“Voice Memos are a no-brainer” for music production, says Tourist
“I think people can hear an iPhone mic. I like that.”
Collecting gear is fun, obviously, but sometimes simplicity prevails over all. Just take a look at Fred again.. who recorded the bass sound for his track Jungle from the crackle of a bad cable, or even Tourist who stands by the idea that your iPhone mic and Voice Memos app are “unbelievably useful” tools.
The COVID-19 pandemic threw a spanner in the works for creatives all over, and for producers and musicians, it meant finding new ways to adapt in order to make music remotely and in a simplified manner.
For Tourist, he stuck with his laptop and a phone. Even now, he enjoys working with his phone so much that he chooses one to accompany his dream studio space in MusicTech’s My Forever Studio podcast, delivered in partnership with Audient.
“Would you not want a really nice recorder?” Asks co-host Chris Barker.
“Of course, but I’ll lose it and break it,” Tourist replies. “That phone is going to be used a lot, and the reason is I love sampling from my phone. I love just plugging a jack into it and then into my Mac or into another device. But Voice Memos is just absolute no-brainer.
“I love recording the sounds of nature around me, I love recording ideas melodically. I love recording soundscapes, being on the tube. That stuff finds its way into my music just because it just gives context to everything that you write, and it’s just such an unbelievably useful tool,” he states.
Although Tourist finally decides on the Teenage Engineering TP-7 field recorder after being encouraged to “upsell his dreams”, he still stands by the idea that a simple iPhone mic can hold so much charisma.
“I mean there’s even a part of me that’s really happy with that built-in iPhone mic because it has such a character. It sounds like the year that the phone was made. And the compression, whatever they do with that compression… I think people can hear an iPhone mic. I like that.”
Check out the full podcast below:
