Back in the heyday of artists like Elvis Presley and The Beatles, albums were recorded in studios packed with equipment and instruments and singers. For modern-day music producers like Bleu – who’s worked with such big-name musicians as “The X Factor” judge Demi Lovato, the Jonas Brothers and John Oates of Hall and Oates fame – a living room now can double as a recording studio.

During a presentation at the Macworld/iWorld conference in San Francisco, Bleu revealed that Lovato’s vocals for “In Real Life,” a song he cowrote for her album “Unbroken,” were recorded in the living room of his home in Los Angeles on a $100 microphone. The at-home recording session “was a little bit of a shock to her,” Bleu said, “but she got used to it pretty quickly.”

As a matter of fact, the entire tune was pretty much an at-home project. From a technology standpoint, Bleu relied on a MacBook; Pro Tools recording software; and an Mbox Mini, a compact, portable audio recorder.