Home studios are steadily on the rise and struggling musicians are finding it easier to record their songs there instead of expensive conventional studios
Cliffy and Nikhil
Five days in July, Nikhil and JK sat in a studio in Maruthamkuzhy, for recording — Nikhil, his guitar and JK, his voice. With them was Cliffy, the man who set up a studio in his home, opening it to friends like Nikhil and JK, musicians coming to record their songs. With Cliffy, it was easy. He knew what they wanted.
There was also the flexibility of time. If Nikhil and JK had gone to a conventional studio, they’d have been charged on an hourly basis. Struggling independent musicians couldn’t afford that kind of money.
Home recording studios like Cliffy’s come to their rescue. These days, there are quite a few popping up in the state, without which a lot of the music we hear today would never have come out.
“People like Cliffy know our perspective, so we connect effortlessly. He wouldn’t charge us on an hourly basis. Bands like ours — Chaos — wouldn’t have the budget to go to a conventional studio,” Nikhil says.
Chaos is bringing out its second album ‘All Against All’, thanks to Cliffy’s studio. Cliffy has been a musician himself, once a guitarist in a college band. “If you go to a studio, you will be uncomfortable with the hours they give us to finish the work. They may not understand your style and you have to be dependent on them. All the time, your mind will be on the money you will have to pay for each hour you use the studio,” Cliffy says.
He sat and learnt the recording process, the mixing and got himself a set to open a studio at home — a mike, a sound card, speakers and a sound-proof room. He let musicians record day and night. That was one of the biggest advantages of having a home studio.
Rex Vijayan, guitarist and composer, would get into his studio at his home in Thiruvananthapuram and record any time of the day whenever creativity struck him. “In a conventional studio, you may need to produce in the few days and the fixed time you rent it for. You can’t take your own time,” he said. But Rex believes in ‘going hybrid’. “At some stage, any stage, it will be good if you take your music to a regular studio, at least to hear what you have made.”
Sometimes, home studios end up doing the work of short films in addition to music. Abhayadev S., who has a home studio, had done most of the work on the film Osyeth made by Technopark employees.
“My connection with music began as a child when I went to learn the chenda. In school, I was in a band with violinist Balabhaskar. Among my friends circle, I would always be the one handling the engineering side — the audio editing and all. That interest developed over the years, and I landed up in sound engineering.”
Three years ago, he set up his home studio in Thiruvananthapuram. “What changed is that a high-quality sound card was not inaccessible anymore. It was not so costly. Anyone with a computer and a sound card could do music production now, but there would be compromise in quality.”
A basic beginner’s studio could be set up under Rs 50,000, Cliffy says. But a higher quality professional studio, like what he has, would cost more, especially to soundproof the room. As Rex would say, “We are a lucky generation. Musicians before our times would sell everything to record their songs.”
He remembers the first album Motherjane made, spending the meagre money they made to rent out a studio. Now all equipment are available at a far lesser cost. So yes, it helps the struggling musicians a lot. Only, independent musicians had always struggled, and this setup, of creating professional home studios, has at least made it possible for a lot of young musicians to bring out their work.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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