Creating a Band - Part VI, the Demo

Recording a demo often has the ability to send a band on an emotional roller coaster. It's exciting, fun, and educational, but at the same time, the process can be arduous, frustrating, and even boring. But a good demo can be the difference between playing in a dive bar or one of the hallowed halls of music in your area, and what's more, it can prove to see the band land a recording deal, or suffer in obscurity as an unsigned act. Producing a quality demo is an important step in the process of developing a band, and can keep the group on course toward accomplishing great things.

Early on in the band's career, the demo will play a substantial role in the group's ability to book gigs. The importance of a demo depends heavily on where you live, though. If the music scene is strong in your area, venue management will most likely review your demo to decide if your band is of the right caliber to play in their establishment. In areas with less competition, the demo might not be necessary in most, if any, venues, because finding talented entertainment is more challenging. At the end of the day, it's important to remember that a venue isn't booking your band for your benefit, but so they themselves can profit from the evening. Your demo will serve as the first line of determination for a venue that hopes to make money from people coming to see your show, and so the demo should speak volumes about the quality of the band's marketability. But we'll get to that a bit later.

The first decision you need to make in regards to the demo is whether or not your group is capable of recording it yourselves. Countless bands fail in their early demo attempts because they don't comprehend the importance of audio quality. When I was a teenager, groups used to record on portable cassette decks, writing the band's name in permanent marker on their "demo tape" before sending it out to potential venues, only to act stunned and even appalled when the venues refused them. Today, portable digital recorders with built-in microphones produce better audio quality, but they still aren't good enough to produce a demo.

When it comes to recording the demo yourself, versus recording it in a home or professional studio, your choices are pretty simple: you can pay someone to record the demo, or you can buy all of the equipment and do it yourself. The latter option probably sounds more appealing, but you need to take a few things into consideration. First, there's the experience factor. It can (and most likely will) take several months to learn how to be a competent sound engineer, and several years to become a skilled one. Audio engineering is a craft of talent and creativity, the same as any musician in the band. In fact, a good engineer is almost like another member of the group; engineering equipment is an instrument for outputting creativity, the same as a guitar or drum set. The next factor to consider is cost. A talented engineer can record a decent demo or album with around $5,000 worth of recording equipment and a high-quality computer costing between $1,000 and $3,000. If the band plans on being prolific, recording two or three albums per year, then this is probably the better bet. Otherwise, going into a studio might be the right choice for your group.

The first real step in planning your band's demo will be picking the songs that the demo will consist of. A standard demo has three songs, and for the purposes of your band's first demo, that's all you'll need or want. More songs will most likely be ignored, while fewer songs won't translate your band's true potential. But you don't want to choose your three favorite songs, nor do you want to pick three songs at random. The real challenge will be in finding three songs that really speak to the overall sound of the band, while also showing off the group's intrinsic talents. Shy of the most eclectic of bands, most acts have at least a broadly-defined sound that streams seamlessly through the majority of songs. Finding the three songs that speak to that sound will prove challenging, but imperative to the overall value of the demo.

How do we find this sound? First, we need to identify the primary genre of each song. No song truly belongs to a single genre... no song that's good enough for a demo, anyway. While a broad genre might define the overall sound of the band, the song itself is most likely constructed of various sub-genres. For instance, your song might be punk, but a studious ear will pick up hints of blues, funk, metal, and grunge hiding in the measures.

The first song on the demo needs to captivate the listener, selling them on your band within the first fifteen to twenty seconds of the track. The song should have an interesting introduction (or no introduction), should display the most common genres used by the band, and should express the band's character as much as possible. The first song needs to convince the listener that the other two songs are worth listening to!

The second song on the demo should keep the momentum going, displaying your second-best song. This one can show a bit of your versatility, but remember, you're trying to convince someone that your band is worthy of their business, and as such, you don't want to come across as a group that can't unify its sound. With this song, you should hope to sell the band within the first thirty seconds of the track. Having peaked a listener's attention in the first song, you're still trying to reel them in, but this second song does have a few seconds of added leeway.

the third song on the demo should end things on a high note. Like the first song, this song should sell the listener on the band within fifteen to twenty seconds, should put the band's overall sound on display, and should leave the listener wanting more.

None of the songs on the demo should run for longer than five minutes. Songs ranging between two and a half to four minutes in length would be ideal. If your band is performing original music, none of the songs on the demo should be covers. If your band is a cover band, none of the songs should be original. Also, try to avoid offensive material, if possible. Some venue owners will avoid acts that curse heavily or promote specific political or religious ideology, because they don't want the audience storming out amidst controversy. This isn't to say that such songs are bad or wrong, but for the purposes of your demo, keep in mind that you're trying to make a good impression.

