Many of us don’t have the luxury of working out of a proper studio. We work with what we have, which is usually a spare bedroom, corner of the living room, or other spot carved out of our home with permission from the people we live with.
Working with limited space and low volumes makes things a little trickier when you’re making music, so here’s a few gift ideas that can help out the bedroom producer in your life:
“Intro to Home Recording” with Zach Varnell $29
First and foremost, make sure you’ve got your home studio set up correctly. This class walks you through everything you need to get audio in and out of your computer, get up and running with virtual drums, and record guitar, bass and vocals.
Load box/attenuator $299-999
Let’s be real: tube amps sound best when they are cranked. If cranking amps isn’t possible, the next best thing is getting your hands on a load box– plug your amp into one of these and you can get the cranked sound at low volume (or even bypass the cabinet completely, record direct, and use IRs instead). Note: make sure you get the right one or you could damage your amp, so choose carefully!
Joey Sturgis Tones’ Toneforge $79
Amp sims are another solid option for great guitar tones at low volumes. One of the newer additions to the market is Toneforge, by producer Joey Sturgis (Asking Alexandria, Of Mice & Men, The Devil Wears Prada, etc). It combines an amp, cabinet, stompbox, EQ, and some secret sauce all in one plugin– hard to beat for one plugin at this price point.
“Metal Drum Programming” with Eyal Levi $39
If you’re not a drummer, programming drum parts that sound realistic can be intimidating. In this class producer Eyal Levi (Chelsea Grin, The Black Dahlia Murder, etc) shows non-drummers how to write drum parts that don’t sound like a robotic octopus played them.
