The Home Studio Experience and the COVID Pandemic

Towards the end of our talk, I asked Ben to weigh the overall positives and negatives of the COVID shutdowns mainly in terms of working in and improving his home studio. In this home studio context, he calls the effect “overwhelmingly positive” because of the time he’s been able to focus in and put time into it. There are clear negatives in other contexts, such as a twenty-five date tour he had booked for Koogler which got cancelled. But when strictly speaking about working on and in his personal home studio work, the positives vastly outweigh the negatives.

In his video Recording A Full Song!! (Studio Session #1 With Sharpe), Youtuber and music producer Sharpe documents and overviews the creation of a full musical project from start to finish. This project was created in his simple home studio. At his desk we can see a small Focusrite interface, two Yamaha speakers on stands, a mouse and keyboard, a small midi keyboard underneath, and his computer running FL Studio. Off to the side is a condenser microphone on a stand with a pop-filter and noise isolation shield. He shows us the different elements of creating his hip-hop track step-by-step. All the midi keyboard elements come first: the main chord progression, then another choppy chord progression, and onto a spacey melody line. Next is the midi drum elements: 808s, hi-hats, and claps. His last step is recording vocals. He preemptively answers the questions his viewers might have on why he’s not in the usual professional studio. Sharpe comments, “It’s on lockdown...The studio’s closed, literally. We’re just gonna be getting it in here today” This is a simple yet strongly relatable statement for the countless producers and music makers who’ve lost access to their normal, more outfitted studios. However, as we see through this video, these more outfitted studios are not entirely necessary for creating music ready for release. After going through all these steps, the final product is played for the audience. I found this video interesting because it’s the perfect visual and audible exemplifier of how musicians and producers can create full projects with just a barebones set-up in their homes, and at times be more efficient in doing so. One viewer commented on his own positive experience recording primarily in his bedroom. They state, “I’ve been recording in my room now since forever and it’s 100% more efficient than in the studio when you get into the zone and it’s a wrap in like 20 mins”

The importance of skill-versatility for home studio musicians and engineers is great, especially at times like the current where health crises and the economy increase said need. In “Impacts of COVID on Recording and Production.”, music and culture journalist Haley Zaremba states that the pandemic has drastically increased the shift from large studio formats to smaller studio formats (i.e. home studios), a process that has already been taking place anyway (Zaremba, majoringinmusic.com). Also brought up is the increase in musicians learning more about the recording process and engineers learning more about the music-making process, giving way to more interactive and successful creations and collaborations. Just like Sharpe, the role of musician and engineer are more able to merge in the home studio setting. With his setup, Sharpe can do all the work right at his desk. He can set his own volume levels because the interface is right next to him. He can press the record button for himself because it’s only a foot away from the microphone. He can edit and mix his tracks right within the digital studio workstation. Contained setups like these foster growth in becoming versatile in learning and utilizing tools for those who may lean toward being more of a musician than an engineer or vice-versa. The importance of skill-versatility for home studio musicians and engineers is great, especially at times like the current where health crises and the economy increase said need. It’s not just important for but extremely beneficial for furthering one’s musical vision. In “Trial-by-Fire: A Case Study of the Musician–Engineer Hybrid Role in the Home Studio,”Adam Bell documents a 26-year old songwriter learning how to function in and interact with a home studio environment, exactly what a lot of individuals have had to do since the pandemic and shut-downs began (Bell, 295-312). Just like this songwriter, many musicians begin to hone their own engineering skills so that they can further their musical visions past just writing and playing them.

This notion of the musician and engineer becoming one is strongly facilitated by the tools made available to us in this time. In “A Tool Is a Tool”, Pamela Z discusses the effects of technology, existing and new, on artistic creation and expression. Outlining the drastic wave of digitization in so many facets of modern life, she disputes that regardless of the form, a tool is a tool and can be used to one’s advantage (Z., 63). Introducing a new tool into one’s life can effectively serve to open new doors for artistic expression and gaining new skill-sets. Gaining new tools and skill-sets, whether it be learning a new DAW or learning how to set up a new mic, has been necessary for a lot of individuals who were newly forced to record, mix, and master in their own homes due to the pandemic. New tools come in the form of user-friendly digital audio workstations with vast capabilities, simple interfaces, midi keyboards, etc. Learning how to use these tools out of necessity fosters the implementation and learning of the skills required to do so. Of course, there is a caveat in that some people just don’t have the means to acquire the necessary tools. While cheap studio set-ups are fairly achievable to some, to others it is still a struggle.