With the three songs for the demo chosen, it's time to calculate how much money it's going to cost to get the demo recorded. To do this, have the band rehearse all three songs at least five times each, writing down how many minutes and seconds the song runs for exactly each time. Use the longest running times of your songs in your calculations, because you're trying to figure out the most that the demo will cost. In a serious studio, each member of the band is going to record their parts of the songs individually, and the engineer will then combine them together during a process called "the mixdown." In most studios, the drummer lays down their tracks (takes) first, then the bass player records their tracks, then the rhythm guitarist, then the lead guitarist, and then the vocalist goes last. Keys, horns, and other such instruments usually end up getting recorded before the lead guitar, if applicable.

First, take the running time of each song and multiply it by the number of musicians in the band. Because each member of the band will lay down their tracks individually, this will give you the minimum amount of time that it will take to record each song. But even professional studio musicians who've been working in studios for twenty years make mistakes now and then, so you're going to want to try and make your best guess as to how many times each musician might mess up the song. Have each member of the band play the song alone, by themselves. If they can nail the song pretty easily the first time through, you should estimate they'll use three takes per song. If they struggle quite a bit, they might need more takes. Most musicians can get a song recorded within twenty takes, and thanks to modern computer technology, a large number of mistakes can be compensated for through digital overdubbing, but you'll still want to try and figure out how many takes the group will need. Count the total number of takes that each member of the band will probably need and multiply that by the number we came up with earlier (song lengths times band members). If applicable, break this down into hours, minutes, and seconds, and you should have a reasonable idea of how much studio time the band is going to need for recording the demo.

Next, it's time to find the best studio for your needs. Using your local phone book and the Internet, find as many recording studios as you can within your area. Contact all of them, asking for their hourly rates, any additional fees they might charge (for mixing and mastering, media, etc.), and find out if they have demos of their work that you can listen to. Typical studios charge anywhere from $20 per hour to $75 per hour for studio time, so do your best to find a good deal. Also, try contacting the less-popular recording studios, particularly home studios, because they're usually more willing to cut your band a deal in an effort to get their studio's name out there.

Let's break down some numbers in a hypothetical example. Let's say your band consists of a drummer, a bassist, a rhythm guitarist, and a lead guitarist who also sings. This means each song is going to require a minimum of five takes (one for each instrument). For simplicity's sake, each of the three songs you've chosen for the demo are exactly three minutes in length. Let's also assume that each member of the band averages ten takes per song. When we add all of this up, the simple three-song demo isn't so simple anymore! We end up with each song requiring fifty takes per song (five instruments times ten takes each), times three songs total (which gives us one-hundred and fifty takes), and each of those takes runs for three minutes (the full length of each song), which means the band will spend four-hundred and fifty minutes in the studio. This means the total amount of studio time the band will need comes out to seven hours and thirty minutes (450 minutes divided by sixty minutes in an hour). That's quite a bit of work to record a measly nine minutes of music, isn't it? Let's assume the best deal you could find was for $30 per hour. This means the demo will cost $225 to record in the studio. And this doesn't count time taken for breaks, additional fees related to mixing and mastering or media costs, equipment deposit, and countless other variable expenses. All-told, the demo might end up costing closer to $500 to complete!

After the demo is recorded, it's time to focus your attention on packaging. We'll get into this in more detail later on when we discuss press kits, but your first demo will be a bit simpler. You'll want to present the demo on CD, preferably in a traditional jewel case. You can get creative with the cover if you'd like, but make sure the cover displays the band's name, the titles of the three songs on the demo and each song's running time, and contact information for the band. You might want to list some of the band's equipment, information regarding the studio where the album was recorded, and additional relevant information on the inside of the case's sleeve. On the backside of the case, you should have an insert that lists song names and more detailed contact information. If you can manage to fit in one or two pictures of the band somewhere in the jewel case packaging, it wouldn't hurt.

Let's discuss contact information for a moment. If the band has a website, make sure the URL (web address) is listed prominently on the contact information. Also, be sure to include one or two telephone numbers where someone from the band can be easily and quickly reached, at least one email address for someone in the band, and if you'd like to add a link to a social networking site or Youtube, feel free to do so, so long as the site you're linking to has band-related content on it, and that the page or site specifically relates to the band itself.

Coming Up Next: In part seven of the "Creating a Band" series, we're going to discuss booking gigs, as well as some helpful hints and tips for preparing for and performing in live shows.