Originally Posted by BIG JIM MERRILEES
I have listened to quite a few demos recently and am quite surprised by the poor quality standards of some of these from a basic technical point of view. Most have very poor balances and the eq and fx can only be described as awful, in a lot of cases spoiling a good song and performance. It is about time that some of the more experienced members gave some tips and advice on how to correct these issues. Maybe the folks do not listen to their demos from this point of view or they just do not have the ears or know how to correct these flaws but a crash course in mixing and editing might not be a bad idea. If you cannot get the simple basics right how can you sell a song. It also might help save a lot of time effort and money wasted on producing a bad demo that has to be redone.


Hi Jim

Computers, Computers Computers!
Everyone has one therefore everyone is photographer, graphics artist, filmmaker. producer, and a recording engineer, musician, songwriter and much more.

The answer is:
Most people use there equipment to get there ideas down on something. For us years ago that was a tape recorder. That was the only choice we had, They didn't have reel to reels and analog mixing boards at home, (I did though smile
Now everyone has a computer set up. This allows there work up demos to be much more elaborate. Some people have never even been in a band and they are setting musical levels on a computer screen.

I have found most people around here who post music know they dont have that kind of thing down and mention it all the time when posting.
The ones who are serious about shopping there work usually always seek out help.
Many are having fun with it all

I have heard many people make huge improvements on there demos over the past years. Everyone has different goals and most of it is in there songwriting here. Spending lots of time on learning about and working with recording and spending lots of money on gear and then working with it etc.. will cause you to lose focus.

The better you get at one thing the less you can improve on another. If you write songs then start getting into producing and recording, you would not believe how far away from songwriting and your original plans you can get.
Not saying a a little time focused on your home productions is not important and anyone making there own recordings should and probably will improve in those areas. I have made some huge edits that freaked out musicians here in the studio and I turned to them afterwards and said "Now how far away from songwriting are we now"?

But once you go down the road of recording and getting equipment and you start to enjoy it.. Your Finished! It is endless and the time effort and money drain never ever, ever stops..

I am in the middle of working on something right now that will be very cool and should be very helpful to our friends here. I took the path of doing it all to the max, many times I wish I hadn't, what a bass player I would be ...Now If I can just stay well enough to get anything finished smile






Thanks!
Peace Mike
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