song writing

[marvinfloyd]

Hi My name is Marvin Floyd, recently became a member…. I have a few very important questions:
1…..When we send in songs to the screeners, are they listening to the song or the recording quality. We are song writer # 1 and recording engineers #2.
It seem to me that any of the record people who like the song and or songs and
interested, being they are gonna re-record it anyway..
2…..I sure they are going to put their own arrangement , change keys etc.

Thank You and good luck writing……Marvin Floyd

[Joseph]

Hey, Marvin. Welcome to the forum. I'm pretty sure they are looking for both well Written and produced songs. They want you to make the recordings as good as possible, otherwise they'll get it from someone who can. It looks more professional and gets your idea across better. I believe there is an episode of Taxi TV that Michael talks about this. I don't remember what episode it is, but you should definitely watch all the archived videos anyways (very helpful!). Best of luck to you.

-Joseph

[eeoo]

I agree with Joseph here. Go to the Forwards section of this forum and listen to the tracks that are getting forwards. That is where the bar is. The days of poorly recorded demos being acceptable, I'm afraid, are long gone.

Good luck!

eo

[mojobone]

It depends on the pitch; for film, television, advertising, videogames and the web, your tracks must be ready-to-wear. When pitching a publisher for an artist's use, the track will be re-recorded, and often the listing will state that piano/vocal or guitar/vocal are okay, but you're still gonna need a stellar or at least accurate recording of an astonishing, heartfelt performance and if there are instrumental hooks to go along with the lyric and melodic ones, they gotta be there. Here's an example of a voice, guitar and piano recording where all the elements of the arrangement are present, and the performance is convincingly passionate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X2TXwREYOY

[melodymessiah]

what the others said: if your recording quality is sub standard, you'll stand no chance.

[mojobone]

what the others said: if your recording quality is sub standard, you'll stand no chance.

I wouldn't go quite so far; the quality of the recording only needs to be good enough to let the song and performance shine, if you're pitching for an artist opportunity, where your song (or at least the vocal) will be re-recorded. You'll want the hooks and lyrics to be clearly and prominently represented; it's more about the quality of the song and the performance as opposed to the production, because in that instance, the artist is gonna have some help, Like Michael Jackson had from Quincy Jones. In other words, there's nothing wrong with a simple demo as long as it adequately represents an excellent performance of a really great song; if you can speak like Ghandi, you don't need to build the Taj Mahal; you'll inspire others to build on your plan.

Keep in mind that songs from what's referred to as the Golden Age of Rock & Pop were mostly heard over transistor AM radios and the rather primitive car audio of that era, which are maybe somewhat equivalent to today's cheap iPhone earbuds. However, getting things to sound great on the lowest common denominator equipment might be a rather tall order, without a good listening environment, some good monitors and appropriate reference materials for comparison. Experience is also a nice thing to bring to that table.

[marvinfloyd]

Hey, Marvin Floyd here. Thank you all for you're responses. They ease my mind a lot and will do as suggested. Just have one other bit of a question……. I write country pop type songs and use an arranger keyboard. ….Technics KN2000, it dos'nt have a lot of good country sounds but killer 80's sounds ( ie. funk, fusion, dance,soul) which represents the songs well. However will the screeners hear thru that and hear the potential of the songs as being country ?. My thought is yes. ….. one more note. I'm not new to music as i made my living with it as a guitar player for 40 years. I'm now on the writing end of it.which is new to me. , Got (i believe) is some pretty good stuff…. song structure, subject matter, themes, what's hot today etc… but am really concerned about the use of the arranger keyboard…… Can anybody shed some light on this? Please educate me, I'm a sponge for good info…… Thanks again, Marvin

[eeoo]

Again, my opinion and nothing is absolute, but you'll be competing with great writers that are having their songs demo'd by pro session players/arrangers. Even the guitar/vocal, piano/vocal arrangements will be done many times by paid pros. If you're demos sound like demos you're putting yourself behind the 8-ball from the get-go. And especially if your sounds are dated.

[VanderBoegh]

When I sat down with Jason Blume in my one-on-one mentor session a few years ago and played him some music, he talked about how high the bar is nowadays, ESPECIALLY for country music, and ESPECIALLY regarding the "demo" version of the track.

He told me that people like Garth Brooks and Shania Twain made their livings as demo studio singers in Nashville before they got their big breaks. Keep that in mind... Somewhere in Nashville right now is the next Luke Bryan who is toiling away at work-for-hire jobs as a demo singer. Which means that if you settle for "average" vocals, you'll get outperformed every time by an undiscovered superstar who sings hundreds of songs each year just to pay the rent.

Also, Jason Blume was very upfront with me that the term "demo" is no longer really appropriate, as the "demos" of today are fully-produced pieces that could stand their own on the radio. In fact, sometimes the demo outshines the final version on the artist's CD. They're that good. And if it's not, then it better be an undeniable Number 1 smash, otherwise it'll never get listened to beyond the first 5 seconds in pitch meetings, and will probably never get represented in the first place.

My advice, if you're doing country music and only have an 80's keyboard at your disposal, is to do a rough mock-up at home, and then send the idea off to a professional Nashville demo studio. Maybe a place like Chip Hardy's 515 Studio: http://www.the515studio.com

But do the mock-up's on your own, and post them in peer-to-peer so we can listen and suggest changes before you go shelling out thousands of dollars on something that could have been improved structurally, musically, or lyrically.

~~Matt

[mojobone]

^^^ What Matt said. I've yet to hear drums from any sort of keyboard, arranger or otherwise, that meet my requirement for realism; if you use sampled instruments they have to be top notch, and few if any hardware keyboard manufacturers can keep up with the rate of development in software instruments and scripting, today. That said, if you're really good with synth programming and you do EDM or some other electro or dance-influenced genre you can often match the trendy analog stuff as it comes along, and there are often tons of useful grab-bag patches floating around the 'net for legacy hardware. With country, you're in trouble, cuz fiddle and pedal steel are two of the hardest things to fake.