I think I’ve helped about 3-4 people choose their laptops to start recording themselves. Now, I may prefer the DIY PC route but there are many other ways and many cheap ones that will get you recording yourself at your own place.
The ability to record yourself at home is not one of novelty but of practicality. With technologies in our pockets and laptops, we now can not only record ourselves but also record samples and use them creatively be used in any project you can think of.
The world of recording can’t be put into this small article but we take a jab about what we can do and at least shed some light on all the things that are possible for us to achieve.
Phone
You can 100% use your phone to record yourself and if you can find a quiet place where the acoustics are nice or neutral, it can do a decent job it as well.
I have heard that some of the upcoming rappers actually started by recording their vocals on their phones which ended up being used for the final production of their songs.
It truly amazed me, that was five years ago, you get the idea. A lot of YouTubers have now started adding additional mics to their phones to be able to record themselves while doing their outdoor activities. Goes to show that it is not a reliable way to record audio.
As time moves on, phones are just going to be even more capable of recording and even doing better music production. This brings me to say this.
Laptops and Computers
For a beginner I would like to make you feel sure of this, you don’t have to break a budget to record yourself as home anymore. It’s amazing how much stuff you can find for the cheap, including my Audient iD14 which I bought eons ago from my friend and mentor and is still going on without a single problem.
The amount of recording quality that goes up with using a proper mic and audio interface is crazy. It’s actually cheaper than buying a decent phone and it’s becoming more and more user-friendly as well.
Softwares
If you’re worried about what softwares you’re going to use and that you might have to shell out some money for it. You won’t. There is Reaper. This is my personal recommendation because it allows you to get a very good feeling about how real DAWs look and function.
One of the best features of this software is that it allows you to use it for free without any restrictions! Though, as my reader, you have to promise me that you will pay their small fee whenever you know that you are going to use it.
I think Reaper is also one of the cheapest DAWs to buy. If you’re out there looking for DAWs, my personal recommendation would be to buy something that is not on a subscription basis unless you are 100% sure that it is what you want to invest in.
Hardware
How much would it cost? Well, to be honest, it can go high as you can afford it and it can go cheap as much as a couple of hundred dollars.
If you’re on the billionaire side of things, buy everything firsthand but not too expensive. In case you find this is not for you, the best-case scenario is you have everything set up for an audio call.
So secondhand on everything if you can. You can find deals you wouldn’t imagine but a small YouTube search on how to do things right will surely help.
Though, the list of must-haves for recording yourself at home, it goes a laptop/computer, an audio interface, a mic, and an XLR cable for the mic. If you are going to record your instruments as well, then your mic will do the job for acoustic instruments but if you have an electric instrument then you need a normal instrument cable as well.
How It Works
Don’t get frustrated with this. It’s actually easy.
So first, the audio signal flows from the mic/instrument cable to the audio interface, the audio interface talks to the computer and tells it what is being recorded.
That’s it. At any stage, your connection is not working it’s between these things.
The only catch is (it’s kind of a hit-and-miss) that you might have to install the driver for your interface on your computer. There are loads of tutorials showing you how to do that.
Once done, any DAW should recognize this and allow you to use your interface’s input as its own. Select the right input click on ‘monitor’ and you should start hearing yourself.
The point being, the reason I am standing so strongly with recording with your computer it’s because the quality is just ten times better and you should really get into it as in the long term it’s better.
My Recommendation
I am a big advocate for learning how to produce your own music and since you are thinking about recording yourself it wouldn’t hurt to get into the whole production game yourself.
So, get a laptop and get your second-hand gear ready and up to go because the benefits of doing it yourself are so much that I can’t even begin to explain it without getting excited. And the freedom it buys you pays for itself.
So, if you had to get my verdict, that would be it. Use your laptop to record yourself at home.
Why So Adamant About Laptops and PC?
In all honesty for the price of a new phone, you could have a decent basic recording setup. Which means you can record yourself better. Which means you can collaborate with people around you and guess what’s even better than that?
Learning it yourself. Once you are a beginner at something the only way to go anywhere with that skill is to go up! And up you shall go because if you want to know how much a studio will charge you for a single song, just pick up your phone and ask.
The alternative I am providing allows you to do everything you could ever dream of.
What’s Possible With Recording Yourself?
Perhaps, if you knew what was possible for you to do with your ability to record yourself maybe you’d respond to it better.
You can record your whole album at home. How do I know? I am doing it myself. I have heard my mentor’s album and singles. They sound like they were mixed in a professional studio but it’s just his room. I am going to leave it at that because that’s the end goal. Releasing your originals.
It Only Works If You Can Sing
I am here to help you and I have written another article in which I talk about why online courses are better to have and why everyone should have at least one in their library regardless of their own level.
On another page here, I have outlined which courses are the best and how much they cost. You can choose the one I recommend and own or you can go and see which one would benefit you the most. There literally are no wrong choices.
So, I hope you do take the leap to better your singing!