General Music Recording Software: Expert Guides and Resources

Recording music at home means you play several roles — producer, mixer, and probably musician, too. Be sharp by knowing recording-studio lingo and how to get "your effects" by setting effects parameters for reverb and the compressor quickly and easily. © PrinceOfLove / Shutterstock.comWords to know as a music producerWhen you produce your own music at home, you need to know the language of the music-recording industry.

Congratulations! You have used your home recording studio and produced a final product. Now you have to work on getting people interested in buying your music. You’ve just gone from being a musician-composer-engineer-producer to being all those plus a record-company-owner-businessperson. (Exactly how hyphenated can a person get, anyway?

In your home recording studio, besides a computer with enough speed and muscle, you need the appropriate hardware to transfer sound into and out of it. This requires a device called an audio interface. Audio interfaces are available with three types of connection methods: PCIe, Thunderbolt, and USB. Here’s a quick rundown on the three types: PCIe: PCIe interfaces are inserted into one of the PCIe slots located inside your desktop computer’s case.

Writing automation for your home recording is easy— simply enable the parameter for which you want to write automation data, choose your automation mode, and then adjust the parameter as the session plays. The following sections detail this process.While automation is being written, it appears in your track as breakpoints with lines (ramps) between these points.

One of the best things about recording with MIDI (the Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is that, aside from being able to change the sound at any point without any compromises to the performance, you have immense control over nearly all aspects of your musical performance.In most newer sequencer programs, you have two main windows from which to do your editing.

If you’re going to record music using a digital recorder or mixer, you’re going to run into digital connectors (plugs and cables/cords). Digital audio equipment is a recent invention, and as such, no one standard has emerged. Because of this lack of standardization, a variety of digital connection methods are on the market, only a few (or one) of which may be on the equipment that you own or intend to purchase.

Because music compressors are used and abused so frequently in home recording, it might be helpful for you to have some basic settings for vocals to get you started. This will hopefully save you the headache of ruining a few tracks before you get the hang of this powerful tool. Lead vocals Some recording engineers think compression is a must for vocals.

Because music compressors are used and abused so frequently in home recording, it might be helpful for you to have some basic settings for stringed instruments to get you started. This will hopefully save you the headache of ruining a few tracks before you get the hang of this powerful tool. Electric guitar Generally, electric guitar sounds are pretty compressed.