Great Microphones For Recording Vocals - Under $300&|&4Track. Proper Audio Recording Levels | Rants, Articles | MASSIVE Mastering. NOTICE: If you don't want to read any this or just don't care to understand it, there's a "dumbed down" version at the bottom. Let me get something out of the way here - I'm going to try to keep this very "fool proof" - I'm not trying to sound or present this very scientifically - This is just the rantings of hundreds and hundreds of posts on a dozen or more audio forums exploding like a volcano recorded with lots of headroom. I just hope to instill a basic understanding of why certain trends and common beliefs are just plain bad. And by the time you're done reading, and perhaps doing a little experimentation based on this, you won't need me to prove it.
You'll know it yourself. Is this a "miracle cure" for bad recordings? So, if you've been struggling with recordings that sound "weak" or "small" or too dense or "just not 'pro' enough" then please, read on. As a mastering engineer, I work on recordings from pretty much every level of experience. You're probably recording too hot. How to Set Up the Ultimate Desktop Recording Studio. Consider it another marvel of the digital age--or the latest evidence that the beautifully difficult, soul-taxing art of music creation has irretrievably slid into the hands of talentless idiots.
Either way, with the help of a computer, a few peripherals, a variety of entry-level software and two weekends' worth of struggle, I have produced my first single. It's hardly a secret that musical production has been striding boldly into the digital age over the past three decades. Software that enables instruments to interface directly with PCs was pioneered in the 1980s, and current programs pack all the goodness of a full production studio into a laptop, with virtualized instruments, amps, effects, mixing boards and multitrack recording machines all onscreen. This has had a profound effect on the music industry--lowering the barrier to entry to the point where a small band with a computer, a microphone and a few instruments can produce studio-quality recordings.
Multitrack Recording Plug-Ins. This makes a modest mic sound better! Scary how much it helps a modest voice! Make acoustic panels for your recording studio or home theater. Acoustic treatments are often used to help improve the acoustics of a room by taming "flutter echoes," "room modes," and other problems which arise from a room's dimensions and construction. Although a variety of treatments are available for commercial use, they tend to be quite expensive. After some research both online and in print, we came across several sources for DIY acoustic treatments using rigid fiberglass panels and simple frames.
These are often referred to as "bass traps," although the ones that we're focusing on have a fairly wide rage of absorption. While commercial versions are available for almost $100, we were able to make these panels for about $24 each. We can not take credit for this design, but have combined several people's ideas into a step-by-step guide. Most importantly, we give credit to Ethan Winer's excellent article, Build a Better Bass Trap. For more information, check out the good folks in the acoustics forum at recording.org.