The Cheap Demo...

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I often get bands coming to my studio having to re-record a demo. They originally thought their $100 / 3 hour demo was great but now a few months and even fewer gigs later (thanks to the demo) they realise it's not good enough.

They were going to go to a well known reputable $50 per hour studio that they'd seen. The studio was great, the engineer was cool and the stuff they did with your mate's band 'The Nose Pickers' was great. THEN another mate (now ex-mate) told you of a studio that was only $25 / hr.

WOW!!! - half price - cool - let's book in.

Now it's Saturday, time to record and problems are afoot...

1. The studio guy is an hour late
2. You're a 5 piece band - they've only got 4 headphones
3. It's a 13 track studio - it was 16 track but 3 tracks don't work..
4. The drums and double Marshall stack are in one room
   ("Did someone just drop a pin?" - says the drummer half way through a take) - NOT !
5. The engineer went to the Helen Keller School of Sound = DISASTER (with a capital D)

BUT

It was $25 an hour - HALF the price of the other one - but guess what?

IT TOOK TWICE AS LONG AND SOUNDED HALF AS GOOD!!

They next come in and spend $500 doing a decent demo with the well known reputable studio - it sounds great, the band has had an education in studio playing the songs are sorted out and they immediately find more success in getting gigs because they are presented better.

Cheap Demo
Cost $100 = 2 x $100 gigs

Quality Demo
Cost $500 = 10 x $400 gigs = $4,000 = business logic

Let me take you through the history of a young dedicated band...

Scene 1
They have saved every cent for a year to buy their Steve Vai personalised Strat, their Dennis Chamber signature snare drum with a Gene Simmons bass axe, precision series (personally autographed) - they've got the gear (Cost - $8,000).

Scene 2
They practise 2 nights a week ($40 a night) with lots of dedication, honing their 14 song set, rehearsal after rehearsal, displaying a sense of discipline rarely seen in post-war history - no girlfriends on practise nights. They've got the songs.
(Cost @ 30 weeks = $2,400).

Scene 3
The gigs start coming in, one of the guy's uncles owns a pub (now that's a good uncle). They do a dozen gigs at the pub  they got the gigs. (12 x $400 = $4,800).

Scene 4
With a united sense of ambition they decide that there is a world waiting for them outside the Lilly Pilly Hotel.

So after all this time, all this cost, and so far handy income they decide it's time for a demo!!

Scene 5
You just know where I'm going with this don't you? You feel like a turkey on Thanksgiving Eve - you just know what's going to happen - what can you do to stop it? NOTHING!!!!

They are going to do a "CHEAP DEMO"....

It seems a real pity that after such care and dedication to their music, with wholehearted commitment to one another over such a long period of time, with the resulting set of original music sweated and toiled over, honed to perfection that at the very end of their endeavour, when it finally comes time to present their work to the public, they are going to do a "CHEAP DEMO".

I hope you can see the reverse logic of all this; would Holden release their new model, with one flat tyre, plastic on the seats, and a mechanic's greasy boot mark on the floor mat? Would Bill Gates release Windows 99 in black and white? Would they make "Titanic" without the sinking scene?

Be consistent - don't spend all that time and money and have the potential snuffed at the end with "A CHEAP DEMO".

Permission to reproduce this article is available to all,
as long as you include attribution to myself including contact details
and let me know where you have used the material.
Jeff Cripps
A# Sharp Recording Studio
Email: jeff@asharp.com.au
Phone: +612 9153 9988

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