Best Tips On Background Noise

In the home studio or micro-studio, noise is certainly a factor in producing great results, especially in music production. Here a just a few tips to consider when it comes to noise.

1] In voiceovers and readings where the final product will be dry, with no background, always record a rather 'hot' track, meaning peaks that nearly reach the upper limit. In today's digital recording, that upper limit is zero dB, in analog equipment use +3 dB.

2] In most music tracks, and wherever possible, plug directly into the recorder instead of using an open microphone. But note that not all acoustic instruments equipped with a transducer, like guitars, will produce as good sound quality as a typical studio mic, so decide which to trade off, noise or fidelity.

3] Remember when using any open mic, that some background noise, including hisses and low frequency rumbles, can be simply lost in the final mix by noise level reduction or some quick EQ notch processing, if needed.

Truth is, much of what we take seriously as the tracks are laid, hardly comes out in the final mix, anyway. It is hardly worth sweating over.

To prove my point, listen closely to the digital mix downs (on CD) of ANYTHING recorded in the 60's or 70's. In these days of analog multi-track, we never heard any weird stuff on those records. But today we can, if we listen closely, hear a LOT of what we might call mistakes on nearly EVERY MULTIMILLION DOLLAR RECORD.

So maybe it just doesn't matter as much as we think.