How To Make Killer Sounding Demos, Start To Finish | ASK A PRODUCER

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Trey shows you how to take your song ideas and turn them into great sounding demos easily using various Toontrack plugins.
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[@matteofranco2262]

Those keyboards bother me

[@DanielRutter]

Same. Organ sounds ass.

[@buminbeer2]

I have played keyboards for 30 years, it sounded too stiff and the organ is not great at all. Maybe a B3 sound, but I think this needs a killer analog Juno 106 type pad, some brass for accent and a 16th note solo arpeggio over the main part. Maybe I over think things :)

[@lewis1305]

Could've been cool if he didn't match the last part of that riff to the guitar

[@zombiesateourchannel]

But it's EZKeys.

[@leightaft7763]

This whole thing bothers me

[@secerno1987]

when we record if the tempo is 85 as yours is, we double it make it 170, so the song has more *feel* and its easier to jump to, less space between click, keeps it tighter

[@EricJaegerMusic]

As long as it doesn’t get sloppy when you play then that’s awesome. I’m learning music production so I love people’s tips

[@SKATE87410]

@@EricJaegerMusic I usually double up the tempo on slow things like that too

[@joojie_boojie581]

i also do that when making my songs, i put it into double time or set the metronome in a way where it clicks 8 times in a bar instead of four. really helps me play less sloppy especially on slower songs

[@themeat8624]

I second this, it's way easier as a drummer to play to 170 than it is for 85.

[@BaenaCarcosa]

"Just a skoach" Mate what did you just say

[@JamesDeal1982]

Andrew Baena Do you even Skoach bro?

[@porphyrichemophilia7405]

Skosch*

[@95TurboSol]

Ha ha, Musicians use this term all the time "Hey sound guy can you turn up my monitor a skoach?" I hear it all the time

[@Davidchromatic]

You guys don't even know where that originally came from. It's from a movie..

[@Psychoyouth]

Yes it's from "An American hippie in Israel" kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqe1gaOsi9qjrbM You have to see the movie to understand it.

[@kylemay6654]

You pretty much went over my workflow that I discovered myself after years of trial and error, acquiring various software (still looking for a killer software amp sim), and research. Don't sleep on this, kids. It may be a little heavy on the Toontrack stuff, but the basic concepts still apply. This is how you do it. I wish I had this video years ago. And the fact of the matter is, EZ Mix seems to make it, well, easy.The only thing maybe worth mentioning, to play off what you said about recording with a drum track (though might be overkill for simple demo recording), is additional instrument order. I find i tend to get the best results recording in the traditional order after you have the ideas down: Drums -> bass -> rhythm guitar -> lead guitar -> vocals. Having a solid, steady foundation seems to make it much easier for me to lock in those leads (and even rhythm guitar) with less takes and frustration.

[@treyxaviermusic]

Thanks man! Yeah, once you've got the ideas down, actually tracking them is another thing entirely. Although I usually go drums - rhythm guitar - bass, just because the rhythm guitar to me is the meat of the song around which everything else revolves, and I have to make the basslines work around that, and I can't personally record bass when there's only drums. But that's me.

[@AndrewStonerock]

tap tempo bro!!

[@stevenjames8260]

Keyboard/organ track needs deleting NOW.........

[@mynameismaali4955]

Why's that??

[@LordOfFlies]

You cant use piano chords like power chords on guitar... That was like the most unfunctional harmony Ive ever seen

[@counterweight320]

Why not?

[@dRibbs808]

@@counterweight320 there's too much going on. The notes in the chords are competing with each other. It'd be better to just play single notes with it's octaves layered on it.

[@irok75]

Why do you mix with the click track on ? :P

[@mattdavis9331]

irok75 because he loves bad habits.

[@gtizzle101]

Why is this a bad habit?

