Third Take

After you’ve set yourself up for a successful recording, it’s time to press record and capture the (hopefully) great performance. Unfortunately, even the best performance can be marred by sloppy recording technique. Here are three tips to help you get a cleaner track.

Be conscious of background noise

Sometimes you can be so intent on listening to the instrument or voice you are recording that you forget to listen to the empty space between the notes. Inside this space lives the noise - the sound of whatever is going on in the background. This could be the whoosh of an air conditioner, the hum of a computer fan, or the sound of cars passing on the street. It could even be the hiss of a noisy guitar amp.

You will not be able to get complete silence; your recording equipment itself probably generates some noise. Concern yourself with eliminating as much outside noise as possible. Try to minimize the possibility of intermittent sounds being recorded, like the ring of a cell phone or the jingle of keys in a performer’s pocket.

Set a good level

Make sure you dial in enough gain to capture the nuances of the performance. Many great performances have been rendered useless because the resulting track was too quiet. If you have to turn up the track when mixing, you are also turning up the background noise.

However, you must be wary of clipping. The signal “clips” when it gets louder than the equipment can handle. If you put too much gain on the microphone, the loudest parts of the performance can clip and you’ll have to throw away the track and start over. There is no way to correct clipping on a track. You can’t fix it later.

You should strive for a strong signal, with enough headroom that you don’t risk clipping your gear.

Get a good sound from the microphone

Choosing and placing microphones is a fine art in itself. For the home recorder, choices are probably limited by what you’re able to afford. That means making do with what you’ve got.

What you can do is make sure that you get the best possible sound from the microphone you’re using before you record. Make some test recordings and listen to the results - is the recorded sound too boomy, or too thin? Is it harsh sounding? Is there a good strong signal with minimal noise?

Most of these problems can be corrected by moving the microphone around to find a “sweet spot.” It is worth spending extra time positioning the microphone. It is much easier to get a good sound when you track than to fix a bad sound when you mix.