Vocal Recording and Home Studio Guide

Vocal Recording and Home Studio Advice

Whether you’re just starting out or improving an existing home recording studio setup, these articles guide you through the essentials of vocal recording — from choice gear and setup to technique and mindset.

1. Recording Studio on a Budget – A practical guide to getting started without breaking the bank.
2. Studio on a Budget – Part Two – Expands on gear and space choices with greater nuance.
3. The Benefits of Having a Home Studio – Why singers and voice users should consider recording at home.
4. Home Recording: First Steps – Lays out the foundational steps to begin capturing quality sound.
5. Recording Yourself: Why You Sound Different – Explains the science and psychology behind how your voice sounds on playback.
6. How to Sing When Recording – Offers technique and mindset tips for sounding your best when the red light’s on.

These are just a few of our best articles on home recording and recording your voice at home. If you’d like to browse more of our articles, you can do so by clicking here.

If you’d like help setting up your studio and getting the best from your voice at home, you can book in your vocal session with Mark via the booking button below.

May 12, 2025December 17, 2025

How to sing into a microphone

Understanding Microphone Types

When it comes to singing into a microphone, understanding the type of microphone you’re using is crucial. The two primary types are:

Stage Microphones: Typically dynamic microphones, these are generally handheld and used during live performances. They are durable and less sensitive to ambient noise.

Studio Microphones: Often condenser microphones, these are more sensitive and usually mounted on stands. They capture a broader frequency range, making them ideal for studio recordings.

While these microphones differ in design and application, both require proper technique to achieve the best sound quality.

Essential Microphone Techniques

Regardless of the microphone type, adhering to the following guidelines will enhance your vocal performance:

Understand the Components: The microphone head houses the sound transducer which picks up your voice, the body contains circuitry (and with handheld microphones is for holding), and the XLR connection is where the cable connects.
Sing ‘On-Axis’: Direct your voice into this sensitive transducer portion of the microphone head. This will generally be a grille mesh, protecting the sensitive transducer inside it. Handheld mics need you to sing into the top of the grille, while condensers are generally sung into from the side. Doing this ensures the transducer accurately captures your sound.
Proper Grip: In the event it’s a handheld microphone, hold the microphone by its body, and avoiding cupping the head with your hand, to avoid muffling or distorting the sound, or creating handling noise.
Distance Matters: Maintain a distance of approximately 1–6 inches from the microphone. Handheld dynamics are less sensitive, so you generally need to be closer. Condensers in the studio are MUCH more sensitive and you’ve got a lot of wiggle room. Closer proximity increases volume and bass frequencies (known as the proximity effect), while being too close can cause distortion.
Manage Plosives and Sibilance: Sounds like “P” and “S” can create harsh noises. Use pop filters in the studio or foam covers on stage to mitigate these effects.
Consistent Positioning: Keep the microphone at a steady angle and distance to maintain consistent sound quality.
Don’t Rely Solely on the Microphone: Merely holding a microphone doesn’t automatically amplify your voice – it’s not a magic wand. You must sing into the microphone to be heard.

Final Thoughts

Developing good microphone technique is essential for any vocalist. It takes time to learn, but it’s really not that tricky. Once you get it, it becomes a piece of cake… and actually quite a lot of fun.

As you practice this, try moving closer to or further away from the microphone. Distance and angle plays a huge part in tone shaping, but that’s something that only you and YOUR voice can figure out through repeated practice.

November 19, 2023December 17, 2025

The Benefits of having a Home Studio

I have written a Beginners Guide to a Home studio on a budget, and also written a follow-up guide on the next steps for those with a home studio.

I had a few people email in reply, some of whom were grateful for the advice. But it struck me that some of you might not be sure whether they should only go to professional studios to record, especially if they want professional results. So that’s what I want to cover here today, as I there’s actually several reasons I strongly believe that every serious singer should invest in a home studio setup.

Let me explain why

Firstly, I wholeheartedly agree that if one is seeking professional results – and you yourself are not a said professional – then one should seek a professional and pay them to do the work they do best. It’s entirely why I applaud anyone who is progress focused enough to seek professional help to improve their voice in sessions. It astonishes me how many try to DIY their way to solutions without really knowing what they are doing.

However, many of you who sing seriously and record yourself will know, that there is far more to having a home studio than trying to avoid having to pay someone else. There’s a myriad of reasons that even a basic home studio setup is worth having. Moreover, I think a home studio is a wonderful complement to those who eventually want to get into a professional studio.

