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Tanya Janca
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A demo CD should idealy include three songs or more. It should demonstrate your musical versatility.
It MUST be on a CD, DO NOT submit a tape to a radio station, it WILL be thrown out.
The demo CD can be distributed to Canadian radio stations or elsewhere, if this is within your budget. For
a list of Canadian independent radio stations, check out http://www.radio-locator.com/.
A CD can be recorded in your bedroom, but unless you know what you're doing and have pretty decent equipment, it's likely to sound unprofessional. There are many studios offering recording at decent rates, and you can save up and get a demo done, sometimes fo rless than $100 (my CD Demo cost $101.00 to record, but I'm super-fast). One studio in particular that I would recommend is Addictive Sound, in Kanata. It might be way out in Kanata, and it may be in a basement, but they sure do produce some greats sounds for very reasonable prices. Also, the head sound engineer there, Dean, is awesome. Make sure you get a laid back sound engineer that is willing to answer questions, etc. If you are disatisfied and you will be there for mutilpe sessions, try to see if you can get a different one. The skill of the engineer that you have will be reflected in your final product, trust me. Before you go to the studio, make sure that you have practiced your songs until you know them inside out. Bring extra guitar/bass strings or drum sticks. Bring a tuner and tune over and over again, there is nothing like an out of tune guitar recorded that way, forever. And above all be patient with yourself and the sound engineer. recording is painfully slow sometimes, so expect to be there a while. Before you 'release' your CD, listen to it about 20 times and make sure you like the 'mix' and how everything sounds, it's important you like it, and it's perfect, because once you release it, you can't take it back. If there's an embassassing mistake, too late. Another thing to consider is packaging. If this is only a demo CD, I suggest buying a CD burner, or borrowing one, and burning copies of your CD to give away. There are also many programs that will help you design a cover, a CD jewel case insert, and even a sticker to put directly on the CD for it to look even better. Make sure to press the sticker down good and tight so it doesn't come up. Also, a product I suggest is "CD Stomper", which will help you line up the sticker to go on the CD, because it's harder than it looks. |