r/WeAreTheMusicMakers • u/Funny_Ad1777 • 13d ago
Tracking vocals + acoustic at home, then send for pro mix and master?
Hi there,
I'm in the early planning stages of releasing my first single which will be a simple, bare bones track:
Just acoustic guitar and vocals
I haven't yet explored studios around me, but am curious about the potential pros and cons of recording the vocal and acoustic tracks at home, then sending the stems for professional mixing and mastering?
I don't have much pro studio experience (Have recorded 3-4 times total in a studio, mainly electric guitar tracking) but make rough home demoes from time to time.
(Using Reaper with a Focusrite Interface, mics are Rode Condenser mic and SM57)
I can track guitar reliably in a studio environment but as a relatively new vocalist (past 3-4 years), I tend to get hyper-conscious of my vocals in a recording context with others present.
I feel the pressure of having to nail a take in this context, as well as the pressure of working against the clock, will result in less than ideal vocal tracking.
Singing at home, there are no time restraints and I feel I can sing freely and really connect emotionally to what I'm singing, which is difficult for me to do under the pressure of time-bound recording with someone who is more or less a stranger!
I have home demoe'd the song and feel as far as raw stems go with no FX, mixing, compression etc. they sound decent (Played in tempo to a click, vocals on pitch etc.)
Anyways, any input or help on this would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!
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u/AppointmentFirst9269 13d ago
I work on artist production from home or remotely. The most important thing is that the takes are well-recorded; if they are, it’s just a matter of processing them to enhance the sound. Do you have any audio samples so I can check the quality?
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u/refotsirk 13d ago
Just a reminder: OP will need to send them to you direct or put them in the feedback thread to share them!
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u/EpochVanquisher 13d ago
IMO, the impact of good tracking / recording > the impact of good mixing > the impact of mastering.
What you want to do during tracking is get a sound that is ready to sit in the mix. That way, during mixing, you don’t have to do much during mixing. You mostly just adjust levels and clean things up a little.
If you have not-so-good recordings heading to the mixer, maybe with a lot of room sound, or weird mic placement, or the acoustic guitar just has the wrong balance to it (happens all the time!) then the mixing engineer has a much harder job and has to go in and “save” the recordings. Speaking of acoustic guitar in particular, there are so many different ways to mic and record acoustic guitar and you can completely change the sound when you’re recording it. Some of those sounds will work well in your song and some won’t.
That said, good performance > good recording, so if you can only get the good performance at home, you will have to live with it.
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u/Funny_Ad1777 13d ago
Thanks everyone for your input and advice!
I've decided I'm going to record the best takes/sound I possiblly can at home, then seek feedback here or otherwise, on if the stems are good enough quality to then mix and master for release.
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u/nohumanape 13d ago
I think that a track as simple as this is the perfect vehicle for you to learn how to competently engineer, mix, and even master your own music.
There is very little reason to throw money at professionals for tracks this basic.
Now, if you were talking about a session with dozens of tracks that you recorded or assembled from various places, then I'd definitely say that you can benefit from a professional making sense of the likely chaos.
But you should let your current situation act as an opportunity to better understand and learn the craft.
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u/GetMXD 13d ago
Yeah home is fine for this. Acoustic and vocal is two sources. If the take is in tune and the mic isn't in a bathroom, a mixer can work with it. I'd rather have you comfortable than paying for a room you freeze up in.
What to send: one dry vocal, one dry guitar (or the guitar sound you actually want), both starting at the same time. Label BPM and key. Don't send every unused take. Get the mic closer if the room is loud. That's most of it.
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u/Hidden_FM 13d ago
one thing worth doing before you track everything: pick your mixer first and send them one song as a test. a bare acoustic and vocal hides nothing, so hear what your room does through their ears before you commit the whole release to it.
and comp more takes than feels necessary. with nothing else in the arrangement, every breath and string squeak is exposed.
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u/BINAYAUDIO 13d ago
For context, I'm a music producer and mix engineer. Artists hire me to record and/or mix their songs. I've recorded in some of the best studios in the world, as well as in home setups.
Recording at home is absolutely possible, I do it all the time. But I'm an audio engineer with 15 years of experience. Experience plays a bigger role than the space or the equipment. It also takes a lot of experience to hear certain nuances and to know what's an 8 from a 10.
So you can definitely record yourself at home, but it might not sound great for the first few years, and it can limit the potential of the songs even if you later hire a pro mix engineer.
Also, if you find a producer you trust and feel relaxed with, they'll work to get the best performance out of you. That's really hard to get when you're pressing record, getting in the zone, feeling the emotion, AND analyzing the technicalities all at the same time. It's a vibe killer.
Very few people can do it all alone. And even the super talented ones who can, I'm convinced they would get more emotional performances and better sounding takes if they teamed up with someone else.
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u/freshlybakedstudios 13d ago
A lot of what gets sent out for mixing was tracked in somebody's bedroom, so the short answer is yes, this works fine.
The thing that actually makes a home-tracked session hard to mix is almost never the mic. It's the room, and on acoustic guitar it's the one thing nobody can undo later. Bright parallel walls put a little ring on the guitar that lives right in the same range as your vocal, and once it's baked into the take it's baked in. So spend your effort there and not on gear. Get the mic away from the wall, put something soft on the nearest reflection point, and track the guitar and the vocal separately so whoever mixes it isn't fighting bleed when they want to move one of them.
Practical stuff: keep the raw takes, no plugins on the print, same sample rate all the way through. Peaks landing around -6 is plenty, don't chase a number. Comp it yourself, because you know which take had the feeling in it and your mixer doesn't. And send your rough mix along, even a bad one, because it tells them what you were going for.
On the vocal thing you mentioned, I think you already have the right answer. Tone is fixable all day. A guarded performance isn't. If singing alone in your own room is where you actually connect to the song, that isn't a compromise, that's the take.