For those of you who do not have one, or are not sure why you should even set one up for yourself, I wanted to cover five reasons I think that every serious singer should have some kind of basic setup at home. Continue reading “The Benefits of having a Home Studio”

November 12, 2023February 5, 2026

Studio on a Budget: Part Two

A few years ago, I made this guide on putting together a recording studio together for under £500. I update that guide a couple of times each year to reflect any changes in approach, or bits of tech that I’ve found that work well.

This guide is actually one of the most read articles on my site. Many clients (and even people who call me) tell me that they’ve found this starter guide helpful to get their studio together.

But what about next steps?
What if you’ve already got some basic recording equipment, monitors, a computer, a microphone, headphones, etc. What are the next things one should look at to improve their studio space for recording?

That’s what I want to cover this week. Let’s say you’ve got some more cash, maybe £100-£500 you’re happy to invest into your studio space, what would I recommend as a good upgrade?

Fortunately, the first few suggestions are almost entirely free to do, so keep reading to find out more. Continue reading “Studio on a Budget: Part Two”

May 7, 2023November 20, 2025

The Future of AI in Music (Featuring Rick Beato)

I came across this video from content creator Rick Beato this week on AI in music. In it, he plays some clips of AI generated songs, where the AI had been tasked to copy and recreate the style of a famous artist.

Most of these are from modern singers/rappers like Drake, but some of these include an AI generated version of Kurt Cobain singing Chris Cornell’s ‘Black Hole Sun’. Beato closes the video by sharing his thoughts on the commercial direction AI generated music is going to take the music industry. Have a listen and see what you think:

What do you think?

I’m still distilling my own thoughts on AI in music, but one thing does spring to mind with the modern music examples. Namely, that the fact the AI could copy the modern music so closely but be less convincing with the other examples. To me, this touches on the the formulaic, often indistinct and (frankly) dehumanised nature of a lot of modern music.

Consider this: in music of years gone by – even as recent as the 2000s – rhythm and tempo would vary. Chords would be voiced differently or with different intensity as the song progressed. Sometimes notes would be played sung ever so slightly out of perfect tuning, but would sound consonant with the piece as a whole. These things occur because musicians are only human.

In contrast, modern music is increasingly ‘locked to the grid’, i.e. the tempo is mathematically locked in and perfect. It never wavers. The drum beats land in exactly the same place every time. The tone and timbre never fluctuates. Every note is autotuned/heavily tuned to be perfectly pitched. Nothing pitched will lie off the piano keyboard.

Vocals all echo what the last number one hit did, rather than tread new ground. Artists are turning increasingly to computers and software to either generate these notes, or iron out the portions that were generated by real musicians.

Caveat:

To be clear, I am not trying to say modern music is worse than older music – you can make that aesthetic judgment for yourself, and if you like a lot of that music, feel free to enjoy it.

What I AM saying, is that modern music and the way it is produced, has ironed out so much of the human elements that make music actual art (making it distinct from just being a commodity/product) and we are already turning to computers to make our current crop of number one tracks, that it stands to reason an AI would be able to synthetically generate a convincing facsimile of such dehumanised art.

Virtually none of the components that make art a human endeavour seem to remain in modern commercial music… so why would you need a human to do it? Other to maybe give the AI some modest direction?

Truthfully, I don’t know where it’s all going

All of the above are just my musings on the human elements (that in my opinion cannot be put ‘in the box’) vs the dehumanised elements that now populate increasing amounts of commercially produced music.

Maybe, the more convincingly an AI can generate a piece of music that harkens to a particular artist, the less human/artful that original artist’s style actually is in the first place.

Food for thought, and I’d welcome yours.

November 27, 2021November 22, 2025

What does voice acting involve? Can I start doing voice over work?

I’m a professional vocal coach and singing teacher. The core of my work is about building, improving and fixing issues people have in their voices.

From that point, the primary and highest demanding application of this is for singers and performers using their voice in song. This involves using their voice over the widest range, at the most extreme intensities, often in sub-optimal situations where their performance needs to be dead-on first time.

Other applications of a well-built voice involve acting on stage, on television, voice-over work, stage speaking, professional speaking/voice use, etc. Many of my clients are even school teachers looking to maintain their voice. This is very much a classic example of a professional voice user – it just so happens voice training overlaps very well with their love of singing.

Voice acting interest

I’ve been getting a lot of interest lately in voice-over work and voice acting. I have had the odd client who goes down this road, but the majority of my client-base falls into the above camp. It seems that many are considering a career-change or even a side-gig in voice acting, so I wanted to pull together some pointers on what it is and what is involved. I will also briefly clarify the difference between a voice over coach and a vocal coach like myself.

