A Short History Of You?

[Sicklecell666]

When" Deep Purple in Rock "came out I'd listen to Child in Time and thought yea! I want to play that lead,,but I soon hated the guitar cause my old man used to sit in front of me rollin his eye's,,I'd think to myself ,just a little closer and I could bash him in the head with it and run for it.
It was easier to just steal away in the nite, guitar in hand.
Finished high school playin clarinet ,but used to get my ass kicked,,so I dropped it and started working out,,found a new use for the clarinet though,but it was rendered unplayable.
Started a band ,but with no drummers around I grabed a Panasonic drum machine and played that live,soon,the buttons were crunched so I got a kit and started lessons,,Vortex was born,,we wore v-necks.
Got pretty good and did some gigs until the bass player started smoking on stage with 1 hand and strummin open e-string with the other,,fired,,we finished the last couple shows with a Pro-One as bass.Always laffed we replaced him with the Pro-One on the floor stuck with clothes pins clamped to the keys.Fact,we taped the name Bruce on it..
Went through years of guest spots on drums in the local pubs,,I had a cool flam-a-diddle..
Now working in a studio,,I learned about computers and keyboards,,but my real forte,,black coffee!!
At 50,,my real passion is to head to the cottage with all the gear away from the family and just play and fish.The sound across the lake is wonderfull and every once in a while I hear,,YOU SUCK MAN!!

Life is Great!!!

That's a good post.

I especially like the ending

Life comes full circle, does it not?

[quincy]

Short history of quincy:

Born in march 1980 at Bath RUH. Grew up in a small town in somerset called Frome. Educated at local schools until 16, when i went to college in Bath to study A-Levels, I passed (if you can call it that) with a D and 2 E's

Took a year out, worked a bit here and there doing temp work etc. Then at last minute decided to go to university, applied to several coastal universities and was accepted at Brighton. I'm so glad about this, its one of the nicest places i've ever been in this country, along with somerset and cornwall. I now consider Brighton my home.

I started making music at about 13 using my commodore 64 and tracker software. I have since moved up through various computers, all the while improving my production skills and my programming skills. I do not play, i produce, so i won't pretend i'm a musician!

I am now entering my final year of software engineering degree, and hope to get a job in web design in brighton area when(if?!) i graduate. I also plan to move back in with my beautiful girlfriend, and who knows what after that.

I have very occasionally released tracks on the net, but thats as far as its ever gone. I hope to keep trying and maybe pone day combine my 2 passions to relaese my own and other peoples music from my own internet record label/site.

Cheers, hope this wasn't too boring!

[vtx]

It sure does sicklecell666,,,I couldn't imagine just fishin....but yea,,always wonder who that is across the lake,,,,,,na,,,couldn't be...
40 years later and still gettin away from family so I can cut the amps loose....

[cloudspine]

I played guitar in a school band, doing covers and whatnot, back when I was 13, which lasted for about a year or two, can't remember exactly. Almost pissed my pants before our first concert...

A few years later, aged 17, I formed a psychedelic heavy metal band as the vocalist. This lasted for about a year or two as well, as we had to split up because I moved away.

At about that time, I got interested in creating music on my PC, but it wasn't really going anywhere as I was quite uninformed and didn't really know where to start. I was mostly messing with samples...

About two years ago, I figured out synths and effects and whatnot, got myself some hand-drums, and moved on to creating tribal-ambient. Took me about a year or so to figure things out and get acquainted with the tools of the trade. This was a period of getting serious about my music. Once that was done I completed my debut (from start to finish) in about six months, and the second album in four maybe...
I was never good at playing guitar, but I think percussion is my thing...

Come to think of it, I think my first experience with ambient music happened a loooong time ago, when I was 9 or something. I remember my parents, brother and I went over to some family friends, who had two kids, aged about the same as my bro and I. Anyways, they had some kiddie synthesizer, and I remember messing around with it, and being amazed with those long, stretched sounds and other weird sounds and noises...

[blaster78]

1978 - born

1983 - started to learn piano

1994 - discovered octomed on my amiga

1995 - discovered cubase on my atari

1996 - started a band, played bass guitar

1998 - did software engineering at umist

built databases for while and forgot all about music

april 2004 - discovered kvr

september 2004 - started a degree in audio technology at salford uni

cheers,

steve.

[Robert Randolph]

I just turned 22, wendy recently turned 18

That year just flew by.

do you suspect something is afoot?

What with bobby? Nah, I've known him since he was German.

Nice sarcasm, if anyone cares I was born and spent the first few years of my life in frankfurt.

I dont see what the hell is up with you people. Feels like the spanish inquisition.

[You™]

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!


