I got my first contract on a song of mine back in January after having a professional demo done by a company in South Carolina. This recording was pretty good, but I didn’t like shelling out the money to pay for it.
Are there any musicians/songwriters out there who know exactly what equipment it takes to make a professional-sounding demo tape in the privacy of your own home without spending thousands of dollars? I’m talking bare-bones minimum here.
Lemonade…10 cents
Snakes…50 cents
Need more info…
What are you recording? Just a voice and a guitar? All sequenced synth? Do you have live drums? Other live instruments, like guitar, bass, sax, etc.? How many vocals, including background vox?
Do you already have instruments? (I assume yes). Do you already have a recorder and mixer? Do you have effects? Microphones?
Basically all I have right now are a piano, a crappy K-Mart microphone, and my voice (which ain’t all that great). I’m thinking of buying a synth or keyboard, but I don’t have any mixing equipment, etc.
The major thing I need is equipment which will combine the voice with the synth in a way that sounds professional. How much does something like that cost? And how much should I spend on a good microphone?
Lemonade…10 cents
Snakes…50 cents
well, first of all, the utilitarian microphone of coice for musicians is the SM-57, by Shure. very clean sound, and not really expensive, comparatively. look around for a used one, and try it out, to be certain it works properly. these mic’s are very good on stage, too… Most of the local musicians use them. As to something to put your music on tape, you can get a 4-track recorder… I’m not very familiar with these, but from what I understand, the Yamaha MT-4X is a good solid machine, for the price. There are also less expensive machines, like some of the lower-end Yamaha, Tascam, an Fostex multi-trackers, but that depends on how much you’ll be using it, and what kind of flexibility you need.
I don’t suffer from insanity…
I enjoy every minute of it!
Definitely purchase a good mic or two. Study up on the types of mics and decide which is best for your needs. Shop around and test 'em out. Shures, mentioned by Glenoled, are a great choice - good quality, low price.
If you have a powerful, computer I strongly recommend Cakewalk. It’s a professional audio/video software package that’ll give you almost unlimited digital tracks and a nice suite of effects for mixing. That said, it has limitations. The reverb and compression are substandard (for me) and you really need Soundforge or another like package.
If your computer is slow (or you only need a couple of tracks), you might want to stick with one of the many analog multi-trackers Gleno suggested - though I’d stay away from the little “portable” 4 tracks due to their limitations.
To produce studio-quality recordings, you’ll need a LOT of money. You’ll want better mics, a powerful reliable amplifier and a 30-band stereo EQ, professional reverb & compression units, high-end monitors and headphones for playback and mixing, a good dual tape deck and a 2x or faster CD-burner.
I just finished my band’s demo - this is what we used:
Drum tracks recorded using four Shure mics through a DOD stereo 8-channel powered mixer into a Yamaha MT-4X.
Tape transferred to Cakewalk on the computer. Acoustic Research monitors and Sony Headphones through a Sansui Amp.
Bass, Guitar, Vocals & FX recorded direct into Cakewalk.
All necessary punch-ins and re-takes recorded as separate tracks.
Mixing done in Cakewalk and Soundforge.
Pressed to CD in a 2x HP burner.
The demo sounds pretty damn good, but the weak link was the mics and the quality of vocal effects. For a demo, though, it’s spectacular.
Due to the nature of this site, I’m not going to post a link, but there are sites out there where you can download cracked versions of all the sofware listed above, thereby saving a starving musician hundreds of dollars. To save further money you can rent equipment instead of purchasing if your project is short.
Yet to be reconciled with the reality of the dark for a moment, I go on wandering from dream to dream.
Yes, i am much in aggrement with Glenoled. Also regarding the shure mics, see of you can find “seconds” at a local music store (not the big chain stores like Mars or Guitar Sphincter). They are basically the EXACT same mic, sold under a slightly different name due to cosmetic defects (which by the way, you ususally wouldn’t even notice unless you knew EXACTLY what you were looking for, and even then you usually have to take them apart). They sell for half price, and are the same mic (warraty and all).
