5 Ways A Microphone Can Upgrade Your Home Recorded Song
Take your music to the next level with the right microphone!
Today, with the wide availability of technology and the internet, it’s much easier for musicians to pursue their passions. With the streaming era flourishing, more and more musicians are skipping traditional distribution routes with music labels. Instead, they’re turning to non-label distributors like Spotify and Apple Music, effectively creating a new model for marketing, consuming, and monetizing their works.
This means that if you’re a musician working from your home base, you have greater control over your craft and can follow your vision. However, if you want to make quality music, it all starts with a good microphone. Here are five ways it can upgrade your home-recorded songs.
It can reduce background noise
When recording, it’s standard to reduce noise in your environment. You may do this by boarding up windows and doors and turning off air conditioners and other sources of background noise. Nevertheless, stray sounds can still make it to your recording without a good microphone. To block out noise, you can use a unidirectional microphone. These mics are most sensitive to sounds from the front, effectively reducing ambient noise from other directions. A famous example is the Shure SM7B, popular among musicians for its noise-canceling functions, which allows you to make clear recordings free of ambient noise.
It can add versatility to your songs
Not all microphones are built for the same function, so you can experiment with what works best for your music. You can be creative since the best microphones for vocals offer different sounds depending on the vibe you’re going for. The Warm Audio WA-47 results in timeless warmth because of well-balanced vocals and a subtle distortion that adds texture recordings. This is great for dynamic songs with high notes. Meanwhile, a mic like the Røde NT2A can give you a bright, smooth, and neutral sound that captures the subtleties of your voice, making it great for gentler and slower songs.
You can capture the full complexity of your voice
Different microphones can highlight different qualities in your voice. A condenser microphone has a larger diaphragm, making it suitable for capturing great detail in your voice. So if you want to record songs in your low range, a condenser mic like the AKG C414 Pro can help you capture these rich tones. This makes them suitable for quieter or mellower vocal styles. Dynamic microphones, on the other hand, are ideal for louder noises. Unlike condensers, they don’t clip higher sound levels. So if you like to belt it out, a dynamic mic like the Sennheiser MD 421-II can be perfect.
You can mix your music more easily
Having good raw vocals and less background noise in your recordings can make your job much easier when mixing. Although you can easily fix sounds with compression and EQ plugins, it doesn’t salvage everything. Too much noise can make it difficult to layer multiple recordings together, especially if you’re going for an acoustic sound. Additionally, if you use the wrong mic — say, you used a condenser for a pop song with lots of high notes — you can lose some of the vocals in mixing. With the right mic, you can ensure less friction throughout the production process.
It makes your songs sound professional
With proper recording, noise reduction, and sound mixing, a good mic paves the way for a polished sound. Since it foregoes the crackly quality you would find in amateur recordings, your listeners can sit down and vibe with your music with greater ease. By enhancing the entire music production process with recordings that fully capture the quality of your vocals, you come up with a professional-sounding finished product.
Today, musicians have more opportunities to practice independently so they can explore the full scope of their artistic range. With the right mic, you can upgrade the creation process of home-recorded music from start to finish.