Despite only starting the project at the beginning of 2020, the independent duo of Sarah and her brother, audio engineer Seb Coponat already boast 13.5k followers on Twitch and often reach 100K people watching on Reddit during each concert. Sarah’s Spotify following has also grown to a streaming rate of around one million a month, and her most popular track, a soft piano piece called Insouciance has now been streamed over four million times.
“The Audient interface is very reliable, which is extremely important when we’re live streaming so often – and the preamps sound amazing,” explained Coponat. It was when their previous sound card kept crashing that they started investigating other audio interfaces on the market, such as iD44.
”According to reviews it sounded amazing. We gave it a try and never looked back!” she enthused. “ADAT and inserts were a big deal for us, since we didn’t know if we’d want to stay ‘in the box’ or add outboard gear to our setup.”
Although they broadcast their concerts from home at the moment, they will move into a new studio towards the end of the year, and are already planning what that will look like. Currently there are two pianos: a Blüthner upright and a new Roland FP-90 keyboard. “We’ll keep the upright piano for its dreamy sound and add at least two mics for the grand piano and one for vocals. That’ll be a minimum of five microphones!” she exclaimed.
iD44 supports ADAT and SPDIF so Coponat and Seb can add up to 16 channels of mic pres, ensuring the Audient audio interface grows with them.
Coponat’s been playing the piano since she was three years old, progressing to classical piano studies at the National Conservatory of Marseille in France, until she decided to follow her own path. “I was always writing, singing and playing piano songs as long as I can remember. Playing and composing music has been a way to create and build my own world where I feel free and fearless. I have had the chance to build an online community thanks to live streaming, which means I can connect and share stories through music with more people than I would ever have imagined. This has added a whole new dimension to my craft and I’m extremely grateful for that,” she said.
Coponat is just putting the final touches on her next album, Atlas, due out in September. A diary of songs live composed during her Twitch sessions, she describes it as “the most personal and challenging album I have done so far.”
Meanwhile, Seb takes care of the tech side of things, ensuring the audio and video are tip top. Marketing also comes under his remit, which is a big job in itself. There are CDs, sheet music and downloads for sale on the website and Sarah’s music is available on every streaming platform: Spotify, Apple Music, etc – “Yes we are everywhere!” – and live concerts happen on Twitch four times a week. “You’re welcome to stop by at any time! We usually announce them on Instagram and post replays on YouTube too.”
As the world starts to emerge from the tighter COVID-19 restrictions and before the new studio opens, Sarah & Seb plan to do more live shows. “We’ll be able to stream with our grand piano then – that will be a new challenge!” laughed Coponat.
Luckily the iD44 has gone some way in making their setup ‘future-proof’. “The love and support I’ve been receiving online makes me want to work harder; I want to deliver the best music and experience I can and keep on growing,” she concluded. “I can’t wait to see what the future holds!”