Musical Demo Submission thread

[Rob Morrisby]

Hey man,

Been checking out this thread and your other music industry Q+A almost all evening now. Its a great read - thank you very much for the effort.

I'd be much obliged if you took a look at my band if you had a spare couple of minutes. We recently finished recording a new EP and had it mixed and mastered by Jacob Hansen. We're pretty proud of it, but its nice to get the opinion of someone in-the-know!

www.nonpology.com

There's an MP3 player on the homepage, just to the right. I think my favourite track is Day of Reckoning, but takes a little longer to get going than the others, so maybe you'd prefer Someone, The Betrayal or Reminiscence.

Any feedback is warmly welcomed!

Thanks again dude!

 

[BonsaiK]

Hey man,

Been checking out this thread and your other music industry Q+A almost all evening now. Its a great read - thank you very much for the effort.

I'd be much obliged if you took a look at my band if you had a spare couple of minutes. We recently finished recording a new EP and had it mixed and mastered by Jacob Hansen. We're pretty proud of it, but its nice to get the opinion of someone in-the-know!

www.nonpology.com

There's an MP3 player on the homepage, just to the right. I think my favourite track is Day of Reckoning, but takes a little longer to get going than the others, so maybe you'd prefer Someone, The Betrayal or Reminiscence.

Any feedback is warmly welcomed!

Thanks again dude!

Glad you liked them. Please read the first post in this thread again.

 

[Rob Morrisby]

Hey man,

Been checking out this thread and your other music industry Q+A almost all evening now. Its a great read - thank you very much for the effort...

Glad you liked them. Please read the first post in this thread again.

Haha, whoops - sorry! I did mean to point you to our myspace. My bad.

http://www.myspace.com/nonpology

 

[BonsaiK]

Hey man,

Been checking out this thread and your other music industry Q+A almost all evening now. Its a great read - thank you very much for the effort...

Glad you liked them. Please read the first post in this thread again.

Haha, whoops - sorry! I did mean to point you to our myspace. My bad.

http://www.myspace.com/nonpology

Thanks.

Sounds pretty good, the guy who mixed and mastered it did a great job. It's also very well played and the songs aren't bad. The only criticism I can think of is that there's nothing particularly different about it compared to the glut of bands who sound exactly like this out there currently. If you want to succeed beyond the local level with this type of music in 2011 you're going to have to do something a little differently to stand out. Even your promotional images are very generic and samey. Something a little different in the presentation might be all that it takes, but right now, good as it is, there's no reason for anybody to listen to this instead of all the other stuff out there that sounds just like it.

 

[bigwon]

hiya Bonzaik! I just really want someone to give it to me straight...I'm afraid i've only had the feedback of yes men.


thank you so much!

 

[kds]

Hi advice guy, I don't know if you remember me, I directed you to my myspace www.myspace.com.karendesilva - it was quite a while ago?? Anyway, you gave me pretty good feedback in terms of my songs and approaching labels, etc. I did approach a few labels and didn't really get a response apart from EMI who sent me sort of an encouragment letter saying something along the lines of 'keep up the good work and keep us posted'.

To cut a long story short, I've really boosted up my internet prescence with new sites like reverbnation, r and r world, etc. And I've been gigging with a guitarist about once a month- some of them gigs and some open mics. And I just wanted to know if a&r reps are looking for;

a) artists with a finished product i.e. good production and a fairly polished song (the new songs I've put up on myspace are demos and I'm debating whether to spend the money and go back to the studio and get them produced)
b) a large network of fans on the various profiles (can this be a deal-breaker?)
c) are labels still looking at people who gig alot or is that less important now?

Basically I feel like i'm ramming my head into a brick wall but if I'm on the right track, i'll keep on ramming- that's where you come in, hopefully

Thanks!

 

[BonsaiK]

hiya Bonzaik! I just really want someone to give it to me straight...I'm afraid i've only had the feedback of yes men.


thank you so much!

