Top 10 Home Studio Recording Mistakes

you didn't went out and built you a home studio you must have thought you was Dave pensado or wavy Wayne or something huh but your mixes you're recording this they still sounding like doo doo well stay tuned it's all good man I got the top 10 home recording mistakes that hopefully you can avoid [Music] so look district kid is sponsoring the channel this month but that's alright because they actually have some really dope features to offer us music creators let's go ahead and check it out so once I go to district it'd calm not only can i distribute my music to all of the major platforms and some not so major platforms they actually give me all of my royalties from every single download and stream directly to me a hundred percent they don't keep any of that that's just $19.99 per year and you get unlimited uploads now they also have a musician plus program and even a label program for your independent label owners alright they actually make it easy with the team's feature to share their 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gonna drop my top ten mistakes that I see engineers making every single day and hopefully we as a community can avoid those and be better me without home recordings okay now even though you got this home studio bill I definitely recommend that you get some professional mixing services but to even get that professional mixer service to a point that's professional right we need to make sure that our recordings are at a level that can be acceptable to a professional so check out these 10 tips and if you want me to touch your record definitely check out these 10 tips and then hit me up shoot me an email or visit wavy Wacom where you can get you some professional mixing done all right so let's jump right into these top 10 home recording mistakes one of the first mistakes is pretty common and that's having your preamp game turned up way too high alright now that's the volume of the input level of the microphone okay having that turn up too high it's gonna cause distortion in your record and and this is that's something that we can't fix so let's take a look at Pro Tools and see how we would set our gain level all right well before we even look at Pro Tools let me just go over to my console app okay first thing first is make sure that what you when you looking at your meter and any type of metering system and we have similar meters and Pro twos as well but I'm just looking at my UAD console app it don't matter what kind of interface you're using this is all gonna relate okay trust me so negative 6 DB is about where we want our input level to be on average we don't that way we still have a little Headroom at the top and we're also away from the noise floor okay so let me just give a little test here microphone check one two one two you see once I start clipping that's gonna be a little too loud so what I'm gonna do is that's back this off a little bit and I can't really see it that good but Mic Check one two one two Mic Check one two one two and that's actually pretty good and you know what even if you a little bit less than that negative 6 dB that's cool as long as you recording at 24-bit nowadays we don't really need to record so loud so really in the 24-bit world is no reason for us to be clipping on our input okay so keep that in put level down and avoid clipping now let's just take a look at what this would look like in Pro Tools in case you didn't have any external meters to look at if I just make a new mono audio track and once I record enabled extract we can see here in Pro Tools here's my negative 6 meter right so we want to always be looking at your meters always be looking at your meters while you're recording and be wary of any adjustments that you may need to make so yo yo yo check one check two one two check one check two now that level is a little bit low but like I said we don't necessarily need to have it cranked all the way up just in case I get a little excited or you get a little excited we want to stay away from clipping so that actually is a pretty great level right there I'm averaging right about that negative 6 dB on my input and that's gonna get us a good clean level so tip number one make sure that your microphone level is not too hot not too loud on the preamp we don't want Distortion that's gonna kill everything the second mistake y'all be making out here is actually having your game too low okay now if that microphone input level is turned down way too low and we record it right now we have to consider in our session especially in our untreated environment it's that when we turn down to low and then we later start adding compression and and turning stuff up limiting and EQ and stuff like that the noise floor is also gonna raise so if I record my my vocal level too low into my dog when I want to turn that up then every other thing just getting turned up all the room noise my baby brother crying in the room next though all of that stuff is getting turned up so make sure that you again you're not recording too loud but also you don't want to be recording too quietly remember that sweet spot is about that negative 6 dB but again it can be a little bit lower to that but you just don't want to be super quiet and then we later have to use clip gain or something to turn it all up alright let me give you an example it is because I actually just did a mix session with somebody in and there their levels were way too low so let's say if I were cool