If you are a vocalist, I’m pretty sure you practice for your live shows right? Band rehearsals, stage moves, vocal warm ups etc. Do you practice recording your voice? This is an entire skill on its own! Recording and live are two different animals. You don’t know how many times someone has told me “I sound so good at shows but my voice right now in the studio is horrible!” This is normal. The pressure of singing in the studio is way different. You can hear everything from a windbreaker jacket making noise to your sneakers squeaking on the hardwood. This sets up a way different feel! Now as a singer you are nervous because everything is under a magnifying glass now!
So how do you get over this sort of thing? The answer is to do it a lot! If you have a mic, interface, and a laptop you can record all the time! The nerves will get less and less because you will build a confidence. You will also learn certain mic techniques like how to get closer and further away to get desired tones, how to breathe less intense because you will find that breaths can sound very aggressive, and you also might find that one headphone off makes it easier to hear your pitch because it’s more in “real-time” than going through the computer and back to the headphones. You will obviously learn more than that but those are just a few examples.
Another great reason to record at home is to save money on studio costs! If you get really good at recording your self then odds are when you send it to a good mixing engineer, they will be able to get great results! Think about how much more consistently you can put out music without having to book time at a studio. I would say over 50% of my clients that I mix and master for record themselves at home. These same clients put out 2 to 3x the amount of music than those going to pro studios.
Do you need help knowing what you need to record at home? Comment below and I’ll be sure to write more about this in a future article!
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