Pretty much the same things I've said about your other tracks also apply to this, although I do think you're improving, especially vocally - shaky start in this track but by about the 1 minute mark you're sounding really fine and a lot smoother, not so disjointed. Something I should really mention though:

Whenever you're working with delayed sounds, especially in any kind of strongly rhythmic music (rap, heavy metal, dance) make sure that those delayed sounds match or reinforce the rhythm that already exists, because in these styles, rhythm is everything and it has to be strong. Don't just wind the delay to something that sounds kind of okay - match it exactly with whatever else is going on rhythmically. If that means you have to sit there and mathematically count out milliseconds, do it. Do whatever it takes. Your delayed keyboard noises in this song sound great - texturally. However, they don't sound great rhythmically - they rub against the existing rhythm because they don't match the beat. There's already a bit of pre-existing tension in the rhythm here between the beat and the vocals which are (as usual with your stuff) doing two slightly different versions of "swing", having that third layer of "stuff" is just too much, it gives me a kind of seasick feeling when I listen to this. No ambience at all is still better than an ambience that doesn't fit rhythmically.

 

[bigwon]

snip

thanks for the input on this! i definately see my error there (like a sloppy ambient loop...hehehe) I really just love a swingin' vibe, so that point is really good for me to look into.

i really wanna start nailing that vocal delivery to, glad you mentioned the difference between the 2 sections of the track.

time to see what i can get cooking.....
thanks!

 

[Raven's Nest]

Hey BonsaiK,

Been meaning to post in this thread for years but I have finally found that spare five mins.

This is an older band of mine, I'm playing bass accompanied by the usual suspects. The band is debating reforming as the reception we had at the time '07, was a little lukewarm. It'd be great to hear some opinions of someone who has kept in the industry loop all this time to offer an opinion on whether we should plug away with some of these tracks or write some entirely new material.

To kickstart the criticism, I have always felt that our singer's voice isn't quite suited to some of the music we are aspiring to. As a group we evolved from a sleazy 80's metal outfit where his hard-edged snarl gave an authentic twang to the lyrics. Here I think he is struggling to find a balance between a softer voice and a powerful delivery, "Time Away" being the notable exception...

The tracks are hosted on soundcloud (a streaming file host) so I hope thats not an issue. Otherwise i'll have to put together some youtube clips as we don't have a functional myspace/facebook anymore.

Thanks in advance.


http://soundcloud.com/user2974244/time-away
http://soundcloud.com/user2974244/star-for-a-day
http://soundcloud.com/user2974244/someone-wanted

 

[Raven's Nest]

snip

double post sorry

 

[BonsaiK]

Thanks in advance.

It's not bad, kind of like a poppier QOTSA during its better moments, both vocally and in some of the rhythms. I don't mind the guy's voice but it's a little hard to hear the words in the heavier moments. If you want to ditch the pop side and go for that whole stoner rock thing than that doesn't matter, most of that music has simply awful vocals technically. On the other hand if you want to be more pop I'd suggest smoothing out the voice and making it more prominent. I don't have a problem with the actual tone of the voice though, giving it a little more oomph wouldn't hurt but I wouldn't suggest trying to emulate 80s rock specifically...

Biggest problem I see with your music has nothing to do with the quality of your songs (which is fine) or your playing (also fine) or the production (frankly pretty good for a demo). The problem here is that pop fans and stoner rock fans tend to hate each other's music taste, so a group falling in between the two stools is going to have a very hard time making anything of it. I think you guys should choose one solid musical direction and stick to that and try to make it as good as you can, rather than trying to do some hybrid of things that doesn't really fit together that well. Your hybrid is quite well-executed but it's hard to imagine that many people genuinely being interested in it.

Oh and if you guys do reform, choose a different band name, "Raven's Nest" is very cliche!

 

[Raven's Nest]

Thanks in advance.

