Recording Your Voice in a Home Studio

When it comes to recording your voice at home, which is probably what most people do record at home, there are three major things that you need, assuming you already have your recording system. Microphones, a mic preamp and a compressor. Here’s some useful knowledge concerning each one:

The Microphone
As I’ve stated before, you have about as many choices in a mic as you do cars. Do you go with the SUV or a Hybrid? What about a Jaguar? And just like when checking out the gas mileage, choosing a microphone should be based on your needs.

All in all, I suggest a “condensor microphone” that has a little bump around the 3kHz range on the frequency response grid (look for a hill around the middle right hand side), but you also want something that sounds accurate to what you are putting in it. Most everything else can be added/altered by other equipment.

For this I greatly recommend the EV/Blue Cardinal ($200) as this is my favorite mic by all means. I have used these big boys and the cheapy joe mics and this has the best sound for your buck.

The Mic Preamp
There are so many things that can go wrong when recording. The biggest problems people face are clipping the mic preamp or recorder. This happens when you have a level up way too much and the equipment can’t handle it. You will find this may happen even when you have the levels down–if you are clipping the input to the mic preamp for example. The output might be low, but the input is screaming.

So what do you do? Every part of this is extremely simple to avoid with a compressor. This fabulous piece of equipment will take your signal and automatically lower the level when it becomes too high.

Other things that can go wrong can be excessive “hiss” which can be resolved by using some better cables and/or using equipment that has a higher signal to noise ratio. Turning down the gain on your mic preamp helps as well. My favorite obstacle is when the recording just sounds off and wont fit in a mix. Play with the EQ’s in the mid frequencies, add a reverb or delay, use a stereo spreader (usually works best for me) or just re-record.

Just remember that nothing is ever set in stone. As long as you have people that understand (and they better understand that no good recording ever does) that it might take a few takes to get things sounding right. And remember if it’s not fun it’s not worth doing.

The Compressor
What you spend on a compressor should dictate the quality you get. Remember to always personally test each piece out before you buy, however, and research, research, research.
If you want to go further you can use a DeEsser (which helps remove some of the “hiss”), Exciter (which boosts specific frequencies to make them stand out), 31 band EQ, Limiter (acts as a brick wall to volumes, keeping them at a specific volume), and a good multi-effects processor (for reverbs, chorus’s, delays, etc.).

Another thing you might try is adding different microphones, preamps, etc. to your home studio as you will find that what works for one vocalist or song might not work for the next. I always recommend at first looking at channel strips as these generally come with a mic preamp, compressor, and EQ in one unit. Granted you wont usually get the same quality out of one of these as you would if you bought each piece on its own, but they are great for starting out and space limitations.

Art Pro Channel as it is by far the best in it’s price class plus has the added feature of allowing you to bypass any part of it or rerouting any part of it (no other one I’ve looked at does this). This makes expanding the system later much easier. If you have the money, look into some of the Joe Meek equipment, and if you’re really looking to invest, try the Mindprint DTC (probably THE best piece of equipment I’ve used under 2 grand).

Now that you have a little inside info about recording your voice at home, I wish you luck in the best screams, chorus lines and beats you can possibly get.

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