What should I put on my demo?

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TheSlobs

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I've been with a band called "The Slobs" for about 9 months now, and we've just completed recording a few songs. I just bought the materials for a press kit and I want to progress our band to a label. There's six songs in total, and I know that only 3 or 4 are supposed to go on the demo, and I also know that the most interesting 30 seconds of the demo should be first.

1) We recorded this at my dad's friend's studio, I had to do most of the recording and mixing. I had about 2 months of practice with the equipment before we recorded and none of the songs are mastered. My first question is, are any of these songs professional enough to be sent to a company?

2) I've played these songs inside and out and I don't know what is the most interesting 30 seconds or even which 3 songs are the best... I can kinda get a feel from the comments I've received, but I'm really not sure. If any of the songs are good enough, which 3 should go on the demo?

soundcloud . com/the-slobs

If anyone could answer these questions, it would be a GREAT help.
 
I don't know if things are still done the same way as for EDM, but I think the most polished sound will bring more attention of the labels. Still, I believe that if the label see the potential on your band, the quality of the sound won't be the primary concern here.

Back in the day, when cassette tapes where still in use, the bands didn't care much about the sound quality. They would invest more time on the composition quality. But it was like the 80's, mid 90's at most.
 
Thanks Heresy for your help reply, and Ddream, that's another thing that I was unsure of. I was thinking, if I were a record label I'd be looking at compositional talent over production quality simply because that's where the band's potential is. It would make sense to get better production AFTER you get signed... I'm thinking that maybe with the appearance of my band, the mess-ups might be accepted, but probably not. It would just be tough to get my band in for more recording.
 
perhaps, but maybe you just need to consider overdubs now - i.e. bring in one guy to clean up their part where it needs it unless it is the bass/drums interplay

this presupposes that everything is recorded on its own channel and you have a degree of signal separation between instruments to begin with....
 
That's actually a good idea. Yeah all the instruments are recorded onto separate channels, it's just a bit weird because we had to add separate tracks for very specific things like fixing certain parts in a song or adding an occasional piano. So it might be a little meticulous, especially with the drums. Our drummer can't really play in time to the tracks that we created, he has to be the first one to lay a track down and then we all have to play over it.

What I might do is go in and fix all the guitar parts on my own and take some of the nasty effects off of the drums, as well as bring the vocalists in as well to redo some of their parts. Thanks for the help guys. (:
 
Give your drummer a click track set to the tempo of the song.
 
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TheSlobs said:
Our drummer can't really play in time to the tracks that we created, he has to be the first one to lay a track down and then we all have to play over it.
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Just wait. Are you saying that your drummer can't keep in time with the music? Dude, you know that the drums (alongside with the bass) are the foundations for any rock music, right? IMHO, you need to get back on that garage for some more time, and spend countless hours on rehearsal, until he gets the timing right. As for any rock band out there, I believe you'll want to play live, too, right? Can you imagine your drummer missing the time of the musics on live concerts?
 
Hmm, it's not quite like that. Our drummer hardly ever messes up live, and during practice we all play ery well and in time together. The problem is that we take cues from each other and stuff. It's just hard for him to play to a recording I guess, because we play the songs a little differently each time we play them. Make sense?
 
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In fact, I'd say that our lives are much better simply for that reason. He's a really good drummer.
 
TheSlobs said:
In fact, I'd say that our lives are much better simply for that reason. He's a really good drummer.
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I'm not saying he's not capable of doing his thing. Never meant that.

Taking in consideration on what you said on your last post, I'd say to you all to keep the best version of a song, and stick to that one, both on record and live, unless you're just making jams based on improvisation.
 
I know you weren't saying he sucked or anything, I was just letting you know that he can keep time and whatnot, it's just hard for him to play without interaction from the rest of the band members. All of our songs have elements of improvisation, they sound good lots of different ways. But for the most part they're all the same song. Same time signature, same meter, same verse pre chorus chorus pattern, same key, yada yada
 
Well, there's five songs on the soundcloud. What did you mean?
 
Oh, I get you. No, they're all different songs.. I mean that we have many different songs. We play each song a little differently every time, but always stick to the base of each song. Did you go to my soundcloud? o.o

https://soundcloud.com/the-slobs
 
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To be honest, I didn't listen to the songs yet. But I will today, as soon as I get home.
 
I would strongly suggest to get your songs properly mixed and mastered before sending them to labels, as a lot of other bands will have done so already.. you wanna make the best first impression possible! :)
 
With demos they're only suppose to reflect a range of what you can and want to do. Do two or three songs polished, tight and solid. Songs that really reflect your sound. A label doesn't need 4-6 songs to figure out what you want to do.

Or you can do that and release an ep under your own name. If you've got it all recorded and what not, it'll be your best bet to cover as many bases as you can.
 
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