just like this yo yo yo here we go about the bus of crazy flow I'm way be weighing bussing in the dough yeah right now you can even see visually that that level is too low when we are recording which I would do it's just go to this clip game and Jack it up alright but you see when I do that you can even see all of this other noise right is being brought up with that and we can we can see that so there's no way to kind of isolate just that vocal and turn that up everything is getting turned up the reflexes in the room the the air conditioner all of that so make sure that you're recording at a proper level another mistake that I see y'all making a lot is actually and I talked about this on my last video briefly is having the microphone face the wrong way all right now microphones all have a pattern a pickup pattern right now it depends on whether that microphone is cardioid or omni or figure 8 or whatever that pattern on your microphone is okay you need to know and understand that pattern this microphone that I'm using the short KSM 27 is a cardioid pattern microphone meaning that it picks up things that are in front of it and to the sides okay so anything that's in front of the microphone into the sides of it it's going to be received by the microphone it rejects sound coming from the back of the microphone so if by any reason I accidentally turn this microphone around and have it facing the wrong way then I'm gonna be talking into or rapping or singing into the part of the microphone that's actually rejecting the sound and what you get is this muffled kind of off sound that just sounds crazy and you can't figure out why you spent it five hundred dollars on this microphone and it sounds like crap and oftentimes it's just simple as making sure that you are facing the right side of the microphone so if you're not sure on which face of the microphone to be pointing at read the owners manual when you buy the microphone it will tell you hey this is the front of the microphone this is the polar pattern other microphone this is how you should address the microphone some microphones are different some microphones our front address some microphones are soldered dress some microphones are type of dress or whatever meaning how you need to have that microphone right I have for example my sure what's that microphone I use all the time the sm7b that is a front address microphone if I had it up I'm standing up straight and tried to address it sideways then that wouldn't give me the best possible sound so know your microphone and sometimes that's just as simple as reading the owner's manual and if you don't have an owner's manual experiment with it with the microphone okay use your ears and listen to see where it sounds best if you feel like hey the way this mic is set up and giving me the best sound flipping around and see maybe if it'll sound better when you do that on the other hand to some microphones allow you to adjust the polar pattern so find the polar pattern that works best for you if you are recording with an omnidirectional microphone meaning it's picking up everything around you especially if you are in like a home studio environment you probably don't want to be picking up everything that's going on around you you want something that's more hyper-cardioid focused on what the sources in front of it so beware of that learn about your polar patterns and make sure that you are facing the right side of the microphone the next mistake that y'all be making in no particular order is just having the hardware buffer size turned up too high now if you watched any of my previous videos on how to record then you know that the hardware buffer size should be set high for mixing and low for recording the hardware buffer size determines the amount of information basically that your computer is going to process at one time okay now high hardware buffer sizes allow you to have more tracks in the session and use more plugins too in the computer can process all that information but with that high hardware buffer size you also increase the latency on that track and latency basically it's the time that it takes for the signal to travel from the microphone through your interface and then out to the headphones or your monitors okay now there's there's a time delay there and the longer that time is especially if you have headphones on and trying to listen to yourself back it's gonna be very annoying so we want to reduce that latency at all costs and so while we are recording we want to make sure we are using a low hardware buffer size to set your hardware buffer size you go to in Pro Tools I'm gonna be using a different dog read the owner's manual and find out how you can set the hardware buffer size man I'm telling you I Reading Is Fundamental okay they put that paperwork in there they put it in there for a reason so I'm gonna go to set up playback engine and right now my playback my hardware buffer size is set perfectly for recording 128 samples that's why I'd like to keep mine while I am recording and basically what that does this gives me enough processing power to run any plugins that might be in my template but also it reduces the latency low enough that the artist does not hear it and they can't tell that there's any latency happening basically okay while I'm mixing though I'll go and change my hardware but besides to either 512 samples or 1,024 samples and that's gonna give me more greater processing power so I can add more tracks and more plugins