Recording in A Home Music Studio-Checklist

Copyright © 2020 by Kevin de Wit
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or

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Published By:
Kevin de Wit
60 Bellbird Close, Pakenham
Victoria, Australia, 3810
www.kdwmixingmastering.com
Contact: kevin@kdwmixingmastering.com
Published in Australia
Introduction
I am assuming since you are reading this guide that you are serious about
getting starting with recording your songs in your Home Music Studio.
There are many ways to record songs and none of them are wrong. What is
contained in this guide are the steps that I follow to create my songs and that
I found have helped me the most in being both organized and efficient in the
recording process.
Keep in mind that this is a simple high-level checklist for you to refer to as you
start recording your song. It is not a full course teaching you everything about
recording.
I do have a separate course that covers the recording process and most of the
techniques and concepts you need to learn to be successful at it. The course
is called “Recording in a Home Music Studio”.
While this guide is great as a complement to that course it is also just as good
on its own to keep you organized and make sure you don’t miss a step. It does
assume you know what you are doing though.
I hope this guide helps you through your recording journey and that you start
making some great sounding songs and having lots of fun doing it.
Copyright © 2020 www.kdwmixingmastering.com Page 1

Home Music Studio
Checklist
□ Home Music Studio
I am hoping that you either already have a Home Music Studio set up and
working or you went through my “Setting Up A Home Music Studio” course
recently and are well on your way to finishing it.
If not I suggest you go back and work through that because it is going to be
hard to record anything if you don’t have a Home Music Studio.
□ Instruments
Determine what instruments you will be planning on recording in your Home
Music Studio and whether you will be getting instruments recorded by friends
or other people.
Make sure that all instruments are connected and ready to record or you at
least have a method to connect the instrument when it is time to record it.
□ Audio Interface
There are a few features and settings that you should check on your audio
interface when planning to record.
□ Turn on the High Pass Filter if your audio interface has one and if you
feel it is needed.
□ Turn on Phantom Power if you are using a microphone that requires
it.

Home Music Studio
□ Set the Sample Rate and Bit Depth you will be using in your
recording software.
□ If you are recording latency-sensitive instruments then make sure to
set your buffer size to as low as possible without causing audio
playback issues.
□ Instrument Acoustic Treatment

Determine if your instrument requires any acoustic treatment placed around it
in your preferred recording location. If it does then set it up ready for
recording.
□ Create a Project
In your recording software confirm you have done the following:
□ Create a new project with a name that is either the name of the song
or a name that makes sense to you.

Home Music Studio
□ Set the tempo of your project.
□ Make sure your software is set to record to a fast HDD or SSD that is
not the drive your operating system is running on.
□ Record Microphone Based Instruments

For microphone based instruments do the following:
□ Make sure your instrument

is set up and sounding
great.
□ Place microphones in the

best places on the
instrument.
□ Create the audio tracks

within your software for
each microphone.
□ Set the track input within

your software to the
appropriate microphone
input.

Home Music Studio
□ Set the gain on each microphone input to the right level.
□ Turn on the metronome.
□ Arm the tracks for recording.
□ Start recording.
□ Record Virtual Instruments

For virtual instruments do the following:
□ Determine what Virtual Instrument and software you will be

recording.

Home Music Studio
□ Create the instrument track

within your software.
□ Add the virtual instrument

to the track.
□ Set the gain on the virtual

instrument to the right level.
□ Arm the track for recording.
□ Record Electronic Instruments

For electronic-based instruments do the following:
□ Determine what physical electronic instrument you will be recording

and what sound it will be using.

Home Music Studio
□ Create the audio tracks

within your software.
□ Set the track input within

your software to the
appropriate audio input.
□ Set the gain on the

electronic instrument to the
right level.
□ Samples
For samples do the following:
□ Determine if you are going to use any samples in your song.
□ Find the samples in your software or online.

Home Music Studio
□ Import them into your project.
□ Create the required audio tracks.
□ Place the samples in the appropriate locations in the song.
□ Record Vocals
For vocals do the following:
□ Create the audio track within your software for the vocal
microphone.
□ Set the track input within your software to the appropriate

microphone input.
□ Set the gain on the microphone input.

Home Music Studio
□ Takes and Comping

Make sure you record several takes of every instrument and vocal part. Then
find the best parts and comp then together to get the best results for your
song.
□ Clean up the Session

Once you have finished recording all the instruments and vocals it is time to
clean up the session and consider the project finished for now.
□ Name all your tracks to something useful and descriptive.
□ Remove any unused tracks.
□ Trim your audio deleting silent parts.

