Thread November 28, 2015 editorial: comments

Studio Wish List

Here in the U.S., we’re celebrating Thanksgiving, a holiday where we all stuff ourselves with more food during one meal than we normally eat in a week. Then, once we’ve recovered enough to get out of bed the next day, we start shopping for holiday gifts — or, if we’re recording musicians, for gifts for our studios. To that end, I’ve put together a wish list of my own consisting of studio products I wish were available this holiday season.

• The Non-Crashing DAW. Recording software that’s guaranteed to never crash, ever. Actually work for an entire session without those annoying crashes and reboots. 

• Large-diaphragm studio condenser with “instant sweet-spot” technology. No need to spend endless time trying to find the best microphone placement with this baby. Just aim it towards the source and it’s guaranteed to find the perfect placement thanks to the processor chip embedded in its motorized shock mount. 

• Tangle-Free Studio Headphones. Never worry about your headphone cable ending up under your chair or wrapped around your mic stand or your dog’s leg. Sensors built into the cable, and small motorized wheels on the side of the jack automatically keep the cable out of harm’s way and tangle-free at all times.

• Time Slower-Downer plug-in. If you ever feel like you don’t have enough time to spend in your studio, this is the product for you. Literally a time saver, this plug-in (AU, VST, AAX)  slows actual time down by 2x, 3x, or 4x, while you remain in real-time. Think of how much you can get done, when every hour seems like four. Just remember, if you’re going to use the slowest settings, you may need to set the buffer higher in your DAW, so latency could be an issue. 

• Studio Monitors with “Force-Field” Technology. These monitors emit an energy field that instantly controls all reflections within a 10-foot radius of your mix position, and automatically adjusts your room acoustics to optimal settings. At the press of a button you can recreate the exact acoustics of such famous spaces as Studio A at Avatar, Studio 2 at Abbey Road, The South Rim of the Grand Canyon, or even an anechoic chamber. Your mixes will never be the same.

Okay, it might be a few more years until we see products like those, but there a lot of good deals to be had on real studio gear and software, thanks to all the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales that are now going on. To make your life easier, we’ve compiled an exhaustive list of them. And, of course, if you have any ideas to add to the above list of “products,” feel free to post descriptions on the comments section of this editorial.