Home Blog Page 1774

How To Set Up A Recording Studio At Home – 9 Step Guide

Our Culture Mag & Partners
-
0
How To Set Up A Recording Studio At Home – 9 Step Guide

Gone are the days when you need a hefty budget to be able to set up a recording studio. Today, thanks to the benefit of the internet and the advancement of technology, anyone can set up a standard music recording studio in the comfort of their home even with the help of Audio Art Cable. Plus, you only need extra inches of table space, instead of a large room solely dedicated to the studio. 

Thankfully, we live in an age where almost anyone can record their own music. While there are several online platforms that allow people to upload their finished music, easy access to recording equipment has made it easier for a lot of music lovers to achieve their dream.

Here are the things you need to set up a home recording studio.

Computer

Make sure you pick a very reliable computer. There’s no need to spend too much money on an expensive computer. Simply get one that has decent storage and is very fast. Plus, it should be able to process the sound you want to record. You can either have a full desktop setup, a laptop, or even both. The laptop makes it possible to do your recordings on the go.

Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)

Most people do their recording with a computer and the help of a digital audio workstation (DAW). With different types of digital audio workstations available to choose from, it is important to do a little research to find out which one will better suit the kind of music you want to record. 

Audio Interface

If you are going to be creating all your music with the help of virtual sounds, then an audio interface may not be an essential part of your setup. Nonetheless, it is a good option to have. However, if you are going to rely on your vocals, then you need to have an audio interface as part of your setup. You should also have the kind of live instrument(s) that you want in your music connected to your audio interface. The quality of your sound matters, so it is important to buy good quality instruments. Before you buy, visit Making Music Pro to point you in the right direction.

MIDI Keyboard

A MIDI keyboard or a mini electronic keyboard is a must-have for any home recording studio setup. And don’t worry, you don’t need to be a Beethoven to be able to use it. Most of the time, you will simply use it to test out different sounds and melodies with your VST Plugins. The size of the keyboard to use should depend on how much space you have, but most probably you’ll want more keys for larger projects thus getting and 88 key MIDI keyboard might be an option.

Studio Monitors

Studio monitors will be used to hear what you are mixing or recording. If you are wondering why regular desktop speakers are not used for studio recording, that is because these PC speakers are already tuned for a certain type of music. Studio monitors are tuned flat and that allows producers to hear the dynamics of the tracks. A decent pair of studio monitor. A decent pair of studio monitors should be enough to do the trick. Thankfully, most of the models manufactured lately are both small-sized enough to find space on your table and have very good quality. Add a pair of balanced ¼” TRS cables to your studio monitors, and you are good to go.

Headphones

Not all headphones are good enough to be used in a recording studio. Thus, it is important to pick the right headphones – headphones designed to deliver a solid frequency response while offering a precise sound replication. Your headphones should also come with a noise canceling feature. That is, it should be able to eliminate any form of outside sound or noise and tune only into the music you are working on. Ensure that the headphones you choose have a closed-back design that enables it to minimize any form of bleed back from the audio you are working on.

Microphone

Whether you are looking for a modern, sleek, or vintage microphone, there are loads of options currently available on the market. Just make sure that you purchase a microphone that captures decent and clear sound. It should also produce a natural sound that stays true to the original sound when using your live instruments. For most recording experts, flat-top condenser mics offer better frequency response, as they are more sensitive when compared to the dynamic microphones. Also, ensure that your choice of a microphone can be used on different kinds of amplifiers, is easy to set up, and can also be used on acoustics and other audio sources.

Conviction And Creativity

You can have an impressive setup of equipment but if you lack the creativity or conviction it requires to produce good quality music, then you are basically wasting your time. Consider listening to different sound selections for inspiration. Get creative with the kind of music you want to showcase, and do not allow yourself to be held back by anything. For this you will need to plan exactly how you want your music tracks to be structured. You can start with blank clips, consider creating placeholder tracks and blank MIDI clips. This will give you a broader perspective of the track as a whole. To further stimulate your creativity, why not experiment with different sounds especially the presets or vocal phrases that you are unfamiliar with. By not simply sticking to what you know, you are opening yourself up to opportunities of brilliance while making your track.

Production Process Mastery

If you’re quite new to music production, it is crucial that you familiarise yourself to the key processes required. This isn’t something that you will learn in one day, rather it will take hours upon hours of practise to perfect. Granted, due to the complexity of these processes, it may be wise to get help from an experienced technical pro. So what exactly are these processes? Well the first is your songwriting abilities – think about how your track will flow from start to finish. Consider the rhythm, harmony and melody of the track because a great song is one that is emotive to the listener. Will it make them want to kick back and relax, or will it energise them to jump up and dance. Other essential processes to think about includes the editing and tracking process, the arrangement process as well as the final mixing and mastering processes.

