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Big Zuu: What’s in his Home Studio?

Big Zuu as well as a chef and a presenter is mainly a rapper! He does a lot of work from home, even more so now there’s a lockdown! So on our latest podcast with him, we decided to delve into his home studio to find out exactly what he’s rocking at home!

Big Zuu’s Mic of Choice: Rode NT2A

The NT2A is an amazing microphone! Of course it is as it’s made from the legendary RODE! The NT2-A continues the legacy from the original NT2 and now has a professional 1″ capsule studio mic and three position pick up patterns. Furthermore it has a high pass filter too! The switches are conveniently located on the body of the mic too! While the frequency and transient response of this transducer has been voiced to complement today’s modern recording techniques! However you can still get silky smooth and crystal clear recordings from it! This mic is so good as it provides flexibility and superlative audio characteristics making it hugely versatile.!

Purchase here!

Big Zuu’s Soundcard: Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen

The Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 is now into it’s 3rd Generation and is better than ever. Especially since it’s used by musicians, producers and hobbyists all over the world! Mainly because it’s very very reliable piece of kit! It has 2 of the best performing Scarlett mic pre-amps. Which comes with ‘Air’ which helps to mic up guitars or record vocals. There’s also 2 high headroom instrument inputs for guitars and basses. It has high performance converters (24bit/192kHz) built in. Which will record, mix and play back in studio quality! Making it super clear and detailed.

Focusrite have something called an Easy Start tool which will help you set up and record within minutes too, so no excuses allowed!

(Focusrite)

Purchase here!

Big Zuu’s Speakers: KRK Rokit 5’s

The KRK Rokit RP5 G4 has a tweeter and a subwoofer which are made from Kevlar, which not only gives you really high studio level quality audio. Therefore ensuring the same sonic integrity on every frequency but also reduces listening fatigue for the user. The sound on these speakers are incredible, which is why it’s no surprise that these speakers are the go-to brand for studio monitors. Anything you throw at these speakers they will output and produce quality sound with ease. These speakers have been scientifically re-engineered from the ground up to work with modern artists of all genres and environments. (Amazon)

 

Purchase here!

Belkin USB C – to USB A Converter

If you work from home and you’re a music producer, rapper you’re going to need to connect a lot of devices to your laptop. The newest Macbook Pro’s don’t have a lot of USB ports so, to fix that Belkin have released this amazing USB hub. It’s USB C to USB 3.0 and has 4 available slots. It allows up to 5gbps file transfer speeds. So, you’ll be able to work super quick! It’s powered too so your devices and programmes will be unlikely to crash! You can also charge your devices on it too! (Amazon)

Purchase here!

Big Zuu’s choice of music software: Logic X

Logic Pro X is an incredible piece of software. It is often the go-to piece of software for professional and home studio’s all over the world. As it can handle really demanding projects. Both for film and for music!

It is a highly sophisticated tool for professional songwriting, editing and mixing. The interface is easy to use and designed to get the best creative results quickly. It includes a HUGE collection of instruments, effects, loops, a whole toolkit to create amazing music.

Purchase here!

Listen to the guys chatting about this with Big Zuu by clicking here! 

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iPhone 7 Problems?

Marcus has recently purchased himself a shiny new iPhone 7, which we all know by now doesn’t include the 3.5mm headphone jack and only has one Lightning connection. What makes that a problem?

 

No more charging and listening to music at the same time!

 

Hooooowever, there are a couple of ways that, that problem can be addressed, whether they are practical or not remains to be seen, but we do have some solutions to your charging and listening problems:

To buy iPhone 7 Stuff please click here!

 

belkin-rockstar

The Belkin Lightning Audio + Charge Rockstar retailing at £34.99 is the simple way to get charge to your new iPhone while listening to music just plug the cable into the iPhone and then connect one end ot your Apple earphones then the other end into the power brick!

 

apple-iphone-dock

Apple has the iPhone Lightning dock which allows you to charge and listen to music but this time via the 3.5mm audio jack. So shying away from the lighting earphones and returning to the trusty 3.5mm “old” style headphones to get around this problem. Available in Silver, Gold, Rose Gold and Black this dock is available for £49.99!

There is always the Earpods that Apple want us to buy:

screen-shot-2016-09-20-at-14-11-30

With a £159 price tag these beauties aren’t cheap, but with Apple’s own wireless technology allowing connection to your phone as soon as you take them out of the charging case these aren’t to be scoffed at! With 5hrs battery life on one charge, the 24hr total listening time from the charging case and 10M of range, hopefully the sound quality will match the price when they come out in ‘Late October’

Maybe Apple is pushing for a fully wireless age with the removal of the headphone jack and inclusion of Siri compatibility with the Airpods. Will we think the removal of the 3.5mm Jack was detrimental or will it lead the way for electronic makers to come!? Only time will tell but Samsung are apparently already planning to follow suit!

To get your hands on your own iPhone 7, please click here!

To hear the guys talking about it on the most recent podcast please click here!