Why Do Home Recordings Sound So Bad? (5 Reasons Why)
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- čas přidán 30. 09. 2020
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Why do home studio recordings usually sound so bad?
Is it that people are rarely using high-end converters and preamps in their home studios?
Is it the absence of high quality microphones?
Or the lack of proper acoustic treatment?
The use of plugins instead of outboard gear?
The absence of an analog console?
The truth is that NONE of the above are to blame for bad sounding home recordings.
The proof is in the pudding. There are countless top-notch producers churning out label quality productions using nothing more than a laptop and a simple interface.
But if it were as simple as owning a computer, daw and interface...why is it that we rarely hear killer productions coming out of home studios?
In my latest video, I explain the top 5 reasons why so many home studio recording sound so bad.
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Preproduction is huge! but it's also important to decide which "chair" you are sitting on. when you're a home studio owner you're often the musician, the producer, the engineer, the mixer.
so when you are writing a song, it's kind of easy to get stuck on something that's further down the production line, like dialing in the perfect guitar tone, or choose some synth sounds for like 45 minutes and then the moment has passed. that's why i try to write when i'm in that creative bubble, and make ok sounding demos. then when you have some songs you start to move further down in the production lane. you then start to do the preproduction, rearranging, choose sounds etc etc. and then when every digital aspect of the song is done. dial in the guitar tone and nail those guitar parts, bass lines, drum takes and so on. i make quick demos and save them in my phone. then i can listen to them anywhere and get cool ideas on how to make the songs even better. but if i were to sit on all chairs when the first riff to a new song
popped up, the songs would never get finished and i would be stuck on tweaking some sound far to early and be stuck with millions of 20-30 second good ideas
very well said
These are all very true points. There's one thing I want to add -- setting deadlines is all good and well as long as you're a solo artist. But as soon as other folks come into the picture, who might have families and demanding jobs, who are not professional musicians but think they're a lot better with their instrument than they really are -- well, then you're deadlines are effed.
I've been working on an album for 2,5 years. All songs were written and preproduced with: demo drums, demo bass, demo guitars, demo keys, demo vocals. I recorded the final keys in summer of 2018. And then the trouble started. Drummer didn't deliver, but stalled for half a year until I hired a session drummer. Guitarist didn't learn the songs in two years, then the pandemic happened and he semi-ghosted us. I eventually decided to keep the demo guitars instead and ditch him. Hired a pro for lead guitar though, who recorded fantastic tracks for 14 songs in less than two weeks. Bassist thought he was a lot better than he really is and I spent some 120 hrs to edit his bass lines. Wrong note by wrong note, one scratch & squeal at a time. That was hell. Vocalist got a baby inbetween, and sick a couple of times, additional singers no-show & stalling until I asked politely several times in several months. Still recording vocals in october 2020, more than 2,5 year after start, and more than 2 years after *I* recorded all my own final tracks.
So yeah, deadlines. It's great to have good intentions. Just avoid working with people who take the project less serious than you do. Really. Album 3 will be a one-man-show plus hired guns, end of story...
Yup, I've been there! That's why, unfortunately, some musicians don't make the cut when it comes to being on a record.
I love the old school bubble TV, VHS vibe. It's dope
Hell yeah, thanks Ray! 🤘
This guy is famous!
Subscribed both!
Cheers from Brazil!!!
@@wellingtonslander5351 haha im not famous, Im just a dude. Cheers from the USA!
@@xanderraymondcharles your channel is awesome, great content!
@Frightbox Recording deserve more subs, great content as well!!!
@@wellingtonslander5351 thanks so much! We've got a collab coming up soon!
Arrangement, arrangement, arrangement!
I used to have a pci express card, M-Audio Audiophile 192, I bought an M-audio Fast Track C400 worked for something about 3 months and never worked again, finally I bought a Focusrite 18i6 and a Behringer U-Phoria UM2 as a backup, everything still sound like fart, but at least I know it's not the gear.
lmao!
Cool tips, thanks!
This is actually stuff that seems obvious to someone who does recording for a while BUT it’s good to hear it said that way in one place, at least for me 🙃
short and precise.. thanks again..
So glad I found your channel. I'd be interested to hear more about your approach to pre-prod.