Home Music Studio
□ Add fades on the front and back of the audio sections.
□ Sort your project so that like instruments and vocals are placed
together or in folders if your software supports it.
□ Use colors to make it easy to see where the tracks are for all the
different instruments and vocals.
□ Make sure you save the project regularly.
□ Backup your song somewhere else including online cloud backups.

Home Music Studio
□ Get it ready for mixing and finish

Once I am finished recording I like to get my project ready for mixing. This
helps make the mixing process more efficient and removes the temptation to
add new recordings.
□ Save the project in another location with a new name that contains
something to determine it is the mixing stage.
□ Bounce all virtual instrument tracks down to audio.
□ Bring the bounced virtual instrument tracks back into the project.
□ Remove the original virtual instrument tracks.
□ Make sure the song still sounds as you left it and nothing is missing.

Song Checklist
Use this Checklist to make sure you have recorded all the
parts required for your song. You don’t need to record all these
parts for your song. It is purely a guide that you need to adjust
to your particular song.
Intro Verse 1
� Drums � Drums
� Bass � Bass
� Guitars � Guitars
� Keys/Synths � Keys/Synths
� Orchestral � Orchestral
� Percussion � Percussion
� Main Vocals � Main Vocals
� Harmony Vocals � Harmony Vocals
� BGVs � BGVs
� Samples � Samples
PreChorus 1 Chorus 1
� Drums � Drums
� Bass � Bass
� BGVs � BGVs

Song Checklist Cont.
Verse 2 PreChorus 2
� Drums � Drums
� Bass � Bass
� BGVs � BGVs
Chorus 2 Bridge
� Drums � Drums
� Bass � Bass
� BGVs � BGVs
Chorus 3 Outro
� Drums � Drums
� Bass � Bass
� BGVs � BGVs

About the Author
Kevin de Wit is a Mixing and Mastering Engineer working with artists and
bands all over the world. He is the owner of KdW Mixing & Mastering, an
online business dedicated to providing audio related services.
Kevin has been working in the music industry in one form or another for over
25 years. He has also been working in the IT industry providing architectural
designs for large corporate enterprises.
When Kevin isn’t working in either music or IT, he is a single father of two
children and loves to play guitar and record his own music. He has a very
unique family with one child suffering from Severe Autism and the other a mild
case of Asperger’s.
He lost his wife to cancer when the children were very young, but none of this
has stopped his will to survive and succeed. If anything, it has given him more
drive and determination than ever before.

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Copyright © 2020 www.kdwmixingmastering.com Page 1

Copyright © 2020 www.kdwmixingmastering.com Page 2

□ Instrument Acoustic Treatment

Copyright © 2020 www.kdwmixingmastering.com Page 3

□ Set the tempo of your project.

□ Record Microphone Based Instruments

□ Make sure your instrument

□ Place microphones in the

□ Create the audio tracks

□ Set the track input within

Copyright © 2020 www.kdwmixingmastering.com Page 4

□ Set the gain on each microphone input to the right level.

□ Turn on the metronome.

□ Arm the tracks for recording.

□ Record Virtual Instruments

□ Determine what Virtual Instrument and software you will be

Copyright © 2020 www.kdwmixingmastering.com Page 5

□ Create the instrument track

□ Add the virtual instrument

□ Set the gain on the virtual

□ Turn on the metronome.

□ Arm the track for recording.

□ Record Electronic Instruments

□ Determine what physical electronic instrument you will be recording

Copyright © 2020 www.kdwmixingmastering.com Page 6

□ Create the audio tracks

□ Set the track input within

□ Set the gain on the

□ Turn on the metronome.

□ Arm the track for recording.

□ Determine if you are going to use any samples in your song.

□ Find the samples in your software or online.

Copyright © 2020 www.kdwmixingmastering.com Page 7

□ Import them into your project.

□ Create the required audio tracks.

□ Place the samples in the appropriate locations in the song.

□ Set the track input within your software to the appropriate

□ Set the gain on the microphone input.

□ Turn on the metronome.

□ Arm the track for recording.

Copyright © 2020 www.kdwmixingmastering.com Page 8

□ Takes and Comping

□ Clean up the Session

□ Name all your tracks to something useful and descriptive.

□ Remove any unused tracks.

□ Trim your audio deleting silent parts.

Copyright © 2020 www.kdwmixingmastering.com Page 9

□ Add fades on the front and back of the audio sections.

□ Make sure you save the project regularly.

□ Backup your song somewhere else including online cloud backups.

Copyright © 2020 www.kdwmixingmastering.com Page 10

□ Get it ready for mixing and finish

□ Bounce all virtual instrument tracks down to audio.

□ Remove the original virtual instrument tracks.

Copyright © 2020 www.kdwmixingmastering.com Page 11

Copyright © 2020 www.kdwmixingmastering.com Page 12