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Okay, so you've decided what three tunes you want for your demo, but you can't decide whether to just record a gig or go into the studio. In this article, we will look at how to set up some low-cost equipment for doing your own demo of a live show. Of course, if you don't want to do it all yourself, you can always find engineers and studios for hire, whether for mobile recording of your live show or in-studio construction of your demo.

But if you are playing live regularly, have already gotten your arrangements together, rehearsed the tunes a million times to get 'em tight, charted out the songs the way that you need them -- then you're ready. And the fact is, a good recording of a live show is an excellent way for new fans to hear what you really do, and for other music professionals (including, perhaps, someone who might want to invest in your efforts) to gauge your talent and marketability.

Plenty of challenges Recording a live show presents a unique set of challenges: The main drawbacks are that the sound is less controllable, it is next to impossible to fix any band errors or sound-equipment glitches, and if one of your selling points is your live show, you will also need a video of a live gig, so you will have two such recordings. The upside to recording a live show? It has an excitement level hard to achieve in the studio, it is faster and cheaper to make, and if done right it can cover all the bases, selling your songs and your show.

There are a ton of 8-track digital recorders on the market from Korg, Fostex, Yamaha, and other manufacturers, ranging in price from $300 to $3000 or more; you don't need the best, but the least expensive might not have all the options you need. To record a live show, you will need at least four microphone inputs and a couple of direct (line) inputs; the former will capture the drums (in a perfect world, two or three mics would be on the drums), vocals, and the guitar amps; the latter can take the keyboards (if any) and bass as direct inputs.

You may need direct-input ("DI") boxes or not, depending on the specs of the recorder you've chosen. You might also want to take the house PA and feed that to a line-in as well. This article can't be exhaustive on these options because there are so many, so do your homework before starting - the Internet, of course, is a great library, or talk to knowledgeable friends or acquaintances about your plan.

Set and setting count, too If the venue has a good mixer on-site, you could also take a stereo line out to your mobile recorder, or even (with the right number of inputs) take direct outs from each mixer channel - drums, vocals, etc. If the club has a good sound guy, use his expertise as well (and for crying out loud, at least find out what his favorite imported beer is and get him some, preferably after the recording's done, of course).

If your recorder has a hard drive, it will be plenty big enough in the current models of these digital 8-tracks to record your whole show, after which you can pull out the tunes you want for your finished demo. If the recorder uses flash memory of some kind - Compact Flash (CF), Sony "memory sticks" and Secure Digital (SD) are all popular formats - make sure to get enough to do the job. CF and SD modules are around $10-15 (as of the beginning of 2009) for the 2GB size, which will get you plenty of recording time, and the prices continue to fall. The recorder manuals will tell you how much time each size module is good for, based on the recording specs (a sample rate of 44.1 kHz at 16 bits, for example, is CD quality). Your recorder may offer higher sample rates (48 or 96 kHz) and more "bit depth" (24), and these higher specs can double or quadruple the size of your sound files.



See what Boy did to Girl when Girl slapped her... by aman57