2020 and the Covid-19 Pandemic. The year which has spelled doom for the music business as we know it. The entire industry of live music leveled to the ground overnight, leaving many musicians not only facing an unprecedented struggle in the now, but the looming uncertainty of the future only compounding problems. But with the unrelenting perseverance of art and the people behind it, not to mention going up against overwhelming odds, musicians have still found a way to live-streaming entertainment and produce and release music.
Its stands to reason now, as we in India have just gotten through the 2nd wave of COVID and the 3rd looms on the horizon, that pandemic isn’t going away soon. Live venues might have opened up in some capacity, but in no way has the situation eased. And the data tells us that there is likely to be more waves. And, now more than ever, times like these call for adapting and overcoming the challenges ahead.
More and more musicians have realised that to endure and stay relevant through the times ahead, they need to have the means and the know-how to release music online to remain connected and engaged with their fans. And fundamentally, this means having the resources to release high-quality music from their home to their fan base on a regular basis. Entry the need of the hour. A reliable home studio to produce music, vlogs and podcasts from.
Yet, with the cash-crunch that the pandemic has created especially in the music industry, the leap of faith into an investment in a home studio is not an easy one. So much that little is professed on what the absolute essentials are when it comes to the requirements of a home studio that could churn out high quality productions. Well look no further. Because we have the answer to the absolute essentials of a home studio that every indie musician needs to produce and release music or podcasts out of.
The absolute essentials that your home studio needs!
Your laptop. 1 microphone and connecting cables for mic and instrument. One 2-channel sound card. A pair of headphones, and an entry-level pair of 5-inch monitors. And GOOD ACOUSTICS. That’s it! Plugins can be acquired for a steal, and the stock plugins that come with most Digital Audio Workstations are pleasantly good at doing the job your productions need.
So, if you are a singer-songwriter who records, produces and releases their own music, or a session musician like a guitarist, bassist, violinist, percussionist and/or drummer, the items above are essentials you need. Drummers, you would have an edge over the competition with an 8-channel soundcard with a drum mic set, rather than just a lesser-channel setups, and yet these days many tutorials exist on YouTube regarding how to get superb drum sound with only 2 to 4 microphones. And coupled with good acoustical treatment room, this would set you up for life with an excellent means to deliver live acoustic drums effortlessly to any client the world over.
With significantly more music being released since after the pandemic (Songs uploaded to CDBaby by artists have gone up nearly 70% since April 2020!), it is the right time for a session artist or singer-songwriter to get their home studio game on point. Streaming income like royalties from Spotify (although small for an upcoming artist) have gone from the least-performing-asset of an indie artist, to the only one now. But on the flipside, there is a booming market for indie music now that the Bollywood and other Cine music production has been hindered by the pandemic. More listeners are tuning into indie artists every day. If there has ever been a more crucial time for an artist to invest in a home studio, it is now. Yet with the demand, comes an overwhelming supply of so-called “Studio Essentials” and “Studio Necessities” being pushed to the uninitiated. Hence this blog attempts to declutter and simplify the absolute essentials that a home studio needs.
The most effective way to deliver quality that astounds on a budget, be it on recordings, mixing, mastering or podcasts, is good acoustics. Utilizing the best soundcards, the best studio monitors, or the best microphones that money can buy does not guarantee you good results, because when you employ them all in an untreated room, or one with poor quality treatment, the entire quality of your process and your final song’s masters is compromised along every stage of the recording, mixing and mastering process. Record in an untreated room, and your recordings will neither sound as good as they should, nor will they be easy to mix. And the experienced engineers now know that getting it right at the source, i.e., getting good sound at the stage of recording an instrument, is how great records are created. And your problems compound when you mix and master in an untreated room, because neither will you be able hear your tracks accurately because of how sound behaves in untreated rooms (lots of undesirable “colour”, lack of clarity, and frequency masking caused by the untreated room), but additionally, the decisions you make while mixing and mastering will not translate to how you wanted them at all. And all this eventually leads to less-than-impressive results, and unimpressed clients. Whereas, on the other hand, even budget entry level gear, used to record instruments and mix and master them, when done in a well acoustically-treated room, will yield excellent final results with your productions. And there days, you’d be surprised at how great the budget gear sounds!
The path forward:
The Future Series Acoustic Panels
So, to sum up, the path forward during these difficult times, is an investment in the most capable essential of all. You, the artist themselves. Gaining the tools and the know-how to create music to release consistently has never been more accessible, and the barriers-of-entry have been made obsolete with great tools being available for prices that are truly a steal. And the “Future Series” Acoustic Panels from E Flat, is a testament to that commitment from us to you, through the thick and thin. Because, after all, the show must go on.
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