how do we get our bedroom recordings to sound like commercial releases? let's bust some myths, first.
COMPLETELY FALSE. Everything you just heard was performed on all real instruments, recorded, mixed and mastered from start to finish in my bedroom with no special sound treatments, drum triggering or other gimmicks.
As you might have guessed again, COMPLETELY FALSE. The most expensive piece of audio equipment involved in the production of the music examples I showed you above was an audio interface that cost a few hundred dollars, and you can achieve the same results with one that costs a fraction of that. A professional sound is NOT about the gear, I promise you.
And yet another big fat myth I'm excited to prove false. I have been running a professional recording business out of my bedroom for 15+ years producing for dozens and dozens of artists, including bands that have literally flown to my city just to come record in my room-- no joke.
Bedroom recording hacks for drums
It doesn't matter if you don't have a DW 500000 Mega Turbo Overpriced Series drum kit, ANY drum kit CAN sound great. Put more focus into tuning them and playing them well. My toms in the photo have old mismatched heads, and I pulled this Stagg kick drum out of the dumpster at a church. It's also the same kit and heads that were recorded in the audio examples above. Expensive gear is overrated.
Doesn't recording overheads always seem like a shot in the dark, and all the info out there on how to mic them is just too garbled and technical? That changes right now. No matter how wide the kit, place the overheads 2.5 - 3 feet above the array of cymbals on each side, and try to aim the mics to account for all the cymbals in your setup. That's it, press record and don't worry about phase.
Room mics are key in opening up a drum recording and adding natural dimension to the sound. Try placing a room mic all over: in the room with the kit, outside the room, in other rooms, etc. As bedroom engineers, we don't have the luxury of huge, great sounding rooms to record in, but moving the room mic further away around the house can fake it well. Experiment and have fun with this.
bedroom Recording hacks for guitar/bass
The guitar amp DOES NOT have to be blazing loud when recording to get a full sound. Save you and your neighbors ears and turn it down- you can get huge sounding guitars at a comfortable bedroom listening level.
It's worth mentioning that a lot of tonal control when recording a guitar cabinet lies in the positioning of the microphone on the speaker. Closer to the center and you get a brighter sound. Closer to the edge and it gets darker.
Don't overlook the cabinet-simulated direct out on your amp if you have one. They are a foolproof way to get a solid and consistent guitar recording in any situation. It also frees up a microphone if you're short on them for other things in a session.
My #1 rule in my studio for getting smooth, controlled low end on a bass recording isn't compressors or plugins, it's all in the playing. Make sure your bass tracks are performed with the most even and consistent note volume humanly possible. Don't disregard the importance of this- the low end in the track will mix itself.
Don't have a bass cab to mic up? Record direct and use cab sims to have a tweak-able bass track at any stage of the mix. If I'm honest, the tones aren't as great as recording a good cab, but the flexibility and convenience makes up for it.
bedroom Recording hacks for vocals
Two words: pop filter. Don't get caught recording vocals on a large diaphragm condenser mic without one. Those puffs of air will sound horrible in a mix as well as damage your mics.
There's an infinite amount of variables when recording any given voice- no two will ever be the same. Try any and every mic you have in your arsenal on a vocalist until something "clicks." There has been times where my most expensive mics didn't work on a singer but a really cheap one did. Nothing is ever wrong if it sounds right.
Recording great and engaging vocals is about capturing a real moment. Find your mic, dial in the gain, then forget technicals and focus on letting nature take over. I've always had the best vocal results in an environment where the singer can vibe and get lost in the performance. Try to keep the vocal recording process as raw and natural as possible.
quick tips for EQ'ing & comp
The main EQ rule I work by is always keeping my moves no more than 6dB MAXIMUM at a time, and that's pushing it. Any more and the sound begins to be robbed of it's natural structure and harmonics, causing the mix to feel odd and unpleasant to the ear. Small moves here and there really will add up at the end to create a more professional and natural feeling balance.
And one tip I recommend for compression is to turn the volume of the mix really quiet when dialing it in. I find that this reveals the behavior of the compression much better than when the volume is high. Try this technique for individual tracks as well as on the master bus.
