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Sounds simple enough, how would you define a musician? I thought I’d do a quick summary on what I think a musician is. There are many variations of the definition of what a musician is, ultimately a musician is simply a person who plays music. Musicians are generally classified by how they create that music.

For example, a composer writes music whereas an instrumentalist plays a musical instrument. The product of a musician at its core, is simply organized or disorganized sounds. Sound is perceived through the sense of hearing as well through the sense of touch, usually in the form of vibration. Sound is defined is the disturbance of mechanical energy through matter. All that being said, if you ask a musician to define what a musician is, it would hardly be the sterile definition as previously described.

A musician would simply call a musician ‘expressing what’s inside.’ – For example, if a musician is felling sad, possibly using his or her instrument, melodic pensive sounds would be played, usually slower and with more minor tones which is often translated as sadness or pensive. A happy musician would reflect that mood through a song that is more up-beat, which often has more major notes. Here’s simple test of this, the next time your listening to music, switch between slower pensive music and happy up-beat music and see how it makes you feel. Musicians are instruments that can reflect your mood or change it. So the next time you’re in a mood you don’t like, try adding some music to the environment, and see what happens.

The process of building a recording studio in your home on a budget depends on what your goal is and what you budget is. For this model I’ll use my own set-up and a budget of $2,500 – My goal was to record a ‘one man band’ or several musicians simultaneously. Mobility was important to me as I wanted the flexibility to bring the studio to them if needed. A ‘one man band’ is typically a singer, guitarist, keyboardist, percussionist or a blend of all and tracks are laid out one at a time. A full band recording, all the musicians can be recorded simultaneously, but usually tracking one at a time is still best.

• The main components for a recording studio are the computer, monitor speakers, headphones, microphone, MIDI keyboard controller, sequencing software and a soundcard. All these pieces can be purchased used instead of new rather easily for under $2500 in total. I won’t get into the actual models Id suggest but will guide you in the right direction. My next article will list what brands I’d recommed.
  

• The type of computer should be a laptop, speakers that are 8”, closed form headphones, a dynamic microphone and cardiod microphone, 61 note MIDI controller, a dual platform recording software and a fire wire soundcard that supports MIDI and has at least 4 inputs, 2 being microphone pre’s.

With these components you’ll be on the right track to building your home studio on a budget. In conclusion, it’s a good practice to read many articles on products before you buy, I found the internet forums are an excellent unbiased resource. I recorded two CD’s using this set-up, Joy: Gentle Instrumental Christmas and my current project, ‘aMuse” - You can check these out at http://aquadio.com/

In my next article Ill be listing the ’step by step’ approach of setting up the studio, and in the near future how to accousticly treat your room on a budget.

-s

email me if you any comments steven@aquadio.com

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Over the years I’ve been asked “what is soaking music?” - In essence ’soaking music’ facilitates a meditative, prayerful environment traditionally used for spending time with God. soaking music is generally restful in in tone and by definition to ’soak’ is the process of being softened and saturated by water. Often during these ’soaking times’, emotional and physical healings occur. A good choice for this type of music can be found here http://aquadio.com/soaking.html

-steven