The Last Dinosaur Presents New Single and Announces New Album ‘Wholeness’

Modestas Mankus
-
0
The Last Dinosaur Presents New Single and Announces New Album ‘Wholeness’

The Last Dinosaur, the project of artist Jamie Cameron, has revealed a new single named Wholeness and the Implicate Order, just today. Talking about the song The Last Dinosaur stated “This piece began it’s life in 2012 and was finally finished this year. A collaboration between me, Luke Hayden (piano), Rachel Lanskey (viola) and Lewis Daniel (brass and wind). A mess of memories. The magic to the mundane to the malevolent. Eventually the music is overwhelmed by the elements. Instruments continue playing until they’re lost to the wind, static, footsteps, electricity. Transitory bullshit ultimately designated insignificant by the relentless and overwhelming order of nature.”

Wholeness is due to be released on the 23rd of October via Phases.

Kate Tempest Changes Name to Kae, Adopts They/Them Pronouns

Konstantinos Pappis
-
0
Kate Tempest Changes Name to Kae, Adopts They/Them Pronouns

Kate Tempest has announced they will be changing their name to Kae Tempest. From now on, they will be using the pronouns they/them, the rapper and poet revealed on social media.

“It’s pronounced like the letter K,” Kae wrote. “It’s an old English word that means Jay bird. Jays are associated with communication, curiosity, adaptation to new situations and COURAGE which is the name of the game at the moment. It can also mean jackdaw brought the rain. Which I love. It has its roots in the Latin word for rejoice, be glad and take pleasure. And I hope to live more that way each day.”

Regarding the change of pronouns, they added: “I have tried to be what I thought others wanted me to be so as not to risk rejection. This hiding from myself has led to all kinds of difficulties in my life. And this is a first step towards knowing and respecting myself better.”

Read Kae’s full statement below. Their most recent album was 2019’s The Book of Traps and Lessons, which we named one of the best albums of the year.

SG Lewis Enlists Robyn and Channel Tres for New Song ‘Impact’

Konstantinos Pappis
-
0
SG Lewis Enlists Robyn and Channel Tres for New Song ‘Impact’

Sam Lewis, aka SG Lewis, has released a new song featuring Robyn and Channel Tres titled ‘Impact’. It’s the second single from his upcoming full-length debut, following ‘Chemicals’. Check it out below.

“The chemistry between Channel and Robyn is so powerful, and creates something so unique,” SG Lewis said in a statement. “Channel is an artist I believe will go on to create a musical legacy as important as the one Robyn has already created, and to have the two of them on this record together is insane. I hope it provides some release and euphoria in a time where it’s hard to come by.”

Speaking about the inspiration behind the song, Channel Tres explained: “’Impact’ is about how someone can come into your life and completely change you either for better or worse. In this instance it was for the better and I’m going through the emotions of denying something that’s obviously good for me but the hurt I’ve been through in my past causes me to put up defense mechanisms. While I’m putting up the defenses, the person trying to love me pursues me consistently and this impacts my life in so many ways.”

Robyn added that Lewis “made this instant thing, it’s a special skill to make a song that hits you right away the way ‘Impact’ does. The track just gave me the feels and it wasn’t ́t hard to write a chorus to it, especially with Channels vocals on there already.”

SG Lewis started making waves with his trilogy of EPs, Dusk (2018), Dark (2018), and Dawn (2019), which led to collaborations with the likes of Khalid, Dua Lipa, and Clairo. Robyn is set to appear on Jonsí’s upcoming album, while Channel Tres will feature on Disclosure’s new album ENERGY.

Bon Iver Share New Track ‘AUATC’ Featuring Bruce Springsteen, Jenny Lewis, and More

Konstantinos Pappis
-
0
Bon Iver Share New Track ‘AUATC’ Featuring Bruce Springsteen, Jenny Lewis, and More

Bon Iver have shared a new song titled ‘AUATC’, which stands for ‘Ate Up All Their Cake’, via Jagjaguwar. The track was co-written  Phil Cook co-produced by Jim-E Stack and BJ Burton. It features appearances from the likes of lsa Jensen, Jenny Lewis, Bruce Springsteen, and Jenn Wasner. Check it out below, alongside an accompanying music video directed by Aaron Anderson and Eric Timothy Carlson and featuring dance and movement from Randall Riley.

