In this part in the series of How to record vocals, I’ll talk about vocal editing, and preparing your vocals for mixing. If you reach this part, you already have one or more vocal takes that you like and now you’re in the process of piecing together your final vocal track. Start with the take you like the most.  When you get to a sentence or a phrase you don’t like, look for an alternative in your other takes. Remember… [Read More]

Posted on: March 31st, 2011

1. Decide whether you want to record live (with the whole band playing together) or record one instrument track at a time. Even though recording live seems more fun, it’s actually much harder and requires renting a bigger, more expensive studio. 2. If you plan to record live, you should first try recording one of your rehearsals with an mp3 recorder. Even though the audio won’t be high quality, you’ll get a good idea of how “together” your band sounds… [Read More]

Posted on: October 17th, 2010

1. Choose your session players wisely. Many local (non-commercial) studios will offer you their own musicians, or even to have their engineer play on your album.  But 99% of the time the result is just a mediocre instrumental track that will do nothing to set you apart from the thousands of other singer/songwriters out there. Think about it for a second: do you know of any famous songs that were recorded by a “one-man-band?” It is crucial to the sound… [Read More]

Posted on: October 17th, 2010