The Official Not Short-Enough History Of You™
First influences: 70s AM pop radio, the Beatles and classical. I knew I wanted a synth after hearing W. Carlos, Tomita, Pink Floyd and Tangerine Dream in mid 70s. Several years of piano tutelage by a blue haired bitty who hated all modern music killed my incentive to learn to play properly. I also flirted with trombone, guitar and drums but nothing stuck. By 1980, after a brief unrequited affection for bombastic prog and metel bands, I was smitten with girls and punk/new wave. My instrument collection started with a Moog Prodigy and a pair of bongo drums. With those tools, I couldn't exactly play Throbbing Gristle, Einsturzende Neubauten or The Swans, but that didn't stop me from trying! Fortunately MIDI and tons of cheap half-ass drum machines, hardware sequencers and keyboards kept me busy learning to sequence and record with various Tascam 4- and 8-track decks. Electronic music wasn't very sexy back then, so in high-school I desperately tried to glom onto my friends' popular garage band "The Guys Who Like Snacks" - a few of whose members have since gone on to relative fame as professional musicians. I went to art school and constantly collaborated with a friend/house mate who shared my interest in odd and challenging projects. We did performance pieces, made and traded tapes, 'zines and even a few records - well before we could afford digital recording. By the time he moved on, I had amassed enough half-assed equipment to do almost whatever I pleased musically - except record. He took the Revox and the TSR-8. Fortunately the next house mate had a Macintosh and a DAT! I bought Master Tracks Pro and never looked back. By the mid 90's, I'd married and abandoned the artists' group house scene. Through some business dealings developing multimedia software and content, I acquired newer computers, a nice Mackie 24*8 mixer, a Pro Tools rig and Digital Performer. I have considerably reduced expectations for any kind of career in music but I enjoy it as a hobby. I've done a few remixes for people and written several hundred songs in just about every style or genre - none of which I seem to be able to play longer than it takes to record them. This website has been the first forum since the 'zines of the 80s where I get good feedback and encouragement. Thanks.

[DuX]

Born in 1970 in Zagreb, Croatia. I've been a geek for the most of the time spent in primary school and joined school choir and played harmonica, too. In high school, I was abducted by aliens and they tought me what this life's for, so I've become a scoundrel, started going to a fitness center regulary and started a synth-pop band called "Digital Mind" in 1987, with me as a singer. We used an Atari 1040STE with Cubase [Pro24 at first] as a sequencer and many different synthesisers. Mostly Roland's, PPG, Casio... btw. we were all Depeche Mode, Ultravox, Front 242 fans...The band was active for some good 7 years, had some live gigs and studio works, but nothing remarkable since Croatians don't buy Synth-pop in English..., so we split in 1994... since then I've become a technological computer\synth geek, changed a lot of equipment [Akai S-950, Korg Wavestation, Ensoniq ASR-10 amongst others] and started doing it all solo - write, play, sing, arrange and produce... I had a few live techno gigs in middle 90' which were much fun and made a few theatrical pieces... Then, around 1996\97 I discovered Industrial Electronic Music and EBM [like Leaether Strip, Ministry, Frontline Assembly, Numb...], proclaimed techno officially lame, and now I don't really even bother doing music for the people, but for myself. the noisier and more agressive - the merrier I am . I've joined K-v-R quite early, some time in 1999 or 2000, I believe, but I usually don't post too much [mostly about technical subjects - Cubase and computers], and in 2002 K-v-R had a major database breakdown, so we all had to join again and make new accounts. I'm still using the good old Cubase, call my "band" Digital Mind for softer synth music and DuX for more edgy stuff, but no hardware synths\samplers anymore, just VSTi's and hoping to release a nice noisy, artistic peace in a year or two. Unfortunately, most of the time, I'm suffering from major economical problems , which are firmly holding me back from taking over whole of the Europe's Industrial scene In 2003 I moved to Taiwan for a while and had to sell all my old equipment - old AMD 1.3GHz comp, Tannoy monitors, Yamaha amplifier, Oberheim Matrix-6 keyboard..., so now I'm starting "clean", except for a nice AMD 2000+ comp, which I bought back in Taiwan. I'm still looking for a decent job in IT which is lurking just around the corner, experimenting a lot with VSTi and VST, and planning on buying:

1. Dynaudio BM6A monitors
2. Benchmark DAC-1 and Benchmark ADC-1 DAC's
3. E-mu 1212M soundcard
4. Rhode NT-1A mic
4. Some better MIDI keyboard, preferebly an older synth like Matrix-6 or Korg Wavestation, or maybe Korg Prophecy or MS2000, we'll see.

and on the software side: Emulator-X, Kontakt, Z3TA, Vanguard, impOSCar, Moog Modular V, Rhino2 VSTi's and all OHMforce, Voxengo, Nomad Factory, Sonalksis and Kjaerhus VST plugins.

When I manage to assemble that together... you'll hear about me

[dystonia_ek]

[/url] I went to art school and constantly collaborated with a friend/house mate who shared my interest in odd and challenging projects. We did performance pieces, made and traded tapes, 'zines and even a few records - well before we could afford digital recording.

So you were one of the people behind Poison Plant? I remember that label. I liked the Tryptich of a Pastel Fern recordings I heard quite a lot.

Good to see some other cassette culture survivors around here.

