Making Your Home Recording

 

Before you begin recording, call Steve on 0415 236 303. He will answer questions, no obligation, and help you prepare.

​

Let's get the best out of your room, your gear, and your musicianship.

 

Computer/Microphone stuff...
You'll need at least a reasonable USB condenser microphone or a condenser microphone and external USB soundcard. If you have two microphones and a USB sound car, even better.
 

If you know how to do this, record at 24bit (16 will do) and 44.1 kHz (48 will also do). Export to .wav files and not MP3.​

​

Always set levels conservatively. It's better to record too soft than too loud. Be very careful with brass instruments that will clip at low metering levels.
​
Closed-back headphones are the best for avoiding 'click' bleed. However, an alternative approach is to use earbuds and put industrial ear muffs over the top. You will generally need to record with a click track, but we don't want to hear click bleed on the recording.

​

Any computer with recording software will do. Paid software is better than free, but starting with free is fine. (The quality of the recording will not suffer.)
​
Acoustics for recording

Even more important than your microphone choice is the space that you make your recording. The recording space should be a quiet room where you cannot hear birds, motors, trains, cars, animals, heating/aircon, or other noises. Your ears become accustomed to the noises where you live and tune them out. The microphone never learns to tune them out.

​

Your room should be an acoustically dead space. A bedroom with soft furnishings works well. Don't record in the kitchen or bathroom, except for handclaps and sometimes, harmonica.

​

To record a voice or an instrument, stand in front of an open wardrobe, in front of your clothes. It's essential to have something soft behind you. Don't point your mic at a window. Don't sit or stand in the dead center of the room either. Avoid hard surfaces near the performer or the microphone.
​
Voice

If you do not own a pop filter, place the microphone around forehead height and tilt it down slightly. This helps in several ways, but the most important is that you won't accidentally blow into the mic on 'p' sounds. Sing from a short distance from the mic. Just a few centimeters. 

​

Warm-up before you record, and when you record, always aim for the most musical performance, even if it compromises the pitch a little. Although no singer wants to be autotuned, these days, it's easy to tune a vocal. You can't add expression later!

Acoustic guitar

Sit on a chair that does not squeak, and watch out for the following sounds you don't want to record.
Foot tapping, a shirt button clicking against the back of the guitar body, the plectrum clipping the edge of the tone hole on your downstroke. If you hear the tone hole clicking, hold your guitar more vertical.

​

Place the mix a little below the guitar and in front of the 14th fret. Aim it in towards the tone hole. Unless you are playing fingerpicking style, don't have the mic in front of the tone hole. 

​

As your room will not be perfect, keep close to the mic but be aware that if you move around while playing, the tone will change as you move. If you move a lot, position the mic further away.

​

Recording acoustic guitar is so much more complex than almost anyone would expect. Many of the most experienced singer/songwriters use a session guitarist for even the most straightforward guitar parts.

​

Acoustic Guitar DI

If your guitar has a pick-up and you can plug it directly into your sound card then go ahead. It will sound good if you have a high quality DI and you play to suit the sound of the guitar/pick-up. If you have a decent mic, good acoustics and only one input, I'd normally suggest that you use a microphone. If you have two inputs, record with a mic and the DI (direct input).

Electric guitar with an amp
Make the best sound you can from the amp first. This is not necessarily loud or necessarily a big amp. Small amps record very well. Aim for the tone that you want, and don't confuse that with volume, although it may be loud(ish). Too loud and your not-so-perfect room may cause problems. Place the amp on a chair or at least off the floor. 

Place the microphone almost dead center of one speaker near the grill. Face it directly in, but you can move it around slightly to find the best sound. If you have a dynamic mic, such as an SM57, you might try it instead of the condenser mic.

If your finished track has bass, then do not have much bass in the guitar sound.

If you have a pedalboard such as the Fractal FX8 or similar board, record from the line out of the board instead of miking your guitar amp. If you can record in stereo, even better.

Drums
Drums really require specialist knowledge and equipment. They are arguably the hardest instrument to record. best not to try, but if you do... I'll assume that you own just two mics and and a two channel sound card.

One mic on the kick  You really must experiment to find the best position for the sound you want. Just inside the hole, or a long way inside the hole, or often outside a few centimeters from the skin. If you have just one condenser mic, use it as the overhead. Use whatever else you have with the kick.

One mic over the snare drum a little above your head height. 

The chances of creating a suitable drum part for a releasable album are quite low. If you have three mics, look up information on the Glyn Johns Technique. It works brilliantly for some styles, provided your room acoustics are reasonable.

Bass
Easy! Don't use an amp. Plug it straight in to your soundcard.

 

MIDI Synths

You may be using software synths that are included with your recording program. When you export for mixing, always render the MIDI to an audio file. Export the audio file and also the MIDI file. 
 

A new page will be added soon on preparing your song, arrangement, and performance for recording.