Got something coming out in a few week that you're gonna dig :)
@@FrightboxRecordingyasss! I knew you would.
Thanks for the tips buddy.
You are great.
Keep it going on.
Thank you, your videos and tips are awesome
I don't know who you are but I thank you for not yelling at everyone like someone else we all know. subscribed
As ever super cool and super useful tips my friend! Thank you so much! 😀👍
Thanks man!
I do love my little space at home, I wouldn't want to change it for a big studio cos I feel like I would get lost there. And when I'm in my home recording studio it challenges me to be creative to try and find ways to make my home recordings sound like the pros 🙂
And YES, this road definitely has its upside and downs in sound quality 😂 But sometimes it gets right..
Great content
Setting deadlines. Guilty. I've been trying to complete some songs forever. But all of this is useful to hear again. Thanks.
Great advice! I implemented these steps at the beginning of the year in my home studio and it’s just works!! Once they become habits studio life becomes a lot easier!
Happy to hear that!
Watching your channel has helped immensely! Seriously, thank you so much, bro!
So stoked to hear that, Garrett!
Really good advice here and what I tell others too. Too much fixation on gear and what room they are recording in and not getting that it's the simple and sometimes boring things that count most! Cheers.
Thanks a ton for all the content advice and tips. Youre helping a ton. Ive got a simple 18i20 running to studio one and a cheap set of drum mics with a hundred dollar pair of condensers. Tracked four songs since aquiring this gear got to the mastering stage on one so far. Made a few rookie mistakes along the way so we had to go back and retrack rythm guitar and drums on two songs but id hafta say overall the quality of what weve gotten out of such a simple setup certainly suprised me. I really dig that you preach aquiring skills knowledge and experience over gear and flashy gizmos. Ive taken a few tips from here there and everywhere and kindof modified them to suit the gear or style of setup thats being played in a two piece stoner doom metal project. Even tho a few setbacks and kicks to the nards occurred along the way they were valuable lessons that will not soon be forgotten and even tho re tracking is a bitch i find that when we do it always sounds better than the originals. Thanks for all the help and inspiration to keep making good music and develop myself as not only a drummer but hopeful future recording engineer!
totally agree! good observations!
Thanks for the no BS advice man,I have just recently taken the dive into home recording and I won't lie it's daunting.All the questions I had in my head you answered!I think you may have saved me five years of wasting time!
You nailed a lot of issues. I think a big problem is "To many choices" with a DAW and plugins one gets bogged down. In the tape days, 80s, I had 4 tracks and difficult to fix so you had to know what you were going to play no mistakes! and get right first time. With that you could really only bounce so much or it would get saturated and sound bad. Choices of tone was a few pedals and one amp, now it's hundreds. I would always make an outline of song, words, music, anything that was going to happen in song in front of me and kept any notes of everything. The old Roland 505 was my fav back then or The vinyl records "Drum Drops" so you had no room for f-ups. I'm 70+ now and I get caught in trap of bringing a bunch of amp sim and plugs and just start playing thinking it will sound good because I have all these sounds and stuff,,,,, NO it does not work like that. I think #1 Learn your part for track #2 Make outline for plan of project. #3 Fresh strings and Tune, Tune make all in tune including intonation!! Nothing worse than a bass line that sounds great until you start working in upper frets and it is out of tune.
Some of my best songs were done on old Tascam 4 track cassette because I followed these steps and yours too. Z.K.
While I do agree with 95% of what you're saying here (ESPECIALLY about not doing pre-production!) but I'd like to make the argument that gear DOES matter to some extent. For example, I had been trying to get a decent rhythm guitar tone (yes, "at the source") but for the longest time it just wouldn't matter how much I changed my pick attack, how much/little I palm-muted, how much I played around with the EQ and gain settings on the amp, microphone (SM57) placement, etc. It wasn't until I switched out the Peavey ValveKing 4x12" cabinet for a small Orange 1x12" cabinet that I finally got a good tone. Sometimes good production really IS in the gear. But then, you still have to know how to use it...
