This step-by-step guide will help you achieve great results with everyday equipment to record your voice or instrument. With thanks to Making Music and City of Newport Symphony Orchestra for their guide points.
Before you start
- Practise playing along to the backing track
- In particular be prepared for any speed changes
Choose your location
This will have a huge impact on your recording’s quality and it’s worth considering…
- Background noise – avoid recording near windows and noisy home appliances. Make sure there is no audibly ticking clock in the room
- Echo – avoid rooms with hard floors and surfaces, and use cushions or pillows to dampen the room’s natural reverberation. Ideally you want a fairly dead acoustic
Select a recording device
Most smartphones, tablets and home computers come with an inbuilt audio recorder app or programme
Apple Mac
- To locate apps click the magnifying glass icon (top right hand corner of screen) and search for the app
- Newer models will contain the ‘Voice Memos’ app
- Alternatively use ‘QuickTime Player’ – in the app click ‘File’ and ‘New Audio Recording’
Windows PC
- To locate apps click ‘Start’ and search for the app
- Newer models will contain the ‘Voice Recorder’ app
- For older models use the ‘Sound Recorder’ app
Android device
- Some phones may have a ‘Recorder’ app in ‘Tools’. If not you can download an app called ‘Smart Recorder’
Apple IOS device
- The ‘Voice Memos’ app is often in ‘Utilities’
I can’t find any of these apps!
- If you do not have these on your device, visit your app store where many free audio recording apps will be available
Microphone preparation
It’s likely that you’re using a device with an inbuilt microphone, to get the best results from this…
Location
It’s not always clear where the microphone is located – do a test recording speaking into every side / end of the device – play this back and the clearest, loudest recording is the side or end that contains the microphone
Place
Here is a rough guide for where to place your microphone
| Distance to device | Placement recommendation | |
| Vocals | 50cm | focused just off direction of the mouth |
| Brass | 50cm | in front of the player, just off direction of the bell (for forward facing brass) |
| Woodwind | 50cm | focused toward the bottom of the instrument (not directly at the bell) |
| Strings | 100cm | focused toward the instrument’s body |
| Percussion | 50cm | directly toward the instrument |
| Piano | 100cm | centrally placed either over or in front of the instrument |
Stand
Use a piece of furniture or pile of books to position the device in the best location for your instrument and in the case of a home computer, if possible adjust your position in relation to the device’s microphone
Unplug
For smartphones and tablets, unplug headphones and chargers
Case
Remove device cases as they may muffle the inbuilt microphone
Do a test
Experiment
Have a play with your device and see how it works, both whilst recording and playing back
Adjust
If your test recording sounds distorted or too distant, adjust your distance from the microphone
Backing track
Use a separate device to play this audio through headphones. It is important that you record ONLY yourself playing, not the backing track. You may want to listen with the headphones in one ear only so that you can hear yourself better
The recording
Are the numbers rolling?
Most recording devices display the duration of recording in minutes and seconds, always check that the numbers are counting before starting to perform your piece
Sync at the start
Please clap, tap your bow on the music stand or make some other sharp sound on the first beat of the second bar of the 4-bar click track intro. This helps line up the separate recordings
Page turns
If there are pages to turn, please do it quietly
Wait at the end
At the end of the recording please leave a few seconds silence before stopping the recorder. Even if you don’t play all the way to the last bar, please let the recording continue to the end