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Home Recording Equipment

Backing Tracks for Singers – Virtual Band For Song Demos, Karaoke or Auditions

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computer_music_pic_smallWith the popularity of American Idol and America’s Got Talent, The Voice, etc. there are many budding songbirds out there. Plenty of folks with hidden talents are coming out of the woodwork. So to optimize your chances, you should jump at the opportunity to create your own professional sound recordings. For all you fantastic future artistes who are blessed with a singing talent but no instrumental prowess, there is a solution.
To begin with you will need this simple equipment:
A Multi-Track Recording Software Program with MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) capability and ideally a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). See our article – MIDI Recording – What Is It And Why Is It Awesome? for a review (or intro if you’ve never heard of it) of what MIDI is all about.
Some popular and reputable programs include Adobe Audition, Garage Band (for Apple), Reaper, and Sonar. Any of these systems will allow you to record your vocals on top of a pre-bought or downloaded MIDI track, not to mention allow you to record your own backing tracks if you play an instrument.
A MIDI Keyboard
A MIDI keyboard is essential for adding the virtual instruments you will need to complete your recordings. There are many models out there from many well-known brands including Korg, Akai and M-Audio. Personally, I use one similar to the Korg microKEY for this. It’s small and sits right on my computer desk.
A Decent Microphone
Your computer’s built-in microphone is probably not up to the task for creating professional audio. However, despite what most experts and music store employees will tell you, it is not necessary to buy an expensive microphone. These days you can enter the zone of professional quality audio for the cost of a good USB microphone, such as the Samson Q1U for $50. This was not possible just a few years ago, but the quality of these USB mics in 2011 is very good.
When you have all your equipment the next thing you’ll need is the audio tracks you want to sing along to. If you don’t already have a recording set-up on your computer and if you don’t play any instruments, fear not. Across the web you will find downloadable MIDI versions of many popular hits. Some of these sites also have audio tracks of these songs with the vocals removed. Some of the best sites include: Midi-Hits, Cybermidi, and Hittrax. MIDI tracks are available on these sites for a few bucks and will allow you to basically have you’re your own band.
Once you have downloaded your track, you will need to import your MIDI backing track into your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). In the majority of programs you will find a basic IMPORT/INSERT button and by using this you can import your track. As soon as your track is imported all you need to do is plug your mic into the computer, press the record button and sing along. You have the opportunity to mix the perfect track for your next live performance, karaoke party, or demo recording for that audition.
By the way, lesson 11 in our newest tutorial course – The Newbies Guide To Audio Recording Awesomeness: Pro Recording With Reaper – shows you how to use the MIDI tools in Reaper to do what I just mentioned above.
As you’re in control of the mixing board as well as the vocals, you can edit your track post-production. If you notice a slight wobble in your voice, you can erase it. If you need to up the tempo you can. If you notice the track is in the wrong pitch for your vocal range, you can change it. Using this innovative software you can edit your track until its note perfect. Maximize the value of your natural talents and maximize your chances of commercial success.
Get Your Own Band Now
The opportunity to work from your own home studio at your computer screen is fantastic. You can work in the comfort of your own home and test out as many different tracks and samples as you desire, without the worry of the cost of studio time. If you’re really serious about a career in music, investing in some decent software, a range of MIDI tracks and a decent quality microphone could seriously boost your chances. Who knows, you could be the next big star!

Home Recording – How Computer Literate Do I Need To Be?

