A songwriter demo is a affordable way to get your song demoed fast,
with endless possibilities for production later.
Step 1
Open a new ProTools session and create 4 new mono audio tracks and one stereo instrument track:
1. Guidetrack
2. Guitar Left
3. Guitar Right
4. Vocal
5. Drum Loop
Create a simple drum loop on the instrument track and establish the correct tempo for the song.
Step 2
Record the Artist performing guitar and vocal (at the same time) on GuideTrack, using the drum loop as the tempo
Step 3
Next, record the Artist's guitar only - once on each of Guitar Left and Guitar Right tracks (Two identical performances of Guitar), using the Guide track to play along with.This should be as perfect as possible.
Pan the Guitar Left track hard left and the Guitar Right track hard right.
This will make the guitar track sound thick and rich and all around your head.
Step 4
Now record only the Artist's vocal on Track 4 - Vocal.
Step 5
Mute the Guide Track and Drum Loop
Process the vocal and guitar tracks with compression, EQ, effects, tuning.
Mix the Song
Now you have a great sounding song performance with stereo guitars and in your face vocals.
Also, you have the basic vocal and guitar tracks, in time, in a session that you can then overdub other instruments and create a fully produced single of the song in the future
Video
A good idea, if the songwiter is also the Artist, is to Video each performance - Full guitar and vocal for the Guide track and tighter close up on the vocal track and tight on the guitar for the guitar tracks. This will give you three great video clips of the song in perfect sync with the polished demo, which can then be used to edit a really nice three-camera "acoustic studio performance" video for the artists website and social media....