How To Record Guitar On Phone

Whether you're a novice guitarist or have years of experience, y'all need to know how to record guitar. Quality audio recordings tin can assistance you lot listen and better your skills or provide you lot with an excellent sample for producers. No affair your reasoning, employ the following tips to get started.

How to Record Guitar with Your Smartphone

To record guitar, you don't always demand a fancy ready-up with tons of expensive equipment. Smartphones can give yous a high-quality, balanced recording – as long as you complete a few simple steps beforehand.

Withal, do keep in listen that recording your guitar with your smartphone may not be the best option for any professional person setting. If you need to present a sample to a producer or post a song on Spotify, you may want to steer away from using your phone. Still, some artists savour the sound of a phone recording.

So, have some fourth dimension to explore what you can do with your phone and whether you like it or non. It'due south a neat step until you can become more than equipment for professional recordings!

To make the virtually of your phone recording, here are some great tips. Keep in mind that the following points are for recording with just the microphone in your phone, not with an added external mic.

1. Invest in a Recording Application

When you want to record something, what app do you open up on your telephone? You may be tempted to use the generic vocalization memo app that is preinstalled on your phone. However, those apps will significantly limit what you can do with your guitar recording.

Your best bet is to download a recording app – or better yet, several – earlier trying to record your guitar.

The two chief types of recording apps are single track and multitrack apps. A single-rail awarding records only one sound input, while a multitrack app tin can tape several inputs and track them separately.

Some of the best unmarried-rail apps include Dolby On, TwistedWave, and Recorder Plus. Likewise, a few corking multitrack applications are FL Studio, Cubasis, and Garageband.

two. Don't Place the Telephone Too Shut – or As well Far – from the Guitar

For whatsoever type of recording, whether it be instrumental or vocals, the type of microphone and its placement are crucial. If you lot don't accept any external microphones and but want to record your guitar with your phone's mic, you need to understand your smartphone's capabilities.

First, practise some research about your telephone's mic – if you aren't familiar with it already. In general, phones aren't designed to do professional musical recordings, and then the mic can speedily overload if the placement is incorrect. Nonetheless, some phones practice have a more than professional internal microphone.

All the same, even some of the best phone microphones are for voice recordings, non guitars. So, what's the answer to a quality recording? Placement and practice. We'll give you some basic guidelines for the perfect phone placement, but brand sure to try out some variations to see what works best for your telephone's internal mic.

Put simply, don't put the phone besides close or too far from the guitar. Extremely close proximity will likely cause the mic to overload, while a farther placement tin can pick upward too much ambient sound.

Outset with the phone about a human foot away, non directly in front of the soundhole, simply more facing the base of the neck. Then, play with the distance a fleck until you get the recording sound you want.

3. Suit Audio Settings

For a top-notch phone recording, you'll demand to go very familiar with the intricacies of your phone'southward audio settings. Numerous settings affect a guitar recording, but nosotros will but touch on on a few briefly here. Don't be agape to dive deeper on your own and play with the settings.

Once you cull which recording application you would like to employ, open upwards the sound settings and review the post-obit sections.

Gain: The gain setting controls the input level – not the volume level – of your recording. If you hear clipping or the audio sounds foreign, endeavour adjusting the gain.
Lossless Audio: Some recording apps include the option to create lossless audio, which produces a compressed final audio file.
Noise Reduction: If yous don't take an external mic, this characteristic could be quite helpful. The noise reduction option tin can identify any groundwork noise that could interfere with your music.
EQ: As a mutual audio setting, yous may be tempted to arrange the EQ levels get-go. However, since you're recording on a phone, you don't desire to adjust the application's EQ levels since it will merely touch what y'all hear on your telephone. Other people volition listen to your music on different devices, then they won't have the same audio feel.

How to Record Guitar with Your Computer

For nigh situations, recording your guitar with a computer is the all-time pick since you can connect more microphones and equipment and use professional person production software.

Of course, with a more professional recording organization comes a more complex organisation to acquire. Here are simply a couple of tips to get you started recording your guitar with your PC or Mac computer.

four. Use Multiple Microphones

Using a computer to record your guitar commonly ways you have more flexibility on how many mics you tin employ. So, if you have the adequacy of adding in more microphones, why not take advantage of that?