Regarding keyboards, i play keyboard in a band here in TX, and may i make a recommendation. Check out the Alesis Q-series keyboards (qs6.1, qs7.1, and qs8.1). I played a LOT of keyboards before settling on it, and it is by far the best IMHO. Check em out at www.alesis.com . Also, these can take pcmcia cards, that you can buy preloaded with all sorts of awesome sounds, or you can buy blanks. All models can hold 2 cards at once (and btw, i recommend the Sanctuary card). The biggest baddest model (the QS8.1) has full 88 keys, touch response (ie, the harder you hit, the louder the sound), and get this, weighted keys with hammer action!!! One of those will run you around $1,500. The only diff between qs8.1 and the other 2 is the ammount of keys on the board, and only the q8.1 has the hammered/weighted keys. The other two are still touch responsive though, with the same electronics, etc. The qs6.1 is about $1,000, the qs7.1 (1 more octave than 6.1) about $1,300, and the qs8.1 is about $1,500. Check out the site, and then go to a music store NOW and play one!!! 
P.S. No, i don’t work for alesis 
“…the dark side of the mirror always threw our malice back…”
Ohhh, almost forgot. For recording, check out the Fostex XR7 4 track. I have one and have been very happy with it!
“…the dark side of the mirror always threw our malice back…”
We have this Roland VS-1680 thing that’s supposed to be pretty good. I’ve played around with it, but I’m no expert.
A girl
Nothing will substitute for good equipment and professionals to run it. I understand that you’re trying to save money, but in the long run, evn the best songs recorded on cheap equipment will not get you noticed.
Recording studios are a dime a dozen - in my area anyway (Chicago). It pays to shop around. There are many “project” studios, home studios, and others (like the studio I work at) who are new to the market and are trying to build a customer base with reduced rates.
For example: For the price of a good 4-track ($499) we’ll give you 6 hours of time and 50 printed CD’s. We call it the “Demo Special”.
Check out our home page to get an idea of what I’m talking about. Link’s in my sig line. Good luck.
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Delta-9 wrote:
Yep, I’m afraid you’re right. I just don’t have the funds to buy even the basic stuff (except maybe the microphone). It’ll take me a year to save up for a synth or keyboard.
Thanks for the info, everyone who responded. I appreciate it.
Lemonade…10 cents
Snakes…50 cents
Get a decent mic ($50), get a four trak ($250-$700-never ever get a used one!), drum machine ($300). Practice recording a lot. Then you can be like me and have a pretty cheap home studio, yet make professional sounding stuff that gets on the radio.
If at first you don’t succeed you’re about average.
I was trying to think of a really cheap way to do a live recording of just your voice and piano, but even that requires two mics (minimum), a couple of reverbs, a mulitrack recorder (or software), a mixer, a cd recorder (or mixdown deck), and associated cables and stuff. Kindof expensive.
About your first line:
What did you mean by “contract”? Have you already sold a song to someone? Perhaps through the people you met there, you can get them to front you some studio time.
Another on-the-cheap idea is to go out of your way to meet other musicians, and get someone to loan you equipment or record you.
In my youth (10 yrs ago), I had a small recording studio in my house, and in addition to recording my own bands, I would record the other local bands. There are people out there whose hobby is to record folks and may enjoy working with you for fun, especially if you have something to add to their musical projects.
The Really Cheap Way:
Get Sound Blaster Live card. It’ll come with Cakewalk Express, which is your basic PC multitrack software. Buy whatever mike you can afford (be aware that the mike is often the weak link, but hey, if you wanna just learn the technology and play aroud, great).
There. Plug the Mic into the SoundBlaster, and record away. You’ve got a basic multitrack recorder.
You can even enter MIDI data with your mouse on the on-screen keyboard, or drag-and-drop the notes onto the staff in Cakewalk.
You can download a bunch of shareware and freeware audio effects programs on the web. You can take these and run your audio tracks through them to do compression, limiting, reverb, echo, etc.
As your money allows, start adding to your studio. By then you’ll understand the technology and its limitations and be in a better position to know what you really need.
Total cost to get started: under $100.
If you already have a good sound card in your computer and any microphone that will plug into your sound card, you can download a demo copy of Cakewalk and start playing around with it, for absolutely nothing. It’s fun, and you’ll learn about PC-based recording studios.
Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. Cakewalk sounds like something I’d be interested in.
Billehunt wrote:
Lemonade…10 cents
Snakes…50 cents