Home Recording Guide For Singers
Going into a recording studio to record will usually result in sound quality that is suitable for your "demo" submissions. However, it can be expensive and in a professional studio there is little room for error if something goes wrong. If a band member is sick or you get a bad engineer- you're out of luck. It is common for things to go wrong as the studio experience is a new experience for many. Happily, there are other alternatives.
Computer based home recording gets cheaper all the time so if you feel you have talent and really aspire to be a professional singer you might consider putting together a home studio. Having your own gear allows you to record whenever you want, for as long as you want until you get the desired track.
The barriers to home recording entry are low - really just a computer, sound card, a quality audio software program for recording and editing and a microphone. If you want to save your songs to CD, you will need a cd burner and some blank cd's.
The first step is to set up the microphone on your PC, which has a built-in sound card (a necessity). If you don't need high sound quality, you can use the built-in microphone in your PC (if it has one). You can enable this through the control panel. If you're looking to produce something with better quality, then a good quality microphone is essential.
A good microphone doesn't have to be expensive but it is best to buy the best one you can afford. For recording the human voice a "condenser" microphone is generally recommended and they're easy to find at any audio store.
Then you will need some audio recording software. There are a number of free, simple audio recording applications that allow you to record sound and convert it to a popular audio format like MP3 or WAV (such as Audacity). You can download free software from Audacity by following the simple download instructions.
For a small price, you can get more advanced features, like the ability to edit recordings and apply sound effects. If you want to start getting professional, you can use programs such as Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge Studio 6.0.
When the microphone is set up and the right software is installed, it is time to get on with your home recording.Check that the microphone is at the right height and have a couple of practice runs. Don't forget to take into account "audio distractions" such as the phone, background noise or the neighbors. Don't be afraid of getting close to the mic, it will sound better.
Recording your first take is as simple as pressing "record." When you have finished recording your song, stop recording and the application can automatically convert your recording into a file that I can be played back.
How well-recorded do my demos need to be?
The answer is actually very simple. For song pitches, the recording can be much less "produced" than it should be for artist pitches. Some people believe that a song pitch demo should leave some room for imagination - let the artist or A&R person develop some emotional ownership of the song by imagining a tambourine part or a vocal harmony. For band or artist pitches, you may want to flesh out more tracks that show the artist's whole vision. Remember though, A&R people are far more interested in the song's potential, and the artist's appeal than they are about the quality of the recording. Nearly every act signed to a major label will be recording their entire album over again with a pro engineer and producer. The demo is only a demo!
How do I share my songs online?
If you want to upload and share your music online (MySpace, boomp3.com, Broadjam or to your own website) you can simply upload the mp3 files you have saved.
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