A Short History Of You?

[Shane Sanders]

This little interview on Global Nomads says it better than I can say it again:

interview with SSanders

btw, I love these threads because it opens people up to express stuff that evokes their humanity rather than just the regular old opinions and facts that we all barter on this site. Always fun learning about what makes people tick, why they became what they are now!

[Goa Head]

Here's alittle of my history:

Started playing bass in a alternative group when I was 10 years old, it was just me and 2 other 6th graders. We wrote a bunch of tunes, and recorded them on a Tascam 4 track. A year later, I picked up guitar cause I didn't like being the guy in the back. Guitar players always got the girls.

Once I got into highschool, I picked up a Korg Workstation synth and took some basic lessons. Instantly I realized synths are much more fun then the same old guitar/bass licks. I focused on creating EBM / Industrial style tunes for 3 years. Along side this I played acoustic guitar in a acoustic rock group, which we did live shows, and even recorded professional.

For fun, in my later years of highschool I joined a death metal band. Though I different really fit in. Since I have been a musician for a good portion of my life, I would take any musically creative outlet I could find.

After highschool, I saved some money and invested in better gear. Bought a nice computer, hardware synths, musical software, etc...

Desided to go to music production school to met some new people and learn the 'standard' way a musical studio works, as well as theory. I got an associate degree in Recording Arts in the US.

Now, I'm 21, and I write tunes for websites and media projects, and mainly focus on post production audio rather than musical creations. I leave that for my freetime... When I get some more of that, I plan to create a concept album.

Cheers.

[snooky]

@ Goa Head:

and all this time I thought you made Psy...

[Bunnyboy]

Okey Dokey

Played recorder at infants school.
Abandoned it for the life of computer games (the glory days of the spectrum)
Played flute and guitar at junior school - badly, very badly.

Got into music big time when I was about 13
Went to uni, and met loads of people who could play musical instruments and wanted to be in a band. Borrowed me mate's analogue synth on long-term loan and played bad, detuned noise sweeps behind raucous guitar battles.

Fell out with some of the band, so left/got chucked. returned synth to owner.
Borrowed bass to play in another band. Much better bass player than keys player!!

Bought PC for music purposes, and decided that Computer Music was the magazine for me (esp with Cubasis AV on the cover). Got into VSTs with Cubasis Inwired (Honestly - I was progamming and saving in AV and then adding VST(i)s in Inwired ). Got CMuzys and bought a Audiophile and UC16. Realised that I was kinda good at this . Replaced borrowed bass with borrowed keyboard for bass as the band became more electronic (My influence I like to think).

Bought laptop and cheapy USB keyboard. Got EnergyXT - yeah
Still playing in band, and we havnt done too badly.

Currently, I am trying to start up a new band to run concurrently as well as doing solo stuff.

Dontcha love this electronic music lark

[Doug Nelson]

I've been into photography since the 60s. Evolving from that, I'm now a writer and editor about Photoshop and digital photography. To keep current with the industry, I was watching the Steve Jobs presentation where (among other things) he introduced Garage Band. I'd been a fan of electronic music for decades, but never played, and had no idea softsynths even existed. I was amazed, and wanted to try it.

But, I use Windows, and had to dig around a bit on my own for software I could use. 7 months ago I bought a copy of Cubase and a midi keyboard via ebay, and here I am.

[Goa Head]

@ Goa Head:

and all this time I thought you made Psy...

I do create psy Though I do make any form of music I write have a psy touch, cause it's just that much more interesting that way. Anything from Goa, experimental, ambient, whatever... I just enjoy making music.

[Sicklecell666]

hmm..how to not say the wrong things..

M'kay..

Born 1971

Began playing guitar at 11. Took a few years off to be a VERY young drug addict. Picked it up again around 16.

Jammed with various going-nowhere bands in south Florida till I joined Floor. Floor went somewhere, but left me behind in the process.

Got real angry. More drugs, less guitar. No guitar, actually..

10 years later stumble onto this application called 'Absynth' doing my rounds at versiontracker.com. Installed demo & went *POP*..

Realized not long after that that my computer can be used to 'make music'..Learning DAW's & synths took over as my 'instrument of choice' till very recently, which marks my return to guitar yet again after a thrird lapse in playing.

Still haven't managed to actually make any, but I've had alot of fun trying..Met many ppl here I identify with & managed to remember how to be nice to ppl that deserve it.

