Proverbial Listen to my Demo Thread

[grygrx]

My first band (yeah... at 31 I've waited awhile) is at the stage where we are thinking about trying our hand at gigging. We do all originals and to that end we have started throwing together a home-made demo with the equipment we have on hand.

Looking for basic opinions in two areas:

1) Is the recording "good enough" from a technical perspective for use in a demo to shop around trying to get local bar gigs?

2) Is the song any good?

The song: Portland

Please note, I'm extremely thick-skinned, so the more honest and flushed out an opinion is the more valuable it will be to me.

Thanks!

Note: Posted this in the wrong forum earlier.. woops.

[cheezewiz]

OK..I'm typing as I'm listening.

I don't think the song is bad at all. It reminds me of a Canadian band, whose name is stumping me right now. Someone may know who I mean...they did the song "Courage".

I don't care for the guitar tone at all. It is WAYYYYYY too distorted and muddy. What sounds good in your living room doesn't necesarily translate live. The solo is pretty weak too. Your guitarist just may be your weak link. I thought the bass line was appropriate and well played. I like the drummer's high hat on the chorus.

As far as using the recording as a bar demo, I certainly think it suffices. Most bar owners/managers, know within the first minute if they are hiring you or not. They arent' normally critically listening to every instrument. They just want a feel of what your band sounds like.

There is no reason you can't be out gigging now. However, gigs are sometimes tough to come by playing all originals. You often end up in a "pay to play" situation, sharing a venue with several other bands.

Good luck, and keep it up.

[grygrx]

Thanks.. for your time and feedback

it is always intresting to get someone elses (outside my circle) to give an honest impression.

Strangely the guitarist/singer is likely the most talented musician amoung us, but has a tremendous fear of been seem as a "diddler". I wonder who got that notion into his head?

[DWBass]

I thought it sounded pretty good. Could be a little tighter. The only thing that bugged me was the bass seems to be mixed in stereo. I hate that. But that's just me. The bass should be in the center of the mix. Maybe pan the guitar and organ slightly left and right.

[grygrx]

Originally Posted by DWBass

I thought it sounded pretty good. Could be a little tighter. The only thing that bugged me was the bass seems to be mixed in stereo. I hate that. But that's just me. The bass should be in the center of the mix. Maybe pan the guitar and organ slightly left and right.

1) Tighter... yes absolutely.

2) Mixing: This was my first ever mixing endeavour. I did some light reading on things like compression, gating and some other audio techniques put nothing on panning and when to use it. Everything is current dead center... I was afraid to mess with it since I have no real idea what I was doing