How to Record a Song Professionally at Home (For Beginners)

How to Record a Song Professionally

Learning how to record a song can take some time. This is mostly true if you’re just starting out and don’t have a lot of experience with music production or mixing. Recording a song professionally will take some time to master.

Learning how to record a song by yourself is no different from learning how to play an instrument perfectly on your own. In other words, trying to learn how to record a song by yourself is like trying to learn how to play an instrument without learning any technique or how to use the basics of that instrument.

This article by Brand Focus Africa, we will walk you through 6 easy steps on how to record your song at home or anywhere. It will provide you with useful tips and software needed to record your music professionally.

Recording a song in an unfamiliar studio with minimal equipment is definitely not a process anyone would be happy to undertake without some kind of professional guidance. The recording process in a professional studio environment is far different from recording at home. You have to be present in the studio all the time to make sure that the final song you’re about to record is the best it could be.

Here are some tips on how to record a song in the most professional way possible.

Recording Equipment

First, you should always set up the equipment in the correct place. Even though you may not have to use headphones when you’re recording at home, it’s still important to set up your equipment in the proper place to get the most out of your recording experience. If you have a great-sounding track, but it sounds terrible in the studio because the vocals are muddled up or the instruments aren’t placed in the right position, chances are you’ll never put the song on vinyl again.

Recording Software

Secondly, make sure you have the right software installed. A good quality digital audio interface will help you create and save tracks. If you don’t have an interface, you can use software such as Wavelab, 8track, or even Pro Tools. Software such as these will allow you to track and mix your song as if you were in the same room as the original artist.

Mixing Correctly

The third step is very important, this is to pay attention to the volume level of each instrument during a session. Some tracks will need more monitoring than others. If a vocalist needs to be heard over a drum loop, they’ll need a lot of room. On the other hand, a guitar player may only need their pedals heard over the main rhythm part of a track. Monitoring is very important when you’re learning how to record a song.

Music Monitoring

Music monitoring is very important, you want to monitor your track throughout the entire duration of the song. Most programs let you do this by assigning a shortcut key to monitor the input levels. By default, a shortcut key to monitoring input levels is Ctrl + Alt + M. However, some programs such as Cubase offer a dedicated monitor device button which can be useful if you want to monitor throughout the entire duration of a track without having to move the mixer control knob.

The easiest way to monitor the input levels is using the audio mixer knob. Simply set the knob to monitor and you’ll see the levels at different points on the audio input level knobs.

How to record a song on your mac

You can record a song onto a Mac using a digital audio workstation (DAW). Most people are familiar with operating the standard Windows-based WMP or WinVA applications but there are also programs out there designed specifically for recording onto a Mac computer. A good digital audio workstation will allow you to import your WAV recordings. Depending on the program that you use, this may be limited to just the current song or the entire project.

Mastering the Track

The last step is mastering the track, once you’ve recorded the track, you want to make sure that it comes out perfect. There are two ways to do this: using virtual instruments or going through the process of mastering the track. Virtual instruments can be accomplished by running the VST instruments through an audio engine similar to what’s used in computers such as Macs and PCs.

This can result in great-sounding results but it’s best to leave the final sound decision up to the engineer, so you don’t end up with a bunch of digital noises on your final mixdown.

How to get instrumentals of a song

Are you looking for the instrumentals of a song but can’t seem to figure out how to get on your device? you’re in luck because I’m going to show you the simplest way to do this in 3 easy steps.

In order to get the instrumentals of a song onto your device, follow the simple steps below.

Go to Youtube.com

Go to Youtube and type in the name of the song you want the instrumentals for and include ‘instrumental’ at the end. For example, “Golf ball instrumental“. You will see a couple of results pop up on your screen.

Mostly, when a song is uploaded on Youtube, there are several YouTube channels that will quickly get the instrumentals of the song and upload it within 48hours.

After the results show up, click on any of the top 3 results. Watch the video and listen to the instrumental to make sure it matches the exact instrumentals of the original song you are looking for.

Copy the Youtube link of the instrumental

If the instrumental is exactly what you are looking for, copy the YouTube link at the top URL bar of your browser screen.

Go to Youtube to Mp3 Converter

You will need to copy the Youtube URL of the instrumental, and head over to Youtube to Mp3 Converter or any Youtube to audio converter website. Place the instrumental video URL you copied from Youtube into the converter URL placement bar on the site and hit the convert button.

You can convert the instrumental to mp3 or mp4 depending on your preference. After the instrumental video has been converted to audio format, a download link will automatically pop up on your screen to download your instrumental.

Click the download button to download your audio instrumental to any device of your choice.

NOTE: For copyright reasons, do not use the instrumental for commercial purposes without seeking the right license or authorization from the creator of the song.

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