In a tough economy, an increasing number of bands, musicians, and church congregations are finding themselves financially strapped.

When it comes time to record the next big album, be it praise music or hard rock, the DIY route is being increasingly chosen when money isn’t available to spend several days or weeks in a studio at the hourly rate.

Some performers shun the studio for other reasons. “I get too nervous in the studio… I’ll just record myself with a portable recorder and let you overdub the other instruments.”

What’s more, a lot of artists need time to develop sonic ideas by trial and error, and can’t afford to do that on studio time.

Many individuals and organizations own DAW setups—or flash recorders—and are capable of tracking outside of the studio.

However, many lack the expertise and equipment to capture clean source material suitable for mixdown.

They might hand you several of barely usable tracks, of which they are justifiably proud, and expect you to make them sound good.

While some bands and musicians have conquered the DIY recording skills necessary to produce great-sounding tracks, some too need your help.

If, at the end of the day, you want to put your name on their album or demo, you want to work with them so they’ll record the cleanest tracks possible. Then you’ll spend less time fixing sonic errors and more time being creative.

We’ll look at two approaches to improving the end product: (1) teaching your customers how to record at effectively while not in the studio, be it at home or otherwise, and (2) how to use plug-ins and editing to improve their recordings.

Offer Advice to Record-at-Home Musicians
Talk with your clients to make sure they can supply you clean tracks. Work with them to find out their skill level so you don’t insult them by telling them stuff they already know.

The advice you give to those recording their own material is the same as you’d give to a novice recording engineer in a pro studio.

You can discuss the following points with the band members, or simply point them to the PSW Study Hall.

First, tell your customer that it’s difficult or impossible to remove reverb, compression and distortion, so make sure to keep those under control.

The same goes for background noise. I’ll describe specifically how to keep a handle on those problems.

Listed below are some suggestions for musicians to follow when recording. These tips apply both to 2-track and multitrack recordings.

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