As a career musician, your job is to make songs that will sell. That means writing and practicing your music at home, perfecting it for a final mix and release. You’ll need the right equipment and know-how to do this before you’re ready to rent a professional recording studio and finish the product. 

Step 1: Know the Basics

You don't need to be an expert, but knowing the basics is extremely helpful. 

There are tons of tutorials online (see YouTube or Udemy) to help you learn the technical process of making beats, loops, and full tracks. However, before setting up your home studio and trying to write songs, you should know the basics of how music making works. This will help you write it faster and more efficiently instead of just playing things by ear.

What software do I need? What about equipment? What is an audio interface? What’s an audio engineer? What makes a good song? What is a melody? What’s harmony, song arrangement, tempo, music theory? These are just some of the basics that will be very useful to get you started. 

Step 2: Connect Your Equipment

A Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) is a must-have for every music producer. Learn how to use software like Ableton Live, FL Studio, Logic Pro, Pro Tools or others for composing, recording, mixing, and producing music. Even GarbageBand can go a long way with getting you started.

Next, plug in the mic and any instruments to your audio interface. This is how you connect microphones and instruments to the computer. Some good starter interfaces are Focusrite Scarlett, PreSonus AudioBox, Universal Audio Apollo.

For vocals, a condenser microphone is often the best choice, as it captures a wide range of frequencies. A pop filter can help eliminate plosive sounds (like "p" and "b" sounds) that might cause distortion. 

For instruments, the type of mic will depend on the instrument. A dynamic mic could work well for guitars or drums. 

While recording, it is common to use headphones so microphones don’t pick up any sound coming from the speakers, which creates an unwanted feedback loop and echoes.

Step 3: Record, Mix and Master a Song

Start by recording the core of the song. If it’s a full-band recording, it’s common to start with a rhythm section (like drums or guitar) or a basic chord progression. If you’re making electronic music, start with your beat or bassline. 

When recording vocals, stay a consistent distance (usually about 6–12 inches) from the mic and experiment with angles for the best sound. Don’t be afraid to record multiple takes of the vocals or instruments. You can later choose the best performance or combine parts from different takes. This is called “comping.”

After recording, clean up the tracks. Edit out any mistakes, unwanted noise, or silence at the beginning and end of your tracks. You can adjust the timing or pitch of some parts using your DAW’s tools (like autotune for vocals or quantizing for instruments). Try to keep it natural—it is easy to overdo it. 

Balance the levels. Make sure each track is at an appropriate volume so no instruments or vocals are too loud or too quiet. Start with the main elements, like vocals and bass, and adjust other tracks around them.

Apply EQ to shape the sound of each instrument. For example, you may want to boost the high end of a vocal or cut unwanted low frequencies from a guitar. Use reverb and delay sparingly to add space and depth.

Distribute sounds in the stereo field. For instance, pan the guitar slightly to the left and the keyboard to the right to create space and make the mix feel wide.

Next, make sure it sounds cohesive. Listen to your final mixdown on different devices (headphones, car speakers, stereo) to ensure it sounds good across the board. The last step is mastering your song to sound polished and professional: adjust the overall EQ, compression, and loudness. 

Remember to Backup and Save

As you work, save different versions of your project (e.g., "song-v1", "song-v2", etc.) so you can always revisit previous versions if needed. Never forget to save, and don’t gloss over the importance of saving different versions of your song. This is crucial, you never know how your creative process may change direction. 

Step 4: Finalize the Music for Release

Once you’ve mixed, mastered and saved your final track, you officially have a basic demo of how you want it to sound. Maybe you love it and are ready to release, but most artists don’t believe any home recording is on par with chart-topping songs. 

A mid-quality home recording is really a blueprint of what you can make. Take your audio file to a professional studio with producers and engineers who can help spin your idea into the best version of itself. Expert production and sound engineering can level-up your music so it actually competes with today’s top songs. 

Professional producers have the ears and experience to know what should be added, taken away, re-recorded, edited, mixed, or mastered in your track. They can teach you what it takes to build your song up to its full potential. 

Recording music at home is the best way to practice and explore your horizons as an artist, but typically isn’t the best way to record final tracks. 

Start making music at home, even if it’s just simple ideas at first. Experiment with different styles to develop a unique sound. Play around, don’t worry about perfection, and hit record. Soon you’ll have something you can turn into a hit.

Get the basics right, find your creative voice, get your DIY recording on file. Then take advantage of the top tier equipment and expertise at a nearby studio.