DIY Home Recording with Recording.LA
How to record at home
Guest Authors - Recording Dot LA
Adam Borecki - Owner/Recording Engineer
Tyler Eschendal - General Manager/Recording Engineer
CLICK HERE to download Recording.LA’s comprehensive home recording guide
Recording from home has become a necessity in the age of COVID-19. Whether its for a competition, college pre-screening, All-State Bands, virtual performance, or just to share your musical chops, audio and/or video recording from home is the new normal. We get asked all the time at Recording Dot LA for the best, most affordable, and easiest microphone setups or equipment recommendations for recording at home.
The truth is that not all microphone setups work for every situation or room, so the best thing to do is to make test recordings ahead of time, by trying differing microphone placements and positions in your recording space. For microphone placement, we recommend starting in-front and above the instrument, with a slight down-ward tilt as the best starting point for your test recording. For distance, the goal is to be far enough away to capture the instrument in the recording space, AND to be close enough to where you do not lose tone quality or subtlety of sound. You will likely have to adjust the gain settings as well. Speaking of gain, always start with the gain level on your microphone or recording device at half-way. This will give you headroom during the recording process to boost gain if necessary, as well as avoiding unforeseen moments of sharp dynamic changes that might cause peaking.
If you are recording video with a separate recording device, be sure to include a sync point at the beginning of both recordings. This could be a clap or verbal cue to use to sync both recordings afterwards. We also recommend leaving 2-5 seconds of silence and stillness before and after the performance. This will give you the opportunity to edit out extraneous noise (or room tone) and create a natural fade-in and fade-out for the video, ultimately making the performance feel more confident and professional.
CLICK HERE to download Recording.LA’s comprehensive home recording guide
Good luck with your recordings and feel free to contact with any questions or recommendations at scheduling@recording.LA
- Recording Dot LA