We live in a privileged age , because technology has grown and keeps growing and gives us the ability to have the tools to record in our home studio. Something like that it was impossible a few years ago. I’m sure that you have asked your self several times what is that one thing that can give you better home recordings and take your music to the next level. What are you doing wrong? Is itthe gear you are having? Or something else that you haven’t realized?
I’m going to give you three simple but very important keys for having better home recordings
#1 Songwriting
Thinking about songs the first think that comes to your mind is the melody and the lyrics.
It’s only that and nothing more.It’s not the instrumentation or arrangement. It’s the song itself. A song with a beautiful melodic and harmonic structure ,it doesn’t need nothing more. Let’s take for example Adele’s “Someone like you”.An amazing song recorded only with one piano. I’m sure that there were many ideas for the instrumentation but the secret is in the song. Simple as that! The song makes the difference!
What I’m trying to say with that? Start writing better songs! The more better songs you write the more better recordings you are going to have! And that’s a truth! Don’t rely on the instrumentation! If you are a composer , or a songwriter, you’d better focus on writing better songs.Try to write songs with variety from verse to chorus with dynamics and expressions. Songwriting is the key to your success! You must practice on songwriting.Don’t wait for the inspiration to hit you like a thunder! No , inspiration comes more often when you work more. It won’t be the same every day! Writing songs is a very creative procedure but that doesn’t mean that you are going to have the same results every day! Maybe you will write a whole song in 10 minutes and the other day you will push yourself to write just one verse! Consistency on songwriting will take you to the progress!You must commit to yourself and only to write every day. Book time for your songwriting at least 20-30 minutes.
The instrumentation is a very important part of a song’s production, as I mentioned before but it can’t “save” an average song.You must have thought and planned what are you going to record and how.This way you’’ll get things faster and easier. It doesn’t have to record 15 or 20 tracks to boost your song. A nice song needs the minimum of instruments.There are so many examples in the global music in all genres ,and are the proof for the phrase less is more.
#2 Record better performances
I get a lot questions for recording and what is the best method for recording an acoustic guitar,which microphone is the best and kind of microphones should we use for recording guitars and many others like that. The point is that too many options makes us to lose focus.There is one more thing you should focus to get better recording.Performance. You always can put the blame on your microphone , on your DAW , on your guitar but just think for a while. What about you? Are performing your best on the recording phase?
Let’s say you want t record an acoustic guitar for a project you are working on. Have you thought the details? What are these details? Do you know the parts that you are going to record? Did you rehearse on these parts? Recording an acoustic guitar or any instrument is very important on how this instrument will sound later on mixing. You must delete this phrase “ We’ll fix it later!Let’s record now and we’ll fix the rest later” . There is no later.Giving your best performance on your recording, will give a much better mix for your song. I know that may be all these are not so important to you but believe me they are!You can be more creative and efficient if you focus on how you are going to record something and not on what. That’s why I keep telling you how important is on scheduling.You can book time for everything you want ,especially if you have a 9-5 job and everything seems so difficult to manage for the free time you have on your disposal. The easiest thing you can do is jusy sit front of your computer and trying to find out what you are going to do with this song,waiting for this super idea how to get better recordings. You need to put some serious effort here my friend,and being creative!
#3 Start using you microphone right
You have an awesome idea for a song. You have the lyrics, the music and you are about starting recording,but you get stacked! You ask yourself which microphone to use if you have more than one and if you have only one you doubt if that’s a good microphone for recording guitar or vocals.Stop! Don’t do this to yourself! You need only one microphone and this is the one you’ve got! The only thing you have to do is to learn this microphone inside out! You must learn how to place your microphone so you can get the most of it while recording guitar or anything else. And how are you going to do that? With hard work! Yes, that’s the secret.You must practice over and over again.
I’m sure you have done a lot of research on which DAW is the best for home studio recording,which microphones are the best and for what,preamps,converters audio interfaces and anything toy can dream of. The truth is only one and very simple! When it comes to audio recording,you get the best results with the right mic placement.
We’re going to dive in audio recording and how can we get the best results in our home studio with our microphone.
As you can see I didn’t mention anything about gear,because it’s not the most important thing in your home studio.You can start building your own home studio today on a low budget ,in a spare bedroom or even in your living room.This the beginning to make your dream come true!To record your music and share it to the world!