Top Tips For Home Music Production

Recording at home can have a fairly large learning curve, especially when trying to sound more professional. Regardless what software you use, here are some tips to get better sound and put out a more impressive track.

Audio Quality

All music recording software has frequency options. Many people don't know how to use these, but it's very simple. For recording an audio musical track always set it to 44.1khz-this is standard on all CDs, and 48khz is for television. If you can't record in 24 bit, or deal with 24 bit samples, then get hardware that can. This will dramatically increase the fidelity of your final track.

Stereo Panning and Mixing

Don't be afraid to make an immersive track. Especially if you are using DJ sample packs to make music. Pan those different tracks and give your listener a feeling of being surrounded by the music, and not just having it blasted directly in front of them. Watch clipping, and don't just use expensive headphones to mix. Most people won't be using them to listen to your track.

Filters

Use frequency filters. Pay attention to your audio quality. If you are recording vocals, try and to get rid of any microphone hiss, or ambient background noise. You can use a noise gate or a subtraction filter. Most software have these, and they can be added to FX chains for individual tracks. You can also buy actual hardware ones, they usually come in rack mount form.

Samples

If you are using DJ sample packs, or other types of sounds, make sure they are all in key! Use transposition tools to move it down or up steps until it's in key with the song. Many users start out by just mixing in random samples together and they end up with musical sounding dissonance and by doing this will open up more options for using your loops cohesively. It's also obvious, but you get what you pay for. To get more professional sounds you have to spend the money. There are a lot of great samples free online, but be prepared to do a lot of searching.

Hardware and Equipment

Amass as much equipment as you can. The more of your signal you fix in pre, the better sounding the final product will be. This includes everything from the mixing board you are using, to your mics. Avoid using PC mics, they usually have terrible frequency range and clip like crazy. You don't have to have professional equipment; Behringer makes great entry level products that can produce amazing results.

For more information on the topics mentioned in the article such as using DJ sample packs, please visit Dance Midi Samples where they provide tutorials.