Takes

You started your session well. Your microphones are all in place and you’re warmed up. Now it’s time to do individual recordings—individual takes. It’s finally time to do the actual recording! Get those sounds as digital files!

As expected, there are still more tips and tricks to consider. But there’s one principle that stands out above all.

Do many takes, many versions, many tries. Don’t worry about getting it perfect in one go.

Like many artists, I’m a perfectionist. I want to do everything right the first time. But that’s simply impossible. We’re imperfect beings, making music and recording is hard, so it will often go wrong. Or you just don’t know what “right” is until you’ve tried it.

Nevertheless, even knowing this doesn’t stop me from procrastinating and doubting myself. Which leads to doing nothing—which surely can’t be “right”!

The only way to stop this, is by realizing you have infinite takes. You could record a phrase of your song a hundred times, and all those takes could sound terrible, and it doesn’t matter! You only need one take—or several takes you can combine—that works for you.

Some people have the opposite problem. They do a thousand takes for everything, which slows them down and gives them so many options they don’t know what to choose. That’s perhaps even worse.

Find a balance here. Do a multitude of takes. But if your numbers are reaching ridiculous heights, take a break, or just be happy with what you have. Pick the best recording you already have. I’m pretty sure there’s a decent one among the fifty takes.

Transitions

By far the biggest issue with my first recordings, was the lack of transition. I’d start the recording immediately, at the start of the first measure. When I had done my part (singing or playing guitar), I’d immediately slam the spacebar to stop recording.

The result? You get a take that has no smooth start or finish. Which makes it near impossible to fit in with other takes, because there’s no transition possible between them.

Additionally, this made the start of each take inconsistent. Because I started immediately (after hitting record), I was still searching the right pitch and rhythm in that first second.

Fixing this issue made my (recording) life much easier. And led to better, usable recordings 99% of the time.

How to fix? Simply leave room before and after the recording. Move the cursor one or two measures before the part you actually want to record. Once done, wait a few seconds, and then stop it.

It’s even better if you can follow along. Don’t just wait in silence until your part starts. Play or sing along with the backing track, pretend you’re doing the whole song. This means you automatically record that “transition” between parts! Because you’re actually doing it!

There’s nothing worse than a great take … that just won’t fit anywhere, because the start and end are scuffed. This is, again, something that can be fixed with editing. But it’d take hours and the end result would still be worse than just recording it again, but with space.

Start off strong

To prevent this “uncertain start”, it helps to match rhythm and pitch before every take. During those 1-2 measures before the actual part, already match the tempo and key of the song. Make random noises, or strum the guitar, to match the song as perfectly as possible.

If this is hard, actually play the right first note for yourself.

I’ve recorded vocals for many songs while holding my guitar. I wasn’t playing the guitar while singing. I used it to find the right pitch before the recording started. (I’d just pluck the first note I had to sing on my guitar, and matched it with my voice. Then, a few seconds later, I sang the actual part.)

The same is true for rhythm. Make sure you can clearly hear the metronome. Perhaps tap along before the recording starts. Anything to get you in the groove of the song, so your recording starts off strong a second later.

It’s hard to give a great performance “out of thin air”. Instead, give longer performances, and use parts of them.

Tuning

Some people say you should tune between every take. I think that’s a bit extreme. It would undermine all your productivity, as 50% of your time would be spent just tuning again and again. In my experience, this isn’t worth it—unless you do really long takes of course.

Instead, I tune between sections. When I switch to a new instrument or section of the song, I tune again.

You can tune in many ways:

• A tuner app on your phone
• An actual tuner device
• Using a standard Tuner plugin in your DAW

That third option is missed by many. Your mic is already connected to your DAW! It’s already recording! So put a plugin on that track, and you can see the pitch of anything it records.

This means you can leave the phone out of the studio. It also means you can both tune instruments and your voice (by checking if the pitches you sing are actually the correct ones).

Finish what you started

It’s interesting to see others record themselves. I’ve had some people record in my improvised studio. (Family and friends, I wouldn’t dare bring anyone else to my run-down attic :p)

Almost all of them will quit a recording within milliseconds of starting it. They’ll sing the first note and immediately be like: “Ah no that’s not it! Stop!”

Don’t do this.

Why? It means you’re being extremely self-conscious about your performance … while doing it. You’re not in any flow, you’re not focused on just performing—you’re focused on getting a perfect recording. Which, as we know by now, leads to bad recordings. (Or none at all, if you stop everything within a second.)

Even if you start bad, finish the part you wanted to record. Even if you miss a note, continue and finish. Don’t worry about that.

You can throw away the whole take later. You can do another take. Most likely, much of that take is actually quite usable later, and you’ll be glad you finished.

Clicks and pops

In the Microphones chapter, I mentioned the “low-end rumble” that’s produced by many things in our life. Most microphones have a “high pass filter” ( = only the high frequencies pass through) to combat most of this issue before it even reaches your computer. If you hear rumble, that’s where I’d look first.

Otherwise, it’s likely you’re causing it yourself. The same is true for pops, clicks, ticks, any annoying (quick) sounds that get into recordings.

The culprit … is you! :p

Many people, in their impatience or nervousness, will play with things. They’ll grab the mic stand while singing. They’ll play with their buttons while waiting a few bars (before the next take starts). They’ll tap the floor, something that is on the floor, their instrument, a cable, whatever.

We like doing stuff and making all sorts of tiny noises. But when recorded? These noises are NOT tiny. Because of microphone sensitivity, anything close enough will be captured and it will sound much louder and destroy the recording.

The lesson here is simple:

Stop playing with objects and subconsciously creating noises. At least while that recording is active.

Otherwise, a pop or click in your recording could have a number of reasons.

• Your interface/computer can’t keep up. So it freezes for a bit, causing a gap in the recording. Even tiny ones register as a nasty click to our ears.
• Your cables or microphones are faulty. (Though unlikely. If they are broken, the effects are usually much more severe and immediate. You’ll know for sure when something broke.)

After each take

Just like the person who does too many takes, you can do too little analysis of your work.

With my first recordings, I’d just chug along for an hour or so. I’d record everything I need, without listening back, at breakneck speed, until I was done. Microphones placed the same, settings the same, let’s rock ’n roll!

Don’t do this.

You’ll only realize you sounded bad, or that you needed to do something else, once you’ve already wasted your time and energy.

Do listen to your takes. Be critical of them. If it’s not right, change something, try something else. Hopefully, you still have that pen and paper on hand. Quickly write down some possible improvements.

• This note should be hit more clearly
• This note could be sung with more energy
• The general volume is too low compared to my recordings yesterday
• I don’t like how it starts, try a different strumming pattern
• …

The point is to do this after you already finished the whole take. Do this between takes, to know what to record next.

While performing, you perform. If you’re recording someone else, tell them this advice. While performing, they just perform and nothing else.

Most major producers say something like:

If you need more than 10 takes for a vocal, you’re doing something wrong

By itself, I don’t think that’s useful advice. They often forget to explain that they do this critical analysis after every take. To evaluate what actually needs to be (re)recorded. And use that feedback to make every take better and better.

Conclusion

I’ve told you all the major steps, principles and tips for recording audio. This should be more than enough to circumvent 99% of issues and capture great performances in a great way!

The last chapters of this course merely dive deeper into the three major instruments: guitar, piano and drum. They give specific tips, remarks, microphone placement, and more for each. You can skip them, if you’re not interested in that.