Tedster Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 Okay...for a gig demo, how many songs? Whole songs or just parts? Any narration? Get dirty with the details. What do club owners want to hear? "Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tedster Posted February 22, 2004 Author Share Posted February 22, 2004 Bump "Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F7sound - Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 I would just show up with a picture that had hundreds of the hottest women in one place. Then hand the club owner the picture and say, "they'll all be here when I play". Michael Oster F7 Sound and Vision ReGurgiTron - chick magnet. Michael Oster F7 Sound and Vision http://www.F7sound.com http://www.regurgitron.com http://www.LaptopNoise.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 The last demo we made featured around 10 or 12 songs and ran around 12 minutes tops. Usually a verse/chorus of each tune and a drum bit in between tunes to keep it coherent and tight. Then all you need is a good pic and a sell sheet and a complete song list. -David http://www.garageband.com/artist/MichaelangelosMuse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennyf Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 For Blue Pearl we have a 12-song "sampler" that runs a little over four minutes. Obviously, we're just using portions of each song. There's a streaming version on the website, or here . I've got a similar one for my solo act here. I always point out that these were recorded straight off the board at gigs, so they understand that what's on the demo is what they can expect to get from the band. I'm not sure how important they are. I guess if the booker never heard of you, at least they demonstrate that you don't suck (hopefully, anyway). I think the songlist is just as, maybe more, important. Our standard "kit" is the demo on CD, our brochure, which is just a pic, some blather in "corporate speak" in order to soothe the corporate geeks who might want a band for Spirit-TQM socials, some quotable-quotes from previous clients, and a complete songlist. We also keep all this on the website. The demo can be streamed, or downloaded in higher-fi mp3 format. The brochure is also available for on-line viewing, and downloading/printing. We used to have a fancy-schmancy multimedia CD, but nobody apparently ever bothered to put it in their computer instead of their CD player, so we forwent that route, and went back to a plain old piece of paper and a CD stuffed into a CD envelope. About half the new callers still ask "What kind of music do you play?" band link: bluepearlband.com music, lessons, gig schedules at dennyf.com STURGEON'S LAW --98% of everything is bullshit. My Unitarian Jihad Name is: The Jackhammer of Love and Mercy. Get yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Darling Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 guess it makes a different if you are a cover band or play origenal stuff only. For origenal I'll simply choose few best songs (up to 4) and put around 2 min of each. A good live picture + band bio (if it is exciting) Good luck Rotshtein Danny - Studio Engineer Jingles show-reel Visit DarlingNikkie.com To discover the sounds of "Darling Nikkie"(aka Jade 4U). . . . New exciting project Goddess of Destruction Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skipclone 1 Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 I`ve been wondering whether a video might not be a better idea. Something live, where there haven`t been any techno-fixes. Same old surprises, brand new cliches- Skipsounds on Soundclick: www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandid=602491 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherri Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 Our demo is four songs off of our CD. We have also been thinking of video-taping some shows ,and putting together a video-demo. Our live dynamic would be a good selling point. www.metalblues.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GZsound Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 Funny I should be sitting here burning copies of our demo CD and seeing this thread pop up. Our demo CD has eight songs on it and is 15 minutes long. It contains four studio cuts off our CD's and four live tracks from a concert we did with some great crown cheers and applause. Our complete demo package consists of studio pictures, description of the and, band bio with color individual pictures and a set list describing the artists who's music we do. Since we decided to get paid, we only do a couple of originals and they aren't listed or on our demo. Mark G. "A man may fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame others" -- John Burroughs "I consider ethics, as well as religion, as supplements to law in the government of man." -- Thomas Jefferson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylen Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 Like someone else said we used to have 5-6 songs just so they could determine if we could actually play or not. In bars the main thing was how many people we would bring in as customers [to buy alcohol]. hehe - High Art as a [mostly] cover band... Oh yeah - I'll even give myself a special request... thank you Mr. Rolleyes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phait Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 I've got 4 songs for my demo CD done but I want about 10 to 20 and at least 40 minutes long. These demos don't take me too long to do (because they're demos). I already have like 14 minutes of audio and I want more on there They're just for people interested in the upcoming album though. I work by myself so I don't gig or anything. But I would say just include your best work. If it's all from studio, record something live and get that groove going. And I totally forgot about on-paper stuff as others have mentioned. That's a good idea always. