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The entertainment landscape has been changing since the internet became a household resource, but the reason for it can still be a mystery to a lot of people. “Content is king” is a common phrase even to people outside that world of marketing and content creation. Peel back one more layer and you stumble across the world of social publishing, the world of content creation designed to be shared and connect consumers to the brands they care about.

So what exactly is social publishing? Chances are if you’ve scrolled through Facebook, or if you’ve been on the internet at all, then you’ve come across it. Blogs, Youtube videos, and articles are all examples, whether it’s user-generated or company generated. This content is usually free, designed to connect, and build some sort of following or brand awareness. It’s important for companies to realize this, because one way or another it will affect business, and the successful companies will be the ones that can harness it to their advantage.

Companies can benefit primarily in two ways. The first is by going out and creating the content themselves. This offers control of the branding to the company, and they can be specific about how they want to offer value with their content and what the messaging about the company might be. An example might be a business that sells grills putting out a Youtube video on the best way to clean grills. A consumer will search for this video, with or without knowledge of the brand, which will allow the business to further establish itself as experts in that industry.for

The second way businesses are effected would be when the users generate content. For example, that same customer might go on to make their own video on which cleaning method worked well for them, but they do it with a different grill from a different grill manufacturer. Now two videos there are two videos competing, but one builds brand identity for the competition. There are a number of outcomes when the user generates content, but ultimately, the brands no longer have control of the brand image.

Okay, so maybe $800 dollars isn’t cheap, but it is compared to what it would have cost to build a studio 20 years ago, so be grateful. The main point of this video is to give you an easy, clear cut way to get there. If you are at all serious about music this is the perfect balance of cost efficiency and quality sound. If you get much cheaper, you’re going to be upgrading about a year down the road, so I would advise against it. If you are dying to start, you could cut corners to get the $800 down to $400 – $500, I just wouldn’t recommend it.

In fact, I don’t see why you couldn’t put up some blankets, buy a $20 dollar beat off BeatStars, drop it into audacity and use a $100 usb mic to get the job done. Assuming you could find a way to mix on your ear buds, I don’t know, maybe you have a hit for $120. I’ve seen this done before with no success, only to end up buying the same gear I recommend. But you do you.

The interface is Focusrite Scarlett. What ever size suits you best, but I’ve seen the 2i2 just about everywhere. It’s an industry standard as far as bedroom producers go.

You could get some KRK Rokits or the M Audio BX5s, doesn’t really matter to me, but get some decent speakers. The keyword is decent. Not top of the line, you’re not ready, and if your room is treated pretty well, either of those choices are going to sound pretty great.

The mic I could really care less about, if people recommend it and it sounds good with your voice and style, get it. It could be an SM58 or something top of the line, but it seems like the Rode NT1-a is a good middle ground. I’ve recorded so many people on mine, most of them sounded pretty good.

For the rest of it and the links to everything I recommend, be sure and check out the video. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!

Happy producing!

 

In this video I went in depth on how to use the Waves Tune Real-Time plug-in. It’s a really powerful tool IF you know how to use it, so I wanted to go super in-depth to show show all the features. It’s a lot simpler and straight forward when compared to the similar Antares Auto-Tune, but it does take a little more effort to get the exact sound you might be looking for.

Most importantly, it is generally priced out at $79 on waves.com, which makes it significantly more affordable than other vocal tuners on the market, and with the amount of sales that Waves runs, you can likely get it for even cheaper.

The two features I miss from Antares Auto-Tune would have to be a formant filter (or throat length as AT calls it) and a vibrato generator. These tools would really boost the usability of this plug-in, so if those are important to you, you might have to shell out the extra cash and go for Antares.

Thanks for watching!