We have recorded our demo! Our group went into to do panel training and have a play around in the studio two weeks ago, and by the end, we felt comfortable enough to book a session in a studio to actually record our demo. So we went into Triple R again on Monday after class to record our demo. Because we were going to be the first to record, Sam suggested that we might be the first to go to air. We decided that we may as well- everyone felt that they’ll be practiced enough by then, and so it’s only a matter of locking in our interviewees. We’d already done most of our running sheet in class, but we still did a lot of polishing when we got to Triple R. Dusty and Sammy (the presenters) each assigned which sections they would speak in. The running sheet ended up being pretty scripted in the end, apart from the interviews. I’m not sure if this is a great idea because we really want to avoid it sounded scripted. They actually spoke very naturally, in the end, so we’ll see what we decide for the running sheet for the real show. Overall, Sammy and Dusty sounded pretty good and Rose picked up the panel really quickly (despite her initial hesitation- she is great at it!)
We got a lot of good practice in the studio but thought it would be best to come back a third time to actually record the demo, especially because Sammy had to leave early (and was presenting). We still tried to record ourselves in this practice session but unfortunately, we didn’t export the file correctly so it ended up being half a file, and so we couldn’t listen back to it. This wasn’t a major problem- we just thought it would be good to have more material to reflect on and consequently improve. But we thought it was a good lesson for the next time- export file properly!
So, we booked another session for today- Friday (24th of March). We went in, mucked around for a bit, collected some CDs from the library so Rose could also practice using the CD player, and made some more adjustments to the run sheet. At 12 PM exactly, we began recording our demo. All in all, it went great. Dusty and Sammy bounced off each other naturally, our interviews were succint but dynamic and Rose’s transitions on the panel were delightfully smooth. We were so happy after we finished, and went back to listen to it. But… we realised we’d been recording the studio that was going live to air, and not our demo at all… So maybe I remember everything going so well in that demo attempt, because we lost it and so I never got to actually listen back and hear all the average bits. Anyway, it was very frustrating, especially when we’d already been in there for hours.
Unfortunately, I had to leave because I had class in the city. The other girls stayed and recorded another hour, which meant they had to vary from our run sheet a bit because I was one of the interviewees on the run sheet (and in our previous 2 unrecorded demos). They still kept the structure of the songs, and the stings and IDs, but the talk segments were different (and a bit messier) than planned. Paired with my abscence and the frustration after the failed recording, the final demo was not our finest hour of practice (but still pretty decent I reckon). The main lesson, which we will really stress to other groups, is to check and double check that it is recording! Overall a long and somewhat frustrating process, but we finally have a demo to reflect on, and ultimately use to improve before April 10th, our first show!
