My Band's First Demo |
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My Band's First Demo |
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Feb 19 2014, 03:22 PM
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My band Hypermass recorded our first demo a couple of months back, and I thought that this would be a great place to get proper feedback! When you create music, it's really hard (for me anyways) to put yourself in the audience's shoes, so I often get kind of lost in my own mind when writing something. With that being said, the band consists of 5 people all contributing equally much, so it's not a solo project with a backing band! Anyway, I would really appreciate some constructive feedback on this!
As of genre, I'm not really sure, something Metal. Please let me know what genre we play! This is the first song off our 4-track demo, and it's also the one we're most satisfied with, so here you go https://soundcloud.com/sundinos-parteybule/01-amidst-the-eclipse |
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Feb 19 2014, 04:21 PM |
Hi SindreD! Congrats on your first demo! I think that this is a very good first step in you musical career. I listened to the whole piece and having in mind that this is your first material the balance is positive. Here I go with some comments that come to mind:
- I like the groovy sections and the powerful vocals. - Good guitar work! - Style? Some kind of Extreme Metal with progressive influences. - The overall mix could sound better. Have in mind to find maybe a friend who helps with the mix / mastering to give it more life. Drums could sound more real and deeper. - I have the feeling that some parts are a bit repetitive and that cutting these sections, the track could be shorter, more effective and easier to hear complete. These are my thoughts, I hope that it helps! Keep on the hard work and enjoying music. -------------------- My lessons
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Feb 19 2014, 11:57 PM |
I really dig the intro on the first song Although, four bars of it would probably be plenty. You can start to lose folks if you run a bit for 16 bars with no vocals. Some other folks will love it of course which is where you have to find the happy medium.
The part with the guitar harmonies about 4:27 sounds like it should be the first chorus section after an intro and bridge. It's a bit buried in the back as is. Your arrangements are your own of course, but I'd say try using that section as a chorus earlier and maybe come back to it a couple times before the solo section and once more as a Coda. Are the drums programmed or triggered? The kick is what I'd expect it to sound like but the snare doesn't seem to vary in terms of strikes unless the drummer is just amazingly consistent. The audio quality will work for a demo to be sure my first demo's sounded nowhere near this good to be honest. One thing I ran in to when I first started gigging (assuming your in highschool as you mentioned it your reply) was that since I was only 18 I was not technically allowed in the bars we were playing in. Our manager had to fib about our age as none of the bar owners would hire a band that young. So if you plan on bars maybe fib that you are all 21 P.S. I really liked this one Had better dynamics and range and seemed to sound a bit better? P.P.S. Are you singing some songs in Norwegian? https://soundcloud.com/sundinos-parteybule/en-endel-s-ferd Todd My band Hypermass recorded our first demo a couple of months back, and I thought that this would be a great place to get proper feedback! When you create music, it's really hard (for me anyways) to put yourself in the audience's shoes, so I often get kind of lost in my own mind when writing something. With that being said, the band consists of 5 people all contributing equally much, so it's not a solo project with a backing band! Anyway, I would really appreciate some constructive feedback on this!
