How To Produce High-Quality Music In Your Small Home Recording Studio.

When audio recording is done properly, it will be pleasing to the listeners, but when it’s poorly done, your listeners are not just going to stop listening to it, but notify others of how annoying it is to listen to your music.

And that is very bad for your musical career!

Especially in this era where there are scores of music apps, musicians can use to record vocals alongside audio on their phones. Most upcoming artists make the mistake of promoting those low-quality songs, and in so doing destroy their musical career before it even starts.

So instead of using a phone app to record your music, why not set aside a little budget and set up your own small home recording studio.

You can also follow this link to see the current prices of studio equipments, if you are here in Nigeria.

In this article, I am going to briefly give you a few tips on how to produce high-quality music in your small home recording studio.

And without much ado, let’s get into it.

1. Plan your music production ahead of time.

You are not just going to wake up and start recording your music to get a high-quality sound production. Especially now that your small home recording studio has been set up, and you have purchased all the necessary equipment.

To achieve a high-quality music production you must plan your production ahead of time.

Below are the things you are going to include and concentrate on in your music production plan.

Composing and editing
Rehearsing, especially with your backup singers and features.
The recording proper
Mixing and Mastering.

In order to produce high-quality music at home, you have to dedicate a quality amount of time to each of the activities above. And this in turn will give you a more focused studio process if you are able to fine-tune all these elements properly.

If you are not naturally good at any of the above tasks, it is best to seek the help of someone who is much better.

2. The recording process.

Since it is a home recording studio, you will simply be recording your vocals and producing everything digitally; which means you will not be recording any external instrument.

In order to produce high-quality music at home, there is a variety of components you are going to consider during your recording process.

Your microphone and overall studio equipment setup will really matter, we will be looking at these aspects in more detail below.

Another aspect you need to consider more prior to your recording sessions is a rehearsal session; In order to produce high-quality music at home, it is best for all musicians to prepare beforehand.

3. Your recording combination.

The standard sample rate for audio recording is 44.1kHz or 48kHz. But currently, newer audio interfaces are offering rates up to 96kHz and 192kHz.

And as a result, it is not a crime to experiment on these new sample rates but bears in mind while doing so that the standard rate remains the best.

Also opting for a higher bit-depth is the best option that will offer you the benefit of obtaining a much greater dynamic range for your audio recordings. The popular recording bit is 24-bit, as opposed to 16-bit, which increases the file size.

Therefore, a 24-bit track recorded at 96kHz produces a considerably larger file size which will occupy much more space. If you are doing a multitrack recording, then avoid using this combination, by all means, you must therefore consider higher sample rates for simpler recordings.

4. Avoid your sounds bleeding from the headphone.

If you are using highly sensitive microphones like ribbon or condenser microphones, the sounds can really bleed through the headphones into your microphone. And for that reason, you need to know your choice of microphones.

Unless you are using a closed-back back type of headphone which is fully enclosed, and specifically designed to avoid noise escaping through the earcup.

5. Editing

Editing is the process where you have to correct inevitable imperfections that occurred during your recordings, for example background noise or headphone bleed.

Also, editing involves arranging all your tracks together to form one cohesive song.

Typically, editing is performed inside a DAW software, which has a variety of options that offer incredible levels of versatility to help you edit your songs professionally.

Below are some of the ways DAW software will help you edit your songs:

It will help you to adjust the pitch of your song.
And also adjust components that are not on time
Helps you combat de-cluttering: that is removing unnecessary elements in your song.
Aids in the overall arrangement of your tracks.

After arranging your songs in your desired manner, to produce high-quality music at home, you need to group your tracks according to the various instruments you use or vocals you laid like lead solo, backups, etc. This will it easy for you to find everything without confusing yourself.

6. Mixing

Mixing involves the meeting of all your instruments and vocals to create one cohesive song.

As a producer, you can become very creative and explore different ways to make your song interesting during your mixing.

Below are the key tasks involved in song mixing.

Adjust Volume Faders
Equalization
Compression
Reverb
Panning
Automation and Effects.

To get a detailed explanation of the above points, you can read the beginner’s guide to mixing music in a home recording studio.

7. Mastering

If you want the song that you produced in your small home recording studio to compete with commercial ones done in big record labels or commercial studios; then you’ve got to master it

Mastering is only very important if you are going to drop an EP or album because individual tracks can easily sound disjointed in the absence of mastering.

Also, mastering a song will help you to create truly polished final songs that have consistency across all tracks in an EP or album.

Most people often confuse mastering with mixing, since they both share very similar techniques, but while mixing refers to a multitrack recording, mastering refers to a single stereo mixdown.

Consequently, mastering involves but is not limited to the following: