Recording Demos

  • Thread starter Thread starter CJ
  • Start date Start date
mics, cables and a 4track.
and the instruments of course.
 
Demo

Dig... dig deep into you pocket. If you have nothing now.
Good mixing board...$500+-
Good mics....Vocals 100+- each,Drums(5)-500,3cheapies for150
Cords misc...200+
Good puter with at least 500 mghz processor, 128 ram
10-20 gig hd...varies... $750-1500
Good sound card with a/d converter I/O. 2-300
Software...you can get demos for free...you are limited on what you can do with the software...go ahead and spend the jack on the real thing...$70-300.
No one said it was cheap... You will get what you pay for.
If you rEaLly want to buy, do your home work. This site has
all the expericence from the pros.Check out diffent subjects
and most of the time the question has already been asked.
Why not hire someone who has the equipment. It would be cheaper out of pocket now, unless you want to invest.
Some "home studio" time can be very inexpensive compared to a "pro studio" who want your left leg and your first born before you step foot in the studio.Check some "homers" out...listen to some of the stuff that they have done...
http://www.gadgetlabs.com/main.php
I use these guys stuff. Look into others.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/ex/ds/home/?
http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/demo.html
http://cakewalk.com
http://dddrummer.com
http://pcrecording.com
http://fruityloops.com
http://bmgsound.com/mp3

Hope this was of some help.

Gidman
 
CJ said:
What is some equipment to record demos.

Seriously, forget gidman. You want to record a demo, not start up a semi-professional home studio... :)

Buy a 4-track porta and a digital reverb. If you are going to record guitars and vocals buy a decent mic. If you are going to record live drums, buy three decent mics. A compressor would be nice too.

Buy it all second-hand, cuz it will be SO much cheaper, and if you decide it wasn't any fun, you won't loose all your money. Also buy a set of q-tips and some cleaning alcohol to clean the tape head of the 4-track. The bozos that owned it before probably never cleaned it.

There, you're all set to start! With some practise you will be able to do some kick ass demos with this. It probably would cost you $300-$400. If you can't afford that, skip the compressor. Still to hefty? Loose the reverb.
Now you are down on $200 bucks. Still too hefty? Befriend your local homerecording.com nerd and talk him into recording you. :)
 
regebro said:
CJ said:
What is some equipment to record demos.

Seriously, forget gidman.

Seriously.....
Lets not forget the trashy, low volumed cassette, that will sound like crap. You are what your demos portray you to be.
 
No it won't

gidman said:
Lets not forget the trashy, low volumed cassette, that will sound like crap.

Well, it might. Or it might not. I have heard loads of things recorded on 4-track that sounds excellent, and recorded several of them myself.
Check out the things on http://www.regebro.nu/lennart/music.html

The three songs there are recorded with a Yamaha MT2X, a compressor, a crappy noisy analog delay, a microverb, and a broken subnote generator I got for free. The synth used is a Roland MC-303, and the guitar is a noname for $80. On two of the songs I use an expensive mic (Oktava + preamp: $300). On the third song I used a cheap AKG mic ( < $50 ). (Hmm. Can you pick out the song with the crappy mic?)

The whole setup I used to record would cost under $500 to buy second hand today, excluding the Oktava mic + preamp.

And yes, I have recorded rock-bands with live drums on that Yamaha 4-track too. It sounded great (although it was mono) mostly thanks to the equipment being recorded was good. Good sounding drums are the most important bit, I think.

No, of course you wouldn't print it on CD and sell it. But it's a DEMO, right? And the purpose is to show people that the songs are good and that the band can play. And you do NOT need to shell out thousands of dollars to do that.
 
demo

regbro,
You are right...I guess it was the tascrap 414 I was recording on. he he he.$ 200...

I bought an exiter for a better sound.Went throungh my mixing board as the pre amp. I wasn't satisfied with the demo.It still got us gigs.
With the investment of a new sound card and software. I sold the tascam...and voila...
a pro sounding cd demo for $600.
I am a perfectionist what can I say.
I listened to a recording on your site.Great sound keep up the fantastic work.

Gidman
 
Right on, regebro!

There was a thread on another forum site where somebody told some poor guy who was just starting that a $3600 wasn't enough because he'd need an $1800 digital mixer and a SCSI drive and at least $2000 worth of plug-ins...

Of course even with all that it could come out sounding like hell if you don't use it all artfully... and even artful use won't save a bad song or make people that cannot play worth shit sound very good...

-AlChuck

[Edited by AlChuck on 09-15-2000 at 12:41]
 
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