My Latest Self-Recording Setup

Although I am no expert on audio recording gear, I wanted to pass along some good ideas about setups for self-recording during practice.

I’ve been making a renewed effort to incorporate frequent self-recording into my practice. A common and worthwhile suggestion is to make the recording step as quick and easy as possible, because even a small degree of friction in the process is likely to kill it. I’ve heard this from Noa Kageyama, a Julliard faculty member who blogs and does podcasts about music practice and performance psychology at Bulletproof Musician. And I’ve heard it from Kendall Betts Horn Camp faculty, including Randy Gardner and Jesse McCormick.

The easiest and quickest way to self-record is to just stick your phone on your stand and use something like the Voice Memos app (iPhone). I could not resist, however, searching for a method to produce better recordings while still being quick and easy.

One step up from the iPhone and Voice Memos method is to use the TwistedWave app with the phone. Noa has suggested this app because it can be set to disable the automatic volume compensation that the iPhone normally applies, resulting in a more accurate representation of how you are really playing.

I also saw a post by Noa in a discussion forum that pointed to Rob Knopper’s website, which is  where I found the post, “All the Gear You Need for Self-Recording.” Rob discusses several possible set-ups, with a range of cost and corresponding quality. I highly recommend this article if you want to go a step beyond using your phone. 

I decided to try the lower-cost, portable option recommended by Rob. It’s based on the RØDE Wireless GO II system (about $230), which consists of a small wireless receiver and two small wireless transmitter mics.

The rest of my setup is my MacBook, Amadeus Lite ($25, for recording on the MacBook), AirPods Pro 2 for listening back, and a sturdy music stand for placing my MacBook, RØDE receiver, and AirPods right next to my practice chair.

I place the two transmitter mics across the room, roughly 8-10 feet away. Here’s one.

I’ve been experimenting with this setup for about a week, and I really like it so far. Advantages include:

• There’s no messy cabling in the room, which is my home office and practice studio and also the first room people see from the front entrance of our house. The only cable is a very short one, used to plug in the RØDE receiver to my MacBook.
• The recording quality is better than what I get with my phone.
• Recording is controlled from my seated horn-playing position, no getting up and crossing the room to start and then stop recording. Amadeus Lite is easy to use, and a new recording can be started with just a couple of keystrokes.
• When I occasionally want to save a particular recording, in a particular location and with a meaningful file name, it’s far easier using my MacBook than using my phone.

I also like this setup because it’s a lot easier to make notes about my practice. I’ve been using my iPad for that, but typing on my MacBook is much quicker, and it’s easier to refer back to my notes from previous days. One interesting option is to save recordings together with my practice notes. Then I can include my observations about the recording in my practice notes, like this:

(The screenshot above is from Bear, which I use now for note-taking, but I have done the same thing in the past using Apple Notes. It works great.)

It takes about 30 seconds to get my MacBook and the RØDE devices ready before I sit down to begin practicing. Once this is done, though, I think the resulting process is even quicker than what I was doing using just my phone.

Now I just have to keep doing it. My goal is to spend a few minutes on self-recording on most days.