[@flatterswhite]

@@gtizzle101 It's also a good idea to not solo tracks when mixing

[@anasabidofficial]

Feels like a 25mn ad for Toontrack software. OH WAIT

[@DragonCrestPC]

Awesome video, i love seeing other peoples work flow.

[@lemniscatusofficial]

be me have a laptop, a guitar interface, a guitar and a cheap amp, total under $500 excluding the laptop have no EZmix, no keyboard, no midipad, no bass, no DAW why am i even here fml

[@treyxaviermusic]

There are free DAWs out there, plenty of free amp sim plugins, and you can click in MIDI stuff with the mouse until you get a MIDI controller. You can do it!

[@lemniscatusofficial]

i do have free DAW but the free amp sims are not quite as good as the EZMix. ive tried a bunch. they have a very unusable ping between input and output.

[@vomitoriumbassist]

Hehe! Im about in this same boat.. i have my cheap guitar with updated humbuckers.. my cheap bedroom amp and my pedals i like.. my desktop pc (a couple years old), my interface the scarlet 2i4 which came with ableton live 9, i believe.. i then bought EZdrummer 2, with a deal on 2 plugin packs, made of metal, and Matt Halpern’s pack.. just learning through ableton.. its fun, but it will take some time.. this is my first attempt at recording.. and will be sticking with it.. any nice tutorials, podcast recommendations, websites etc. would be cool.. Probably going to get a couple more toontrack plugins when i get the money to..

[@ronnieeuda]

It's like I wrote this comment. I'm doing the exact same thing. Let's keep our work up! :) We have to start somewhere...

[@cesarr2349]

Track without any FX. Move the recorded part to a track with the FX enabled. Presto

[@chadblackmon8586]

A really in depth view of your workflow. Very similar to my own, but I saw some tools and learned a bit more about the mastering stage that I needed to see. Thanks for this!

[@treyxaviermusic]

+Chad Blackmon no problem homes, happy to help

[@Ryandgeorgi]

Never realized the importance of a pop filter until I watched this

[@AionCB23]

Dude... just thought of something similar. Not criticizing, but helps to learn you REALLY need one.

[@Breakbeats92.5]

This guy named Mike gave me some good advice back in the day. He told me that when I played my demo for people to lie and say that it was someone other than me that was singing/performing. People are more inclined to be honest when the person they are assessing is not present. You might not get an honest response if the person you played the demo for knows it's you on the recording. In attempts to be polite they might not tell you you suck, even if you do.

[@tsteele9]

Pro Tip: In Pro Tools you can tap the tempo by pressing the "t" key while the tempo change menu is open.

[@treyxaviermusic]

yeah I may have forgotten about that one in the heat of the moment hahaha

[@noompsieOG]

You can also just tap the tempo section in reaper in the time you need to use east as

[@chrisparker6282]

i didnt realize how easy it was to just copy, paste and delete your guitar sound! i am completely new to recording and was under the impression you really had to be ready for a long haul once you hit record. i have been goofing around with recording for the last few months on and off. it was very challenging at first but i have been to make a few jams out it. im using the free audacity program and connecting my guitar preamp through usb (cave man style). seeing you make all this from scratch was simply amazing! GREAT TUTORIAL

[@TheCoolSquare]

Depends what you're doing. For a demo like this, it's absolutely acceptable to record in pieces and use a lot of placeholder stuff just to get ideas down. After all the purpose is just for sharing ideas at a basic level to get feedback or to share with band members. But if you're recording something as a final product, you probably do want to actually record things at once as much as possible so it sounds like an actual performance.

[@xDTHx]

​@@TheCoolSquare if your loop is long enough you can get away with looping it. If its short like the one in the video the looping insanely obvious. If he would have recorded it as an 8 bar loop it would have sounded more natural

[@gigalyrics]

dude that was wicked! well done Trey :)

[@treyxaviermusic]

Thanks homes!

