In my 9 years of music production and recording engineering I have listened to a lot of recording artist music. Some really, really good and
some terribly bad. Sometimes it’s the engineer’s fault and others it is the artist themselves. Everybody want that quality that is either good enough
or great enough. But to be honest every artist don’t understand certain etiquette in recording. So with that said I will continue to provide you
with the 3 reasons your recording maybe suffer and some of it is very easy to change.
- Mic Placement
With the right mic placement you can come up with either a too loud (clipping) recording or a too low. If you are an advocate of DIY you must
understand that with the wrong mic placement it can ruin a recording. Sometimes not only mic placement would be a problem it could also be
an equipment problem. Sometimes with cheap equipment will make it hard to find the desirable level that necessary for preparing mixes. Try
not to record at 0 db but try to record between -12 so you want peak and the sound won’t distort. If you are too far back its good to get closer to the
mic only to meet a decent level. If you need a deep understanding talk to an engineer that don’t mind explaining what it is you need to do.
Or YouTube it.
2. Moving around too much to catch a solid signal
This a problem when an artist gets too caught up in the moment. If you were to move front, back and side to side
(pun intended) you are not catch a direct solid signal flow for the mic to record you in. Just think of you whispering in someone’s ear from afar and
then come up close do you think they will catch the whole message when you are speaking to them? Of course so stay in at least six inches in front of
the microphone and keep your head and body still if you must move just nod your head a little. Not like you are at a concert. Save that for when you
get shows.
3. Just get a professional
Don’t shoot the messenger but maybe you shouldn’t do it yourself this time. Maybe you should just pay the 35-75 dollars an hour that is necessary for
the quality of your project. I’m not saying you need to pay a visit to Drake’s or Jay’z engineer. However, I am saying you need to get with an engineer
or studio with an quality rapport. It is necessary that you take pride in the product that your are putting together for distribution for potential fans.
Conclusion
This post is to tell you the possibilities of how come your recording may not be up to par. This is not to discourage you in any shape form or fashion.
This is just an attempt to get you to understand the importance of great presentation and representation of your art. I can not stress the issue enough
what the best sound and recordings can do for your image.