Manhattan apartments may not have enough room to cook
anything more sophisticated than instant mac & cheese, but who says
you can't roll your bed into a closet and make a hit album?
Even the New York Times is noticing the home studio trend in a story Sunday.
(Check that link quick; after a few days it will be fee-based!) While I
wouldn't call this a "quiet revolution" as the Times does, the home
studio phenomenon has arrived: everything from punk rock to Moby's top
40 hits is using basements and studio apartments as studios.
So, is this really news? The NYT doesn't ask that, but I think the
answer is yes — two things make it so. First, while computer recording
and even portable multitracks have been around for ages, laptop
recording and new economics that bring recording to a couple hundred
dollars are both very new. Second, home recording is no longer an
exception; it's the norm. Enough so that studios are dying everywhere.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing, though it does suggest that
there's a new market for inexpensive studios, even BYO laptop. My mic
cabinet leaves a bit to be desired, and my Manhattan apartment isn't
quite sound-proofed. Maybe I can rent Moby's apartment for a day.