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15. Setting up time
When you're recording in a pro studio, time is money. One of the great advantages of recording at home is that you don't need to rush anything, so take your time setting up your instruments and mics, and experiment until you get the best sound you can. This approach requires some patience, but it's the best way to learn.

16. Record 'as live'
Most bands rehearse in a room, effectively balancing their collective sound, so suddenly sticking headphones on them in a recording session can be quite disconcerting. If you want to capture a more natural vibe (and if the band are well rehearsed), let them set up as they do in rehearsal, then use a few carefully positioned mics to record them 'as live'.

17. Hard drives and file sizes
Audio files tend to be comparatively large in relation to most other files stored on your computer, so your system will perform better if you keep them on their own drive. If you have the option to increase the cluster size on that drive, even better.

18. Experiment with stereo
Some instruments, such as piano, naturally lend themselves to stereo recording. But all featured instruments can benefit from a spot of stereo treatment and it's often nicer to capture this at source. Give it a try.

19. Pop shields
Recording a vocal performance with a condenser or ribbon mic will require a pop shield to prevent plosive sounds on your recordings (and to protect your microphones from the corrosive action of saliva!) Stick one between the singer and the mic, a few inches from the capsule. If you can't afford one, make your own out of tights and a coathanger.

"One of the great advantages of recording at home is that you don't need to rush anything, so take your time setting up your instruments and mics."

20. Do a test recording
In a computer-based recording system it's quite possible you'll be monitoring your signal long before it reaches its final destination. To be sure there are no gremlins lurking in your setup it's a good idea to perform a quick test record and playback before you get into doing any proper takes.

21. Digital inputs
Using digital connections such as S/PDIF phono or optical can lead to clocking problems – clicks in the sound are often a giveaway. Most interfaces allow you to select a digital clock source (internal or external). When recording from digital inputs, it's often best to set this to 'external'.

22. Be ruthless
Now that disk space is so cheap and big hard drives are common, it's easy to leave far too much lying around on them, especially if you use software that enables you to remove takes from view without permanently deleting them. Save yourself time (and megabytes) in the long run by keeping only the takes that you think have a real chance of making it into the final cut.

23. Be cautious with gating
Gating a signal while recording is a useful way of keeping things tidy, but unless you're an expert with thresholds, it's also an easy way to mess up. Your software may well offer a silencing feature you can apply afterwards that's more flexible (and non-destructive). Logic's Strip Silence is one such example.

24. Understand meters
You'll encounter various types of meters in your recording chain (LEDs, VUs and so on). The biggest difference is that some of these are 'peak' and some 'RMS' (root mean square). A digital peak meter will be labelled up to zero. Beyond this point your recording will distort, so use a peak meter to monitor your maximum signal level and avoid hitting zero.

25. Editing
Although getting the perfect performance on a single take sounds like a wonderful ambition, it may prove time-consuming in reality (not to mention being the cause of the dreaded 'performance fatigue'). Try to approach the overdubbing process with the view that you may have to compile a good take from many others. Make sure you have enough in the bag, and then get in there with the razor blade and chinagraph – sorry, mouse and scissors tool.

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