With more than ane mic, you can option up on dissimilar parts of the guitar'due south sound. For example, you can employ one microphone to record the intricate plucking sounds while another i picks up the resonance that bounces around the room.

Essentially, utilizing more than one microphone gives you lot the freedom to tape every part of the guitar's music and manipulate the recording.

v. Pick a Quality DAW

Of course, you won't exist able to adjust the microphones' recordings much without a Digital Sound Workstation (DAW). Like a recording app for your smartphone, a DAW is reckoner software that gives you lot the ability to have a mini recording studio on your PC.

Some of the best and most popular DAWs include FL Studio (yep, there'due south a PC and app version!), Studio One, Audacity, and Pro Tools. When y'all review each of these options, check to see if they are compatible with your PC, how much they cost, and what they offer.

6. Connect to a Calculator with an Audio Interface

Whether y'all want to connect your guitar directly to your figurer to record or utilize microphones, you'll demand an audio interface.

You lot'll find dozens of options available, ranging in size and capability. A few keen options include the Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 with 4 inputs and the iRig Hd 2, which is a small, portable option.

How to Record Acoustic Guitar

Considering the type of guitar you have is central when planning your recording. An acoustic guitar is unique because it produces a broad variety of sounds. From the twang of the strings to the slaps on the guitar's body, every sound adds to the fulness of the song.

You want to prepare your recording set-up thoughtfully so you can capture all of those sounds in your recording. Take into consideration the post-obit tips for the best results!

7. Avoid Using Amps

Even if y'all can hook up your guitar to an amp, effort to avoid that when recording. Your acoustic guitar has a natural amplifier chosen the soundhole. The all-time way to capture the cute, total sound of an acoustic guitar is by simply recording it with a carefully placed microphone.

Have reward of the natural resonance; past hooking your guitar upwardly to an amp, y'all can unintentionally distort the sound or produce low-quality music. With one or two mics, you can easily pick up plenty sound to create a well-counterbalanced recording.

eight. Carefully Consider Your Recording Environment

Since you will ideally not be using amps to record your acoustic guitar, you demand to consider how the sound waves emanating from the instrument bear upon the recording.

In professional recording studios, the walls and surfaces are covered with paneling to reduce whatever echoes and unnatural sounds. However, when you record your guitar on your own, you'll likely exist in a room without paneling.

Any hard surface – like a table, desk-bound, or wall – can reverberate the sound waves and produce a recording that sounds a flake strange.

Try to option a room that has softer surfaces to absorb the sound waves. However, no room volition give yous the same effect equally a recording studio. You can make up for that with the mic placements and audio adjustments.

nine. Record and Monitor Multiple Takes

With the intricacies of the audio-visual guitar, you'll need to take some time to find out what works and what doesn't. Depending on how you play, the microphone you utilize, and where yous tape, you may need to brand several adjustments.

In that location is no straightforward rule to successfully recording audio-visual guitar since numerous factors come up into play. As such, try different things, brand multiple recordings, and be flexible. Acquire from your mistakes, and have the time to find the perfect recording method – especially if y'all desire to employ your recording to promote your music.

How to Record Electric Guitar

Recording an electric guitar is quite different than creating music with an electrical guitar. Since yous need to connect an electric guitar to an amp or computer to get the full sound, you demand to take a slightly different approach to recording.

ten. Adjust the EQ

We mentioned that you lot shouldn't adapt the EQ when recording with a phone, only for electrical guitars, you will need to do so before recording.

Play with the EQ controls on the guitar and the amp until they are just right, so you don't need to equalize the music later on. While information technology may not seem like an important step, it tin can salvage you time when editing and produce a much cleaner recording.

11. Limit the Effects

Recording an electrical guitar is completely different than performing or jamming out with your band. Y'all may enjoy using furnishings like reverb or distortion, but effort to limit those when recording yourself.

Think of it this way. If you tape your electric guitar with all the added effects, there's no way to remove them in the editing process. Plus, when you include things similar distortion when recording, the upshot often multiples in the recording. What you hear when playing is not always what you lot arrive the final product.

If you desire any effects in the final recording, add them in during the editing stage.

12. Consider an Amp Simulator

To record an electric guitar, yous demand to have an amp, right? Incorrect!

The correct amplifier – and mics placed in forepart of the amps – can be costly. If you lot don't have a professional-quality amp, you can opt for an amp simulator, saving you money and space.

