By the end of 2019, the music streaming industry is projected to offer $23 million in revenue in South Africa alone. The booming growth of this sector has allowed many independent African musicians to show their songs to the entire world and even profit from their art.
Even if you are not a consecrated star, you can make your own tracks in your home and get the ball rolling through the Internet. This is good news to the underground music scene, so if you have a passion for music, this is your time to gather a group, practice and record a sample. You can do that in your own, custom home studio.
Not any place will do
In order to put together a recording station, you will need at least one room that is prepared for the task. This can be tricky, because not everyone has a free room they can arrange as a studio. If they do, which is great, they have to mind the acoustics. The wrong acoustic treatment will tamper the quality of microphone recording, and allow sound leaks that are likely to generate complaints between your neighbors.
You need to create absorption surfaces that will balance out the sound frequencies; ideally you should get a set of acoustic panels, but if you are on a budget, a combination of drapes and egg cartons should do the trick just fine. Still, it’s a lot of work, and you might not even have such a room to begin with, so many musicians decide to build their own home music studio in their backyard. With affordable prefab kits, you can build a custom garage within the day, which has the perfect dimensions for your home studio. By building a space separated from your house, you will require less to no work to make it sound-proof and isolate it acoustically.
Make smart choices for your equipment
You need to shop for equipment tailoring your list to the style of music that you will do. For electronic and digital productions, a microphone stand with a pop filter and a set of virtual instruments will take little space and cover all your needs. This is a cost-effective and space-savy solution. Electronic devices and editing software are key for the quality of some styles, like recreating the chamber reverb of a gospel choir, or replace a bulkier and more expensive mixing table. Recording acoustic instruments will require its own set of compressor microphones, and don’t forget the metal stands for drums such as the djembe to keep them in place in the air while recording.
