Sidingsound

Demo in one hour

One of my guilty secrets is that I actually rather like Music and Lyrics, the 2007 rom-com starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore—partly because Grant at his best can be quite funny in a rumpled, stereotype English kind of way, but also because it depicts a musician with a home demo studio (and let me know how many other films can you think of which do that).

Therefore, if you know this particular movie, you can probably hazard a guess at one of my favourite scenes (and for a clue, it's none of the ones with Haley Bennett—I'm happily married, thanks :-) ). It's the part where Alex (Grant) and Sophie (Barrymore) have been slogging away at writing their song for teen pop-queen Cora Corman (Bennett), and Alex announces from the keyboard—where he has just begun the process of laying down the demo recording—that they can't do any more refining of the songwriting, as "Cora is leaving in an hour".

"OK", I thought the first time I watched this scene, "so Alex and Sophie have sixty minutes to record and mix a multitrack demo, burn it to CD, catch a taxi to the heliport where Cora is waiting, and hope she picks it up before the 'copter takes off. How realistic is that?"

Or to put it another way: is it possible in the real world to produce a multitracked solo demo (drums, bass, guitars/keyboards, vocals) in one hour, or is this Hollywood "poetic licence" in operation?

Well, to be fair, in my experience it can be done (and I've actually done it once or twice myself, but more on that later), but it's a tough job and requires quite a few things in place to work. To start with, the musician (or musicians, if the artist has the luxury of help) obviously needs the recording facility, instruments, etc. to be set up and ready to go—there's no time here for faffing around with sounds, patches and the like, or wondering where you plug in your guitar. As far as the setup goes, modern computerised project studio equipment can help with this; experienced users of DAW software like Logic, Cubase, Sonar and so on, often have preset project templates set up, so they can quickly create a new project/song with the tracks and instruments ready-assigned for a demo. (I'm pretty sure this can be done with my Tascam 2488mkII digital hardware multitrack too, but haven't yet really looked into that.)

Next, as far as possible, it is useful if you are proficient enough on your instrument(s), and comfortable enough in a pressurised studio environment, to be able to lay down all the necessary tracks in quick succession, with as few retakes as you can manage. Clearly, too, it helps if you know the song and arrangement inside-out, or at least well enough to be able to lay down all the parts in as few passes as you can, as in this one-hour scenario there is almost no time for correcting mistakes. You have just long enough for one pass at every track (maybe two, if you finished other parts quickly)—this is going to be a rough demo, as time doesn't allow for polish here.

So, how is the Music and Lyrics scenario shaping up so far? Well, it's fair to assume that as an ex-member of a very popular 80s band, Alex Fletcher (Grant's character, remember) would have had at least some experience of studio recording, though I did wonder why he happened to have a functional demo-recording setup in his apartment (from what I could see, based round a reasonably new Mac) if he hadn't written any songs in ten years and was only singing at school reunions and amusement parks. (And if you think that's over-analytical... have you ever read the trivia sections at the Internet Movie Database??!) Anyway, Alex should be proficient enough with his instruments and recording gear to bang everything down quickly enough, which is how it turns out.

In the film, Alex also has the good sense to keep the arrangement simple—keyboard, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and programmed drums (the latter tapped in via the keyboard), which not only makes it easier to play correctly and quickly, but would also allow Cora's producer to take the song forward without Alex's arrangement imposing too much. I only found myself questioning the order in which Alex recorded the parts (keys, bass, guitar, drums), as personally when I record, I lay down the drums earlier (second, in fact, after the rhythm guitar with click-track) so that the drums are present as a foundation for the other parts. (Some studios record the drums first, but I prefer to have a guide chordal part in the mix to drum to, so I don't get lost!)

Finally, the vocals. I find this the hardest part to get right first time (though I feel I'm a stronger instrumentalist anyway), but Alex and Sophie in the film have an added problem: Sophie hasn't sung much before, and certainly not with a mike in front of her with only a few minutes to go (and no-one told her she was singing on the demo). All I can say is, she must have rallied marvellously, as next thing we see, the pair are running for a taxi...

So, do I think the film was realistic, in showing the characters recording a full demo and getting it to its intended target in one hour? On balance, perhaps, yes, though I'm betting the demo Cora listened to at the heliport had more than a few rough edges (there would have been no time for a polished mix, I'm guessing for one).

As I hinted, Alex wouldn't have been the first to achieve the feat. In the real world, one of the most widely-heard one-hour demos in rock, went out on the Beatles' Anthology 3 album: Paul McCartney's 1969 demo of "Come And Get It" for Badfinger. Recorded and mixed within one hour (reputedly before a session for Abbey Road), Macca played and sang all the parts in four passes (vocal/piano, 2nd vocal/maracas, drums and bass guitar), and aside from the odd fluff such as a wrong bass note at 1'44" (E over C on the piano, instead of C), it's surprisingly accomplished for the time it was made in.

I've even managed this myself a couple of times, especially recently when I've often had to lay down two or three songs (usually entirely solo) in an evening, for Joy's children's musical activity sessions. The results aren't always as polished as I'd like, and if the recorded songs are to be heard by others outside the sessions, I wouldn't mind re-doing a few bits (!), but it's quietly satisfying when you can lay down a "complete" arrangement in an hour or so.

So, some useful hints for banging down quick "full band"-style solo demos:

• Have your recording facility ready to go, and all required instruments, mikes, etc. set up
• Make sure you're familiar with the song and how you're going to arrange the demo version (so you don't get lost halfway through)
• Keep the arrangement simple—rhythm guitar and/or keyboard, bass, drums—so you don't get caught up with complications
• ...er...
• ...add anything else you find for yourself!

Labels: demos, movies, recording

posted by Tim @ 18:32 0 Comments Links to this post