The track is billed as the second “episode” of “Bon Iver Season Five,” following ‘PDLIF’ which stood for ‘Please Don’t Live In Fear’, released back in April. Justin Vernon recently collaborated with Taylor Swift on ‘exile’, from her new album folklore. He released his fourth studio album i,i in August of last year.

beabadoobee Details Debut Album, Shares Video for New Track ‘Sorry’

Konstantinos Pappis
-
0
beabadoobee Details Debut Album, Shares Video for New Track ‘Sorry’

Filipino-British indie artist beabadoobee has revealed that her debut album Fake It Flowers will arrive on October 16th through Dirty Hit. The 12-track LP will include the previously released single ‘Care’ and the newly unveiled ‘Sorry’, which comes with a brooding visual directed by longtime collaborators bedroom. Check it out below, and scroll for the album’s cover artwork and tracklist.

In a press release, beabadoobee explained that ‘Sorry’ is about “confessing [her] mistakes in a friendship and watching someone who [she loves] breakdown and fade away as a person. It’s the idea of dismissing something because it felt too close to home and a personal reminder to never take for granted what that person could have had.”

Fake It Flowers follows last year’s Space Cadet EP, which contained the song ‘I Wish I Was Stephen Malkmus’, a tribute to the titular Pavement frontman. In addition to the new album, beabadoobee – real name Bea Kristi – recently told Beats 1 Radio that she’s working on a new EP produced by the 1975’s Matt Healy and George Daniel.

Fake It Flowers Cover Artwork: 

beabadoobee fake it flowers artwork cover beabadoobee Details Debut Album, Shares Brooding New Song Sorry: Stream

Fake It Flowers Tracklist: 
1. Care
2. Worth It
3. Dye It Red
4. Back To Mars
5. Charlie Brown
6. Emo Song
7. Sorry
8. Further Away
9. Horen Sarrison
10. How Was Your Day?
11. Together
12. Yoshimi, Forest, Magdalene

Watch Phoebe Bridgers Perform on ‘Live On KEXP At Home’

Konstantinos Pappis
-
0
Watch Phoebe Bridgers Perform on ‘Live On KEXP At Home’

Phoebe Bridgers was the musical guest on the latest instalment of Live On KEXP At Home. The singer-songwriter performed three songs from her latest album, Punisher – ‘Chinese Satellite’, ‘Kyoto’, and ‘I See You’ – as well as a cover of Sinèad O’Connor’s ‘Black Boys On Mopeds’, from her 1990 LP, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. Bridgers was accompanied by her band for the first three songs, and performed her chilling rendition of ‘Black Boys On Mopeds’ solo. Check out her performance below.

In between performances, Bridgers also spoke to host Cheryl Waters about life during the pandemic, missing the parts of touring that she used to hate, her collaboration with Courtney Barnett for the Newport Folk Festival, and more.

Last week, Bridgers unveiled the video for ‘I Know the End’. She also recently performed ‘Kyoto’ on a remote edition of  The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Punisher, which we named one of our favorite albums of the year so far, was released in June.

Mush Present New Single ‘Dead Beat’

Modestas Mankus
-
0
Mush Present New Single ‘Dead Beat’

Mush, a magnificent post-punk band out of Leeds, has released their latest song Dead Beat. The song comes after the release of their debut album 3D Routine, which was released earlier this year. The album included arguably their most successful song Revising My Fee.

Mush will also be following up with a five-track EP named Great Artisanal Formats which is due to be released on the 29th of August for Record Store Day 2020.

Tracklist for Great Artisanal Formats:

  • A1 SNAG
  • A2 Fear Index
  • A3 FTA
  • B1 Saint To Your Slave
  • B2 Dead Beat

Album Review: Alanis Morissette, ‘Such Pretty Forks In The Road’

Konstantinos Pappis
-
0
Album Review: Alanis Morissette, ‘Such Pretty Forks In The Road’

Expectations were high for Alanis Morissette‘s ninth album, Such Pretty Forks In the Road: not only because it marks her first album in eight years, but also because the shadow of her landmark LP, Jagged Little Pill, still looms large. With a musical version having debuted at Broadway last year and the 25th anniversary deluxe edition being unveiled earlier this year, Morissette was set to go on a Jagged Little Pill tour before the pandemic changed everything; it’s almost as if it wasn’t even worth comparing it to her most recent effort. After being repeatedly delayed due to COVID-19, it wouldn’t entirely be a surprise if Morissette decided to wait a couple more years to release the album.

Granted, Such Pretty Forks In The Road is no Jagged Little Pill, but it’s not trying to be; while that album was a landmark release for alternative rock thanks to its voraciously defiant expression of female angst, her latest finds her honing in her skills as an emotive songwriter, resting on the reliable musical territories of power balladry and soft rock while flaunting her powerhouse of a voice to unsurprisingly great effect. It’s certainly an improvement from her last album, 2012’s stultifying havoc and bright lights, which too often mistaked maturity as little more than self-indulgent psychobabble.

