The iPad in My Home Studio

Matthew Ebel — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:08:14 +0000

The thought occurred to me the other day that the iPad could be indispensable for home recording studios. Whenever a vocalist needs to record, they’re typically locked in a sound-proof vault while the engineer works the controls back where the computer desk is.

But what if I’m the only one in my studio?

The Old Way

Until now the only options have been hardware control surfaces like the $1,200 Mackie units that act like a full-featured mixer or boutique wireless units like the Frontier Designs Tranzport. The latter is really the only thing I could bring into a vocal booth with me. If you take a good look at the controls on this thing, you’ll notice a lot of it is hard-wired to buttons. If I wanted to create a few more vocal tracks or select takes while I’m tracking vocals, I’d have to keep leaving the booth. And this thing costs $200. If I want anything else, I’d have to run a cable all the way into the booth and I’d still be limited to the buttons and functions the manufacturer thought I’d want.

The New Way

Now imagine I’m sealed into the mic bunker with an iPad and VNC. A device with no moving parts (read: vewy vewy quiet), a huge touch screen, and the ability to control absolutely every knob, slider, menu, and button that my recording software has to offer. If I’m recording vocals and suddenly realize that the tremolo on the guitar amp is making it difficult to stay on rhythm, I can shut it off without leaving the creative space. I can select the good takes to keep in my ears while I lay down harmony tracks. I can pull up lyrics or lead sheets as a PDF from my computer or on the iPad itself while I sing. Hell, if I’m feeling particularly masochistic, I could edit MIDI tracks by hand and tweak reverb settings from the comfort of my padded chamber.

When I’m performing my weekly UStream show, the iPad could let me control the chat room and broadcast console without taking CPU power away from my performance machine, the MacBook. But that’s another blog post, I’m sure.

Oh yeah, and it’s a frickin’ iPad too. When I’m out of the studio, I’ve still got games, books, music, movies, etc.

When I first saw the iPad’s launch, I was underwhelmed. Now, stacking it up next to current-model control surfaces, I can’t see myself buying anything else for in-booth control. I know this won’t make much of a difference to the general public, but for guys like me it opens up a world of possibilities. I need to save some money for two pieces of control gear: One bigass Mackie mixer for the desk, one iPad for everything else.

The iPad Long-Term Strategy

Matthew Ebel — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:03:11 +0000

Okay, we get it. It’s not an entire Macbook crammed into a single slate. It doesn’t have a 1080p color e-ink touch screen with backlighting, portal technology, and holographic projection. You hate it, fine. It’s not like I’m camping out to buy it once it finally ships. But before you divert your bored hours at work from Farmville to flaming the fanboys on every Apple message board you can find, read this and try to think about long-term strategy.

I’m a musician, so I have to think long-term. The entry-level position for most business is either mail room, receptionist, or dishwasher. For musicians it’s playing hours of classic rock tunes in bars where people are annoyed that you’re interrupting the football game. It’s spending thousands on an album that might just sell 50 copies, if you’re lucky. It’s setting up message boards on your website and talking to the same 3 friends who are bored at their day jobs playing Farmville.

If musicians only thought short-term, nobody would go into this business.

Apple’s new iPad is a lot like a new indie band. Right now the only people who will buy it are the hardcore fans, just like the people that bought my shitty first album when I was 19. If those people thought that was all I planned to release, they wouldn’t have stuck around for the next five albums that followed it. Those hardcore fans saw potential in me and invested in my future. Some of those fans saw potential in my latest project, Matthew Ebel dot net, and signed up early, before I had even released a single live recording.

Just like the iPad, I faced a lot of doubt and hate from people who lacked vision. For example:

It’s success if that’s what he wanted, definitely. If not…then no, he’s still got more work to do.

My guess? Dude still has a lot more work to do.
Hypebot commenter

Social networking provides a tiny, infinitesimal contribution to a musicians success, with all due respect to the Ariel’s and Matts of the world.
Music Think Tank commenter

And yet, more people sign up for Matthew Ebel dot net every month. My workload does not grow with the subscribers, so the new folks only make the music better: With more income, I can afford better equipment and make better recordings. I can go on tour and not worry about paying bills. I can hire a real drummer or an engineer with great ears. The same is true for the iPad- once the überfans start buying, Apple can start using economy of scale to its advantage, maybe add a few features that were too expensive for round one.

But it doesn’t have Flash or a camera or… So what? I don’t have a drummer. Hopefully someday I will, but right now there are enough people who are content to hear me as a piano-only act that I can keep paying rent. I can’t do everything I’d like to for my fans, but enough of them support me for what I can do. Once I find enough of them to take that next step, I’ll be able to reach those who give a shit about having a live drummer.

If I tried to start my career by putting on huge shows like U2, I’d be broke and back behind a desk playing some stupid Facebook game. Long-term strategy, at least for me, has always depended on starting with my core fans and working outward from there. Instead of pointing, laughing, and eating your words once iPad (or maybe me) becomes a household name, try to look at the road ahead. For some of us, it’s the only way we can stay alive.

Matthew Ebel » iPad

The iPad in My Home Studio

The iPad Long-Term Strategy