Recording instruments and vocals is a main part of music production. Unless all of your songs consist of pre-recorded and mastered samples, you will need to capture these sounds yourself. With instruments, try to get them sounding as bright and clear as possible before recording. For instance, putting new strings on a guitar can make a huge difference. Over time they lose their brightness gradually, and you may not be aware how much they have “dulled”. New strings can make an instrument really come alive for the mics. Listen for unwanted rattles and vibrations in your stringed instruments and drum sets. These may not sound loud to you as you are playing, but can translate loudly into the microphones. Removing them later in mixing can be impossible to accomplish. So, tape loose screws down or replace if possible, tighten stands, even look for objects in the room which may be vibrating on their own from resonance.

 

Make sure you are not recording vocals on a day where you are not feeling your best. You want to be in the best mood that your music requires. If you are feeling down or tired, your vocals can sound that way too. If you sound bored and uninterested, your audience may get that impression also while not specifically putting a finger on it. Also, you want to have something to sip on occasionally. Having a dry mouth can hinder the clarity of your vocals. Having your mouth slightly wet can enhance the clarity and brightness of your vocal tracks. It is best to just wait a few days if you are coming off a cold or chest infection. Unless it is what you are going for, a bit of phlegm in the back of the throat probably won’t help things. Not to mention, you want to be able to take relaxed breaths while singing. Sounding out of breath is almost never a good thing.

 

Try to turn off any unnecessary equipment in the room which may add a hum or background noise. These sounds may sound to low to matter while recording, but can become louder later if compressing or limiting is done to the vocal tracks. The mastering process has been known to bring up low unwanted sounds to the forefront. When getting your recording levels, you never want the signal in the meter to go red. This means, the level in the meter should never go all of the way to the top. When the signal goes all of the way to the top of the meter, the sound can overload the system. Overloading the system can produce distorted sound, which may become more audible later while mixing or mastering. You should test your input volume thoroughly before actually recording your tracks. If it goes to the top, you can turn down the gain a bit to remedy this. Try singing your loudest passages where you sing fullest, while watching the meter. Moving back away from the microphone may not be the best solution, as discussed in the next section.

 

While we recommend getting the best vocal microphone you can afford, placing it correctly in front of you can be a crucial part of getting the most balanced sound on your vocals. Placing the mic too far away can cause a loss in vocal power and presence. Conversely, being too close to it can make your voice sound too thick, and produce plosives (plosives are pops and heavy wind sounds caused by singing “B” and “P” sounds too close to the mic for instance). Regardless of the type of sound capture device you are using, a good balanced placement will help get the best overall sound. One test we recommend is the hand test. While singing a smooth consistent note, try moving your hand to and from your mouth. You want to be essentially singing into your open hand as if it were a mic. Move your hand from a few inches away from your mouth to about two feet away. Keep going back and forth as you sing. While your hand gets closer to your mouth, you will begin to hear your voice reflecting off of your hand. A good microphone placement in general will be right in the spot you begin to hear the effect of your hand in your ears (usually 6-8 inches away from your mouth). This placement ensures a good signal to noise ratio, while minimizing plosives. After finding this sweet spot, adjust your gain level while singing the loudest fullest sections of your song. Finally, investing in a “pop filter” can be a great way to get a nice live sound while minimizing pops and plosives. A “pop filter” is a small thin screen which blocks air and wind from hitting the microphone, while letting the sound through. Home recording can be difficult, but learning from many different sources and gathering as much information on the subject as possible can help greatly.

 

As far as input level goes, the “not going red” rule also applies to instruments. Try to get the level as high as you can without going red. You want to play the loudest parts of a song on an instrument, as you pay attention to the input meter. Make your adjustments before you record the track, because once an overloaded signal is recorded, it is not always reversible. For this reason, we do recommend the use of compression and limiting during recording unless it is used correctly. This can be somewhat complicated to explain because each instrument and voice is different. Not to mention the equipment used has a part to play in the use of these effects (for example the settings you use on one compressor may not look the same on another). The general idea is to get the most from your signal while protecting the signal from going red.