How I recorded an album on my own, in my room

As an old engineer and record label owner I actually say NEVER use a condenser microphone unless you have great acoustics in your room and specific reason for using them. Use a dynamic mic instead. They are great sounding used on millions of songs and they are forgiving for bad acoustic areas. People just assume that condenser are better for all vocals. My 1" condensers that cost thousands sound amazing but a lot of times I just use a SM58 instead because it was a better sound for it. SM7B is my go to mic for vocals but that would be out of most people's budgets. Also no need for phantom power is also a plus.

SM7B from Shure $399 Sennheiser e945 $219 SM58 from Shure $99 (This is a tank of a mic that just rocks)

This is a good suggestion. Acoustic panels can be made really cheaply and simply. Here's a couple of examples.

Old towels in a timber frame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pABvTWSxOes

Aluminum / Aluminium frames with foam or insulation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qczNxoG8s6o

I like the first video because he does a bit of minimal testing with a tone generator. I'd be interested to see more testing, using more realistic frequencies, in a room.

You're talking about bass traps. They're an essential for recording in most every room. Here's a great video for how to build some quite effective ones for cheap. (I'm not affiliated w/ this guy or his channel). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZV-gxVpkGk

2) I'll have to look into these - thanks for telling me!

3) Unfortunately I think playing simple chords in a band, when you and the two other musicians are 17, doesn't really qualify as being quite the musician ahaha thank you still!

Hm, not exactly sure if you meant to qualify this somehow but this isnt broadly true in a literal sense. Sure, with 1-2 musicians or DAW-heavy productions you can put together a whole album in your room (ideally with more professional mixing and/or mastering), but tracking a full band or a group of instrumentalists still generally requires studio work.

thanks again :)

A lot of medium posts/articles that should have opposing views as comments are often one sided echo chambers because of this.

For a serious, scientific, by-the-numbers mixing technician, the amount of quality increase versus the amount of time spent more often than not hits a massive bell curve fairly early on - particularly if it is not that technician’s original material.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/pitchfork.com/thepitch/822-insi...

https://www.sageaudio.com/blog/recording/two-critically-accl...

I think the barrier to entry is even lower in development. While audio production requires at least some investment due to high hardware demands and expensive software/instruments, you can probably start learning development with the computer you already have and you'll have immediate access to a huge range of high quality development tools and in-depth documentation. Those are excellent conditions for newcomers and amateurs.

The difference is that people are actually willing to pay for software development as opposed to music, which seems to be increasingly taken for granted and somewhat devalued.

If you want an album to sound like it's all one piece, you use the same instrument and processing for it all the way through -- except for that one time that you want to highlight it.

In visual terms, you want the grass on the left side of the painting to be the same as the grass on the right side of the painting, unless you deliberately want to say something about the grass. You should only be drawing people's attention to what you want them to be looking at.

I had a musical background which definitely helped, but the main thing is I desperately wanted to be able to sing.

The main thing you can do is take weekly vocal lessons with a good vocal teacher who you vibe with and practice every day. I didn't have lessons for that whole time, but the periods where I have had a teacher I got better quicker way better than when I just practiced by myself.

The cool thing is that singing unlocks songwriting, and songwriting is absolutely transformative as a self-care practice. It's also infinitely more fun to sing your own songs than covers. But also performing your own songs gives you a drive to get better at singing. Virtuous cycle.

edit: here's a recent song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrd7Uvm2h00

Didn't read the article, but a Windows/macOS computer with a DAW + audio interface (for recording instruments + if you decide to get nice headphones that require a pre-amp) + midi controller + some virtual synths/samples, and you should be good to go.

There are plenty of decent free synth/samples, so I wouldn't count it as an absolute necessity to spend money on synths.

The only reason I say "Windows or macOS" is because of driver compatibility with your equipment + choice of DAWs, with the most widely used ones being macOS/Windows only.

Even thought you have a piano that is midi compatible, you might want a separate MIDI controller, so that it is smaller + has pads + knobs to control various parameters. I have a piano with MIDI-out as well, but found it to be super inconvenient to work with compared to an actual midi controller. My personal affordable recommendation that isn't just basic barebones stuff is Arturia Minilab MKII (currently $109 on Amazon). Got it myself a couple of months ago, still very happy with the purchase.

Regarding an audio interface, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 is very robust and is heavily recommended (currently $159 on Amazon). It might be a little bit more than the basic needs, but it gives you a bit of a room to grow. And the basic version is just $109 (Scarlett Solo), so I feel like an extra $50 is worth it, given that you probably won't have a need (but def might be tempted to) to buy another one pretty much ever.

Cheap audio interfaces have come a very long way, I'd look at what's being sold second hand in your area. Something with a Hi-Z input if you're wanting to record your guitars directly though the interface.

I lack quality studio monitors or monitoring headphones with a flat response, they're kind of pricey, but necessary to make professional sounding music. Any speakers or headphones you play your tracks through will add their own sound that makes it difficult to mix or master properly. The tracks might sound great through the speakers or headphones you're using, but like garbage through other ones. With flat monitors, what you hear is only the sounds of your tracks.

For software I use the vast array of audio production tools on linux through kxstudio and elsewhere.

My workflow tends to be, hydrogen for drums, rosegarden patched through various plugins for midi, all routed into ardour alongside any audio input tracks. I'll usually record track by track. I use ardour to mix everything, then I take my mixed down track and master it using jamin.

Note that a separate pre-amp or DI box is not necessary with these. You can connect microphones of either kind directly as well as pickups.

> does it really gave to be a mac!!

No.

The practice with what you have. Getting good at recording takes years.