This is a kind of "editorial" part of our webzine. We have our "monthly ramblings" here, short essays about tendencies of the music industry, our reflections on news/rumors that raised our eyebrows or about issues that got us interested. We try to keep this place an open discussion forum for our readers so that they can reflect on the thoughts presented here or have their own ones posted here. So feel free to use this place for your own little essays. Email us your thoughts/reflections to feedback@rockunited.com

Open letter to Leon Evans

Dear Leon,

I decided to choose this way of replying to your letter accompanying your disc, because I think that some artists walking in similar shoes you are might gain something from it. You asked me to approach you demo in a different way, namely: "the sound quality is not the best, so please try not to judge the sound quality but rather the actual songs themselves". Well, our A&R Dept. column is about unsigned artists like you, so you found the right place to get a fair treatment. However low production budget, outdated equipment, do-it-yourself approach are no excuses anymore when it comes to the quality of a record.

There are people who have recorded their albums all alone and delivered a well-performed, well-produced album with sound good enough to compare to big label release. John Taglieri, Danny Danzi, just to name some of the people who kinda "made it"; well at least sold a considerable amount of albums and gained a strong presence in the melodic rock scene. They are the songwriter kind of people you also aim to be one day.

The sound quality of your demo is so weak that selling it would be a rip-off of fans buying it. You can't do that because this way you'd commit a professional suicide. And honestly I doubt that if you sent the record to a record label in its current form you'd be dealt with. The majority of people sitting at the A&R departments of record labels are not familiar with the equipment you listed as "excuse" of the poor sound, all they would hear is the poor production and would judge the demo based on that. They can't really do otherwise because the competition sends demos with good sound to them so at the end of the day you are out of the game.

The solution? Improve the quality of your songs / recordings. How? Taking your low budget into account the most advisable way would be this. Use the PC! We are living in the 21st century after all! If you can't hire a real drummer to play your drum tracks, you can still make use of the drum machine you have. But not the way you did! Use a midi sequencer software, one that is able to handle, synchronize wav tracks with midi tracks. Write the drum tracks on the PC, this way you'll see the notes there, send the midi track to the drum machine. When recording the bass and guitar tracks, make sure to record them in wav format. Not directly to the line-in (the sound would be too flat then) but record the effected, amplified sound through a microphone put in front of the loudspeakers (good old way of recording). This way you can preserve the overdriven, preferably tube sound of the guitar that you'd never be able to get when recording line-in (well, at least not with low-end equipment).

The other advantage of this is that you'll see if you are not playing tight enough right away. This way you can avoid the problems that occurred with some of your bass tracks (were not tight enough) because in the PC you have the midi drum track and the bass track synchronized.

The majority of your vocal tracks were good enough (especially the harmony vocals), work on them, they can take you somewhere! However another advantage of the wav-based recording is that the majority of the above mentioned softwares can use plug-ins (built in or external). You can (should) add effects to your vocal tracks afterwards (a lot more echo, reverb, in some of the tracks recorded for the demo even a slight flanger would help a lot).

When using midi-wav at the same time it's always very easy to add extra arrangement: keyboard pads, piano tracks, percussions, etc. This would open your songwriting up to higher levels that using your old analog technology and I do believe it would contribute to your overall success.

I'm driving this road for long years now and know how fussy and time consuming the whole process is but the result is always rewarding because this way as a songwriter you are able to reach further than your actual technical (playing) abilities could take you. I have even written lots of songs for musicals using this approach that included string quartets, brass sections, sometimes even a complete orchestra. I myself couldn't get a straight sound out of the majority of the instruments I used. As a first step in order to complete your songwriting plans it would be enough for you to re-record some of your best songs the way described above. You'll see how pleased you (and your fans in the future) will be. The rest is up to you.

Bandi

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