RockStar 08 talent search starts

[tomporter]

Here's some news you guys should know about...

Michael Eavis, Peter Gabriel and Scouting for Girls have joined together in a search for Britain’s next musical stars, in the RockStar 08 competition. MusicRadar is the official online partner, so the best bands or artist (especially the winner) will get lots of coverage on MusicRadar too.

More information can be found here...
http://www.musicradar.com/news/guita...-starts-150568

Let us know if you're going to enter...

[guitargeek62]

Well, if scouting for girls count as "talent" then ive got a dam good chance, saw them play last summer and they are terrible :|

[deedee]

Originally Posted by guitargeek62

Well, if scouting for girls count as "talent" then ive got a dam good chance, saw them play last summer and they are terrible :|

+1 If anyone finds any talent, could Scouting for Girls have a loan of it......

[digitalscream]

Originally Posted by deedee

+1 If anyone finds any talent, could Scouting for Girls have a loan of it......

So tempting, but I've got a band who've never played together in the current lineup with a singer we've never heard.

Might have a go, just for the shits & giggles....

[MichaelLeonard]

MusicRadar was at a press launch for the RockStar08 contest this afternoon, and Peter Gabriel made a good point. That is - in opposite to the likes of X Factor - writing your own songs is important for a real career. P Gabriel's proved that, in his unique way, for nearly 40 years.

Scouting For Girls may not be to your taste - they played OK today at this event - but they have songs that sell and, yes, they write those songs. And they're currently making a good living out of playing their music.

Sounds an OK career for any musician, to me?

It is easy to be cynical, I know. But at least this is a contest NOT about singing cover versions over backing tracks. It's about bands or artists that write their own songs.

And a prize including recording at RealWorld is pretty good. Not many studios like that in the world.

I'm happy that MusicRadar is supporting this. It's not prime-time TV, no, but as we know the best things don't happen on prime-time TV.

Be interesting to see how it pans out. But intentions are good.

[smokingbeagle]

We might have a crack at it, although I've an ingrained hatred of any 'Battle of the Bands' type thing that charges an entry fee

[jim_branning]

Originally Posted by MichaelLeonard

MusicRadar was at a press launch for the RockStar08 contest this afternoon, and Peter Gabriel made a good point. That is - in opposite to the likes of X Factor - writing your own songs is important for a real career. P Gabriel's proved that, in his unique way, for nearly 40 years.

Personaly I'm waiting for "Eavis's Wildlife Challenge" and "Nursery Crimes On Ice" at the hippodrome featuring a special appearance by characters from the world of Disney.

*sigh*

i think they need to bump up the rec' session from 2 days tho, with an inexperienced band it's unlikely they'll turn out a decent finished song in 2 days inc' mixes, or at least it'll be a rush job. As a producer i'd want 5-7 days with an inexperienced band for a first single, or at least 5 days of working the arrangement etc in pre-production if the result was supposed to be a finished commercial product.. You wanna get it right after all.

[OllyHolditch]

Originally Posted by jim_branning

i think they need to bump up the rec' session from 2 days tho, with an inexperienced band it's unlikely they'll turn out a decent finished song in 2 days inc' mixes, or at least it'll be a rush job. As a producer i'd want 5-7 days with an inexperienced band for a first single, or at least 5 days of working the arrangement etc in pre-production if the result was supposed to be a finished commercial product.. You wanna get it right after all.

Surely 2 days recording is better than none? I went to a local studio recently and recorded 3 tracks in 2 hours and they all sounded really good. Admittedly it was just me playing guitar and singing and it was just covers for a demo, but it was a good experience. Even if it's an inexperienced band surely the opportunity to get into a studio is not something you want to pass up, even if you don't get much recorded in the time available. With 2 days I could probably get a whole acoustic album recorded!

[jim_branning]

is it better than none tho? there's nothing worse than doing a proper session and being unsatisfied with the results, because 1. it's just frustrating to leave something not quite as good as it could be, and secondly because people might perceive the results as: 'that's as good as it gets' when in reality it's not as good as it gets, it's just the band didn't have time to finish it or do it properly.

just setting up, tuning, tweaking and mic-ing the drums can take 1/2 a day or more, hence i said about having some pre-production sessions first before the studio recording starts at least.

i think it'd be better to use a lesser studio (or studio b/c/d or whatever) and give more time alloted to it. Also depends on the genre. Recording tracy chapmen or something exactly like that is fairly simple - mic up, get the mix basic and hit record, there's not much else to do, but for say a contemporary pop band or a contempoarary rock-pop band with lots of layering and layered ostinato parts (guitars and BV's), the amount of time to get the layering arrangements right to build the size and body of the track isnt a rush job... again hence the required pre production cos you dont want to be faffing about working on 8 BV layer parts on studio clock time if they are not worked out beforehand. Bands you see rarely work this stuff out because they havent made a record before, so they tend to work on live gig arrangements and will not have worked out layered parts unless they have done extensive demo recording before and worked on those parts then.

it's not as straightforward as it seems, and studio tech forums which center on the gear itself rarely touch on the whole process outside of what gear to use and all that usual stuff.

i can say a session done properly over time and worked out and arranged right will be superior as a song to a track rushed in a top facility because the actual song arrangment, and the production arrangement is so important to a contempoaraty commercial sound. Otherwise we'd all be listening to band records with one rhythm guitar, one bass, one lead guitar and drums/vox... in reality a commercial record has alot more layers than that even if you cant hear all of them distinctly. Thats why a label can (and they do, often) reject a song done in a top flight studio and sign another done in a demo studio.

last touch up session i did for a client was to redo a main vocal which i thought could be better, then add one double layer to the vocal, add a single harmony BV and some vocal shouts/effects over just 1 bar at the bridge of each chorus - it took easily half a day even with the ability to copy and paste stuff (which you shouldnt do too much cos people can perceive it's the same vocal copied across all chorus's)

then you have the whole thing of a band NOT using a click, you might not be able to copy the vocal from one part to another if they have changed tempo slightly as bands do when there is no click - yes you can copy across and then fine-edit the copied part slightly to fit it better but that's more time going on the clock of course.

finaly, it's not a good idea to mix on the same day as working, but i concede for the competition they might offer 2 days 'recording' and mix on another day in a different room, or if the track is happening they might offer to remix it or work on it more etc, but 2 days is cutting it fine.

i would concede that for a good demo of several tracks, recorded prestinely... that CAN be acheived in 2 days, but getting from there to a release mix which sounds like a commercial record in the same genre is another matter.

[OllyHolditch]

Of course 2 days is better than none at all, because at least then you get a little experience from it. Even if only one track is recorded and mixed properly it's not a waste of time. Some people might actually be happy to get a chance to record in a studio pretty much for free, because they may not have the funds to afford a major recording session. There really is no need to put it down, because if more people like you moan about the prize they may not decide to give the same prize next year.