noise. If you've got someone who can add video footage to that audio then you can show potential venues what they get... Do they get three pensioners tapping their foot in an empty pub to offkey badly rehearsed covers or do they get an enthusiastic band who gets a crowd singing along and dancing? For a covers band a studio recording isn't going to do much for you, it's not the "experience" that you are trying to sell. Also, with social media etc these days a good live recording and a video, even if it's a montage of photos over your audio, is almost an essential. We were speaking to someone who books bands recently who admitted it doesn't matter so much how good a band is, if their social media is good then it's more indicative that you will get a good crowd in. Make of that what you will, but if you want to get gigs I don't think you can go very far without it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franticsmurf Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 (edited) I should add that my recording experience above was pre social media. Just read @uk_lefty's post and 100% agree social media is what you're aiming for and video is the new demo tape. Short, punchy clips as well as more considered video, plus as much positive activity on the site as possible to show your pulling power is current. Edited October 16, 2022 by Franticsmurf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicko Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 One of my cover bands did a demo. We all played live in the studio - primarily as we were not used to playing the tracks individually. Drummer in a booth, Bass was DI and singer was in a different room. I'm not sure what you could possibly lose by doing this rather than playing individually one after the other. When doing home recordings I still struggle to lay down a consistent part individually. I often record bits of it knocked into a rough song format and then play the whole thing through on each instrument once I have the complete structure. I generally don't count when playing bass - I'm always listening for cues from the rest of the band. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicko Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 7 minutes ago, Franticsmurf said: I should add that my recording experience above was pre social media. Just read @uk_lefty's post and 100% agree social media is what you're aiming for and video is the new demo tape. Short, punchy clips as well as more considered video, plus as much positive activity on the site as possible to show your pulling power is current. One of my mates has a covers band that gets a lot of festival work - they recorded in a studio and cobbled together a montage of live video footage laid over the top. That worked well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 The way to get the best sounding recording is to make it in a way that is most comfortable for the band. For a band with a live drummer that does not play to a backing track I'd go for a live take of all the instruments and only overdub any mistakes or if there are any extra parts you want to add. I'd also go into a proper studio to do this. Unless one of the band is an excellent sound engineer and already has all the mics you need for recording drums (and decent acoustic space to record them in), you'll get far better results and in a much shorter time from a good engineer in a good studio. And this is coming from someone who spent 10's of thousands of pound on their home studio in the 90s. Ask around other bands in a similar genre for recommendations. Good studios are ridiculously cheap these days. The last time I paid for studio time (a couple of years ago) it was only slightly more expensive per hour than my fist studio session in 1980, and the standard of the space, equipment and engineer was a massive improvement. However for the purposes of getting gigs if you're not doing it through supports with similar bands and you haven't yet built up a reputation as a live act, then you will need a video of you playing live. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilson_51_ Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 (edited) From my experience In stoner/Doom bands. I’d recommend recording one song and using that to showcase your sound. Maybe with an accompanying music video if you can stretch to it. (Doesn’t have to be amazing but people like to watch videos) Recording wise, all play live in a room with isolated amps. Then overdub vocals and solos. Shouldn’t be too expensive and gets the right feel for the genre. as far as getting gigs a lot of it is less about having music to listen to but more a case of being part of the “scene”. We had great success from playing the local metal to the masses heats and talking to people. This got the ball rolling. If you do record I would be interested in hearing the finished song/s Edited October 16, 2022 by Wilson_51_ 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted October 17, 2022 Share Posted October 17, 2022 On the OP, we were always a fairly tight, well rehearsed unit; we booked a studio for an early start one Sunday (10.00am start) and did five songs, all recorded live with a click, three takes of each. Chose the best ones, guitarist did his solos and we were retired to a nearby bar by 12.30pm, leaving the singer to do his stuff. We went back about 2.00pm to do BVs (half hour). Rough mix and home by 4.00pm. https://wknancyj.bandcamp.com/album/cops-and-robbers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted October 17, 2022 Share Posted October 17, 2022 With The Terrortones we always rehearsed the songs we were going to record with and without a click. It was usually obvious straight away which ones would benefit from having a constant tempo and which needed a bit (or occasionally quite a lot) of push and pull in order to sound natural. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted October 17, 2022 Share Posted October 17, 2022 Depends how good you are. Can you get through a take without making any mistakes? You'll have to lay down a guide track first anyway. Will you lose energy each playing solo afterwards? How much do you rely on eye contact when playing, it's surprising how many visual queues bands use. Red light fever can be a problem, as soon as you have limited time and are paying by the hour, the pressure is on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted October 17, 2022 Share Posted October 17, 2022 42 minutes ago, TimR said: ... visual queues ... 'Cues'..? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erax Sound Posted October 17, 2022 Share Posted October 17, 2022 Depends on what you want really @SteveXFR. I've done live recordings which are completely down to the proficiency of the players how it turns out. There is a middle ground which I tend to prefer which is to play live, but the guitarist and bass player go straight in via software or pedals. This allows you to keep drum room sound and as you have the DI's, you can reamp them afterwards to get the sounds you want without unnecessary bleed. Plus you have the ability to correct mistakes. If you're interested, I've done a few doom bands and if you're in or near London/Kent, I'm happy to help you out. Boot me a PM if you want. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dclaassen Posted October 18, 2022 Share Posted October 18, 2022 I am considering this for our pub band. We would have to record live, so I’m thinking of using a second board into pro tools. Vocals straight from the FOH board, amps di’ed, amd the drums mic’ed. Might be more trouble than it’s worth though, as pub owners/landlords want reassurance that beer will flow and fun will be had…which means video and/or pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrtcat Posted October 18, 2022 Share Posted October 18, 2022 (edited) My experience with demo material is that video is way more likely to get you bookings than audio. If you have a digital mixer you can do a live video where you connect a laptop to the mixer and multitrack record whilst simultaneously filming from various angles. The music can then be mixed nicely and synced to the video edit. You could record a whole set and then just cut together clips of loads of your songs. People rarely listen to a whole song as a demo so a short burst of clips can have a much better impact. Edit to say that this approach only works if you are good live. If you do video and look bored / nervous / awkward etc it can do more harm than good. Edited October 18, 2022 by mrtcat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrtcat Posted October 18, 2022 Share Posted October 18, 2022 2 hours ago, dclaassen said: I am considering this for our pub band. We would have to record live, so I’m thinking of using a second board into pro tools. Vocals straight from the FOH board, amps di’ed, amd the drums mic’ed. Might be more trouble than it’s worth though, as pub owners/landlords want reassurance that beer will flow and fun will be had…which means video and/or pics. Can someone lend you a digital mixer (behringer xr18 or similar)? That would be way more simple than using 2 desks to track live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dclaassen Posted October 18, 2022 Share Posted October 18, 2022 I could just mix into mine, but the current setup is what the band is used to, and I’ve just started with them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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