[@DreadfulDrummer]

Wicked feckin dirty

[@GigglingDickhead]

*holmes

[@cortnysellers]

Trey: *takes an hour to record an intro* Me: *Feeling better taking 3 hours to make a whole song*

[@treyxaviermusic]

Only 3 hours? I’ve spent weeks on one song - the correct length of time is however long it takes to get it right!

[@yitzieb]

Takes me 3 hours to get a single riff down.

[@pcallas66]

These are some good ideas for making song structure. I think for the most part it can set it up to give your other musicians in the band what you may want and then use the actual musicians to execute the parts. I'm not a big fan of the sound of the vocal microphone that was used to make this, but it's a demo. Thank you for sharing. I do like the sound of your guitar for this type of music though and a nice job playing it. I'm curious to know what this would sound like if this was recorded to tape on separate tracks. I give this a thumbs up.

[@RogerSanderson]

You look like if Fluff was related to Shay Carl.

[@tombradypack5825]

Rogertron 85 I clicked on this video thinking it was Fluff lol

[@jdpalm1981]

21:20 - Master Fader! That reminds me, I’m pretty sure Anakin Skywalker was a Master Vader, too.

[@Mississippi_Martian]

Glad it's not just me having the issue with the click tracks and re-recording guitars. Happens to me EVERY time.

[@CIRCLEOFTONE]

Great video. Demo tastic. I would have done a tweak to the "to" vocal. Mute the original vocal, copy it to another track and manually select the peak of the blown "to" and edit/lower the gain on the peak about 10db. You will hear the "to" perfectly without the breath and pop.

[@alexnasla]

hmm, why copy it to another track just to tweak the gain on it? Why not just use automation?

[@TheShinyShow]

Very Townsend vocals!

[@followfornothing]

EsotericFallacies Reminded me of Dee Snider.

[@nathanrice6589]

Why don't people understand this whole thing was for demo purposes so what if the keys aren't to your liking. It's a example of putting down ideas fast..! I love this video!!

[@bannanafruitsalad]

I think the problem everyone has with it is that he probably would have taken just as long figuring out a better keyboard part on the instrument itself instead of fiddling with the kind of awkward pre-built chords.

[@tomulator]

GET OVER THE KEYS PEOPLE! Geez...it was a simple DEMO to illustrate the sequence he goes through.😑

[@B3Band]

Do NOT copy and paste riffs! If you play a riff twice in a song, PLAY IT TWICE! Last thing you want is to notice like two weeks from now that there's a random pick scrape or tiny error in your playing, and now you have to hear it 16 times on your track.

[@TheDrumEquation]

Its just a demo......

[@andyartcore12]

true and not true

[@bradhargis2261]

Bloodbath and Beyond I think it was just to save time for the sake of the video.

[@jandrem]

Man, everything else in the video is sampled and artificial, might as well copy/paste. Kind of hard to worry about playing real riffs, when everything else is samplers and modelers.

[@Heathshrdz24]

That first organ chord hit me with some Goonies vibes.

[@waldotorres8600]

What if i dont had a keyboard or a pad for the drums? can I use my keyboard??? and if I dont have a bass can I modify the minidata from the guitar to make it sound like a bass???

[@lukasnieder]

Waldo Torres yes but for the bass I'd recommend you to buy the zoom g1on it has a bass guitar effect

[@josephonguitars]

thanks trey! I'm a beginner trying to set up home recording studio and compose....this vdo helped to know few imp things.... thanks again 🤘

[@vomitoriumbassist]

This was cool... and about where im at.. except at a lot worse, because im just starting and dont have much gear.. but would love to learn how to record.. cool little vid man... thanks!

[@Dimebog]

the way you were going, i thought you would include the click track in the final mix...

[@AgeofReason]

I still record my demos on a tape recording karaoke machine.

[@fleshman4joe]

Thank you! This is exactly the tutorial I needed!

[@savatomic2]

That piano fucked up everything.

[@Jerlad1]

Awesome - very inspiring! We all work differently when creating and tech sometimes get in the way. How you solve this is enlightening.

