There are lots of reasons why people want to record music at home. Maybe you want to show off your musical vision to your band mates or show off your skills to potential band mates. On the other hand, maybe you just always fancied realising your own version of your favourite song, or just want some backing tracks to hone your improvisation skills over.

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Welcome to the second part of my series covering all you need to know to start recording your first song.

Last time around, we spent some time thinking about the reasons and methods behind home recording and looked at some bare rudiments or writing and arrangement. This month, we’re going to dive right in and run through some of the core techniques and methods that you’ll rely on in your productions.

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We’re going to look at some techniques you can use to add interest and variety to your track, and tidy up the rough edges. With all of the following techniques, it’s impractical to show you precise instructions on how to achieve each technique in your DAW, but all are basic facilities that any modern DAW will have: all you need to do is delve into the manual or, better yet, play with the buttons and find out.

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Welcome to the fourth and final part of my series of tutorials on recording your first song. I’ve introduced a lot of terms, ideas and techniques with the hope of giving you the background to tackle your first attempts at recording and to inspiring you to read and learn more.

Now it’s time to put the theory into practice by taking a simple set of musical ideas, growing them, and building up a final track.

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