where did you learn?

[ew]

I'm in the Rabid/xoxos camp here. My high school bought an ARP 2600 back in 1972,and I've been playing with synths ever since.

Read the manuals of the synths you have. While some of them aren't much help, every once in a while you'll find one that shines a light into some dark corner you've been wondering about.

I make SOME money doing what I do musically, but I'm not quitting my day job (or in my case, my night job) quite yet

ew

[Mystical_Fantasy]

Removed

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

I'm a combination of self-taught and lessons.. took guitar lessons for about 6 months, took piano lessons for about six months. Got into synthesis with an old Moog Rogue I got on the cheap, then moved to a Roland U20 (rompler pretty much) and didn't really do the Synth Thing again until soft synths started showing up. Taught myself music theory, that works on any instrument (lol). I'm mostly a guitar player that can play keys as well.

I'm still learning to program synths, though. KVR helps, so does just sitting down and spending time jacking around with everything I have - I learn faster in an unstructured environment, so I've never really taken classes on sound design/synth programming (even though they are available around here, amazingly enough). I subscribed to Sound On Sound for 2 years, those back issues are useful when I get stuck. And reading here helps a ton as well!

Not a pro.. yet. Once I get an albums worth of material I'm going to try to sell a copy or two, we'll see where that goes.

[mystahr]

Mostly by fooling around, tweaking and twiddling. Reading up on it here and in manuals (which I'd rather not read, but you have to sometimes)

But the biggest teacher are my ears

[CypherOne]

learn what?

[vurt]

But teach has the biggest ears

cant say i noticed,then there was so much to notice

[Hink]

where did I learn? Everywhere and anywhere I could I suppose. In the 80's I got an Associates degree in public communications. That wasn't what I wanted but was all that was close to my needs and it did pave the road to further education. But my knowledge of recording, composing, playing, programming gear, building guitars, ect...well I just picked it up throughout many, many years...retail, bands, college, jamming, reading, and just spending a good part of my life where if you wanted to record your own music you had many, many limitations and work arounds were part of life. The thing about work arounds is you develop a better understanding of how things work. Growing as a musician with the recording and musical technology mirroring my growth has been quite rewarding and educational.

[kovacs]

I didn't. I am a preset junkie.

I wouldn't know my hertz from my waves.

Guitar, though, different story - played since I was 10 and even have a Bachelor of Music Performance from a Midwest college.

[ztrauq]

Hmm... well, I'm definitely still in the learning stages when it comes to music, especially with all of the new equipment. I recently took a class covering some of the nuts and bolts of electronic music, which somewhat rekindled my interest in playing around and experimenting with different types of electronic sounds, and I finally had the capacity to use something besides a basic sound editor on a new computer, so I've sort of jumped into the world of sequencing and plugins and learning as I go. The basics seem to be relatively easy to get down, in terms of very simple adjustments, but I'm still working on figuring out how to do the more complex type of sound design. I think what helped me was to look at very simple synths first, so that I could understand how each of the basic components affected the overall sound. I still have a ton to learn, though. Someday, I'd like to work with Reaktor or the like and try creating something on my own, as that's probably the best way to learn how things are really working (my primary audio computer's a Mac, otherwise I'd look at SynthEdit).

[VitaminD]

self taught tweaking knobs, trying different chords, chopping up samples in as many ways that I can think of..

the major drawback has been that it has taken many, many years to do it this way though (at least for me) when I probably could have learned much of it in months if someone would have just explained things to me directly..

I've noticed that outside of places like this, most people arent willing to really give much specific information.. as if its a national secret or something. 'dudeeee, just experiment' is the common response

oh well.. what I know I know now.. maybe one day I'll be well regarded and well versed enough to share the information that I've amassed through countless hours of bruteforce trial and error.

[Dave Blakely]

Started off collecting synth catalogues Roland/Korg/Moog etc and drooling over them......quickly progressed to an Edp Wasp (my first synth, cost about 8 weeks total wages)friend bought a Moog Rogue, we experimented with both, bouncing between cassette decks, then a Teac 108 when finances got better (oh the tape hiss! ) then aquired a Prodigy, sh101, mc202 and whatever else i could mostly by starving myself from this i learnt the basics of analogue which i transferred to larger instruments when i could afford or was forced into learning quickly for some band who'd bought one and didn't have a clue, i've found skills learnt on the most basic piece of analogue gear can be transcribed onto all sorts of equipment, its more a mindset than a physical talent, it helps being able to visualise sound. This all grew to take me to where i am today programming for Oddity contributing to CM and most enjoyably over the last few months being on the team of hand picked sound designers for Minimonsta, i make a living doing what i'm doing, but dont expect to get rich

[dystonia_ek]

My father was a musician and always had a ton of instruments in his house, so I always had a few synths to play with - started hacking around on an MS-10 when I was 10, then later it was Roland Junos, then in my highschool music department they had a semi-functional ARP 2600 (Grey) and a Minimoog. Many of my 80's recordings were done on rented gear which was never the same twice, so I had to learn how to learn very fast to get anything done.

[CANE CREEK]

I'm in the Rabid/xoxos camp here. My high school bought an ARP 2600 back in 1972,and I've been playing with synths ever since.

I was Born in 1971 spent most of my school years in the 80's and my school couldn't even affort BBC Micros nevermind a ARP 2600 , im a victim of circumstance.

[pgup]

wow

[Ackelito]

Im going to emtpy your brains, i need your knowledge!

im still learning the shit, always been trying, with no luck! my brain is not set to receive mood yet, im still trying to find out which CCnr the learning part of my brain has...

"The brain is not a passive recipient of learning. In order to learn new information the brain must be able to focus on important cues and hold them in its short-term memory"

Short-term memory? wtf im sold..