[@chrisdaviesguitar]

bang on right, recording to a click track then adding drums later - basically you have to resort from scratch.

[@Kimberlypellot]

My producer and friends recommended that I'd leave a few mistakes on the demo to inspire the music producers of the labels and to get their attention; so I did and am almost sure that it's one of the best music demos in the world because it shows a lot of versatility artistically and I demonstrate my willingness to change and adapt to my fans and environment and to have them grow with me. My first demo was way to intimidating and did't leave much for the imagination. If I don't land a deal in the next few years I'm going to sell it to another artist as an album and just start over. Thank you...

[@lilbigmike8945]

How much would all the equipment and programs cost to do this? Minus the guitar. This video blew my mind

[@DestoTrading]

The camera sound is better tahn the recording with the mic... :D seriosly!! No post-processing needed! Its now my ringtone man \m/

[@AgeofReason]

I wonder if we are kicking out to gear gods?

[@triggerrecord6374]

totally helpful...it kind of alternative way to making demo in low budget.. negative comments toward making a demo out of this technique im sure all of u have all the high end equipment in your inventory or studio...as for me.. this is more than enough consider as a home studio..

[@dylanschad7207]

Chuckled at "Doom Tempos" simply because I just started a song at 54 BPM...and I fucking love Doom Metal!

[@ezthegreat40]

Replace the pipes with synthetic keys or just raw grand piano .believe me you'll love

[@BROperatorTIME]

That organ synth really fucks me up fam.

[@Murderbation]

Hey Trey, I wanna get a little midi pad to adjust midi drums easier but I don't need anything to flashy. What's the midi pad you're using or do you have other recommendations?

[@treyxaviermusic]

The one I'm using is the IK Multimedia iRig Pads, it's crazy easy to use, very portable, and pretty cheap. It's also the only one I've owned, so I don't have any good suggestions for other ones to try unfortunately. But there are a few on the market.

[@WillLopez00]

Awesome video! I've never seen Ez Mix or Ez Keys in use. It looks super cool.

[@TheSnaveeelPlaysGames]

This was a great demo of demos! I use “EZ” too. You kept apologising in a way for your work, “I know it sounds generic now but i’ll Spruce it up later”. Dude, it sounded great, I know this was a few years back but you gotta show confidence man. If it sounds good to you it sounds good to us! Especially with how easy it is.

[@Harrysound]

That’s a guitar tone?

[@paulcompme856]

Thank you for the tips and work flow - Great Job and Great Video.

[@kmacdizzle]

lol this demo sounds better than anything I've ever recorded lol

[@cowboychurchclovis]

Loose the keyboards

[@ptkk21]

Man you got your voice on point! Great stuff!

[@dobby240]

Great video deffinatly rewatching this when I start on my next project, not a fan of the keys but it's your intro tune man

[@Nightshade1881]

Say I wanted to release a full album all recorded and tracked like this Ezmix ez drummer and all that stuff Since I’m just a guitarist with no other musician friends as I wanted to put this out on Bandcamp Would it still be called a demo???

[@manny3095]

You can call it whatever you want

[@sleepinggiant333]

That would be an album, in my opinion. I may be biased though, as I am doing the exact same thing Haha. I'm a guitarist recording a full length "album" by myself.

[@carlsainz5332]

Daniel Sun me too bro

[@picnicpointopenmic572]

Thanks for putting this up. Very helpful to a first timer like me.

[@Oralden]

Nice tutorial man! Quick question, what software do you use to make the tutorials? I am having to do some software tutorials for work and was going to use OBS studio. Any suggestions? By the way, it was really informative to see someone else's creativity at work, I wish more people had your patience, editing ability and willingness to show others your work and expose yourself to some of the dipwad comments out there. I, for one, really appreciate it!

[@Driftuner]

im not a big fan of what you did with the keys, but i get the point...personally i would have placed it further "behind" the mix and drop that volume way lower then everything else...

