How can I improve the sound of my audio recording?

Here are a few tips on how to get a good audio recording.

• Get a good microphone. Internal microphones in a computer, smartphone or tablet are very handy, but often not ideal for music production. They are useful for songwriting and demos, but you might need an external USB microphone or an audio interface if you want to get a better recording.
  
  

• Try to be in a quiet and absorptive environment to avoid background noise and echo-y reflections. Many great songs have been recorded under the sheets or in a closet, which actually works really great!
  
  
• If you're using your device's built-in mic, or an external mic without volume control, do the Volume test to set the right recording level and avoid clipping and distortion. If you're using a USB microphone or an audio interface with controls for gain/volume, please refer to your device's manual for guidelines on how to set the optimal recording level.
  
  
• Stay close to the microphone. This will help reduce background noise and room reflections. Keep in mind that with most microphones, this will also emphasize the low frequencies in your voice or instrument, so you might need to reduce the low frequencies with an equalizer (EQ) afterwards.
  
  
• Use headphones to avoid the sound from the computer speakers to accidentally be recorded, causing nasty feedback noise.
  
  
• Use a pop filter to remove the low-frequent "pops" that occurs because of the puffs of air created by consonants (such as "b", "p", etc). The closer you get to the microphone, the more this will be an issue, unfortunately.

Also, some effects can be added to "repair" a bad recording - however this is often very hard to do. Our suggestion then is to use an EQ to reduce unwanted frequencies.