If you are trying to professionally record a whole ensemble at once, it might be worth renting a large studio. However it’s a myth that you need to spend $50,000 on a private home studio to record good music. If you are a musician or composer trying to record a solo album, all you need is a minimal and adaptable setup and your imagination.
Throughout high school I loved to write original music for guitar, synth, and bass, and I would sit down for hours at a time making things up and recording it. I worked on several concept albums, inspired by the likes of Pink Floyd and 60s psychedelic rock bands. All I had was a laptop and a Rode Podcast microphone, which I still use in my recording today. The more I experimented, the more I discovered my love for music, and the more I realised what was possible with a bedroom studio setup.
Recording your first solo album by yourself will stretch you in many ways. You’ll have to be a jack of all trades. You’re not just the songwriter, but you are the producer, the sound engineer, the multi-instrumentalist, and you have to hold yourself accountable to actually meet your own deadlines (something I’ve been terrible at)…
- Brain Storm Ideas
This is a really fun part of the solo album process. Use it as an excuse to buy a nice notebook. Spend time writing down cool song titles, the style of music you want, how you want the songs to flow together, and even some lyrics. You should come up with a working title for your album. I often start with a title or concept and write out all the titles of the songs I want to include. It’s interesting to look back at this list after you’ve finished recording your album, to see how much it has changed from the original.
2. Planning Stage
You’ll need to count the cost of your project and calculate what you are capable of with the budget you have. Here are a list of recommended resources you should have before you start:
- A PC/laptop.
- A Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) e.g. Logic Pro, Ableton Live, etc. I use Cubase and Audacity.
- A recording microphone.
- A pair of headphones.
- An Audio Interface (AI). This is if you want to record an electric instrument such as an electric guitar, bass, or keyboard. I use the EVO 4 by Audient.
- The musical instruments you want to use.
You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to get a decent sound. If you are great at playing bass, you can make a $50 bass sound good. If you’re an absolute beginner, playing a $5,000 bass won’t magically make you sound like a pro. That said, do your own research and find out what gear is suitable for your recording needs.
Now that you have your resources, plan out when and where you will record, which tracks to work on first, and…
3. Start Composing/Songwriting!
This is my favourite part of the recording process. You get to manifest a song into existence that you invented. Write some lyrics and put them to a melody, or vice versa! Blank page syndrome? Try starting with a cool bass riff or chord progression. In time, you’ll be able to structure your whole song. You don’t have to follow a verse/chorus/bridge pattern – in fact very few of my own compositions do that. You get to bend the rules and make something amazing.
4. Setup Your Bedroom Studio
You’ve written a song – now it’s time to get set up so you can record it. Clear some space for your instruments for when you need to switch between them. Plug in your microphone and headphones. Open you DAW and close the door – Badum tish! Configure your hardware in the DAW settings so that you can record directly into the program via your microphone.
5. Record Parts
Before I record any instruments, I always create a click track/metronome! The first instruments I record are usually drums followed by bass. This builds a solid rhythmic foundation. Most people find it a lot harder to play drums in time with instruments already recorded than the other way around. Next I record other rhythm instruments like guitar and keys, and I save the melody instruments, embellishments, and vocals until last. If you are by yourself you’ll need to do what is called “overdubbing”. This is when you record one thing, and then playback and record another thing over the top. That way you can layer up many parts in many takes.
6. Mixing
Recording a song is a bit like baking a cake. You have to blend all the ingredients together to make it sound nice. This is when you’ll pan instruments across left and right headphones, and adjust the volume levels of each recorded track. I’m no expert at mixing myself, but I was once told that you can close your eyes and visualise where each musician is on stage while they are playing. You can pan instruments accordingly.
7. Export Your Song as an MP3 and Record More Songs
An album usually contains many songs and is typically about 40 minutes long. An EP is usually half that duration. Get cracking and record more songs!
8. Mastering
I know very little about how to master tracks well, but the basic premise is that it is the final stage of audio production. It involves making sure that each song sounds good across different playback systems, and that the songs are consistent in volume levels. This is different to mixing, because it’s about your album as a whole, not an individual song.
9. MP3 Tagging
Edit the metadata of your MP3 files, such as the track title, artist name, genre, year, and even an image if you have an album cover artwork.
10. Release and Distribute Your Album!
Using distribution websites such as DistroKid, TuneCore, and CD Baby, you can instantly release your album to every major music platform like Spotify and Apple Music. I personally love having a hard copy CD to show off my work. It’s much more satisfying to have something I can hold in my hands, and something I can literally give away.
And that folks, is how you can record a solo album in your bedroom!
Caspian Scott 