Rather than suffering from the same pitfalls, though, its follow-up sees her returning to the raw power of her confessional songwriting without repeating the same formula that brought her success. Instead, she infuses it with some of the theatricality that’s likely inspired by that Broadway production of Jagged Little Pill, which leads to some of the album’s brightest moments: ‘Reasons I Drink’ is undeniably the biggest highlight here, its jaunty piano line underlying some of Morissette’s most personal lyrics, which detail her struggles with addiction in a way that might not necessarily be revelatory but still stands out as strikingly potent. Of the many spare piano ballads on the album, ‘Diagnosis’ is the most compelling, tackling the subject of postpartum depression with dramatic instrumentation and lyrics that never feel contrived. “Call it what you want/ ‘Cause I don’t even care anymore,” she sings in desperation, “Call me what you need to/ To make yourself comfortable.”

Moments like these serve as much needed reminders that Morissette’s knack for writing powerfully direct songs hasn’t gone anywhere, and the album doesn’t dilute her signature approach as much as it sees her using it more sparingly, which makes stand-out tunes like the lilting ‘Sandbox Love’ hit that much harder. “Awkward as fuck/ Precious as fuck/ Scary as fuck,” she belts out on the track’s chorus, navigating what it means to have a healthy relationship with sex as a survivor of abuse. While both Morissette’s performances and her songwriting (here aided by Morrissey sideman Michael Farrell) are frequently riveting, they’re sometimes undercut by the less-than-dynamic, often thin instrumentation, which can make an otherwise promising track feel unremarkable. ‘Losing the Plot’ is driven by a kind of simmering tension that never really explodes, the distorted electric guitars losing their punch as they’re drowned out in the background. A track like opener ‘Smiling’, on the other hand, manages to evoke a much fuller sound without overshadowing Morissette’s singing, despite the fact that its chord progression and guitar tone are little too similar to Radiohead’s ‘My Iron Lung’.

Towards the end of the album comes ‘Nemesis’, which, with its imposing arrangement and propulsive rhythm section, achieves the kind of emotional release that’s exactly what this album needed. While some of the record’s most evocative moments are those where the stripped-back instrumentation acts as a backbone for Morissette’s stunningly expressive voice, like on the feminist ‘Her’, when the theatricality of the songwriting successfully matches her poetic brilliance, an entirely different kind of magic emerges. For many, Such Pretty Forks might be little more than a reaffirmation of Morissette’s many strengths, but despite its shortcomings, it also stands as a testament to her evolution as a songwriter. “When the glare of the lights grow dim/ And you’re left with a delicate real/When the bright lights clear, there’s just me sitting here,” she sings on the closing track, ‘Pedestal’. Wherever she decides to take her music next, that vulnerability is always going to be at its core; and though she wryly describes that exposed version of herself as “sometimes average, sometimes more”, when it manages to cut through, it really is a lot more.

Tim Heidecker Announces New Album ‘Fear of Death’, Unveils Title Track

Konstantinos Pappis
-
0
Tim Heidecker Announces New Album ‘Fear of Death’, Unveils Title Track

Tim Heidecker has announced a new LP, Fear of Death, featuring contribution from Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering, the Lemon Twigs, Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado, and more. The follow-up to 2019’s What the Brokenhearted Do… comes out September 25 via Spacebomb. The artist has also unveiled the album’s title track, along with a music video filmed at Valentine Studios in Los Angeles. Check it out below, and scroll for the cover artwork and tracklist.

“I didn’t know that this record was going to be so focused on death when I was writing it,” Heidecker said in statement. “It took a minute for me to stand back and look at what I was talking about to realize that, yes, I am now a middle-aged man and my subconscious is screaming at me: ‘You are getting old, dude! You are not going to live forever! Put down that cheeseburger!’”

He added: “This record is a dream come true for me. I got to work with some of the best, and nicest, musicians in town who helped me take some shabby, simple tunes and turn them into something I’m really proud of.”

Fear of Death Cover Artwork:

Fear of Death Tracklist:

1. Prelude to Feelings
2. Come Away With Me
3. Backwards
4. Fear of Death
5. Someone Who Can Handle You
6. Nothing
7. Say Yes
8. Property
9. Little Lamb
10. Let It Be (The Beatles cover)
11. Long as I’ve Got You
12. Oh How We Drift Away

1...1,7731,7741,775...1,947Page 1,774 of 1,947