It's a fair point. Go for it

I've done a few reviews the last few days already. I think I should've put a bit more effort into one or two of them, but sometimes I hear a tune and think "that's so bad there's feck all you can do with it" !! I'll have to try harder on that front, I suppose! Other times, I'll like it, but maybe the vocals / lyrics will put me off. I'd love to see bands spend more time on lyrics in general.

One problem that stands out for me with a lot of demos is the quality of the recordings - of the few I've heard, I reckon they were done in studios, but there was little time spent on the mixes and I'm not sure any of them were properly mastered. The one that stood out the most for sound quality was Star Belgrade's which - if the info on his page is to be believed - was recorded on a 4 track. Says a lot to me! A little effort can go a long way.

Eh, thanks Mr.T (I think)? The 1st song on the player is a 4 track tape Tascam jobbie alright. It seems like the player's down at the minute, but we have some proper studio recordings on SonicBids. There's also a 2nd player linked from CPU.ie a bit down the page with some live recordings (minidisc jobbie, off the sound desk & cheaply mastered). Studio stuff is here -

www.sonicbids.com/starbelgrade

They're not mastered yet, but the mixes & production were done by Gizzy D of Analogue Mindfield & the engineering by Paul Thomas (U2, Phil Lynott). We're a band btw - 4 of us in it, innit! Anyhow, cheers for the words - I hate Snow Patrol too!

Well, I guess that section gets used more for information than discussion. The 'view' counter will give an indication of how many people read a post, which can be just as important as the reply counter!

That song "Checkmate" is f**king class. A bit of pro-mastering required, but basically it's there. I can hear a full band sound on this one too. Definitely my kind of tea!