and do more processing okay but while you are recording keep the hardware buffer size low it's gonna make for a much better recording experience the next mistake that I see a lot of engineers making all the time is just having the microphone too close to the wall now we've talked about this before and you see that I have this reflection filter this reflection filter is actually going to help me in my recording situation from to stop those reflections that are gonna be bouncing off the walls that are nearest to me from entering my microphone again we just talked about the polar pattern on this microphone how it picks up anything coming from the sides and I'm in its it's also it's getting a little bit of stuff coming from the back too obviously but we want to minimize those reflections at all cost so the closer you are to the wall the faster those reflections are going to come back to your microphone and interfere with your recording so try to stay away from the wall if you have no choice but to be nearer all you need to put some absorb ative materials on the walls close to where your microphone is some type of acoustic treatment to absorb those reflections so they not immediately bounce them back into your microphone okay so um that that's just another tip for y'all keep the microphone in a good placement in your room now this next mistake is pretty funny man I'm sorry to make funny out man look man if you don't want to get made fun of then don't watch my channel cuz I'm gonna make fun of you but then I'm gonna teach you something - all right now I see y'all be doing this right we got one mono break it down first mono means one one channel of audio stereo is two channels of audio I see so many newbies out here recording a mono source onto a stereo track in their in their door and wondering why the hell it sounds crazy or why is it only coming out the left side well genius stereo tracks need to input sources and if you just have a mono microphone right is one microphone unless it's a stereo microphone right and you'll know if you have that and I guarantee you don't okay then you need to just create a mono track in Pro Tools let me show you how what this looks like when somebody does create a stereo track so if I'm gonna create a stereo track and when I record enabled this track if we look you can see on my meters here I'm only getting something on the left side right and there so if I start recording turn this up a little bit and yo a yo this is way B Wayne coming through with playing Jane and he's making fun of me because my recorders is do okay so now you see that I have this recording and it's only on the left channel right you see you've got this hole right channel if your recordings look like this at all you're making a mistake okay you recording a mono audio onto a stereo track when you got one microphone one XLR cable you're using one input on your audio interface that's a mono source you need a mono track one mono audio track okay now if you did make this mistake and you recorded some heat let me show you how you can fix that you can just simply go to the track in Pro Tools you can right click on the name plate and hit split into mono and what this is going to do is give you two new mono tracks with one left channel information one right and you can basically get rid of these other tracks now that's a pro level tip right there we can just get rid of those boom and then we left with our true mono track but you don't want to have to do all that work so just do it right the first time record mono sources or mono tracks the next mistake that I hear often when I when I receive your records to mix is just being too close to the microphone now there is a proximity effect that is happening when you are too close to the microphone the microphone starts to pick up more of your lows on those vocals so let's see now let's see first first thing first we're supposed to keep our pop filter about a fist distance away from the microphone right now that automatically it's gonna give you that a nice amount of space away from the microphone and then you should be about another fist distance at least away from their microphone so ultimately you want to be about 12 inches from the microphone and again a lot of times the user manual will tell you what exactly is a good distance to be away from your mic so but sometimes when y'all adjust had that pop filter place right up on the mic and then you get up on it and then like this hey yo yo yo I'm getting all it is low in extra frequencies and stuff so let's avoid that okay when you're too close to the microphone you start to get that proximity effect and less that's something that you want right if I'm going for this real very white kind of tone and I'm gonna get it baby and getting a little closer to the microphone so that more of those low frequencies are received by the microphone okay but you definitely don't want to be too close to the microphone and on the same tip you don't want to be too far away from the microphone find that sweet spot and normally again it's about 12 inches away from the actual microphone where the pop filter about you know 6 inches away from the microphone capsule itself okay again that can be found in your your owner's manual or the microphone what's the the sweet spot the manufacturer recommends for you to be the next mistake I'm making a lot is not considering the amount of room noise that is happening okay if you have an air conditioner or heater or something like