9 Common Recording & Editing Mistakes

There are common mistakes that everyone eventually makes when tracking, mixing & mastering. Here are 9 to look out for.

Not knowing where to start:

We all have to start somewhere, and more likely than not we don’t really know anything when we’re first diving into it. As you can probably guess, the solution to this is simply practice, practice, practice.

Excessive pitch correcting:

This one is an obvious one, as everyone is aware of the classic T-Pain trope. That being said, it’s very easy to cross that thin line between natural and robotic.

Recording Latency:

When you track audio in from a microphone, many of you will find that the audio you hear coming from your DAW is playing later than how it is in person. This is what latency is. The most common solution is adjusting your buffer size.

Overcompressing/Limiting on the Master Fader:

We all want loud mixes, right? If we aren’t compressing at different stages in our mix and just “smashing” the mix on the master we end up with a distorted mix with no dynamics.

Recording Vocals in a room without “deadening” the room:

It can be tricky to know precisely where to set up acoustic absorbers (anything from pads to acoustic foam on walls). The most important places to focus on are doorways, windows, and corners. You want to try to break up “parallel walls” as much as possible.

Can’t figure out your DAW:

This one is probably a bit laughable for the professionals, but if you’re not super versed in the technology side of music it can seem almost impossible to figure out how everything works. On a good note, many of them come with tutorials, either in session or as a part of the downloads.

Confusing/forgetting key commands:

I personally have trouble with this one, and I’ve found that it’s really just personal preference when it comes to whether you use key commands or go manual. That being said, key commands are generally faster and if you want to go into the industry it’s best to know a few.

Can’t decide the best product to get:

Like the above, this one also ends up coming to personal preference. I would advise looking up product reviews (non-sponsored as to avoid bias) and finding sample videos of how the product actually works in real life so you don’t go home with a faulty product.

Following trends to avoid criticism:

it’s tempting to shove ourselves in boxes to be whatever it is that we think people want us to be. Yet the most famous role models that we see today are famous mostly because they created something that nobody had ever heard before. People talk about things more when they are completely outside the expected. So you need to be exactly that: unexpected.

-Tasha Beck