What is voice acting?

“Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience.”

Do you watch “Peppa Pig”, “The Simpsons”, or even listen to radio shows like “The Archers”? If you do, the people providing the voice track for each of the characters are professional voice actors. Their bodies are not seen on-screen, so they are required to provide all the emotional intensity and meaning for the scene purely through using their voices. Voices need to be intelligible and of an appropriate character for the given project.

Projects can be extremely diverse. Radio shows, podcasts, animated films, cartoons, educational videos, pre-recorded corporate training, explanations within software, TV or radio advertisements, jingles, TV/radio segues, etc. These can all can involve the use of one/multiple voice actors. Because of the diverse range of possible voice acting avenues, you can understand why there is no “one size fits all” definition for what makes a good voice for voice acting.

The skills and vocal attributes required for each of these options are very different, and often even very experienced stage and TV actors struggle to get into the world of voice acting due to such diverse demands.

Very often the same voice actor will provide the voices for multiple characters, manipulating their voice to deliver highly specific impressions for each character. For example, in the cartoon “Family Guy”, the creator Seth MacFarlane provides the voices for dozens of the characters on the show, including 3 out of the 6 main characters.

How do voice actors get picked?

Really, it comes down to the right actor for the right role. Just like in films, people have manners and behaviours that lead them to become well-known for delivering a certain type of character well. They know their domain and work at mastering it – they become typecast.

Consider this example: a high-end whisky company is looking to create an advert for their special single malt. The nature of the product and the branding means they are looking for a crisp, smooth, deep sounding male voice for their luxury whisky advert.

This means they are definitely NOT going to pick the chirpy, squawky teenage girl voice actor that can deliver 1000 different variations of that voice. They’ll likely take the Morgan Freeman sound-alike over the Nancy Cartwright sound-alike (the voice of Bart Simpson).

An alternate voice acting situation

In contrast, what about a TV production company is creating a new kids cartoon? They are looking for a voice actor that can provide multiple lead teenage girl roles plus supporting characters? Such a voice actor would also need to make them sound distinct and memorable. You can bet someone like Nancy Cartwright is going to get the call-back.

With so many diverse projects that can exist, no one voice can do it all, and that’s OK! That’s perfect for everyone to find and cultivate their own niche.

Many voice actors list samples of their work on voice acting directories online, such as Voiceovers.co.uk. Prospective clients can then audition clips of the voices listed on such directories and narrow down their choices to a few actors they think will fit the bill. It’s very much like an audition process for actors or singers.

What is involved in being a voice actor?

As many voice acting roles are in some way commercial/corporate, even short projects are exacting. This is because serious money is typically riding on it.

Consider a car advert: typically 30–60 seconds long, with maybe 10 seconds of total voice-over in there, often stating mostly technical details. But that 10 seconds is meant to sell thousands of those cars. That’s a big deal.

Commercial success

The sound of the voice is meant to drip desirability all over the vehicle. It has to paint an image in the listener’s mind that makes them want to go check out that car. The voice and tone also has to match the brand, and be relatable to the target market. That’s a LOT riding on just 10 seconds of someone’s voice.

As such, projects don’t just require you to have the right voice, they need you to understand the commercial objectives of the client, and merge all those needs into a convincing performance. After all, we are talking about voice acting.

A voice actor needs to develop the ability to create different characters, to be able to manipulate/modulate their voice to imitate different people, and alter the shades in your voice to give the client exactly what they want. This is something that solid voice training helps instill, and is something that a good vocal coach AND good voice over coach can provide insight into.

VOICE OVER COACH:

There are dedicated voice over coaches that help people cultivate their unique sound, and provide technical tricks to help their voices become more like the sound their intended market is likely to want. Voices.com provides many courses and sources of advice on how to get started in this regard.

If you are wanting help to specifically become a voice-over artist or voice actor, you should seek to find a dedicated voice over coach.

VOCAL COACH (FOR VOCAL HEALTH AND MAINTENANCE): Manipulating your voice on a regular basis can cause severe physiological damage to the voice when done for prolonged periods. This is no different than singers who employ more extreme manipulations of their voice to deliver their art, and end up with nodules, granulomas, voice loss, etc. Vocal flexibility does take time to develop in voices.

Commercial demands can wreak havoc on a voice, and fixing and training voices to keep up with the demands of their chosen outlet is my domain. While there is overlap with a voice-over coach, our intended scopes are quite different.

