Demo Services

[king1042]

Hi,I've got some demos that I made in the late Nineties that are getting good reviews from the Taxi critics but not passed on to publishers due to minor stuff (change in lyrics, arrangements, etc.) As I no longer have the original tapes - they are with my songwriting partner who has gone native in the Canaries and can't be contacted - I need to get this work done myself and wondered if anyone could recommend a demo service that could lift the stuff off CD and do the changes. There's nine songs so I could do with somebody that's not gonna cost an arm and a leg and also has an ear for country arrangements as they are mostly in that vein.ThanksMartin (in Northern Ireland)

[jdhogg]

if you cut 9 songs you should get a great discount.maybe 3 different demo companies.consider also doing them in sets of 3 as getting the best out of demo services is something to be learned.gcmusic does a good basic service if you need to keep the costs down.

[king1042]

Thanks JD, I'll google them now....

[jdhogg]

there are lots out there just make sure you get a recommendation from someone here or who you knowyou might get some great feedback changing the thread title to "best demo service for country?"

[Casey H]

MartinWhat did you mean by "lift the stuff off CD"? Since you don't have the original tracks, the songs would have to be re-recorded from scratch. There is no way to extract individual tracks for a song from an audio CD. I just want to make sure I understand your question.A number of country writers here have used good demo services. Some folks you could drop a PM to are jchitty, adrienne, & cameron to name a few. They may be able to tell you who they used and their thoughts.Demos are expensive so try to get as much feedback as you can before taking the plunge. The feedback should be from reputable industry sources such as taxi custom reviews or professional critique services.Good luck! Casey

[king1042]

Jd: good idea, I'll change that thread title now and see what it throws up (if you'll pardon the expression)....Casey: I'm sure I read somewhere about software that can take a recorded track off a CD and break it down into it's component parts - surely hip hop artists use this all the time for sampling? If not, then starting from scratch again is probably no bad (but more expensive) thing...Thanks for your input guys, I'll let you know how I got onLOLmartin

[Casey H]

Hi MartinExtracting at the level you would need to make fixes is not possible. Remember, when rap songs use sampling, they only need a few bars which they loop over and over. (Correct me out there if I am wrong about any of this)...There is a bigger concern here-- the fact that you can't contact your co-writer. You cannot legally sign any deals for your songs without your co-writer's signature as well as yours. Keep that in mind before shelling out the demo cash. If it turns out that a co-writer wrote lyrics only, you could write entirely new lyrics to your music. Check if it is clear on any previous copyright filed with the US Copyright office as to what each party's contribution was. If I recall that can be specified on the form. If you didn't file a copyright, disregard. Best of luck,Casey

[king1042]

Good advice Casey. It's not that I can't get hold of my partner - it's that's he's living some lotus-eating lifestyle on the beach in Gran Canaria and only checks e-mails once in a blue moon between bouts of smoking dope, playing his guitar and drinking Guiness (some guys have all the luck!). As I was the main lyric writer that gets round that one but it looks like I'm going to be starting from scratch as far as recording goes...Thanks again and good luckMartin

[bucyboy]

Hi Martin. JD gave you a good name. GCmusic does a great job(Gary Carter Music). He uses high quality drum loops, but for an additional small fee he can use real drums. From my experience the loops he uses sound great. He recently cut a song for me, "If I Had Money". You can sample it at www.taxi.com/bucwilliams or http://www.myspace.com/bucwilliamsmusicBuc

[king1042]

Thanks BucChecking out your stuff now.....GC Music seems to be the popular choice among you guysLOLMartin