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 10 Pitfalls You Must Avoid When Doing Your
Music Demo!
Don’t get ripped
off. Arm yourself with this vital information and make
recording your MUSIC DEMO
the exciting and rewarding experience it should be. |
1. Watch out for music producers with no real music industry experience
or credits...
Anyone can call themselves a music producer. To call yourself a
music producer requires
no experience, no degree, no credits and no skill. Do you want to trust
your career with this person? Look for a
MUSIC PRODUCER that has actually worked
on records with signed artists and record labels. Valuable and necessary
MUSIC PRODUCTION skills are acquired only through years of hard work on
professional recording sessions. You need to put
this type of experience to work for you. |
2. Beware of producers who want to record your
music demo in their
apartment or basement...
Although home recording equipment has gotten better through the years, their
is still a vast difference between a home studio and a professional
recording studio. Due to space constraints and budget concerns, a home
studio will often make many compromises in sound quality and flexibility
that will undoubtedly affect the final product. A real full service
recording studio has certain professional standards that they must adhere to
and cannot make such compromises if they expect to stay in business.
Thus, the sound quality must compete at a professional level,
which is what you need to do. |
3. Watch out for producers who want you to sing in their
closet or bathroom...
This has become a major problem with many home studios. While
this might be fine for the home studio owner, when you're paying hard earned
money for your MUSIC DEMO you shouldn't be shoved into some guys cramped,
unventilated closet. How safe would you feel? You need a studio with space
to move around and you need
to be comfortable when you sing if you really expect to perform your
best. In addition, the poor acoustics of a closet will give you a very
undesirable vocal sound. Don't settle for this. |
4. Be skeptical of music producers who claim to specialize in 7 or
8 styles of music
Specialize means to 'devote oneself to a specific area of study.' An
experienced music producer may do a few related styles well, but beware when they claim to
'specialize' in rap and country and R&B and folk and rock and club music and
blues and polka, etc. This is like casting a net out to see who bites. Chances are
they have no real specialty and will miss
the subtle elements of each style. The result is a
music demo that sounds stale,
stereotypical and boring at best. This will do
nothing for you. |
5. Use a real engineer to record and mix your
music demo, not an
amateur
Engineering is a skill and a talent that takes many years of hard work,
study and long grueling hours to acquire. Professional engineers have
worked with hundreds of artists and music producers and have learned individual
techniques from each of them. They are paid hundreds and thousands of
dollars for their technical and creative skill. Engineers are the ones
responsible for the sonic quality of a recording. You can have the best
music producer in the best studio in the world, but with a bad engineer the music
will end up sounding like garbage. Avoid this pitfall easily by making sure
you have an experienced engineer working on your music
demo. |
6. Be careful with producers who want to charge you by the
hour
While occasionally an hourly rate can be appropriate, it is NEVER done in
the real music industry (where we make records, not demos). The
music producer is
paid a flat fee by the record label to give them a fully produced song for
their artist. Where, how, when and who is left up to the
music producer. The
record label or artist doesn't sit over his shoulder in the studio and
dictate. That's what they hired the music producer for in the first place.
When a producer charges by the hour, you become the one producing your own
track and the producer is reduced to the role of a keyboard player. They
count on you making common mistakes and running up the clock because of your
lack of experience producing. Everything always takes longer in the studio
than you think it will, so why do you want the meter running while you're
trying to figure out why your vocals sound like you're in a tunnel?
You shouldn't have to make those decisions. That's why you want to hire an
experienced music producer who charges you a flat rate with no hidden costs. (okay,
like us!)
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7. Watch out for producers who claim they'll shop your demo
Find out exactly what this means. Will they send it to their cousin in
Georgia who has a wedding band?Did they meet a guy in the music store who
has a cousin at some label in France? If they have any genuine
music industry
contacts that are really worthwhile, they could not possibly have them very
long if they promise to shop every artist they produce before even hearing
them. This will ruin their credibility. Don't
fall for this one.
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8. Be cautious of producers who emphasize equipment over
credentials
All too often people think that by just acquiring some gear they’ll get a
great production. Don’t believe it. Buying a paintbrush doesn’t make you
an artist. Buying a violin doesn’t make you a musician. Why do people
think that buying a mixing board makes them an engineer or
a music producer? It doesn’t. That only comes with hard work and experience.
As an artist your only concern should be how your music sounds, not
whether we’re using class A mic pre-amps, a tube compressor or Apogee A/D
converters.
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9. Listen to the music
If you have followed all the above suggestions,
congratulations, you should have severely
reduced the number of possible music producers for your project. You should now
have a few professional music producers left from which to choose. You need to
listen to examples of the music producers work and see what moves you and which
music producer you connect with. Does the
music producer listen to you and share your
vision? Do you feel comfortable with them? Do you enjoy being in their
studio? Do you trust them? If you
do, that's the right music producer for you.
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10. You get what you pay for...
Music Demos are not like McDonalds hamburgers. They are not massed produced and
they are certainly not all alike. While cost is a concern when doing a
music demo, you must realize that a bad
music demo is worse than no demo at all. A bad
demo will close doors for you that you may never be able to open
again. Like anything in life,
garbage is cheap and you pay extra for superior quality. Do you want to be
viewed like a cheap Hyundai or a Top of the line Mercedes Benz? For an
experienced music professional, you may end up paying more that with a bargain basement dirt
cheap producer. But if you're really serious about pursuing a record deal
you must present yourself in a professional light if you have any hopes of
being signed.
That's what you can expect from SkyeLab Studios! |
 The bottom line is if you want a
RECORD DEAL, you need to really impress the
record label and give
them something polished, professional, unique and exciting.
It's your life, your career.
Give yourself a legitimate shot by going to a professional studio and working
with a REAL MUSIC PRODUCER! |
We’ll be happy to sit down and discuss how we can help you with your
project.
It's easy. Just call us now for a
FREE, No Obligation Consultation.
*While there are exceptions to every rule, the above tips are basic
guidelines and pitfalls to be avoided.
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Arty Skye, Marro recording artist
Frankee (F U Right Back) and
Mike G.
Songwriting
Don't
let a poorly written song hold YOU back!
SkyeLab
Studios has a team of talented
PUBLISHED SONGWRITERS
to write songs for you or help out with one of yours.
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"Recording at Skyelab Sound Studios was a
dream come true! As a singer/songwriter it was
crucial that I found a music production team that would
not only respect and embrace my creativity, but enhance it as well. Arty and
his team did just that and more! I have a quality,
state-of-the art, radio ready collection of
songs that I shop around with pride. And as for
the
business side, Arty and the guys were jewels!
Unfortunately there are a lot
of shady people in the music business so finding a
production team/studio
can be intimidating, but let me just say that these guys
are legit and on
top of things. Thanks guys and I'll see you at the top!"
-Denise N. Lewis |
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