Home Recording Made Simple – The Basics and the Pros of Recording It Yourself
Why spend money on expensive studio time and recording engineers, producers, or CD mastering when already own everything that you require at home? Since nearly everyone is connected to an internet connection and internet connection, I’ll guide you through the process of turning your old laptop into a modern recording studio using a “real-world” budget. With computers becoming very powerful and affordable nowadays, it’s very easy to create an individual recording setup with your own. This article will help you create your demonstration quickly and efficiently.
Here’s a checklist of essential equipment you’ll require:
- Microphone
- Audio interface/Sound Card
- Computer
- Software for Audio Recording and Editing
- CD burner
It’s time to select the right microphone. Shure produces some excellent low-cost microphones, such for instance, the SM-57 for instruments, and the SM-58 that is designed to work with vocals. They retail for about $100 when new and are fantastic audiophile mics. Sure also produces models PG-57 as well as PG-58 mics that retail at around $59. The PG models come with identical electronics to the SM models, however, they cost around less than half the cost. The major difference is that models PG-57 and PG-58 come with an on-off switch and the SM-57 and SM-58 models don’t. I would suggest PG series mics to be a high-quality alternative to the more expensive SM series microphones. Learn Music Production Courses in Delhi from the highly experienced teachers of TGC India.
The next step is probably the most difficult in the whole procedure. How do you connect the sound to your computer? Although the majority of computers have an audio card, they aren’t enough to perform a good job recording. Although they are great for gaming or listening to MP3s however, the majority of consumer sound cards do not have the processing power to produce top-quality audio. I suggest purchasing an affordable External audio interface. M-Audio and PreSonus provide high-end, compact, and relatively inexpensive interfaces. The benefits of using an audio interface instead of a standard sound card include:
1. Audio interfaces of professional quality have higher-quality microphone preamps than those that come by the majority of internal sound cards.
2. They are available in many multi-channel versions. They are available in 1 2 4 and 8 16 channel models and are used to capture more than one instrument at one time. The eight-channel versions are the most well-known.
Microphones come with three-pronged connections, also known as the XLR connector. The sound produced by microphones can be described as an analog sound unlike computers, which can process only digital data. Before computers can process an analog signal it first has to be converted into digital information. Audio interfaces can perform this conversion effortlessly. Just plug the one end of an XLR audio cable in the microphone and another end to the XLR input on the interface for audio. After the signal from the microphone is now successfully in the audio interface How do you plan to connect it to the computer?
Digital audio interfaces come with either a regular USB as well as Firewire output. If your interface is fitted with both types, connect only one. If you are connecting both USB as well as Firewire simultaneously, your computer will get confused about what input it should read and cannot function correctly. In the majority of cases, Firewire 800 is much faster than USB 2.0 but USB is a reliable option. There are many audio interfaces to suit all budgets and needs Make sure you do your homework and select one that has been made to suit your particular requirements.
Simply connect an end of your cable to the audio interface, and the other to your computer. If your speaker is set up correctly, you will be able to hear what you speak to the microphone. To protect yourself, make sure to turn down the volume of your speakers when connecting or disconnecting the equipment.
After your sound is properly entering the computer, you’ll need something to store and edit the data. There’s a wide range of useful recording applications, including several free ones. If you do a Google search to search for “free recording software” will yield some unexpected results. Audacity is a no-cost program that has received lots of attention recently. Although these programs function quite well, you’ll need to change to a better-equipped program like Cubase as well as Pro Tools. Both are cross-platform applications that work on PC and Mac.
You’ll be pleased to know the initial learning curve you face won’t be as difficult as you believe. Play around with the programs and soon you’ll be recording as a professional. The majority of recording software is alike. Once you’ve mastered the language and the lingo, it’s easy from there. The recording is easy. If you can get the sound into your computer in a clean manner, there’s an excellent chance that you will be able to create great-sounding recordings. The higher quality of the equipment you use is, the better the recording will be. I suggest starting with cheap equipment and when your abilities improve you can improve the level of the equipment you use. If you make your mistakes early, and while it’s not expensive you could avoid the possibility of a huge financial loss in the future.
To begin, you need to follow these steps:
- Create an audio track
- Transfer the sound you hear from your device to that track
- Make the track arm by pressing the record.
- Play the button to begin the recording
- Stop the press when finished.
It’s that easy! Keep adding instruments until the end or run out of tracks available whichever comes first. Once you’ve recorded each track You’ll need to make edits to them. This includes cleaning up beginnings and endings, eliminating undesirable noises (i.e. false starts, background noise, etc. ) fixing poor notes, rearranging tracks, or any other thing that helps to improve the performance. It is also possible to move tracks around to help your musical instruments “groove” better together.
The majority of Digital Audio Workstations (DAW’s) have full-featured editing options that are ideal to meet your editing requirements. The built-in editors will suffice in most cases. If there’s a need for more advanced editing, we suggest Sony’s Sound Forge or WaveLab from Steinberg. These editors can also be used to make one track from several tracks. This technique is also known by the term “comping tracks”. Utilizing this method, you can record yourself singing the exact lyrics to an instrumental track (each time on an entirely different track) and then select only the best parts of individual tracks and mix the tracks or “comp” them together into one fantastic track. It is possible to double (record the same portion twice) either a guitar track or a vocal track to create a more pronounced sound. The possibilities are limitless.
Once you’re finished editing, you can remove any unnecessary files (just to make things a little tidier) and then you’re finished. Don’t be caught up in the technological aspects, remember that you’re doing this to create music. Therefore, let the machine perform what they were made to do and concentrate on creating amazing music!
Once you’ve edited and recorded your tracks, it is necessary to combine them to a master with two tracks (one track to be used for left speakers, and the second track is for right). Your DAW will automatically do this through an export function. Simply make sure that you make your computer convert the files to 16bit Wav files at 44.1 kHz (which is the CD standard) And you’re finished.
Why is this step required? It’s because you may have recorded 3or 4 or even more tracks into your DAW. A regular CD player can’t combine all those tracks in real-time. There’s too much data. Consumer CD players can play only two tracks at a single time. This means that your multi-track master needs to be converted to a single-track master. It’s more simple than you think. Have fun and relax about the minor details.
The final step of making recordings is known as”Mastering. “Mastering” phase. Simply put mastering refers to the process of recording all the songs that you’ve recorded, mixing for an upcoming project, and making them function as a single unit. It’s the process of arranging music to be played back in a specific order, and at the same volume. In this stage, you can fade in one song while another fades out, and then on. Global equalization can be done during this phase and also, compression and side-to-side balance. When the mastering process has been completed it’s time to listen to the music that you’ve put in so much of your time creating. Take your time and remember that the quality of a recording is only as excellent as the music it was composed. Go at the sky!
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