Like other musicians; you can create your own demo nowadays. You can create your own home studio to start tracking, mixing and mastering projects. It saves a lot of money in the long run since you do not need to rent a studio. It also gives you more freedom to work on the project since you will be the one to handle all the music production decisions. A good rule of thumb for demo music production success is to have your demo to sound as good as possible. Assuming you already done writing a great song and already assembled a basic home recording studio; how will you start to create the demo?
STEP1: Tracking/Recording Sessions of your Demo
If you are a complete beginner or novice, take time to read the technical steps in the recording production process as well as the general music production process implemented in producing a complete recording projects. There are several techniques and skills that you should know in the tracking/recording process. When you create a demo recording of your song, you should create a multi-track recording project using multi-track software such as Cubase, Adobe audition, etc. This means each instrument will be broken down into tracks in your multi-track software, just like this one starting with the drum parts:
multitrack session creation using drums
And then progress recording of other tracks such as vocals, guitars, bass, etc. until you have completely assembled the song in the multi-track:
multitrack creation using other tracks
Record the material as good as possible. Do not afraid to do several re-takes. Remember the “Garbage in = Garbage out” analogy is true for music production. You can never create a good mix if you do not have good recordings. Or you can never create good master if you do not have a good mix. You should take note of the following:
a.) Recording clipping prevention techniques
b.) Recording vocals
c.) Recording guitar
d.) Recording bass guitar
e.) How to record drums
f.) Best sample rate and audio bit depth for recording projects
g.) Recording vocals in mono or stereo
Of all the tracking process, the one that spends a lot of time will be drums. Put emphasis on getting a good drum sound. Drum tracks are the basic foundation where the music tempo and timing for the rest of the instruments will be based. This is why drums will be the first instrument to be recorded in a multi-track session. Well-recorded drums can create a big impact on the overall quality of your demo. If possible; use real/acoustic drums particularly if your targeted genre is rock, pop and alternative music. Make sure you come up with a clean and noise-free recording without relying heavily on noise reduction plug-ins. Never underestimate the importance of great vocal recording quality. The quality of the singing performance itself plays a lot in the demo success. Make sure the singer performs the song really well. Put emphasis on the clarity of the lyrics. Pay attention to the tuning of the musical instruments. Out of tuned guitars and bass can degrade the quality of your demo. If possible use digital tuners for best accuracy.
STEP2: Audio Mixing Sessions for your Demo
Mix your project correctly. Mixing is the most important stage in the demo music production process. It should be done correctly. Audio mixing requires patience, time, skills, good studio monitoring equipment and ears. A great mix translates correctly to different audio monitoring systems. If it sounds good in your home studio, it should sound good anywhere. If you are a beginner or novice in audio mixing; take time to learn more about the audio mixing process in detail. Just like the tracking or recording process, there are important technical techniques in audio mixing and each instrument will be treated differently during the session.
a.) Correct audio mixing levels and headroom in preparation for mastering
b.) Mixing vocals
c.) Mixing guitars
d.) Mixing drums
e.) Mixing bass guitar
In audio mixing, a lot of technical techniques such as EQ, compression, reverb, delay will be used so that your mix will sound fuller, nice ambiance, clear and great. For details, you can use the search function of this blog to look for specific information relating to those techniques.
STEP3: The mastering of your mix down and marketing
Most demo recordings are never “correctly” mastered which is a common mistake. Your audience (record label A&R, your fans, listeners, potential music licensing customers, etc.) will treat the demo just like in any professionally-produced music. Thus, it’s important to have it mastered. Mastering is a completely different process from audio mixing and recording. If you are a complete beginner you can read the digital audio music mastering process tutorial. You can also read the DIY audio mastering process. This blog also contains a lot of mastering related tutorials. If you are interested in learning further, you can read the audio mastering tutorial category on this blog.
Finally submit your demo for a review and marketing the work. You can find a lot of sites in the Internet that are willing to review the demo for free. You can get some feedback if you upload your music in sites like SoundCloud, Reverbnation, Broadjam as well as other home recording forums. You can also submit your demo to me for review. Like in my personal experience, producing a demo recording is a trial and error process. It may not work the first time. But as your knowledge in audio recording, mixing and mastering grows; you will discover a lot of ways on how you can improve your existing demo. And then time will come that your demo will be similar to those professionally produced. It can take time. For me it takes 2 to 4 years to learn these things, unfortunately there is no shortcut. Today with the use of Internet and lot of free home recording tutorials you can learn faster. Good luck in producing your demo!
Content last updated on July 29, 2012