Category: Recording Technology
Posted by admin in Recording Technology Wednesday, 5 May 2010 18:23
Recording studios have already taken a hit from home & mobile recording technology. Will the iPad join the fray?
There’s no doubt that digital recording has completely changed the face of music production worldwide. Recorded music used to be the exclusive domain of professional recording studios from the day that Thomas Edison recorded his first cylinder.
But times have changed, and they’ve changed quickly – even in only the past decade. I recall the novelty of my friend’s Tascam 4-track cassette recorder, which allowed us to make rehearsal room records that were only slightly better than popping a cassette in your boombox and pressing the record button. For us, the invention of the CD-R was a big thing.
Nowadays, not only has desktop recording become a reality, but digital mobile recording is also a technology commonly used by gigging bands, journalists, and virtually anybody else who needs to record high-quality audio on the go.
Will One Apple Spoil the Bunch?
As if it wasn’t enough that Apple came to dominate the online music market with iTunes and its iPod, the company has taken its mobile technology to the next level by allowing pro audio companies to harness the iPod for mobile, multi-track recording. From Numark’s iDJ Mixing Console for iPod to the Belkin TuneStudio Audio Mixer for iPod, the iPod can now interface with a multitude of different gadgets at different price points for a wide range of recording and performing settings.
“What might make the iPad a particularly attractive mobile recording device is its ergonomics”But what about the iPad? Has anyone thought about the impact that Apple’s newest mobile gadget will have on both recording studios and the music production community at large? Already there are several apps for the iPad that move it into the music production domain.
Studio Trach is perhaps the most interesting app for recording, as it offers true multitrack recording for the iPad. In addition to being able to record 8 tracks simultaneously, Studio Trach also offers a respectable effects rack for each channel, a metronome, and most ingenious, Wi-Fi syncing that allows you to import and export tracks wirelessly. The app can utilize the iPad’s integrated mic and headphones, but in order to take advantage of multi-track recording, you need to interface with a multi-input hardware and, because iPad technology is quite new, the verdict is still out on how reliable this interface truly is.
Another interesting music production app for the iPad is the Retronyms Synth. This iPad-driven app is a polyphonic synthesizer that can be operated via the touch screen or with a MIDI keyboard. Like similar soft instruments for desktop recording, Retronyms Synth offers more than 40 integrated instruments, a modulation wheel, and five dynamic control knobs. The small, touch-sensitive keyboard is limited in scope, but features five octave buttons, which allows you to jump between octaves quickly. The Retronyms synth offers musicians a fun yet versatile soft synth to play around with on the road, but it can also record directly to Logic or Garageband via an auxiliary cable as well.
Mobile Recording and iPad Ergonomics
But what might make the iPad a particularly attractive mobile recording device is its ergonomics. While the iPod has been used to interface with music production hardware, for the most part, it serves as nothing more than a kind of portable hard drive; the device that it interfaces with does most of the work. With the iPad, the large, dynamic touch screen gives musicians and producers the chance to use the device itself as a DAW, taking the place of a laptop or desktop computer.
Because the iPad has revolutionized the way users can use gestures to fluidly work, communicate, and surf the web, this way of traversing the digital world is most certainly bound to make an impact on the digital recording age.
Posted by admin in London Scene Report, Recording Technology Friday, 30 April 2010 15:43
Remember back in the day when professional music videos were the exclusive domain of rock stars and major record labels? Unsigned indie bands and labels never even considered making a music video — there were only a few media outlets that played them, and they only played the ones that sported high production value. Since the average band didn’t have the means to make a great music video, money was best invested elsewhere.
“Even unsigned bands who are completely self-funded now have the ability to produce affordable music videos that could easily play on MTV”However, two pivotal media-related developments changed the face of music videos for the “unsigned” masses: MTV’s format change from music videos to reality television, and the advent of YouTube. Together with the improvement of video technology and computers, bands no longer had to compete with the big-budget videos on MTV and VH1. Instead, YouTube allowed bands to upload home-grown, low-budget videos that didn’t even have to look great. After all, the YouTube crowd doesn’t expect the same slick production level that you see on regular TV. Now, bands could use the video medium to promote themselves online on their terms, resulting in a multitude of quirky, independent music videos peppering the YouTube airwaves.
I remember seeing early incarnations of the indie music video movement when Bright Eyes start to break into the indie scene. He had a variety of clever little music videos embedded on his website. Because his music video guru obviously didn’t have the gear to shoot provocative live-action video, they were all hand-crafted, stop motion-style vignettes — like something akin to Gumby or a vanguard animated short that runs before the main feature at an art film theatre. But it worked for Bright Eyes, as well as a cavalcade of other indie acts who followed suit with their own versions of “mixed media” video productions.
But music videos for the unsigned masses have taken a dramatic leap forward in recent years.
All of a sudden, we’re beginning to see music videos appearing on bands’ websites and YouTube that easily match the big-production stylings of the ex-MTV crowd: high-contrast lighting, engaging cinematography, and creative edits that keep the viewer interested. Even unsigned bands who are completely self-funded now have the ability to produce affordable music videos that could easily play on MTV, VH1, or any other a-list media outlet (if, in fact, any of them really played music videos anymore!)
The benefits of this kind of pro music video production for the little guy are huge: no other type of media renders the creativity, success, and marketability of a band or musician more than a music video. Not only does the video promote the music track itself, it also captures the aesthetics of the band and ascribes those aesthetics to the music. Also, on a very pragmatic level, it helps an unsigned band look much more successful and “competitive” in the ever-shrinking music marketplace.
The Beatles were the first to understand the far-reaching possibilities of the music video; they’re the ones who invented the art-form as we know it today. Road-weary from screaming, bleary-eyed hoardes of young girls and an ever-encroaching press, they decided to “let the record go on tour,” as Paul later recounted. Their first videos for the “Penny Lane”/”Strawberry Fields Forever” double a-sides were a huge success, since they gave the band a chance to match a visual performance with the music itself — something that was nearly impossible to do at time in a live setting.
However, even though The Beatles deserve credit for the invention of the music video, they certainly cannot take credit for the development of the high-production, low-budget music video that bands now have the ability to create. That credit belongs exclusively to the domain of independent music, which, together with the aid of advancing technology, has managed to crowd out Big Music not by brute force, but with a commitment to making great music and delivering it to enthusiasts through new and creative methods.
That is why now, even a struggling rock band in London can cobble together some money and put together an amazing music video that could catapult them into the mainstream. It’s only one viral campaign away.
So, if you’re still lamenting the death of the music video on television, rest assured that the art-form is still alive and well in cyberspace. Over the next decade, you can count on an increasing number of bands and musicians from every spectrum of the industry to produce music videos that we will love and they can afford.
Tria’s “Lights” was filmed at Resident Studios, a London recording studio that also specializes in affordable music videos and video production. E-mail info@residentstudios.com for more information on their music video rates, or call us on 0208 830 4321