Technical Considerations

Most professional voice actors have their own personal recording setup with high quality microphones and editing software. They will have tweaked and learned how to use their setup perfectly for their voice to get the perfect takes. There will need to be acoustic treatment and other pro setup aspects dealt with as well. This is to ensure that the audio track generated by the voice actor is a perfectly produced product ready to be slotted straight into a bigger project.

In some cases a voice actor may go into a specialist studio/setup provided by the client, e.g. recording for a TV or radio show, or they may be able to hire a recording studio. However, for many smaller scale and shorter projects, or projects demanding a fast turnaround time, having 24/7 access to your own recording setup that is perfectly dialled in for you is essential.

Conclusion

If you are looking to get into voice acting, I’d suggest checking out Voices.com to start with. They have a wealth of information on what is involved, how to get started. They also provide voice over specific training courses, which you can check out on their website.

If you want to hear some examples of professional voice actors doing their characters and craft well, I’d suggest looking for voice acting directories with clips, like Voiceovers.co.uk.

Please note, I am not sponsored or affiliated with either of these sites in any way. I am simply referring you to websites that I have found to provide a great illustration into the world of voice acting.

If you are a budding voice actor, best of luck to you!

June 6, 2021December 12, 2025

Recording Yourself: Why you sound different, and how the pros fix this

Why You Sound Different When You Record Yourself

Many of you reading this will have likely tried recording yourself and your own vocals. You’ll likely have a microphone like the Shure SM58 or Rode M1, or perhaps you have a more typical condenser microphone. Or maybe you’re just recording on your phone and listening back.

Either way, the usual first experience that people have when recording is “do I really sound like that?!”. In my many years of teaching singers, this is an extremely common response, so you’re not alone if you’ve experienced this.

The second set of experiences that people have (once they get over the first reaction) is typically along the lines of “hmmm, getting a good sound is harder than I thought”.

This article forms part of our vocal recording and home studio collection. Click here to dive deeper.

Real world vs Digital world

Recording takes something we naturally hear in the real world and translates it into the artificial digital domain—i.e. the computer. Playback then happens via an artificial reproduction system (speakers).

Microphones work via a thin diaphragm that vibrates with sound, converting that into an electrical signal. Your ear works similarly, but the key difference is: your brain is involved in interpreting what you hear. Here’s how that matters…

Why we don’t think we sound the way we do

Volume

Try this experiment. Record someone whispering, speaking, then shouting. While present in the room, you’ll hear clear volume differences—but the recording exaggerates them. Our brains apply compression: loud sounds are softened, quiet sounds are lifted.

Microphones don’t do this. That’s why recording often feels awkward—soft passages are inaudible, loud ones harsh. The brain’s smoothing is missing from the digital realm, so the signal often needs manual treatment to sound natural.

Tone

We’re surprised on playback because we don’t sound as deep or resonant as we thought. That’s due to the unique way we hear ourselves—via internal vibration and brain filtering. You’re the only person who hears you that way.

There’s no shortcut here. You have to practice to align your perception with recorded reality. It takes time.

Studios use specific tools for this

Professional studios use specific tools to compensate for the artificiality of recording and help the result sound more natural.

Compressors

These control dynamic range, just like our brain does in real life—making loud things softer, and soft things louder. Studios often record through hardware compressors so singers hear a more “normal” signal in their headphones, improving their performance.

Hardware

Preamps and equalisers shape tone. Engineers select gear to flatter a singer’s sound—darken bright voices, brighten dark voices, or preserve transparency. These tools are used before compression, often as part of a chain that captures the ideal tone before it even hits the computer.

Conclusion: Use the right tools for the job

Recording yourself rarely sounds natural without help. It’s an artificial process—and you need tools to make it sound natural.

Home studios can use plugins to improve tone and balance, but two points are key:

1) Making artificial recordings sound natural is a skill—it takes time to learn.

2) Plugins introduce latency (a delay between input and playback). It can affect performance if not managed well.

Hardware for recording

For this reason, I set up my own hardware-based vocal chain for myself and clients. It lets me quickly get a great, natural sound.

Still, tools are available to everyone. Most of the shock comes from how differently we hear ourselves vs others—and how artificial recording is by nature. Don’t beat yourself up. Just know there are ways to address this.

January 17, 2021November 29, 2025

A World Without Autotune

I love taking my daughter – Isla – to school and picking her up. I get to do it every day (bar one) in the week. It’s one of the greatest advantages of running your own business: you can make time to do the things that matter to you, especially with the people who matter to you. And this particular week I introduced her to a song recorded in a world without autotune.

