Recording vocals properly is the foundation of a good song. The vocals set the emotional tone as well as tell the tale of the entire song. The entire song comes together when the vocals are recorded properly at home or in the studio. Amateur vocalists can check review for 30 day singer training and in this article, we give you the 4 basic mistakes that can ruin a recording experience at home.
Choosing The Wrong Room
There are many different rooms in a home you can choose to record in at home such as.
- Bathroom
- Bedroom
- Living Room
- Kitchen
- Attic
- Basement
- And so on
Choosing the wrong room will affect the compression and pitch of the vocals to sound unnatural. The overall effect will make the vocals sound “fake” or as if they were added on at the end. The tiles and hard surfaces in the bathroom and kitchen will make the vocals reverberate all over the place and make it very hard to achieve a balance between the vocals and the musical instruments. So, which room should you pick?
Select a room that has a bit of soft furniture such as beds, couches, rugs, and pillows because these things will absorb sound to make the vocals sound neutral. On the flip side, do not choose a room that has so many furnishings that the vocals start to sound muffled and suppressed.
Wrong Mic Placement
Your job isn’t done after you’ve found the right room. Not by a long shot. Having the right mic placement will impact the tone of the vocals. There are two basic rules to get the right mic placement at home.
Rule number one is that you do not want to put the mic in the area at the exact center of the room. The second rule is that you do not want to be too close to the walls either so that you can avoid resonances and unnecessary reverberation. Try to point the mic towards the farthest corner of the room away from the closest wall to find the sweet spot.
Choosing A Room Without Insulation
The sensitivity of a condenser microphone used for vocal recording is very high and they can pick up sounds from all the way on the other side of the room. If you want to successfully record vocals at home you need to have some kind of insulation around the vocalist. The best solution would be to have acoustic panels to create a provisional vocal booth around the vocalist. If acoustic panels are not readily available you can use heavy curtains, mattresses, or duvets to create a triangular vocal booth surrounding the vocalist.
Only Recording One Take
You would think that one take would be enough, especially if you are recording with an extremely talented singer. Even for professional singers, there is hardly ever a possibility that they can get everything right in the first take. Try doing a practice run before starting the recording. Always consider doing a minimum of three takes so that you have enough content to work with.
When you start to mix your tunes and vocals you will find that some vocals sound out of tune or notes that are not right in the music. Having more than one take gives you more content to work with to make sure that your final mix sounds good.