It's not bad, kind of like a poppier QOTSA during its better moments, both vocally and in some of the rhythms. I don't mind the guy's voice but it's a little hard to hear the words in the heavier moments. If you want to ditch the pop side and go for that whole stoner rock thing than that doesn't matter, most of that music has simply awful vocals technically. On the other hand if you want to be more pop I'd suggest smoothing out the voice and making it more prominent. I don't have a problem with the actual tone of the voice though, giving it a little more oomph wouldn't hurt but I wouldn't suggest trying to emulate 80s rock specifically...

Biggest problem I see with your music has nothing to do with the quality of your songs (which is fine) or your playing (also fine) or the production (frankly pretty good for a demo). The problem here is that pop fans and stoner rock fans tend to hate each other's music taste, so a group falling in between the two stools is going to have a very hard time making anything of it. I think you guys should choose one solid musical direction and stick to that and try to make it as good as you can, rather than trying to do some hybrid of things that doesn't really fit together that well. Your hybrid is quite well-executed but it's hard to imagine that many people genuinely being interested in it.

Oh and if you guys do reform, choose a different band name, "Raven's Nest" is very cliche!

This pretty much confirms my feelings on our musical style. I personally liked what we were doing but you're right, there never really seemed to be much of a market for it. At least not to the kids we were playing to anyway, we always were a "musicians band" so to speak.

The tracks were from selection from a total of seven tracks we recorded over around three weeks, not for record label prices mind, but we were happy with the result. Oh and the band name was "Slideshow". I didn't pick it... And in case you were wondering, the lyrics to "star for a day" are meant to be taken in parody lol.

I have another sturdier rock outfit named "Sweet Vegas" that I play with now (as a vocalist). I guess it's Audioslave meets Pearl Jam (Soundgarden?). Good fun, but not the genre blending thrills i'm looking for.

If we do end up reforming I might push for a different direction and new material after all. Thanks for giving it a listen and keep up the good work!

 

[putneyswope]

hi BonsaiK,
This is mine. Would you mind giving me your take? Thanks!

 

[thelittleman66]

I might have something to submit, if I can just find a drummer, and get somewhat acceptable recording equipment.

 

[oooooooooooooooooooooooooo]

http://www.myspace.com/russell_kuhl/music

New song called Spider that I've been working on for a while. Not sure if I've entirely addressed the vocals issue you mentioned, but I'd like to think I've picked up with the instrumentation. Anyway, your opinion would obviously be much appreciated.

 

[Mr Dice]

Hey guys ! i'm posting here because video games and music are my passions. I'd like to share with this awesome community some of my productions as a electro music producer and as a DJ.
Please comment.

Here's a little something for all Adele fans ^^:
http://soundcloud.com/arthurouvrard/rolling-in-the-deep-mashup

And here is my little original production (made under ableton ,Live):
http://soundcloud.com/arthurouvrard/double-backflip-360-bordeaux

Thanks for reading/ listening ^^

(Just wanted to add: this is my first post and you guys are awesome!!)

 

[Deon Williams]

http://www.purevolume.com/Deon

Thanks for reviewing this.

 

[bigwon]

hiya Bonzaik! Whenever you've got the time, took more of the ice breaker approach with this one.

http://soundcloud.com/theanjovi/anjovi-terrible-people

 

[Mr Dice]

http://soundcloud.com/arthurouvrard/hardcore-vibes-vs-million

Wouh !! second post on the escapist ! Here's another mashup I did:
-Million voices (Otto knows) vs Hardcore vibes (Global Deejays).
Please check it out;

 

[Mr.Mattress]

I sort of have a band. I'm still trying to get it together, but we do have a demo. It's not the best, and when I do get the band completely together, we're gonna remake it (I have better recording things anyways now). But here you go:

Spoiler: The Experienced {Cornfield (Down To Earth)}

I wrote the entire song. It's suppose to be Psychedelic Rock. Give me your honest opinion, cause I know it's not the best.

Captcha: act of god... Could this be a sign?