One of the things we enjoy doing after school is sitting down together, chatting about our day, and often watching some short videos on YouTube. These may be learning videos, bike builds, and – as you may expect – videos of music performances.

One week, I introduced her to Sam and Dave. Sam Moore and Dave Prater were a soul duo that started performing together in the 60s and continued for many decades. You’ll know some of their hits like “Soul Man”, “Hold On, I’m Comin’”, “I Thank You”, and more.

Isla was utterly enraptured by the performances. She’s seen plenty of live music in recent years – festivals, events, churches, choirs – but she’d never heard anything that grabbed her like this did:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYh-LwbUwoQ

Here’s the thing about quality: it is often self-evident. Of course, taste plays a role in whether someone enjoys a piece of music. But once someone has had enough exposure to a discipline, a higher level of quality tends to stand out on its own. It feels like “a cut above”.

Note: I’m not saying this is the greatest music ever recorded, or that it’s a perfect performance. You don’t even have to like this kind of music. But go with me on this as an illustration of what it was like to record and perform in a world without autotune.

The problem we face in modern music

We are what we eat.

What we consume shapes what we are, what we prefer, and what we accept as “normal”. And in a world populated by Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, Billie Eilish, etc., it’s very easy to forget what real, unedited voices actually sound like.

Don’t misunderstand me — I like many of these artists. I’m not trying to tear down their commercial success or their musical validity. But what you’re hearing is a heavily, heavily processed version of what those voices would sound like if you were in a room with them, unamplified, no production.

What I also want to draw attention to is how different the demands are on artists now. The money in the industry is enormous. But the level of ability you need to record an album or tour as an act is, in many cases, far lower than it was.

Live then vs live now

Think about it: when you watch that 1974 video (yes, 1974), it’s all done live with zero technical aids. There is no autotune. Absolutely no click track or in-ear monitors. There are no overdubs. There’s no post-production to polish up the sound. It was a live televised performance. There are no do-overs, no retakes. There are no backing tracks.

Every band member is responsible for playing with each other, in real time, and doing it in tune and in time. Together.

In contrast, when you watch a “live” performance from many mainstream artists in the last 10 years, you’re very often hearing something that’s been massaged and produced to within an inch of its life — even live. Pre-recorded tracks are used to guarantee consistency. When something actually is live, autotune is often running quietly in the background to iron out imperfections a singer might let slip.

Unless you’re watching someone recorded on a random phone microphone in a tiny room with no production at all, you’re almost never hearing a truly unprocessed live voice from a major act.

Studio then vs studio now

Back in 1974, in the studio, overdubs were possible and some pitch manipulation could be done (for example, speeding up or slowing down tape, then splicing the “good” bits together). But that was an unbelievably painstaking process.

Everything was recorded to tape. Hard drives didn’t exist. Tape wasn’t cheap, and neither was studio time. Every hour spent in the studio and every reel of tape had a real financial cost. Most projects couldn’t afford unlimited takes.

It was usually easier — and cheaper — to get better at your part and perform it properly.

This is the work ethic that produced acts like Sam and Dave, and many of the best acts of earlier eras. And this is exactly what Isla was picking up on. Even as a child, she could feel the difference in intention, control, commitment. The quality was self-evident.

In contrast, now you can do a billion takes until you get what you want. Autotune can fix pitch in seconds. Timing can be quantised. “Live” instruments can be sample-replaced. Modern pop almost needs autotune to sound idiomatically “right”.

Worse still, many of us are being trained out of knowing what real voices actually sound like. I’ve taught younger singers who literally try to imitate autotune in their own voice. They’ve heard so much tuning that the artificial, mechanical “snap” between notes sounds to them like good technique.

It’s the vocal equivalent of body dysmorphia created by Instagram — where you’re comparing yourself to an altered standard and thinking the edit is “real”.

This is the diet a lot of modern music is feeding us, especially younger singers.

Conclusion: why this matters

I’m not asking you to decide that modern music is bad, or that older music should live on a pedestal. That’s not the point.

I want you to notice how much technology has shaped what we call “good singing”, and how that shapes your ear. If you’ve grown up mostly on modern music — or you’ve never deliberately compared eras — your ear might actually reject the sound of an unprocessed, real voice. You might not recognise it as “good”, because it doesn’t sound like the produced, tuned, layered voices you’re used to.

So: dive back into some older performances. Listen through the lens of everything above. You may be surprised by how impressive so much of it was, especially given how hard it was to capture a great take “back in the day”.