[@MrCanadianCaber]

Super helpful, thanks Trey!

[@samlee2562]

I love all your catchphrases

[@HaereticusMetal]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing and showing us how you do things. I'd personally never set the velocity of everything to 127 "because this is metal." It's not. All velocity at 127 sounds like steaming shit, and you lose the human-sounding imperfections.

[@urphakeandgey6308]

"Just humanize your Midi stuff..." You mean like randomizing the velocity a bit so they're not all at 127???

[@w.l.h.]

I know this is really old but for me it was super interesting and helpful. ...also Dmin -> D# -> Dmaj is a pretty crazy chord progression! haha

[@tHe_bAd_sEEd_]

Thank you very much. This video is so helpful

[@hiatuso8260]

Interesting. Well done to illustrate a quick scratch idea

[@callingallkings163]

BOOM! Sounds like music already.......

[@daveselectronicguitarchann9981]

Reminds me of the Angry Nintendo Nerds theme tune on his channel.Thanks for sharing your secrets.

[@redscreen5976]

You mean angery video game beard?

[@JustinOliverMusic]

Why so much hate in this comment section? He was displaying how he records DEMOS. This is just an idea. Not a finished product. A lot of professionals do it this way, as well. Go watch the Devin Townsend song recording demo he did for toontrack if you need proof.

[@savatomic2]

That was awesome, i would give everything for that gear you have, ezdrummer, ez mix, axe fx, kiesel 7 string, nice bass, and everything else ....

[@THRASHMETALFUNRIFFS]

Ah cool! In my vids lately, I found Krystal Media Audio Engine freeware 99 multi-tracks with EQ, reverb, (not like Urs, Damn!) and Acoustica BeatCraft cheap drum maker a long time ago but thinking of upgrades maybe?? \m/

[@tyschuby]

Nice video! Thanks for the input

[@RichieHelf]

stupid question but is your guitar going through an interface or is it hooked right to the computer? im new to recording

[@Zuperniakiwyd]

interface. The DI signal is processed by the amp sims on the computer. Check out the Focusrite 2i2.

[@roccocrocco817]

Thanks for this awesome video.

[@PyramideYT]

100% velocity + Kick follows the tchugs, bass do the same. Dude you teach bad habits :-/

[@volgalgzkaradagoglu]

Depends on time and place kick may follow the riff. But I cannot agree more 100% velocity kicks kills the dynamics :D

[@TheMusicalMedic]

But it's a demo. It's basically an idea.

[@RArecordingsRickValcon]

So lazy nowadays.... can we assume that it's not in the best interest for music to let the guitarist program drums..

[@hellodumplings8564]

@@RArecordingsRickValcon it’s a demo lol. It’s not the point of it to sound good. It’s recording an idea in your phone with extra steps.

[@RArecordingsRickValcon]

@@hellodumplings8564 but you wil get used to that metronome like sound and time alignment. When my guitarfriends program drums they almost always program quaternotes for cymbals and turn them down in the mix pref without any attack. Kick is then mostly used for accenting and tightening of the guitarriff. Friends of mine also said that it was for writing purposes only but I have to regulary deal with a long face when I play my drumpart over it because I don't play the robotic unrealistic bs they programmed. Like most drummers I play 8ths on cymbals and close and open hihats. I put a snare slightly in front of a beat for urgency and to the back of a beat to make a piece sound grander. I also put a fraction of a swing in my 16th note double bass in some parts to give it a certain vibe. So wen guitarist in my band writes a song I say.. write it with a metronome the he sends it to me I play drums and then they Make a song from it. Then everything comes to life.

[@Nate_Sanity]

Awesome video thank you for the info

[@robloyst4514]

I’d love to see how much would be involved to turn this into a finished project instead of just a demo. Great video!