that you have to turn that off you should turn that off while you record it because all that noise that fan noise is gonna get into the mic into your recordings and it's just gonna sound dirty and and we don't want that okay if somebody is has a TV next in the room next to you or radio or whatever if you're living in a noisy environment try to find a quiet time to do your recording maybe you got to stay up late at night and do your recording when everybody else is sleep but yes consider the room noise if you can hear it in the room the microphone can hear it as well so then includes anything alright you think about that and minimize your room noise as much as possible right and that includes even just reflectiveness right this room that I'm in right now it's pretty reflective so once I start to really do some serious recording I'm gonna have to think about some more type of acoustic treatments to kind of isolate my microphone away from all the reflections that's happening in case a truck drive down the street or anything like that try to minimize your room noise and now we'll get you cleaner recordings very easily the next mistake that I see a lot of y'all making using too much compression or EQ as you're recording in now this may not apply to summon y'all but for those of you who it does apply to remember that if you are recording in effect maybe you have a hardware compressor or hardware EQ I'm not sure what kind of gear you're using in your studio maybe got the Avalon or some kind of focus right channel strip or whatever it is that you're using if you over compress or going into your DAW if you take out too many frequencies going into your DAW boost them too much you cannot get that back once it's recorded like that you're stuck like that okay so I would err on the side of caution and if you're not very experienced with using compression as you're recording in then stay away from it man you can always add these effects later you can always go back and touch it up later but if you record it in over compress or over EQ then you pretty much screwed yourself over and that record is gonna be a dud or you're gonna have to do a whole lot of work to try to get it back to a workable place let me just get you out an example when I'm talking about using the UAD console app we have the ability to record using insert effects and um and I keep my eyes turned on alright but that's using this little button right here but if I go over here and let's just say I'm using some dynamics maybe I will let's use the de-stresser this is a good one alright so now you see I'm getting hella to much compression now this is definitely an extreme example but we can see how hard I'm hitting that compressor and I'm getting about 26 DB or more of gain reduction because I cranked it all the way up but even this is too much yeah you don't want that right now once I record a signal like this it's gonna be stuck like that ain't nothing I can do and again I never really use EQ while I'm recording if anything I'll just use a high pass filter and roll off at about 70 Hertz other than that I'm not trying to EQ as I'm recording then especially for us beginners stay away from using EQ and if you're going to use compression make sure very very light compression and I recommend using like a slower compressor like a la-2a or something like that as you are recording in okay the last mistake that I see a lot of new engineers making and probably the most important is not using the right tools in the studio and those tools are your ears may your gots to use your ears okay if you're not using your ears and you rely on your gear you're gonna play yourself somewhere don't take all of my advice so literally don't just do exactly what wavy Wayne said because your situation may be different you need to use your ears listen to what it is that you're recording listen to the source listen to how it sounds figure out what the problem could be on your own based on what you are hearing try to analyze it and fix that okay this is the best piece of gear that you have is your ears so protect them for one and use them when you in the studio okay I can't I can't break it down no more than that man use your ears listen and analyze everything and then help use what you've heard to help you make your decisions going forward all right if you found this video helpful at all make sure you thumbs up like and subscribe to your boy and of course you know I got the dopest templates on the interwebs baby visit wavy wacom where you can copy your custom Pro Tools recording and mixing templates and you can also hit me up for a professional mix but make sure you follow these tips though because I don't want to have to send it back and be like egg money look at this video alright so don't make these mistakes and yeah man go home and do some recordings make them dope and hit me up I be dope [Music]

Channel: Wayne.wav

Views: 348,008

Keywords: home studio setup, home studio setup for beginners, recording studio setup, recording studio session, wavy wayne, build a studio, recording in pro tools, wayne wav, home recording studio, studio recording, home studio recording, home studio, recording studio, home recording, recording, wayne.wav, studio, recording home studio, studio setup, recording at home, how to make a home studio, studio setup at home, home recording studio setup, home music studio, pro tools

Id: lZRlqs9zrug

Length: 24min 17sec (1457 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 05 2019