silverwulf, i have several problems with your statements here.... not because i feel like being contrary, but because this is the world i deal in every single day, so i've got a little of an idea what i'm talking about. i'll elaborate below...
silverwulf said:
Good songwriting and good bands will get record deals. Simple as that. If the market dictates bands with a particular sound are currently part of the "in" crowd and would sell, I highly doubt that many labels would turn them down because they had a demo that was just "good" and recorded in an average home studio instead of one that was "great" and recorded in a studio where they pumped countless thousands to make.
wrong. simply put, wrong. to qualify that let me state by saying that yes, truly great.. and i mean GREAT songwriting will often make an impression whether or not a demo is of goog reording quality... and i mean GREAT as in music that's just timelessly good, like early Beatles, etc. in other words, rare.... this kind of music is just rare. and guess what a label will do BEFORE putting pen to paper with a band discovered off a crappy demo? send the band in to do a proper one... sometimes without even giving the band money to do so. i've recorded two of these types of demos for really good bands just this past year... label loved the bands and were clued in by the average quality demos they had done themselves... but their killer songwriting showed through. Label: "hey guys, really dig your music, do you think you could get us a better version to throw at the suits?" "suits" being the business guys that really run the label, as opposed to the hip, saavy, young A&R guy who wines and dines the bands and "gets" them, but have no real power. i'm talking about the larger independants and majors here.... not Rancid Ass-Crack Records ran out of the owner/sole-employee's college dorm room. and it's reality.. i live it, i talk to label A&R on an almost daily basis, and the "hey we dig you, but could you make a better quality recording" scenario is actually not that common because most band get about 15 seconds in the A&R guy's CD player to make an impression..... and i don't care how good your songs are, if it doesn't grab him right away, if something doesn't stand out and compel him to listen further that CD hits the circular file. done. like it or lump it. reality bites. your view on this is idealistic, at best. bottome line, record labels are spoiled these days, and want killer demos... i wrote about this a while back. it's true, i know.. fromt he inside straight to you from me. take it or leave it.
silverwulf said:
And major label albums don't need to be recorded in major studio's to sound good or sell either. Hell, going all the way back to he 70's, take Boston for example. Tom Scholz was hacking away in a primitive home set-up he built himself for next to no money and recording the Boston debut album. He was sending tapes up to the studio (that the label was paying big bucks for) so the band could play them for the exec's who stopped by. That album went on be the biggest selling debut album of all time. More recently, take the band Crossfade. They recorded their debut album in their basement with a few odd and end mics, a Line 6 Vetta direct, and everything done into a cracked version of Cubase. That demo got them a record deal, and then those exact same tracks were used on the major label release. The label just had them remixed and remastered. That album is platinum IIRC.
here you're actually helping make my point: the Boston album sounded AMAZING... Tom Scholz was no dummy.. he was an electrical engineer with awesome ears. that album stands up to this day... i was very clear in the post you were reacting to that there are exceptions, they are just rare. Tom Scholz is a very rare sort of individual.
as for the other album you mentioned, apparently they got really lucky AND their songs were strong enough to get the band noticed but still the label had to get a name/killer engineer to remix it, which most hate to do because what happens is they take all their experience and skill and SAVE a TURD, sonically speaking, and the end result of that is a usable, sometimes even really good mix, that the previously unknown and much less skilled recording engineer, who didn't have much at all to do with the final aound, reaps half the reward for in terms of credit for the sound of the album. i know i hate this, and have spoken first hand to 3 big name guys that despise it as well. anyway, that's not the point.. the point is that it HAD to be remixed, and as Deadheart says above, it surely made a lot of work for the mix engineer and took longer than it should have because of it. and this is rare as well.. for every one story like this there are dozens of really good bands and hundreds of damn decent ones that go unnoticed because the quality of their recordings wasn't up to snuff... so their songs never really made it past the critical first few seconds in the A&R guy's cd player. and it's not all about recording quality either.... Production is a big part of it... the art of producing. even really great bands often need to be produced. NOT having a GREAT recording when you march in to battle, so to speak, to acquire a record deal is a crapshoot. if your music is your life you should consider evening out your odds a bit more and upgrade your weaponry. get a killer pro recording when you set out to find a deal. it's like, do you want to go into battle against the Mongol Horde with a slinghot or with an M1-Abrahams Tank? i mean with slingshot you MIGHT get lucky as shit and hit the leader right between the eyes, knocking him stone dead and the rest of the horde may then capitulate and make your their new leader, out of respect.... but probably not.... i'll take the tank, thanks. Yes, there are "miracle stories" of bands getting signed off the demos they made in their mom's basement using a dixie cup wired to a See-'n-Say on up to decent DAW rigs... but they are not as common as your comments imply, much less really, and even when they do get interest the label more often than not wants a better quality version to play for the big-wigs... a new version, as i mentioed before, that they are not always prepared to shell out cash for.
silverwulf said:
Point being, with affordable gear being made available to musicians at all walks of life, a geat recording is now within the means of the common musician. You can easily achieve a quality of recording at home that would have cost you thousands of dollars in years past.
easily eh? let's hear yours. it's not easy at all, this statement is just ludicrous. if it was that easy we wouldn't still be here talking on an Andy Snaap forum... because he wouldn't be able to afford the Ulitmatemetal fees.
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