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The advancement of technology and the mass availability of home recording tools means that more and more musicians are recording music at home and on location. However, in the abscence of a Producer and an experienced Engineer, cheap equipment and acoustically poor environments the end result somtimes sounds not up to scratch when you consider the high fidelity we now expect when we listen to music. Yet its the music and the ideas that matter most but if it sounds like a muddle it wont add up to much.
To help this situation consider having the track mixed in a studio environment. We have amassed a vast array of highest quality processors, plugins and software to, for instance, clean up noise, dampen reverbant recordings, add ambience to dry recordings, surgically remove resonances from recordings in bad rooms, and etc... In fact there is a plethora of technology now available to help cure problems with amateur recordings in sympathy with the practice. Most importantly, we have thousands of mixing hours under our belts and can bring out the best of any recording. If you must record at home or location with an eye on having it mixed in studio, here are a few typical dos and dont's to watch out for...
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- Record your files at 24BIT 44.1 khz for best compatibilty. If your mic, mic pre and converter are not worth several thousand Euro each you will arguably not notice any difference recording at 96 khz.
- Aquire the best signal chain you can afford (a good mic and mic pre-amp).
- Make sure instruments are in tune before every take. Check intonation up and down the neck of stringed instruments
- Where it can be done, use a click track. Make sure this click track is not spilling out through the musicians headphones and into the mic, thus being recorded faintly
- When preparing the music to take to studio, clearly name each track as intuitively as possible. Export each track from the start of your song to the end (including any silence). Turn off any plugins you are using unless they are for some sort of special effect. Place these files on external hard drive or DVD
- If recording a drumkit please try to record some room mic tracks
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| Don't: |
- Dont position your mics too close to an acoustic instrument such as an acoustic guitar unless you want a very boomy and resonant sound. Experiment with the best position.
- Dont clip your recordings. Dont aim to hit the roof with the meters.. If you dont overload your mics and pres we will have best chance getting decent mix results.
- Dont gloss over vocals. Vocals are THE most important part of any modern track. Spend as much time as possible getting good takes. If your recording at home you have all the time in the world :-)
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