Would you like to make your recordings sound more professional?  Without spending a dime? Interested? Here’s a quick peek at an upcoming series on 4 simple things you can do to make better recordings.

1.  A good room.  Look for a room in your house that has lots of drapes or soft furniture and a hard floor.  The bathroom sounds great to your ears, probably not so good for a mic though.  If you don’t have a room that fits the bill look for a room larger than 12×12 feet with lots of  ”stuff” in it.  I use a room about 14×14 and it’s got lots of bookcases, shelves, a some small tables and other assorted stuff around the edges.  What you don’t want is flat, hard, walls.  These create lots of echos that cancel out your original sound source.

2. Proper mic placement.  Moving a mic closer to an instrument captures more of the instrument and less of the room.  Too close though and it could sound “boomy” or distorted.  You can use the boomy-ness to good effect with your voice though.  The closer you move to a directional mic, the bassier your voice will sound.  As the month goes on I’ll post some tips for recording certain instruments like guitar, bass, or drums.

3. Household Items.  Let’s suppose your room is to reflective and the echos are causing a horrible sound when you record.  Take a comforter or thick blanket and drape it over a spare mic stand and put your mic in front of it.  Make a little “fort” of couch cushions and use it as a vocal booth.  Getting a lot of popping “p’s” and “b’s” in your vocals.  Stretch a coat hanger to a diamond shape and slip some pantyhose over it.  Clamp it in front of your mic for a cheap pop filter.

4.  Use to learn effects well.  EQ and compression can help you a lot - if your raw sound source is at least decent.  Don’t boost too much with the EQ though, it’s better to cut than to boost.  If the guitars and bass guitar are getting in the way of each other, cut some of the guitars bottom, rather than boosting the bass.  Compression can make parts with lots of highs and lows more even, as a result they stand out better in the mix.

Stay Tuned for Updates!

This really is just an overview, I didn’t go into details or specifics, but as the month goes on, I’ll post pictures and sound samples of things of the techniques I’ve described here. So make sure you  subscribe.

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