Tips For Better Recordings
- Try To Avoid Harder Surfaces
One of the main things that you should be looking to avoid is hard surfaces. This can negatively impact the overall sound quality of your recordings in a big way. When you have a lot of hard surfaces in your recording vicinity, it can cause an echo to form. This can negatively obscure the natural sounds of the source. Because of this, you should be looking to use soft surfaces that can absorb excess sound to reduce the chances of having sound reflections. This can help you craft an environment that is much more acoustically optimized.
- Use Reflection Shields
When you are using any kind of microphone that is either bi-directional or Omni-directional, you’ll want to use reflection shields. That way, you can reduce the sounds that are being picked up from all around the microphone. When you are using dynamic microphones that are capable of bringing in sounds from the front of the mic and that rejects sound from both sides and the rare, you should place the shields directly behind the singer. This way, you can reduce the reflections that are ultimately picked up from directly in front of the microphone.
- DIY Acoustic Treatment
If you don’t have the money to spend on commercially available diffusion panels that can be very expensive, you still have options. One of the cheapest and easiest ways to create the same improvements is by hanging a thick blanket along your wall or whatever is right behind the vocalist. This will help to shield that area and minimize reflections. You do want to be certain you are covering as much surface area as possible for the best results.
- Don’t Situate Yourself In The Middle Of a Room
You don’t want to situate yourself in the middle of a room. If you’re looking to optimize your recording space, that’s the last thing you want to do. Rather, you should look to back yourself up much closer to the blanketed wall. A good option to consider if you have it available would be a wardrobe closet. That way, you can have a bunch of clothes behind you which can help to absorb a lot of the sound. Also, these closets are typically heavily carpeted which means you can reduce echos naturally.
- Keep Things Quiet
You will find that the best recordings are always made in an environment without noise. You want to ensure that you are keeping the background noise levels to a minimum. This is especially true when the record light is on. You should look to turn off anything that makes ambient noise. Whether it’s your washing machine, a distant television, or even your air conditioning unit. Anything that makes noise is going to detract from your sound.
- Headphones vs Monitors
You’ll find that both of these options do have their pros and cons. Thus, you want to ensure you learn which one to use at different points. You’ll find that monitors can be very valuable for mixing because they can give you a better idea of how people will be consuming your music. That being said, using headphones can give you that sound while recording to avoid having your microphone leaking back into itself from being played on your monitor speakers.
