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whetstone Group: Members Posts: 8 Joined: May 2009 Posted: June 13 2010, 15:27 OK guys here's a question - how do you think Mike used the demos we are now hearing on the 2009/10 reissues.  I guess I know the TB demo story (patched together on Kevin Ayers borrowed tape recorder and hawked around the labels).  But what about HR and Ommadawn?  Now the HR demos, to me, sound very like the released version - the themes, progression and textures are all there.  The demos cover both parts 1 and 2 but are played mainly on guitar and keys.  Do you think Mike works up the track plans (like we saw on the All You Need Is Love documentary and FMO cover) and then records a rough workthrough to get the feel right?  I guess we are hearing a rough stereo mix from the master tape made at some point - perhaps to play to others to get a reaction?  Do you think Mike would have then gone back to the same master and started building parts, adding in the various other instruments but preserving the original guitar and keys or do you think he bounced the whole lot down to another master and then started again - over-recording where he wanted better versions? And then with Ommadawn we know this was a demo stereo mix from the deteriorating multi track master.  Do you think he preserved any of the parts that sounded OK on to the new tape stock or did he simply started over. I guess I am intrigued because some other artists' demos are all drum machine, click track, tentative acoustic guitar and humming where the vocals need to go (c.f. Phil Collins In The Air Tonight). Mike's demos seem really accomplished by comparison and in the case of the TB and HR demos could almost have been released.  Any musos out there that can shed light on all this demo stuff? Back to top

familyjules Group: Members Posts: 1190 Joined: May 2004 Posted: June 13 2010, 17:09 Quote (whetstone @ June 13 2010, 15:27) And then with Ommadawn we know this was a demo stereo mix from the deteriorating multi track master.  Do you think he preserved any of the parts that sounded OK on to the new tape stock or did he simply started over. I think with Ommadawn he had to scrap it and start again out of necessity. The 'demo' for Ommadawn isn't really a demo at all.  It was, rather, an earlier attempt at the real thing. The Hergest Ridge demo, on the other hand, sounds like a genuine attempt to map out what he was going to do.  It's how he'd worked up Tubular Bells after all - sketching it out before recording the proper version. Maybe there's a similar sketch for Ommadawn in his vaults too. The main reason Mike's demos don't sound like demos for pop songs is because Mike wasn't writing pop songs in those days.  He was breaking new ground.  An acoustic guitar and drum machine demo wasn't really what was needed.  He had to map out how various sections fitted togther in a long piece where he, personally, had to play most of the parts.  So his demos had to be a bit more intricate.  They're not really demos as in 'demonstration recordings' - they are more like blueprints. Jules -------------- I like beer and I like cheese Back to top

Herod Group: Members Posts: 85 Joined: Jan. 2004 Posted: Sep. 28 2010, 11:33 I agree with Jules. I'm working on the demo of what I hope one day will be my first album. It is an hour long rock instrumental suite. Knowing that, if one day some producer is interested, the whole thing will have to be recorded properly, I initially decided to do it in a simple way... but just couldn't! If you're recording the demo of a song, an acoustic base, the vocal line and maybe some percussion is really enough to give anybody else the idea of what you've written. In the case of an instrumental work, the way TB, HR, Om, and my very own too are, this just isn't possible... you have to map out everything, otherwise the structure will be unclear to anybody...including the composer! This is, I think, what Mike had in mind back then... and the HR demo clearly sounds to me this way -------------- The last 80 seconds of 'Amarok' are one of the reasons for being happy to live in this planet. Back to top

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