Six Reasons Why Your Recordings Suck

Surprisingly, it often has more to do with things other than the quality of your recording gear

As a studio owner and engineer and as a recording forum moderator, I've heard quite a few home-made recordings over the years; everything from quick and dirty demos of ideas all the way up to highly polished and produced self-recorded DIY albums, and the one thing I can safely say is that the level of quality exhibited by those recordings is all over the map. Some are quite stunning; both their content and the presentation are outstanding. However, more tend to fall into the "pretty dreadful" category as far as their overall level of suckage, and the majority, while not quite meeting the dreadful description, could still best be described as mediocre. Since we're not interested in making mediocre recordings, let's take a look at some of the main reasons why recordings fall short. After all, once you realize why your recordings suck you can then take steps to address the issues and improve things. And contrary to popular opinion, the reasons why DIY recordings often fail to measure up to professionally recorded tracks has more to do with other things besides the quality of the recording equipment.

Your sound sources suck

Let's start with what you're recording. Bring me a cheap guitar and ask me to record it, and the best we can hope for is a good recording of a cheap guitar. Not that such a recording can't be interesting or musically appropriate, but it's never going to sound like a "great" guitar. If the sound of a cheap guitar is the appropriate choice for the music at hand and the type of sound the producer wants, then it may be the ideal choice for the project, but if you're looking for a high-end guitar sound, you're bound to be frustrated in your efforts to achieve it if the equipment being used isn't up to snuff. And notice I'm specifically referring to the instruments you're recording and not the quality of your recording equipment itself. If you want a great recording, the quality of the sound sources matter a great deal.

Your recording room sucks

This one kind of goes along with the previous issue. If the acoustics of the room you used to record in are dreadful, you can expect that to have an effect on the sound of the final recording. Often it's not just a matter of recording in a bad sounding room, but a failure to explore alternate acoustical environments that may be available to you, or the misuse of the available rooms. For example, you might be better off recording your vocals using relatively close mic positioning in a large walk-in closet filled with clothes instead of trying to do them using distant mic placement in an empty, untreated concrete garage. Fortunately the wide availability of mobile recording tools means you can track just about anywhere today, so if you're not liking the way the environment sounds, try moving the instrument and microphones to different locations within the room, or to a different room entirely. And don't be afraid to experiment with different recording environments for different sound sources - that garage that was inappropriate for tracking vocals may much more appropriate for recording drums, or for use as a makeshift echo chamber.  

Your monitoring environment is lying to you

More room and acoustics related issues? You bet - it's one of the biggest issues facing many home recordists, and one of the most neglected areas in home studios too. To a degree, all rooms lie. You simply can't make good decisions without good information to base them on, and when recording, that means an accurate monitoring environment that lies to you as little as possible. Practically every decision you make is based on what your monitors, amps and control room acoustics - the monitoring system - are telling you, so it makes sense to not skimp here. Get decent powered monitors, do what you can to treat your control room's acoustical environment, and spend as much time learning about the quirks of your system as possible. Compare your recordings to multiple professionally produced tracks you admire and use them as a point of reference, and check your mixes for "translation" consistency on a wide variety of systems in various locations before signing off on them.  

Your musicians suck

It doesn't matter how good their instruments are, or how nice the acoustical environment and recording gear is - if your musicians suck, you're going to have a really hard time trying to get an outstanding recording. What about editing and "fixing" things? While it's true that modern DAW tools allow us to do a ton of things in that regard, it's incredibly difficult to slice and dice your way to an inspiring performance if you start with utter dreck. The magic that good players can bring to a recording is significant. It's always better to capture that magic when it's happening than to try to manufacture it from sub-standard raw materials later.   

Your engineering chops suck - or your attention is divided

If you don't know where to put the microphone, or how to reduce bleed, optimize the gain staging, set up an aux bus for effects processing or headphone monitoring, or any of a thousand other things an engineer may need to know about in order to successfully face all the challenges of a recording session, your recordings are going to suffer.

Recording engineering takes similar levels of study, practice and dedication to really excel at it as it takes to master a musical instrument. You can't expect to buy a nice home studio rig online, have it delivered to your door and expect to have it all set up and be recording killer sounding tracks a month later. Some home recordists have, through study, practice time, trial and error become rather accomplished at recording. However, it can still be difficult to split your attention in two directions and try to handle the recording related tasks while simultaneously trying to perform as a musician.

Your songs and arrangements suck

Everything else can be optimal, but if you start with a poor quality song all the engineering skill and gear in the world isn't going to save you. You can have a poor quality recording, but still have a hit song. Louie Louie is a famous example of that. You can even have mediocre quality performances, but if the song sucks, no one is going to want to hear it ever again, and you're looking for songs that are so good that upon finishing their first listen, people want to hear the song again immediately and repeatedly. Honestly, are your songs that good? They need to be if you want to achieve widespread success.

Let's not forget about the importance of great arrangements either. Even if you have a great song, it can be hampered by a poor arrangement. Does your song have too many parts? Pull some of it out and use "subtractive" mixing techniques. Just because it was tracked doesn't mean it has to appear in the final mix. Even if the basic recordings are good the mix will suffer if there is too much going on all at once.

The important thing is to identify the weak areas in your recordings. If the quality of your recordings isn't knocking you out, it might be because you don't have enough nice recording equipment, but it's just as likely to be due to some of these other reasons. The good news is that all of these areas can be worked on and improved once identified, and the quality of your recordings will improve as a result. The areas listed in this article are far from comprehensive - they're just six of the most common reasons why DIY recordings don't live up to professional quality standards. Can you think of some others? Do you have a disagreement with some of the comments and points I made in this article? Then be sure to stop in to this thread in the Studio Trenches forum and let's discuss it!

Phil O'Keefe is a multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer / producer and the Senior Editor of Harmony Central. He has engineered, produced and performed on countless recording sessions in a diverse range of styles, with artists such as Alien Ant Farm, Jules Day, Voodoo Glow Skulls, John McGill, Michael Knott and Alexa's Wish. He is a former featured monthly columnist for EQ magazine, and his articles and product reviews have also appeared in Keyboard, Electronic Musician and Guitar Player magazines.