I agree 100%, but it usually comes down to choosing the right gear and not necessarily expensive gear. More when it comes to the source than interfaces/microphones. When it comes to recording gear, I can use anything. I'll be releasing a mini series later this year where I fully produce a song using under $1000 worth of recording gear :)
@@FrightboxRecording Looking forward to that! :)
I’ve recorded some of the heaviest tones I’ve ever heard on cheap practice amps. And I’ve heard guys get even better tones than me from even worse amps. It’s not usually the gear in my opinion.
Spot on.
Would it be possible to always enable automatic subtitles for your videos like this one?
I'll look into that!
If there is one phrase I would take away from this video it is ‘be very intentional’. I think this is one of the reasons I still miss the days of just doing 4 track recording, Intentionality was mandatory. The overall content of the songs themselves came out better because of the limitation in the technology. You had to focus on making music rather than using technology.
Succinct, man. All true. No lies.
Fancypants gear and lack of direction will destroy your soul - or at least mess with your sound.
100%!
Is it a good idea to edit drums when the rest of the band recorded according to those drums? It would mean editing (almost) everything.
I always make sure I have my drums fully edited before I record stuff on top of them.
@@FrightboxRecording I do it as well. But what if you have to mix a song that was already recorded that way and there's no way to re-record?
"Clear Vision". Amen.
I agree with everything here :-)
Your final Q: Yes I have my own studio & yes I am happy with what I do as I always work to the concept of Story.
Thanks for the pro tips! I have been focusing on getting better sounds at the source. My songs are sounding pretty good but not up to a Pro label level. My mix 'room' sounds smaller and thinner and noisier when I compare to Pro stuff that sounds deep and clear. Any tips? Thanks!!
It can be a million different reasons, but the more you practice and focus on the philosophies I talk about in my vids, you'll get there sooner than you think.
Thanks for the video, Great points! I am curious though since sound on guitar tone is so subjective what is meant by "get it right at the source"? everyone has a different idea what is right how does this translate to get it right at the source? if I get my idea of good tone and record it , I am wondering if it will fit with the rest of the band sounds vocal included. Thanks man great channel !
I think there is too much paranoia about an instrument sound fitting or not the others. If it's a sound you like just use it and make sure to do a good mix so the others won't be buried. For example I like a very fat snare sound... And I don't care if it's grindcore where I do Blast beats with scooped downtuned guitars. Some say the snare could disappear but in reality it doesn't.
Great question...it comes down to getting a tone that YOU are happy with at the source. In other words, being happy with the tone as it is without expecting to "fix it in the mix".
@@FrightboxRecording gotcha thanks very much, that makes sense! thanks again!
@@lovecraftmusic8717 right on! Thanks for the input!
I don't know exactly why, but recording the mics/guitar Hi-Z at the right volume regarding the rest of the mix is very important. I guess it's because we can dial into the tone differently following the way we cut through the mix (picking dynamic). And we kinda memorize the volume as a player and tend to keep it unchanged as a producer. But maybe the initial input volume is not something we can radically change once recorded for other dynamic reasons. => it's a matter of trial and error, and keeping the good old settings with photos helps a lot !
This video is gold! A question: Can you talk about "amp colour", I cant find something explanatory; amps with brown sound or green or red souns. I can't get it
Stay tuned!
5 solid reasons!!! Thanks!!! 👦🏻
Yes, preproduction is most times in my experience why an album sounds bad. Had that several times that bands did not know what to play or didn't think about it.
Awesome video, did a commentary on it, thanks, I'd love to send you our Plugins for free as a thank you!
I do have a home studio, and I'm certainly not blaming my issues on gear.
Most of my songs are almost entirely pre-written before I start recording.But I do like to sometimes just open the DAW, lay some ideas down and see where it leads me, it can also give good results.
My biggest struggle is simply getting performances right. I might have an idea during writing, a riff that sort of comes off naturally, for example. But then I have to dissect it to transcribe it so I can write all the other parts along it, and sometimes the spontaneousness of the original riff goes away and it becomes a struggle to play.
What always ends up taking HUUUGE amount of time is writing vocals. They have to make sense harmonically, rythmically AND lyrically (and not be clichés). And recording them with good timing AND good pitch while not jumbling up the lyrics is usually very tedious.