[@JohnnyMoonshine7]

this was fun to watch

[@onzkicg]

Nice no latency (or very unnoticeable).. what recording interface are you using?

[@tommytorres5825]

I know this is an older video, but was hoping you could answer a question. When you used EZDrummer and put in your own kicks using the pad, how did you select only the kick midi in the velocity line? How were you able to not select any of the othe midi notes? Thanks for the tutorial.

[@treyxaviermusic]

Click the note in the piano roll

[@stainpain77]

Dude it is so much easier to learn how to play the drums.

[@treyxaviermusic]

And mic them up and edit and mix them - for a demo? nah

[@captaaron1]

I wonder how the new MacBook Pros would handle all this software.. trey how's the latency on recording guitars?

[@NeZversSounds]

What pickups do you have, sound amazing! You have great ears for producing BUT you do it highly inefficiently.

[@alexnasla]

yeah, im curious how you can do it more efficiently too

[@Ppstate32]

NeZversTutorials are you serious??? The organ parts were off. WAY OFF KEY... he needs some musical background...

[@HackerHaus]

I could’ve sworn that was Kamon Tatsuo singing in Japanese at the beginning.

[@innovationinoovative2544]

Interesting. I need to submit a song demo to a record label but I’m unsure what to do yet.

[@BlackCanvasAudio]

Are you just using like a focusrite interface into pro-tools?

[@kesamek8537]

Superb video, this is god tier advice.

[@datiller9035]

wooooooahh.. you smashed it dude!!

[@ichsan.x]

very inspiring. thanks

[@billlosapio7571]

Awesome vid. Thanks.

[@Zeig7190]

If the band Mouse Rat was still around, I think you guys would make an AWESOME collab!

[@fishmasterdisaster3713]

Thier lead singer/rhythm guitarrist joined some wierd space cult

[@camfre4k]

I know you usually usually use electric guitar but i'm really having trouble getting the acoustic guitar to fit in the mix. It sounds off no matter what I do. Could it be that I record it in my room ?

[@LarryWilliamsArtist]

Excellent!

[@callingallkings163]

Around 16:10 in the video, YOU sir could have just ran your DI from the guitar in as a midi channel when playing the riff, THEN you would have just had the notes for the ez keys to play from.

[@topdog91]

I wonder how many EZkeys were sold as a result of this. 🤔

[@TheBlueskyson]

I'm kinking out to dear god.....good job. ty

[@jetblack7044]

As you play through both the real amp and the software , have you ever felt any kind of latency or something like that through the software???

[@treyxaviermusic]

I don't have any latency problems, but I have a fast thunderbolt interface and I have the buffer set really low.

[@JamieHorten]

That was pretty interesting. I enjoyed it :D

[@sleepinggiant333]

This is pretty much exactly how I write songs. Neato

[@wjveryzer7985]

So is your guitar hooked up to a box than to the cpu? Im trying to learn and my biggest problem now is using vst to make my effect sound decent. I actually gave up and started hooking my amp direct to my box so i can use the amps effects but there is to much latency.Id love to just be able to click a button like Merrow (LOVE) and hear it sound beast right away. also do i need special speakers? I have a basic cpu speaker set up with subwoofer. When I was using my amp I would do guitar-amp-audiobox-cpu and was using studioone. I also have ezdrummer 2. Im thinking about getting ez mix based on your video. thanks m8! any tips would be great!

[@dickdanson]

Audio interface

[@dave1812]

What are the Pickups in your Guitar? Are they Stock Kiesel Pickups?

[@cam507]

I'm using Reaper - is it that easy to edit the drums using that as you did here? I'd love to be able to make my drum kicks match my guitar like that. Right now I have to do it the other way around with whatever EZD2 beats I find are closest to what I want.

[@eirikbevektg3244]

cam507 you can edit them, just doubleclick the drumtrack

[@CwGuitar01]

If you were just going to use guitar, bass and drums, is there a reason why you wouldn't just do this for a full song?