A Basic Guide To Home Recording

As we began our first annual King/Queen of Broadway Vocal Competition, it became apparent that a tutorial on how to record yourself singing on your own computer was necessary. The following was written in consultation with a professional sound technician. Whether you plan on competing in our competition, or would just like a way to record yourself for fun or for study, I hope you find the following helpful.

Step 1: Get The Right Tools

In order to produce a professional-sounding recording, you need some basic tools. The two most important pieces of equipment (in addition to a decent computer) are a good sound editing program and a good microphone.

The sound editing program should be able to handle multiple tracks and play back while recording. A good example of such a program is Audacity, which is available to download free from their website.

Many newer computers, such as the Mac G4 iBook, come with a fairly powerful built-in microphone. Even if yours does not have a built-in mic, it should have a microphone input. Then you just plug one in.

Step 2: Record Your Accompaniment Only

Yes, you heard me correctly. Use your sound editing software and your microphone to record only the accompaniment to your song. This will allow you to later adjust the volume of the accompaniment by itself (and make other changes) and also lets your accompanist do their work and then go home.

If you are using pre-recorded accompaniment, insert the CD into your computer and import the track into your software.

Step 3: Record Your Vocals As A Separate Track

Create a new track for your vocals. Before you record your vocals, it is very important that you plug headphones into your speaker output to play the accompaniment back as you sing. If you don't, the microphone will pick up the accompaniment on your vocals track, and you need to keep them separate (it can cause feedback, among other problems). Usually you will only want to have one headphone covering one ear and the other resting on your temple so that you can hear yourself as well as the accompaniment. Singing with the headphones on can be a bit weird at first, so you may have to try a few times - that's okay. If you are not happy with your vocals, just erase the vocal track and re-record it.

Step 4: Balance And Adjust As Necessary

Once you have both tracks recorded, you can adjust the volume of each individually so that they are well balanced, and export them as an mp3 file.

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