Now, I do not have the patience for a million edits. I would rather re-do the performance 100 times until I get one that can be used as such or with just minor edits. If it was my career, I'd say "hey that's the grind, you gotta go through it", but since it's only a hobby for me, I want it to remain fun to some extent. Although in the end I always spend so much more time tweaking the mix, finding the balances and the sounds that I like, all the while breaking down sessions so my ear doesn't 'get used' to a tone that I won't like the next session...while ultimately the fun for me mostly comes from composition and arrangement.
Dialling in amp sim tones is a nightmare. Not being able to accurately hear what you're mixing is a nightmare.
Bilmuri, home done right
guilty as charged, this is one of the reasons i try and write and release a song every month to 6 weeks and try and make the mixing process quicker by having those deadlines
I have a basic setup, mic and computer. I get amazing results with a cheap but good quality mic, and a free daw. so there is no excuse.
I’m recording and mastering everything from my phone. I’m getting better with each song.
Id tend to agree, but only if this information is for intermediate to advanced people. Beginners, I think this is more bad advice. To often I think beginner are told XYZ and stay focused and you'll make good mixes. but that's only true if they keep mixing the same songs. Throw new material at them and they are lost. Anyone can grasp a concept or an idea or when to turn some knobs. but none of that means anything if you dont know when and where to apply it. the only way to know is to experience every situation you can. and by the very implication, this is for home users, they are not learning from pros for their day job. Telling a person with 5 years expseience to stay focused is a good thing. because their too box is big enough to dictate what situations need what tool. Telling a newbie to focus eseintally trais them to think narrow minded and one way about things. CONSIDER HOW many people complain about that, well we start to see why.
DON"T come into the studio or Record until everyone has there parts down. The reason why Big bands sound good is cuz they practice every day. So put down the Joint and Game Controller and pick up your instrument and for God's sake Change your Damn string and have your Guitars and Bass properly setup. Stop insisting on using something that won't stay in (Cough Cough Gibson's) if a $300 Guitar stay in tune and sounds better. Except it. To many people think they have to have Expensive Gears to record. Listen with your ears. Not your eyes. I play with a guy who had Gibson SG he paid $1200 for. It was the biggest POS I ever seen. Couldn't make it through a song with out going out of tune. One day we were recording and his string broke. It was the best thing that ever happened. He had to record with a Schecter. Best Guitar tone with ever had and OMG it stayed in tune.
It sucks though when you spend so much time and money on finding that workhorse recording guitar and you can't get anything to sound good. I bought an ibanez prestige RG that has fluence moderns and I can't gel with it. Might have to go down the pickup rabbit hole.
Now we know why The Beatles Rule.
I blame my inexperience and untrained ears
I think I disagree actually. Your title seems to speak to everyone, including voiceactors, rappers, singers. Sound treatment and room treatment is absolutely essential, moreso than *anything* and *everything* listed in your list. You could have the best equipment in the world and the best audio engineering in the world but if you're recording in a terrible location, it doesn't matter. *And to be frank, out of nearly so many terrible 'home recordings' the biggest issue is sound treatment.* Gotta politely disagree. Sound treatment and the placement of acoustic treatment around the microphone is more important than anything in the list. The list you have is irrelevant if the recording is done with poor sound treatment. Again, maybe you're speaking to a different audience -- but your rules don't apply to singers, voiceactors, etc. And I politely disagree. I think the 5 you did mention are important - but I think the 5 you mention don't matter if you're recording with poor sound treatment, which 90% of bad 'home recordings' are.
I respect your opinion, but I find the opposite to be true. I have friends who have podcasts, produce killer hip-hop productions and record/mix rock and metal bands in the most shot conditions imaginable...and they all produce killer sounding results and have successful careers. I make my living producing hard rock and metal bands and I mix (these days) entirely within an untreated room in my house. My tracking space is less than ideal as well...it's never held me back in the slightest.
@@FrightboxRecording Yeah I think it's different worlds. I've worked with voiceactors and sound treatment is absolutely the most vital thing for a voiceactor. You can have a Neumann TLM 103 or a Neumann U87 with an Apollo Twin but if you're recording in a terrible room, your audio is unusable for character work. No amount of audio engineering will save that.