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Why doesn't your recording sound like a PRO recording? Here are FIVE good reasons...


1. Firstly and foremost, the quality of musicianship is not professional. Not even the best recording engineer in the world can make a silk purse from a sow's ear, as the saying goes (or polish a turd, according to the other version of that saying).


2. Not recording clear, clean and crisp sounds. If anything you record - vocal, instrumental or sample, doesn't pass the 'Three-C' test, then fix it so that it does.


3. Insufficient skill in mixing (or progressing too quickly to the mastering stage). The only remedy is to record, mix, then assess your work by comparison with recordings you admire. Do more recordings, more mixes, more assessments. There are few tricks that will make much difference. Almost everything is down to experience.


4, Insufficient studio facilities. There isn't much equipment around these days that has less than professional sound quality. But unless you have plenty of money to spend, it is likely that your studio will be impoverished in facilities compared to a professional's studio. For instance, the pro might be using an expensive Pro Tools HD system You might be using the cheap-as-chips Mbox 2. Your recordings have the same audio quality within a gnat's whisker, but the plug-ins, for instance, will not have the same extensive sound palette. There will be the latency issue to work around too. An expert engineer would have to work harder to get the same results with your less expensive system. But they would get professional results, perhaps only within a smaller universe of sonic possibilities.

5, Lack of focus. This is notoriously underrated as a barrier to success. But consider the working routine of the professional. There is rent to pay for the studio premises, finance repayments for the equipment, no other income to pay the domestic bills, other professionals around expecting things to get done efficiently and to a high standard.

Now compare this to the home recordist who has all the time in the world... which is, unfortunately, often mostly wasted. One way to achieve focus is to work with other people who are better at what they do than you are at recording. You'll have to raise your game pretty quick or they won't want to work with you. Another is to set a schedule, one new song written, demoed and recorded every week, for instance.

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1. Firstly and foremost, the quality of musicianship is not professional. Not even the best recording engineer in the world can make a silk purse from a sow's ear, as the saying goes (or polish a turd, according to the other version of that saying).

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I'd say it's mainly the arrangements.

I hear quite a few people who are good musicians who post MP3's here and in other forums. I hear very few people who are actually good arrangers.

Many bedroom/home recordings have a few things in common:

1. Showing off/Overplaying: The players are too busy showing you that they can play their instrument and that they're good, and forget to come up with perhaps the simple part that works for the song.

2. Holding it together: The lack of counter melodies and musical hooks. What many people tend to do is write a song, and then when they record it all the instruments just sort of comp to the root. No real tension is introduced. No additional musical ideas. I hear this a lot.

3. Insecurity: [ This is also true of live bands. ] People often do not explore their instrument enough to be secure enough to develop their own style. So, often it just ends up as the sort of boring, take-no-chances MOR stuff. [ personal and spiritual development might also be included here ]

4. The Silence: I don't think people realize that it's often what you don't play that can make a song really work. Home recordists tend to cover up the canvas completely in an effort to make something sound big and full, and miss the idea that the space in the music is a huge factor in making something truly palitable and tasty.

5. Doing too much: People who record at home often try to do too much by themselves rather than enlist help with the project. Too many people now "play everything", not really because they actually do play all the instruments well, but rather because they're too lazy or lack the skills to work within a larger group towards a common goal. Let's take the average major label CD release - and we'll say that everyone who worked on it has an average of 10 years experience. You've got a band of 5 people. 2 engineers. 1 producer. 1 mixer. 1 mastering eng. That's 10 people! Multiplied by 10 years each - and you get a total of 100 years total combined experience. That's 100 years [ and in many cases in the real world, it can be 200-300 years ] of sweat and experience competing with the average home recordist - who may have several years experience with a few instruments and a few years recording experience.

6. Lack of experience: Plain and simple. This part's OK, and everyone has to go through it. Everyone has to start somewhere.

7. Tones and timbres: Another very common "home" problem is that many people just simply don't know how to get the "right" sound on any given track to work with all the other sounds that just aren't quite right. A song has to be this kind of one world/thing that all works together as a single creation. This is an art and a craft unto itself - and takes years and years to learn how to do well.

8. The "seams": Just like a finely-crafted coat - all the seams need to be in place. Home recordings often have lots of seams showing and rough edges that don't match up well. And learning to make seamless music goes all the way back to the arrangement.

9. Living in the past: I notice this, especially with some of the older crowd. They just get stuck in some timewarp in a certain period or genre that has come and gone.

10. Listening: People who make the average home recording often haven't learned to listen. To just listen is probably the hardest part.

Just some thoughts and stuff I notice.

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9. Living in the past: I notice this, especially with some of the older crowd. They just get stuck in some timewarp in a certain period or genre that has come and gone.

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Originally posted by murph:
[QUOTE]

How do you keep an open mind to new styles, I'd like to hear, some thoughts.

A great little tune of mine
My Tunes
My Studio

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9. Living in the past: I notice this, especially with some of the older crowd. They just get stuck in some timewarp in a certain period or genre that has come and gone.

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Most project based studio guys try to play all the instruments, and try as we do, we are not as good on all the instruments we try to play as we are on our primary instrument.

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What is often not understood is the level that a lot of these unsung LA producers, songwriters worked at. So many of these guys were BRILLIANT.

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How do you keep an open mind to new styles, I'd like to hear, some thoughts.

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Originally posted by bandini:
Arrangement, musicianship, song quality... all those are good thoughts, and - obviously - pretty subjective.

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Personally, I think the average home recording is WAAAY more interesting arrangement-wise than the average major-label release, which seems to be employing a paint-by-numbers approach most of the time. But that's just my taste. I have zero interest in formulaic pop (not to be confused with GOOD, interesting pop, which I love), so the majors have nothing to offer me presently.

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I'd say the #1 reason the average home recording doesn't sound "pro"...

Fake drums.

Pure and simple.

Chris