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Before You Record Your Demo

A songwriter's business card is their demo recording. Lots of books out there like to push the idea that a special query letter presentation might make the difference, but the truth is regardless of how impressive your introduction may be, if your demo isn't crisp and tight there's very little chance you're going to get anything other than a boiler-plate response of "not interested".

Fortunately, creating a good demo recording at home--provided you're starting with a good song--isn't very hard and doesn't require a lot of expensive equipment or software.

In fact, most computers sold in the last few years are quite capable of recording and mixing high quality tracks. Add a decent microphone and some basic multi-track software and you're just about there.

A good mic is vital. Cheaper mics tend to pull in (or add) a lot of crackles and humming. It may not even be noticed on a single track recording, but when you start adding multiple tracks (and you should as I'll explain later) the problem compounds and can eventually lead to a very poor final product.

Quality microphones can be found fairly inexpensively, and they can come with a hefty price tag at the upper end. For demo recording a lower end quality mic is sufficient. For instance, Amazon.com offers a Samson CO1U USB Condenser Mic for about $60--and these are great mics for digital recording.

Add on a pop filter screen for under $20 and you've got all the hardware needed for quality basic demo recording.

For software, the free and open source Audacity recording program is a favorite of many. It is a powerful recording program and has some fantastic filtering and effects built in, however does lack in some areas when it comes to easy and professional mixing methods. Still, we know of several Indie Artist CD's which have been produced using just Audacity, so it is a serious and viable solution when you can't afford a commercial production program. Audacity is cross-platform and available for Windows, Mac and Linux based systems.

If you can spend a few dollars on the production software, ACID Music Studio 7 from Sony Creative is available at Amazon for under $30 right now and offers everything you could want or need in a demo producing suite. From live recording to studio quality mixing and effects processing, it's an all-around solid program with an easy learning curve. ACID Music Studio 7 seems to only be available for Windows based system, which is the only negative I could point out about it.

For Best Recordings

To get the best quality for your demo, in addition to having decent equipment and software, you should record each element of your song as a separate track.

Even if you're just recording a piano/vocals or guitar/vocals demo, you should split the music from the vocals when recording and then mix the tracks together later.

It can take a little getting used to for some people, but the fact is if you record sound from multiple sources at the same time, such as from a piano and your voice, there will be points where one overlaps the other, causing a "drowning out" effect and leading to lower quality recording.

By recording your music first (with each instrument separately) and then recording your vocals individually and mixing it all together in the end you get a more crisp and much tighter demo product. It also allows you to add filtering and studio effects to individual tracks (instruments) without affecting other instruments or your vocals.

If you're serious about songwriting and getting your songs published or recorded then it's in your best interest to produce the best demos possible, and for well under $100 you can put together a near-professional home studio for demo recording.