An amp simulator is a unproblematic plugin that tin can give yous the aforementioned sound quality that an amp would. While it may non feel the aforementioned as playing with an actual amplifier, information technology may produce a much higher quality sound than using your amp.

Full general Recording Tips

Whether you lot are recording an audio-visual or bass guitar with your phone or computer, there are some generic tips that everyone needs to know.

Brand certain to utilize the post-obit tips with the appropriate points above for the absolute best concluding product.

thirteen. Invest in a Stand

If you lot are using your smartphone to tape your guitar, a phone stand is crucial to getting a crystal clear sound.

Setting the phone on a table, chair, or even leaning it confronting an option tin set you upwardly for failure. Even the slightest vibration – from the music you're playing or a notification – volition become a office of your recording and interrupt the flow of the song.

To avoid whatever frustrations and potential disruptions, invest in a phone stand that will go along your phone still and steady.

Now, a stand isn't only for people wanting to record with their phone. Microphone stands are equally equally important. Don't settle with setting your mic on a table or creating an intricate fix-up to go the perfect placement.

A mic stand volition make your recording procedure easier, allowing you to get the mic (or mics!) in the exact position you need for the fullest sound. Plus, your set up-up will await and feel much more professional.

14. Mic Placement Is Crucial

Speaking of microphones, where yous decide to put them tin make or break your terminal product. We discussed where to put your telephone when using its internal mic, but there are additional factors to consider when using external microphones.

Acoustic Guitar

If you are recording acoustic guitar, consider using one or 2 mics. Multiple microphones can give you a fuller audio, just you can still go a quality recording with only one.

No affair the number of mics y'all employ, don't place any facing directly at the guitar's soundhole since the sound may come across as too full. The interior space of the guitar is meant to produce resonance and powerful sound – but at a altitude.

Therefore, make sure to movement the mic a little to the right, right where the neck of the guitar meets the body, then you don't overpower the mic with powerful reverberations.

When using ii mics, consider the XY configuration, which can eliminate whatsoever potential bug with phasing. This method places the mics and so they are pointing to contrary ends of the guitar while sitting at a 90-degree angle to each other.

Electric Guitar

When recording an electrical guitar with an amp, ensure that y'all place the principal mic right in front of the amp, so you merely tape the guitar, not any other sounds. A secondary mic tin pick upward room sounds for a fuller audio feel, but you should place it further away from the amp.

In addition to the proximity to the amp, consider the placement in regards to the speaker cone. If you place the mic closer to the centre of the cone, y'all'll notice that the tone becomes brighter. Likewise, if you put it near the border of the cone – and amp – y'all'll go a flatter tone.

Ultimately, the decision is up to you where y'all place the mics since the concluding production is your art. Try out various placements and run into what works best for your playing style.

xv. Get Some Gear

No, y'all practise not demand expensive, peak-notch equipment for the best guitar recordings. As previously mentioned, yous can create a powerful product with only your smartphone.

Nonetheless, a few pieces of quality gear can save you some fourth dimension and endeavour while giving you smoother sounds. Here are some essential tools and a few extras to amend your recording set-up:

Microphone: Quite peradventure the nigh important investment, a quality microphone will be able to choice up every aspect of your music, from the deep bass notes to the intricate plucking.
DAW plugins: Digital audio workstations are the software you use to manipulate the sound on your recording. Some options are free, and others but take paid options.
Sound interface: When using microphones, you'll need to get an sound interface to connect them to your computer.
Monitors: When recording using a computer, a large, quality monitor tin brand your recording procedure easier on you and your optics.
Headphones: Y'all tin can't always hear the details of a vocal with just your calculator or phone speakers. Decent headphones volition permit you listen intently to your music and pick up any trouble areas in your recording.
Portable Vocal Booth: These mini sound panels tin can reduce ambiance noise and create a cleaner recording.
DAW Controller: Ranging from a keyword to a mini soundboard, these controllers connect to your computer and let y'all adjust your song even more in your chosen DAW.

Every bit the Head Editor at Music Grotto, Liam edits content produced from over 30 professional person music/media journalists and contributing writers. He works closely with journalists and other staff to format and publish music content for the Music Grotto website. Liam is also the founding member of Music Grotto and is passionate in disseminating editorial content to its readers.

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