5 Common Recording Mistakes Musicians Make

Making music is easier than it’s ever been. Rolling Stone highlights how bedroom rappers are taking over the scene, as people now have the tools to make full-blown tracks without the need for professional recording setups.

With that being said, there are still a couple of drawbacks when it comes to DIY recording, one of which is that beginners are particularly susceptible to mistakes that can easily be avoided. To help you out with this, we’ve put together some of the mistakes that beginners make and tips on how to avoid them. If you’re interested in learning more about this, read on for our list of five common recording mistakes!

1. Suboptimal Recording Space

While it’s quite common to assume that equipment is the only thing that affects the quality of your recording, this simply isn’t the case. How you set up the room that you’ll be recording in also has a pretty significant effect on how your recording will turn out. One common mistake is choosing a room with poor acoustics (low ceilings, too small, and walls made of drywall).

Now, we understand that not everyone will have a room that can be easily converted into a recording studio. Luckily, there’s an easy fix for this. Installing sound diffusers around your recording space should drastically improve the quality of your recordings.

2. Choosing a Poor Quality Mic

Gear does play an important part when it comes to how good your recording is. It acts as the mediator for your sound, so it makes sense that you’ll want to prioritize this in some way or form. One common mistake is using a bad mic to record your track.

While using your phone or computer’s built-in microphone is an option, you can push your recordings to a whole new level by making use of a decent microphone. Shout4Music’s review of the Blue Yeti Pro USB details how it offers quality recording resolution, all while being incredibly easy to use thanks to its quick set up. A mic that is easy to setup is a huge advantage, as you’ll also want to position the microphone correctly depending on what you’re recording. For home recording, spot miking (when the mic is up close to the sound source) is your best option to minimize room sound.

3. Background Noise

Unwanted room sound and background noise could ruin your recordings. This is especially true if you’re recording in a room that is particularly vulnerable to noise (near a road or a room with lots of windows).

You can go about fixing this problem in different ways depending on the resources you have at your disposal. Getting professionals to soundproof your room is the most effective solution but could be quite costly. An efficient solution would be to use heavy curtains to help block out noise that gets in through your windows. Using weather strippings for the doors will also minimize how much noise gets in your recording space.

4. Going Overboard With Effects

Digital audio workstations such as Ableton Live and Pro Tools give aspiring musicians access to a multitude of different digital instruments and effects. They’ve paved the way for independent artists as it allows them to create complex tracks that would not have been possible due to the lack of resources. However, one downside to this is that artists that are just starting tend to go overboard with the number of effects they use when recording.

The most common effect that falls under this is reverb. While it’s tempting to add reverb on to all your vocals (as adding reverb seems to make everything sound better) it makes your track sound flatter, because everything starts sounding the same. We suggest recording vocals as clean as possible and only tweaking minor hiccups during post-production.

5. Burnout

Lastly, burnout from recording could have some negative effects on your end product. While not strictly music-related, overworking yourself during the recording process will spill over into the quality of the work you produce. While it’s not necessarily bad to put in long hours when recording, you’ll also want to take a break every now and then.

If you feel like you’ve been working on a track for hours on end with no significant progress then it may be time to step back and take a quick breather. Go on a walk or watch a movie. Rest is also part of the creative process so be sure to get enough of it so you can come back to recording with a fresh mind.

If you found this article interesting, then you may also want to check out our article on the 7 Essential Steps to Become a Successful Rapper!

Written by Connie Flynn.