Saturday, August 31, 2013

4 Simple Changes That Will Enable You Improve Home Studio Vocal Recording

By Frank Lubsey


You might invest a lot of money buying the perfect beat for your next hip hop track, but if the vocals don't match the beat quality, you might just end up creating a track critics will enjoy tearing apart. Hip hop is as much about great vocals as it is about beats and instrumentals. You can never find the perfect excuse for buying great beats only to mix them with horrible vocals. It can be difficult producing high quality hip hop tracks using the cheap equipment found in a home studio but it is not entirely unachievable. Here are 4 audio changes that will set you on the way to creating great hits.

Tweak #1. Use Noise Gates. This is actually a no brainer. One fact that you need to accept is that there will always be noise and you can't prevent it no matter what you do. So, you have to learn to deal with it. Luckily, modern recording software has tools that will help you deal with noise. The first tool that you should use is the noise gate. This is available in most programs including Audacity, an open source recording software. With noise gating, the noise during silent intervals, when no voice can be heard, will be eliminated. But when the voice speaks, the noise is still there. This tool is especially useful when you are only dealing with fan noise or a little hiss. But be careful in using this tool because the record might sound unnatural when the gates open or close. If the noise in the ambiance is quite loud, the intervals might seem to be too quiet and too unnatural.

Tweak #2. Employ Noise Reduction. Just like noise gate, this tool is present in most recording programs but you have to use this with caution and ONLY when necessary. Noise reduction makes a record sound as if it was taken underwater. To make this tool work for you, you have to indicate how noise sounds like, but this only works well if noise is not that audible because if it's pervasive and loud a huge portion of the record will sound bad.

Use compression. This is a tool that makes the track louder or quieter without necessarily having to use the volume switch. Like the noise reduction tool, use the compression feature sparingly as excessive use can ruin the whole track. Simply use this tool to select the maximum loudness of the track. After this, adjust volume using the volume controls for sounds that are over the selected volume. This tool regulates track loudness and simultaneously gives over the vocal recording volume. The visual effect created by this tool can be seen as waves. Your goal should be to ensure that the voice recording takes up most part without touching the edges. If the waves touch the sides, the loudness is too high resulting in distortion.

Learn about normalization. The normalization tool is effective in increasing the audio recording to its highest volume without risking distortion. This tool is especially great when volume faders and gain features can't be used to increase the tracks volume without causing distortion. In such instances, track recovery can only be achieved through the use of the normalization tool. This tool is also effective when you want to set the peak volume of your track.

Before using these tools, it's best to consider whether they are really necessary. It all depends on the recording you are working on. Use these tools with caution and this way, you will ensure that your beats and instrumentals blend in well with the vocals.




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