As of genre, I'm not really sure, something Metal. Please let me know what genre we play! This is the first song off our 4-track demo, and it's also the one we're most satisfied with, so here you go https://soundcloud.com/sundinos-parteybule/01-amidst-the-eclipse This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Feb 20 2014, 12:07 AM |
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Feb 20 2014, 05:06 AM
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I really dig the intro on the first song Although, four bars of it would probably be plenty. You can start to lose folks if you run a bit for 16 bars with no vocals. Some other folks will love it of course which is where you have to find the happy medium. Yup, I agree that the intro is waaay too long! We will be re-recording it and will definitely make a few changes, although I think the song structure will pretty much be the same, can't say for sure though! The part with the guitar harmonies about 4:27 sounds like it should be the first chorus section after an intro and bridge. It's a bit buried in the back as is. Your arrangements are your own of course, but I'd say try using that section as a chorus earlier and maybe come back to it a couple times before the solo section and once more as a Coda. I know what you mean, but because the first part of the track is in D and the second part in F#, it may sound a little, I don't know, out of place if we constantly switch between the two! I will definitely take it into consideration though Are the drums programmed or triggered? The kick is what I'd expect it to sound like but the snare doesn't seem to vary in terms of strikes unless the drummer is just amazingly consistent. No programming or triggering, we were pretty amazed when our drummer started recording! May be more interesting if he does something a little different once in a while though! The audio quality will work for a demo to be sure my first demo's sounded nowhere near this good to be honest. One thing I ran in to when I first started gigging (assuming your in highschool as you mentioned it your reply) was that since I was only 18 I was not technically allowed in the bars we were playing in. Our manager had to fib about our age as none of the bar owners would hire a band that young. So if you plan on bars maybe fib that you are all 21 Thanks, man! We're all turning 19 this year, and have actually already done a few gigs in bars. Fortunately, we have been very lucky with the bar staff! As long as we stay away from the booze they don't seem to have any problems with it P.S. I really liked this one Had better dynamics and range and seemed to sound a bit better? P.P.S. Are you singing some songs in Norwegian? https://soundcloud.com/sundinos-parteybule/en-endel-s-ferd Todd Thanks man, really appreciate that you took the time to check out some of our other songs as well! That was a track I mostly wrote myself, and I tried to focus more on the songwriting aspect as opposed to the technical aspect of it. Because it's kinda more in the Norwegian Black Metal vein, we figured it'd be cool to write some Norwegian lyrics to it as well. That's currently our only song in Norwegian. We may write more songs in Norwegian though, can't really tell as of yet. I personally love it when bands write songs in the mother tongue! Thanks again for the constructive feedback! This post has been edited by SindreD: Feb 20 2014, 05:58 AM |
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Feb 28 2014, 10:14 AM |
The performance is fine. What needs work is the production in terms of the engineering - it needs work right from recording/tracking as you can hear issues with the gainstaging, mix balance and tonal spectrum is poor and the whole thing sounds flat and lacking in dynamics . As it is the demo is compromised by weak engineering. When you re-record you need to have at least one person who has real experience of engineering who can take some responsibility for the overall production and consider using professional, experieinced tracking, mixing and mastering engineers.
-------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
Be friends on facebook with us here. We use professional, mastering grade hardware in our mastering studo. Our hardware includes: Cranesong Avocet II Monitor Controller, Dangerous Music Liasion Insert Hardware Router, ATC SCM Pro Monitors, Lavry Black DA11, Prism Orpheus ADC/DAC, Gyratec Gyraf XIV Parallel Passive Mastering EQ, Great River MAQ 2NV Mastering EQ, Kush Clariphonic Parallel EQ Shelf, Maselec MLA-2 Mastering Compressor, API 2500 Mastering Compressor, Eventide Eclipse Reverb/Echo. |
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Mar 6 2014, 10:36 AM |
Your right on all of these point of course, but this is after all, just their first "Demo" right? As such, it's an accomplishment in itself I'd say to have written and recorded and shared it. So kudos there It takes stones to put yourself out there. ... Todd To a great extent I agree Todd. The thing is what you do with the demo. If you're doing it for low scale local promotion and to get experience then fine. If you send it to labels in the hope of getting a recording contract then it needs to be better than the competition, many of which will be professionally produced. If you put it up on the Net then it may come back to bite you when you're famous. It's the old cliche of 'you only get one chance to make a first impression'. -------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
Be friends on facebook with us here. We use professional, mastering grade hardware in our mastering studo. Our hardware includes: Cranesong Avocet II Monitor Controller, Dangerous Music Liasion Insert Hardware Router, ATC SCM Pro Monitors, Lavry Black DA11, Prism Orpheus ADC/DAC, Gyratec Gyraf XIV Parallel Passive Mastering EQ, Great River MAQ 2NV Mastering EQ, Kush Clariphonic Parallel EQ Shelf, Maselec MLA-2 Mastering Compressor, API 2500 Mastering Compressor, Eventide Eclipse Reverb/Echo. |
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