Today I want to talk to you about the common theme I hear from artists, about “saving money on studio time by recording themselves”.

As most artists should know, there are 3 main stages in the music making process:

Recording

Mixing

Mastering

 

There is not one stage more important than the other.  Some artists believe that they can record themselves to save money, and just pay a professional to mix and master their song, and it will come out great.  First thing you need to know, ENGINEERS ARE NOT MAGICIANS!!!!  We can not take a recording that was done in a untreated acoustical environment, with a $100 mic, and a mbox preamp, and make it sound like a Kendrick Lamar album.  You can not fix a bad recording!!!  If you record at home, in bad circumstances, it is going to take an engineer 2 to 3 times as long to “fix” your bad recording mistakes, where as if you recorded in a professional studio with good equipment and acoustics, there shouldn’t be any “fixing” needed, just enhancing.  So, it may take an engineer 2 hours to make your vocals sound half decent, compared to something recorded right, it may only take a hour, if not less.  When I record, the vocals sound great, with nothing on them, so when I go to mix, I don’t need to spend hours molding them to sound how I want them to sound, they are there from the recording, because of good acoustics, good mic, good preamp, and good compression.  So essentially, you are spending more by taking it in your own hands to record, when you can get a pro engineer that can have your rough song sounding better than your home recording!!!  Point being, a bad recording will never sound like a professional recording, and you will pay twice as much to have someone mix and master a bad recording, then having it recorded right from the start.  So take the time to realize, a home studio is good to prepare, and get rough drafts down, but when it comes to getting professional results, leave it to the professionals to handle your music, and you will get that professional sound.