[You™]

So you were one of the people behind Poison Plant? I remember that label. I liked the Tryptich of a Pastel Fern recordings I heard quite a lot.

Good to see some other cassette culture survivors around here.

The label was run by my friends, but I helped out with what I could (I remember all-night sessions silk-screening LP and cassette covers) and I was included on many of their samplers.

It's amazing that anyone knows or remembers that stuff. I'm on a few TOPF records too...

[dystonia_ek]

So you were one of the people behind Poison Plant? I remember that label. I liked the Tryptich of a Pastel Fern recordings I heard quite a lot.

Good to see some other cassette culture survivors around here.

The label was run by my friends, but I helped out with what I could (I remember all-night sessions silk-screening LP and cassette covers) and I was included on many of their samplers.

It's amazing that anyone knows or remembers that stuff. I'm on a few TOPF records too...

Some of my favourite music is from the underground of that period, and a little earlier. My biggest early influences were the little tape labels (Aeon, XXX, RRR, Iphar, Sturmovik...) that motivated me to start my own.
Handmade packaging used to kill me too. Always took more time to make the covers than the actual music!
I guess it just felt like it had to be done, at the time.

[xoxos]

mounting evidence, first year in college i realised that someone serrrrrrrrrrioously needed to stop 'this..' the rest is just details.

[You™]

Some of my favourite music is from the underground of that period, and a little earlier. My biggest early influences were the little tape labels (Aeon, XXX, RRR, Iphar, Sturmovik...) that motivated me to start my own.
Handmade packaging used to kill me too. Always took more time to make the covers than the actual music!
I guess it just felt like it had to be done, at the time.

I still feel that way. If you can take the time to personalize your stuff, it helps deflect criticism from not being the slick glossy production bigger labels offer. Really personal music from real persons for real people... or something like that...

[Manc Chris]

Started in 'the biz' at tender age of 14, playing drums in a punk outfit supporting the Billy Idol led - Generation X on a UK tour. Other 'claims to fame' include working with Paul Young, Bobby Ball (YES, HIM!) and having a bona fide No.1 record! (Sore point though this..)

Gradually developed ability to manipulate guitar,keyboards, bass,bagpipes etc, and turned into electro 'one man band' type. Wrote songs for and played in many different bands since,including '80's synth pop duo' type, 'Northern cabaret artiste' type, 'Scandinavian AOR' type, etc etc.

Wrote demos for music software during early 90's, plus gig reviews and demo reviews for various publications. Now .. just tarting around with Cubase.

[Sascha Franck]

Born 1965 (omg).
Forced to learn flute at the age of 5. Didn't get me any girls (even if I fell in love with that redhead flute teacher of mine). Didn't lose interest because there wasn't any (in music that is).
School, sports (Karate, hehe, fear me!), stuff.
At the age of 16 I got my first guitar. It sucked (a lousy nylon string one).
At the age of 17 someone told me axe players would get all the gals (I didn't have a real relationship since then). Grabbed that old nylon string again. It still sucked. Fortunately someone else told me it wasn't about classical axemen getting all them birds.
Aquired my first electric (without knowing anything but the womanizer effect that'd surely take place).
Still no success, so I tried harder. Seems to have worked 1-2 years later...
Slacked around for several years (civil service, drugs, gigs, long holidays without money, the usual hippie game), allways being called the "young and hopeful guitar talent" or so.
At 25 I decided to get out of it somehow. Practised like mad, did the tests for some music university. Failed miserably on most (they wanted me to play jaaaaath) but in 91 it seemed to work.
Studied music (Jazz/Rock/Pop) from 91 to 96 - at the music university in Hannover, had to move there from Flensburg, easily the best move I ever made in all my life.
Done a lot of band projects, one even being signed by a major label (BMG), which might've been the worst move in my "career". TONS of lousy gigs - all to no avail, the company simply didn't know how to place us on the market. I cancelled everything else to get that band moving forward.
Met that "love of my life" in the meantime.
Then the band flopped, so did the LOML thing... threw me back for several years (at least 3-4, yeah...).
Started playing weird commercial jobs (weddings and stuff), just to do something and get some money (I still am doing such jobs).
Got involved into the computer thingie (first Atari in 92, Cubase 1.0).
Got involved into the PC thingie and audio recording.
That seemed to be it for quite some years. Oh yes, and the internet (which didn't exactly pay off for quite a while, you know the net addict game and stuff...).
Been a beta tester for several software companies later on though.
Found K-v-R and other resources.
Started building up a new study thing at the local music university beginning of last year, along with two friends of mine, dedicated to "modern music production" (actually planned to cover most aspects, including songwriting, instrument playing, recording techniques, etc). Becane a project sponsored by the EU. Got a parttime contract there, to design classes and to build and maintain the media lab.

Still trying to find my way of making music though, getting rather tough, not being the "young and hopeful axeman" anymore.

Oh and yes, I found another "love of my life" - at least for now it looks as if she'd really make it.
Defenitely the most important part of my life since 1.5 years!