Step 2 – Don’t be a brand snob or a common knowledge snob.

You know what a brand snob is, but what’s a common knowledge snob, you ask? A common knowledge snob is someone who takes so called common knowledge as gospel when it may not be. I’ll give you an example... many people think that tube always sounds better or that vocals require a condenser microphone. Well, tube often does sound better, and certainly warmer, when it’s well built. The problem is, you won’t get Universal Audio sound from a $300 reflective plate microphone preamp with a 12AX7 in it. Don’t waste your money. A comparable solid state will sound a lot better, especially if you are recording everyone through the same preamp. Likewise, a $350 Shure SM7 is a much better choice for a vocal microphone than most of the condensers in that price range. The point is, just because all the other lemmings are jumping into the sea doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do your homework before joining them.

Ah, but didn’t I say in the opening paragraph that there were few places to get good info? Yes, I did...and it’s true. There are some online resources, however, that are pretty reliable. Mix Magazine and Sound on Sound reviews are not the most impartial, but they can help you, especially in making purchasing decisions. Even the “high end” forums can occasionally be helpful if you find the right thread. I have a hard time reading those because I often see someone with obvious budgetary constraints asking for the best mic/pre/whatever under $500 bucks only to have someone with an even more obvious mathematical palsy suggest they try an AKG 414 (which runs around $900 to $1000 US depending on the exact model). There are some helpful people on just about any forum, though, including those.

As for being a brand snob, take a look at what transpired with the Studio Projects microphones. SP releases a cheap, well made mic and flaunts (instead of hiding the fact) that it’s made in China. Some producers and engineers jump on it, calling it a great sounding mic comparable to a Neumann U87. Then, for every person who loved the mic, three came out of the woodwork to criticize it. So what’s the truth? Well, that’s for you to decide. In my opinion, the C1 is great sounding mic for certain situations. I like it for most male voices, but not all. Does it sound like an expensive Neumann? I have no idea...I can’t afford to be in the same room as a Neumann. Still, the price to performance ratio favors it over the Neumann any day if you are on a tight budget and if the sound of it works for you. The thing to note here is that some people have it in for certain brands, and rightfully so. Some, however, just don’t want to admit that anything that doesn’t require a second mortgage can sound good.

Step 3 – Know your gear, know your technique.

This step is crucial, so pay attention. The biggest problem with most people who record from home is that they give up too easily and often assume it’s the gear. This much I do know: 99% of the time, it’s not the gear...it’s YOU.

So you tried one microphone and it didn’t sound good. How many mic placements did you try? So your channel strip sounds lousy? Do you really know how to compress and equalize? Did you adjust levels on both the outboard gear and DAW? So you have a small apartment and your recording room sucks. What about the bathroom? What about trying all the rooms? So your mix is muddy and there’s no clarity between instruments. Did you lazily EQ and compress them all exactly the same using a blanket scheme? Did you use too much or not enough of either? Did you pan the tracks correctly to their respective ideal locations in the stereo field and try varying levels of reverb, EQ and compression to set them? Is that dynamic mic making the sound coming off your amp too harsh? Did you move it to the edge of the cone or change the axis?

I could go on all day, but the point is, keep messing with it until it sounds as good as it possibly can. Try every technique you know and search out techniques you don’t. They may not work for your situation, but then again, they might sound great. Keep working at it until you are satisfied that you’ve exhausted every possibility and only then will you know the real limitations of your gear. Best of all, you will familiarize yourself with sound qualities of multiple techniques and can use that knowledge for future projects.

Step 4 – For crying out loud, send it off to be mastered!

Ok, this last step has little to do with consumer level gear, and rightfully so. The hard reality is that you can often get your mix mastered by a decent mastering engineer with good equipment for around $500 dollars, and it’s entirely well worth it. There is no piece of equipment you can buy for that amount that will come close to giving you what professional mastering can. Furthermore, there is no amount of time you can spend (for most people) that will give you the well trained ears of a professional mastering engineer. I’m not suggesting that you should expect miracles; after all, if your mix is bad, there is only so much they can do. What I am suggesting is that if your final product is at all important to you, have someone with experience and the necessary equipment run the last leg of the race. If for no other reason, after possibly playing and/or singing on your project, recording it and then mixing it, your ability to truly hear the music in a way that is fresh and conducive to good mastering will be compromised. I’ve been recording since the early nineties, and I almost always send projects off for the professional touch because I know what a difference it can make. Recording is like having minor back pain. It’s perfectly acceptable to take it upon yourself to solve the problem via heat patches, a hot water bottle, aspirin, a massage or whatever works for you. Mastering your own projects on the cheap is like having a gunshot wound and treating it with a Band-Aid because you want to save a couple of bucks or proudly tell everyone that you “handled it yourself”.

(For an excellent article by John Scrip of Massive Mastering on how to avoid scam mastering houses, click here)

Well, hopefully that will help you make the most of your current gear or gear budget. If, per chance, you are using home recording as a means of getting your own music out there, it pays to put some real effort into getting the best sound possible. Many people are fond of saying that a good song which is poorly recorded trumps a bad song recorded pristinely, and I agree wholeheartedly. The truth of the matter, though, is that your intended audience may not get far enough into the song to know its real merit if the recording sounds terrible.