15 Tips For Recording At Home

Get better results when recording at home.

We regularly get questions on how to achieve the best recordings at home. While many Blue users are recording in professional studios, even more are recording in their home office, bedroom, living room, basement or garage. There are a few easy ways to get studio acoustic results, at home. (See our home recording feature in the November issue of Stuff Magazine, on stands now!)

Take your at-home recordings to the next level-

Recording environment: (#1 factor that impacts your recordings)

1. Avoid hard surfaces: Hard surfaces can be your biggest enemy for home recording. Hardwood floors, concrete walls, tiled walls and counter tops are all reflective, bouncing sound around the room like Flubber, creating an echo that can be noticeable in your recordings. Carpet, curtains, rounded/fabric furniture and even inside of clothes closets can help to deaden” the room and create a more acoustically sound environment. Any hard surface is reflective, including slat blinds and windows (glass is extremely reflective). Close those curtains!

2. Reflection shields can be purchased or made to help minimize sounds being picked up from the back and sides of the mic (best if you are using a strictly omni-directional mic).

However, most at-home recording happens with a cardioid (forward directional) microphone. This type of mic is rejecting most noise from the sides and back. However, a cardioid microphone is most sensitive to sounds reflecting from behind the vocalist (see next tip for ways to reduce those reflections).

3. DIY acoustical treatment: The best at-home treatment is to hang a thick blanket on the wall or shelf or bookcase that is directly behind the vocalist, covering as much of the surface as possible. Staying away from desks or other reflective surfaces can be beneficial (especially if you aren't getting the recording results you desire). Did you know? Bass frequencies are notorious for building up under desks.

4. The place not to record: in the middle of the room. This is where frequencies build up and you get standing waves.”

5. Where to record: Back yourself closer to the wall with the hanging blanket and further from the opposite wall. Without sticking yourself in the middle. Clothes closets can also make for great vocal booths. Clothes naturally absorb sounds; they are typically carpeted and there is less room for echo.

6. Shhhhh! Make sure that background noise is minimal or nonexistent. Turn off the AC, and the TV, and the washing machine, and the microwave, and the fan and your fish tank…well maybe just move the poor fish into another room.

Headphones and Monitors:

7. Monitors are great for playback. Headphones are great for recording and direct monitoring.

8. For at-home recording, closed-back headphones are best so that the sound from your headphones doesn't bleed into your microphone. Zero-latency, direct monitoring is critical for multi-tracking (featured on Spark Digital , Nessie , Yeti and Yeti Pro ). If there are multiple people recording or even listening in, consider getting a headphone splitter box.

9. Monitors are basically fancy speakers that playback a little differently. Speakers give color to sound (deeper bass, sharper mids, etc) and are better for the average listener of a mastered track. Monitors give you uncolored sound. This will give you an accurate sound for mixing and editing. Then use your headphones for referencing (aka listening to the audio as it will be heard in the real world).

10. Setting up your monitors: Set up your monitors so that you are one of the points in an equilateral triangle. Measure the distance between your monitors, example: 45 inches, then make sure that you are 45 inches from each monitor. This will be the sweet spot for listening to your monitors.

11. Set your levels correctly. If you are direct monitoring through headphones, be sure to set your headphone volume levels correctly before adjusting the gain. If your headphone volume is too low, you risk overcompensating with the gain and causing distortion or an overly saturated recording.

Microphones Technique

12. Popping P” plosives: Pop filters help to catch these annoying bursts of air that defile your recording (Check out The Pop which can be used with most all of our mics, including USB mics like Yeti ) But if you don't have a pop filter, angle your vocals to the side of the microphone to reduce the direct burst of air away from the most sensitive part of the mic.
Found out how to attach The Pop to your USB mic here

13. Distance from the mic: The proximity effect occurs as you get closer to the microphone, the louder and more saturated your audio will become. Positioning your vocalist approximately six inches from the microphone is a good rule of thumb. Podcasters can be a little farther away, but we wouldn't recommend anything past a foot to start out.

Experimenting to find your best sound is always encouraged.

14. Pattern: Be sure to select the appropriate pattern (on multi-pattern microphones both XLR and USB ). For a single person recording, the cardioid pattern is a good default choice. Omnidirectional will pick up sounds from all around the room, which is great for a chorus or group, but likely not best for one person recording. Here are examples of use cases for various patterns: