Liam Hopkins Builds Recording Studio with Blackmagic Design

Video complements audio production with music videos, marketing and social media content.

Liam Hopkins is an 18 year old Canadian alternative rock artist, songwriter, multi instrumentalist, producer and engineer. Having played drums and guitar since age four, Liam was inspired to pursue music after experiencing his first concert at age 11, subsequently attending and graduating from Berklee College of Music’s Aspire: Five-Week Music Performance Intensive on a scholarship at just 15 years old.

“At the end of that program, they recommended that Liam simply start making music, which led us to building our own studio attached to our house,” explained his father, Richard Hopkins.

“I had come across Blackmagic Design by doing drum covers in my basement, funny enough,” added Liam. “I was borrowing multiple cameras from my high school, and I was wondering if there was any way to control them all at once. That led me directly to Blackmagic Design.”

A One Man Band

Not only does Liam record every instrument on his own releases, but he is a videographer, editor and filmmaker who creates all his own visuals for his music videos, social media and release campaigns.

“Musicians have always been pretty DIY, but I feel like I don’t see a lot of musicians taking advantage of the digital side of things. Lots of musicians feel like social media and the internet are the enemy of music, and I couldn’t disagree more. There’s never been a better time for independent artists to be sharing their music than right now,” said Liam.

“I was in the media program at my high school and did freelance work after that. I’ve been interested in cameras for a long time,” explained Liam. “I think music today is such a visual medium, with video being an important factor in releasing your own music. As such, it was necessary to have that video component when we built the studio.”

Specializing in transforming spaces through expert acoustical consulting, testing and design, Indiana based Haverstick Designs handled the studio design, with Liam implementing the video workflow himself.

Four Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2s are situated around the studio’s live room and feed into an ATEM SDI Extreme ISO live production switcher. A Blackmagic Video Assist 7” 12G HDR monitor/recorder is used for monitoring. “The whole studio has SDI cables running through the floor from the live room to the control room, so I can set up a camera wherever I want in the live room, and they all get routed back to the control room where the ATEM lives,” Liam explained.

“I think every studio should be running video systems alongside its audio systems,” he added. “Again, visuals are so important nowadays. I love the idea of having the cameras running constantly with large hard drives and power supplies. It is so easy to shoot multicam music videos or get behind the scenes content that looks really good because it’s a professional camera.”

On choosing the Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2, Liam noted: “I had never seen anything like it, and its size and portability made it the perfect fit. I didn’t see the need to splurge on something bigger. I knew if I had the Micro Studio Cameras connected to the ATEM and one Video Assist monitor, it would be more uniform and a bit faster for me as a one man operation.”

Liam cited the ATEM SDI Extreme ISO’s reliability and ISO recording functionality as essential to his workflow. “I love that I can record an HD copy of all the ATEM’s inputs, along with having a DaVinci Resolve project file, so I can then edit the performance in HD in DaVinci Resolve Studio, and since everything is timecode aligned, I can just drop in its 4K counterpart. Also, it just works. Nowadays, I feel like that’s a standout feature, and I never have to guess with the ATEM,” he said. “I also love all the different ways I can monitor out of the ATEM: picture in picture, a grid showing me everything or individual monitoring per camera.”

Video Complements Audio

So far Liam has shot two music videos in the live room of his studio using the Blackmagic Design workflow, including “Start Again” and “Kiss Their Feet,” both available on his YouTube channel @liamhopkinsmusic. With plans to use the system for more videos and live stream events from the studio, Liam is moving forward, full speed.

“Having a video component in the studio means you could even make a full studio documentary for every project if you wanted. Being an audio engineer isn’t that different from being a videographer and video editor. It provides extra video for clientele and is a good way to make additional money for the studio and engineers,” concluded Liam. “Working in the world of video has made me look at the world differently. Whenever I see something interesting, I wonder how I could film it and turn it into something engaging. A Blackmagic Design video workflow fully integrated into my audio space does just that.”

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