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tedster Posted February 23, 2004 Author Share Posted February 23, 2004 Here's a little thought on demos, although it comes from another side of music, the radio side. I worked as an announcer in radio on and off for 10 years. The main thing in your radio kit is your "aircheck"...sample segues, intros, outros, stuff that shows how you sound on the air. I recorded an updated aircheck while working at a station in Florida. It was about 15 minutes long. When I moved to Anchorage, I thought I might like to do some radio to supplement my income...so I went to a local "Magic FM" type station (actually, that was the station) and submitted my aircheck. The program director actually called me into his office and popped the tape in (very rare, they usually listen in private). Of a 15 minute aircheck, he listened to the first 5 to 10 seconds of it, stopped the tape, and asked "When can you start?". I was floored. I said, "You don't want to hear any more?" He said, "I've heard all I need to hear". My guess? It's nice to have a 10-12 song demo, but, in reality, if there's any continuity, I'm betting that the folks that hire your band are a lot like program directors. They'll listen to the first 20-30 seconds of a the first song and see if you can play or if you suck. That will become apparent right from the get go. "Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skipclone 1 Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 right on the money Tester. A friend of my brother`s was in A&R at a record label-if something didn`t grab them right away it would likely end up as a coffee coaster or a frisbee, whether they knew how to throw one or not. Same old surprises, brand new cliches- Skipsounds on Soundclick: www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandid=602491 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 5 to 10 live 30 second clips, followed by a few cuts from the studio. Works great (as long as your band sounds good live!) Kris My Band: http://www.fullblackout.com UPDATED!!! Fairly regularly these days... http://www.logcabinmusic.com updated 11/9/04 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Throatsinger Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 These days we're doing mostly CD demos. They're cross-platform hybrids that include a modified version of our web site, and also work as an audio cd. Response so far is pretty good, and everyone has welcomed this format, something we weren't too sure about. Steve Sklar Big Sky Steve Sklar http://khoomei.com http://www.bigskyrocks.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barandine Vondenger Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 Originally posted by GZsound: [Q]Funny I should be sitting here burning copies of our demo CD and seeing this thread pop up. Our demo CD has eight songs on it and is 15 minutes long. It contains four studio cuts off our CD's and four live tracks from a concert we did with some great crown cheers and applause. Our complete demo package consists of studio pictures, description of the and, band bio with color individual pictures and a set list describing the artists who's music we do. Since we decided to get paid, we only do a couple of originals and they aren't listed or on our demo.[/QB]that's a goode idea . THE HEAT did a LOT of originals and I still do as a solo dude and I NEVER mention the fact. They always ask WHO was that last song we did or I did and I'll say:" That was mikey leonis and the panther boys. or hurbet stank and the smelltones or billy malarky and the jokermen. or billy joel. a new billy joel arrangement. say it really fast and then jump into something else. we got paid to do covers. so THATS ALL WE DID.. ahahahahaha! MY coversahahahaha! Hah,hah, hah! Frank Ranklin and the Ranktones WARP SPEED ONLY STREAM FRANKIE RANKLIN (Stanky Franks) <<< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GZsound Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 In my experience as a festival entertainment director I have gotten a ton of demo CD's. I much prefer them to be short, contain portions of songs instead of the whole song and be an accurate representation of the band or artist. Nothing makes me crazier than getting a CD of a band with musicians and parts on it that they cannot do live. I got a CD of a band one time that played some great blues tunes with killer horn section stuff..on a whim I went out to see them live before booking them. They were a three piece power trio..yuk. No horns, no keyboards, just bass, drums and guitar. Needless to say, they didn't get the gig. Keep is short, keep it simple and keep it real..a live cut or two is great if you really want to know what you are getting.. Mark G. "A man may fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame others" -- John Burroughs "I consider ethics, as well as religion, as supplements to law in the government of man." -- Thomas Jefferson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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