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computer frustration pictureIn order to take full advantage of the massive technology advantages available in the world of home recording, we have to accept that we’ll be working with computers.
It has been our going-in assumption that pretty much anybody and everybody these days is computer literate, by which I mean familiar with and adept at the basic user commands in today’s consumer computers.  That’s what I consider to be about where someone needs to be in their “comfortable-ness” with computers in or to really get into home audio recording.  You surely do not need to be any kind of computer geek or programmer or anything approaching that level.  But the fact is there are still lots and lots of people out there, very smart and capable people, who are uncomfortable with or even intimidated by computers.
We’ve been blithely talking about how easy, inexpensive, yet powerful home recording is now, assuming a level of computer literacy that may not be reflective of reality (a fancy way of saying “wrong”).  We received a comment on a blog post yesterday that basically said:
I’m a musician and really into harmony, and would love to do what you are doing with the harmony recording, but I am computer illiterate and feel like I don’t understand what to do in order to get involved.
Well that was an eye-opener.  So in response, we plan to publish more articles and guides geared toward the folks who are, as they call themselves, more computer illiterate than the average joe.  This content will attempt to provide the minimum computer literacy needed to at least do the cool audio recording stuff.
Thanks to the Home Brew Audio readers for opening our eyes to this bias we’ve had!  We hear you and hereby commit to make this magic world of home recording available and practical for ALL our readers.
Cheers!
Ken

EQ And Compression Techniques For Vocals, Acoustic Guitar

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Compression and EQ techniques for vocal and guitar are explained here. Compression is the technique of evening out the loud and soft parts of the vocal or instrumental music. EQ should be used to subtly color the sound of a particular track. While doing so, it is usually more effective to pull out some frequencies rather than adding some.
Read the full article from the ProSound Web site here:
EQ And Compression Techniques For Vocals, Acoustic Guitar

These Are Audio Myths – Myths, I Tell You (Even Number 1 in My Humble Opinion)

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A List of Audio Myths To Help You Improve the Quality of Your Home Recording Studio.  The author, however, calls a few of them true, so…not myths?  Anyway, my favorite one is.

  • 10. You need better gear to make better recordings.

  • False. You need the correct gear for the recording at hand. You need better ears to make better recordings. Instead of just investing in gear, invest in knowledge, invest in listening, invest in new techniques, invest in improving your ears and understanding. You can also make great sounding recordings and mixes on a budget.

Here is the original and full article from “The Pro Audio Files”: http://theproaudiofiles.com/10-common-audio-myths-debunked/
Find out more about producing pro quality audio on a regular person’s budget here Home Recording

Getting a Good Mix With Cheap Monitor Speakers

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Someone asked the following question on the Home Recording forum yesterday about cheap monitor speakers:
A few days ago I asked a question on different forum about really cheap monitors as I need some.
Well, I don’t have much money to buy myself..let’s say.. krk rp 5.  I just need a cheap pair of monitors.  I was thinking about Alesis m1 320, but then I was told that there’s no sense buying cheap monitors as they sound worse than computer speakers.  What do you guys think?

And here is how I answered the question:

Hi Edward,
I agree with others here that for the most part, cheap studio monitors are usually better than computer speakers, at least they should be more “honest” than computer speakers, which are designed to make things sound good. You don’t want monitor speakers to “make things sound good, you want to hear the truth…or as close to it as possible. But also, consider this. If you’re doing your critical listening and mixing in a room in your house/apartment like most of us, even accurate/flat speakers are going to lie to your ears because boxy bedrooms (some worse than others) are simply going to accentuate certain frequencies (bass almost certainly), and eat others, causing you to add too much of the frequencies you don’t hear, and subtract too much of the frequencies you hear too much of. Then when you listen to the mix somewhere else it’ll suck (not enough bass and way too much in certain mids or highs for example).
So is all lost? Of course not. As with anything else in this biz you need either time or money. If you can’t afford good monitors AND room treatment (which can be expensive and easily done wrong), what you do is the “mix hokey-pokey’ (my made-up term). Mix in your studio first. Then listen to the test mix on as many systems as possible, including the car (very important), ipod, other computers, your “good” stereo/entertainment system, etc. Make lots and lots of notes, come back to the studio and mix again, tweaking according to your notes. Repeat the process until it sounds good on all systems. That’s my advice for getting by with cheap monitors in a home recording studio.
I hope that helps!
Cheers,
Ken