The people that own the bar we played at in July have another one in the neighboring city. They offered us a gig there on October 19th. We will be getting paid this time, which makes it even better. We are talking to another venue about a show in October and they wanted some demos, so we went out to our guitarist's studio/house Sunday and recorded 5 songs. They came out pretty well. I think guitarist is going to redo his guitar tracks because he was trying to play and work the gear at the same time. I put 4 of them up on our reverbnation page if you want to check them out. We also recorded Margaritaville, but had a place where the drums and guitars/bass didn't sync up correctly, so we're going to redo that one at some point.
That first paying gig's always a great feeling. Well done.
Theses are great demos mate. Well recorded and a superb sound. Listened to every one and clicked the "Become a fan" button.
Just a thought - The Letter has a long intro. Little Sister doesn't. A&R people have the attention span of a goldfish. Why not put Little Sister above The Letter in the running order so listeners hear the full band sound including vocal without having to strain their poor little brain cell.
Reverbnation is a great resource. Get your gigs on the "Show" schedule on your page, publicise yourself using the status updates sync'd to Facebook/ Twitter/ Myspace. I use the Reverbnation widgets on the Rollmop Music website so visitors there can see my concert schedule, listen to recordings and watch my Youtube content without having to go to any other website.
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
Way to go man. I can't listen to your demo at work but if Alan gave his stamp of approval I'm sure it sounds good.
Did you record the whole song? The other guitar player who was with us did a demo for his band which I thought was really good. What he did was snippets of 7-8 songs on the demo. Each track transitioned perfectly with the next but only played maybe 30 secs or so of each song. His thinking was along the lines of Alan's which is true most of the people booking bands don't have time/want to sit there and listen to 20 minutes of music. So he just gave them kind of the best of each so they can get a feel for how the band sounds, how tight they are etc and the type of music they are playing.
Anyway good to see you guys moving along we need to do the same also we supposedly have a show in a couple weeeks but after that we have nothing and we need to start promoting the band.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Thanks for the feedback, guys. You're right about the intros, I will rearrange them. That's a great idea about putting together a string of songs. I'll do that today and add Margaritaville in there and put that track 1st. That way, they can listen to the full track if they want.
We are very lucky with our guitarist having a "real" studio. I've got my little recording setup here, but can only do 1 track at a time. He has an 8 input system with true monitoring, a separate vocal booth and all the extras.
That's def a huge plus that was the other reason I didn't want to lose the guitar player. He had the same setup and his demo sounded killer. I plan on asking him to help us with our demo but we prob have to pay him now. :D
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Sounds great! The medley works well.
Definitely fill out the rest of your RN page (shows, bio, status), and link it to your Facebook page.
Just found out that we had new versions of the songs with corrected guitar parts, but they had only been sent to our drummer. Got them uploaded now and redid the melody. They sound much better now!
Sounds pretty good, Jeff. I bet the gig will be great. :D
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
Nicely done, the medley idea is great!
All the best for the gig. :)
Don
Those demos are awesome!!
Also, the vocals are superb!
If you guys sound like that live, you'll be turning gigs down you'll be that busy!
"I like to play that guitar. I have to stare at it while I'm playing it because I'm not very good at playing it."
Noel Gallagher (who took the words right out of my mouth)
They all sounded great! Should be a big help in booking gigs.
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
If you guys sound like that live, you'll be turning gigs down you'll be that busy!
Thanks guys. We tried to make it as "live" as possible. We recorded the 1st pass live, then re-recorded the vocals. I did a 2nd take of the bass on JJF because I didn't like the tone of a few of notes, so I played them in another spot on the neck. Drums were re-recorded on The Letter and Margaritaville because our drummer sings those, so he had to do the two separately. One guitarist was running the board, so he redid all his guitar tracks (lead on ATBL and Little Sister, rhythm on everything else). There are no extra tracks or extra instruments. All vocals are reproducible live (no double vocals) and no auto-tune was used.
Great minds...
Our drummer also sings some of our songs, and we were told to have someone else sing while he lays down the drum tracks. This worked very well, as bass and drums could play together. We actually practiced this before our session. As with you, we kept it the same as we would playing live.
Our sequence:
Drums & bass & rhythm guitar (lead/scratch vocal in headphones)
Rhythm guitar (if first take wasn't good enough)
Lead vocal
Harmony vocals
Lead guitar
Redos...
My son and I started making some demos a while back to try to attract a drummer/singer. Things are a little up in the air now though with him working and going to school full time. No where near as polished as the ones you guys have done but we used midi drums and added our bass and guitar and vocal tracks seperately through head phones. For what it's worth here is a sample of ours. http://soundcloud.com/wickedfester/drc You guys can feel free to do some more and post them. I enjoy listening to them!
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
In my extremely limited experience of recording, I did find it helpful to have a roughed in vocal track in place for when ever I needed to have it for timing reference or whatever else one does with awful vocals.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
