start small, or start big??...recording advice

[b to g is yummy]

My band’s got about 10 originals now, with a few more coming soon hopefully, and we’re itching to get some half decent recordings. My question is if we should be looking at a full length album, putting out a 3 song demo, or maybe just doing our own rough myspace recording for now

A little bit about my band:
-Christian rock band from Ontario, Canada
-range in age from about 18-21
-Our sound has a lot of Coldplay elements (lots of keyboard driven songs and delay laden guitar) Quite pretty
-We’ve played less than a dozen shows
-We’ve improved a lot steadily in the past half year or so as we’ve discovered ‘our’ sound
-We still make a lot of mistakes in our playing
-And yes, we do wanna tour full time. (insert laugh/eye-rolling here)

My own thoughts lean towards doing a rough demo of a few songs ourselves and popping it on myspace and see what happens, hopefully it will help us hook up with other bands, expand our fanbase, AND get some big name guy to hear us, love us, and takes us under his wings. Maybe I’m dreaming too much, we have a lot of odds against us I know, even just being Canadian is a big hurdle I suppose. (also, we don’t know much about recording at all)

Or, we could spend some money and go to a real studio. My question here is, is it stupid to record only 3 songs when you could get enough you could make an album? I think if we go the real studio route we’d be better off to just do a few songs, because we’re still developing so much, and it’d be a great learning/growing experience. Or maybe once you go to a studio and start working on things ‘magic’ will happen?

I definitely don’t want to record a full length album without the guidance of somebody who really knows what they are doing. If we do do a ‘real album’ I want it professional and amazing!

What are the pros and cons between recording ourself/studio demo/studio album??
Which route is our greatest likelihood for success??

Thanks tb’ers

[anderbass]

I think a low-cost myspace type demo would be a very good first step for you guys.
You didn't mention the possibility of buying your own recording gear, but that would also be an option for a rough demo.

For your first recording, I'd suggest finding someone in your area with a halfway decent home-recording setup, (ask to hear examples of his prior recordings) and working your way up from there.

Whats your recording budget?
You'd probably be amazed at how expensive a "real studio" 3-song demo would be, let alone a full length CD.
I'd also suggest you spend some time reading through these:
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...ario%2c+Canada

[b to g is yummy]

we do actually have access to cubase, and a preamp thing that allows us to record 8 tracks at the same time and mix them seperately... i think we'll give a try at doing it on our own and see how it goes..

thanks for the reply, and yea, some good advice there. we havent looked into prices for a real studio...but i can imagine. we'd learn a lot just trying it on our own, even if it doesnt turn out so hot.