I had forgotten how to do that.

[glurgle]

well, my history is shorter than most here (except chase I guess)

Started out playing piano when I was about 7, taking lessons from one of my sisters. My mother is a piano teacher and all bloody 4 of my sisters are very talented pianists.

I, otoh, was more interested in pissing off my older sister, and lessons from her ended very soon.

Took some more lessons from some nice lady as my mother didn't even want to try with me. (I was quite the little shit iirc). This lasted only slightly longer.

Around age 12 decided I wanted to learn guitar, my mom bought me my first guitar for $75 and enrolled me in classical guitar lessons. I lasted somewhat longer, although by the 4th year my interest had waned enough that everybody agreed more lessons wouldn't be a worthwhile endeavour.

in my 2nd year I got a demo of cool edit 96 from a friend. I figured out that I could paste loops on top of eachother and that things stayed resident in the clipboard between sessions (so I could use all the feature sets, but 2 at a time). This lead to some of the most shite music to ever be heard, which has thankfully been long lost. From there I discovered the d-lusion standalone softwares. I messed around making 14 minute tracks just tweaking the knobs and switching patterns and the like. Then I'd dump it into cool edit and record some guitar through the soundcard that came with my parents gateway pentium 120. Slightly less shite.

I also discovered a free version of Acid after quitting guitar lessons. And my tracks improved somewhat. (though not much)

After Acid was Orion. Posting a few shite tunes on orioncenter under the cjmonkey moniker, I actually had some good feedback and heard the capabilities of the tools I had. I remember being absolutely blown away the first time I heard Epilogue and Kriminals tracks. Came to K-v-R through the orioncenter site, and my horizons began to expand well beyond my reach.

Got a yamaha electric guitar+amp for my 16th birthday. And immediately started to annoy the f**k out of everybody in earshot. My parents didn't realize how loud a shitty little 10watt amp can actually go

In that time I played with a lot of friends and in a couple not serious bands, metal covers and rock mostly, I never quite fit with the metal heads, and the rock was too boring for me. It may be where I live but people are continuously astonished that I prefer not to play with a pick.

After highschool I floundered (and continue to) with not knowing what I want, or wanting only what I can't have. In this time I've discovered more and more about computer music, bought and sold some gear, made tunes that go from good/simple to awful/overcomplex and back again. Lived with some really shitty room mates in houses that have since been condemned. Fell in love with Tracktion (and eXT more recently)

All in all, my music is/has/will suffer from the plethora of options and general lack of focus, but I'm starting to learn some of the things I should've learned in bands with a lot more tools at my disposal.

I also have a penchant for run-on sentences and way too much detail. (hey when you've only got 20 years to cover you've got to stretch it out a bit

[glurgle]

oh yeah, and RR is 22? consider my mind blown.

[Sicklecell666]

oh yeah, and RR is 22? consider my mind blown.

That would be kinda hard when RR & I met over 13 years ago..

[tee boy]

Ok, well Im now 23 but i started studying music at 7 when i began learning classical guitar. I did this for a while until about 14, at which point i decided i was way to cool to be playing classical music ! I sacked my teacher and found a new one to teach me more contempary stuff. We started with typical blues and rock stuff, but with time i got interested in jazz and world styles and spent a few years on this. The guy was really cool though cuz he was a totally tech junkie! He had old moogs and amps and stuff all over the place. I walked in one day and he was playing this weird mambo stuff through midi guitar, and from then on i was totally hooked on making music with synths and computers etc. Having always been a fan of dance music I started trying to make beats on some gear i pinched from my uncles shop - Korg D8, Roland synth, Boss DR module etc. At this point i made the decision to quit lessons and go to recording school. There i had the opportunity to spend all day using loads of different gear and makin tunes with a wide range of people. This is were i started using Cubase and ProTools. I finished uni just over a year ago and have since been working night and day to develop my art. Im hoping at some point to get into composition and sound design for games, TV and maybe even film. Iv also been pondering the idea of releasing some of my stuff in the form of sample CD's or VST instruments - I have some much stuff it seems criminal to let it all go to waste! I hope to set up a site at some point soon, so i can get my work up for people to hear.

PS. Oh yeh, forgot to say I used to play in a couple of bands too. Did a demo and shit but never really got very far, didnt have much experience at the time. I hope in the future to put together a live act, but i have to much on my plate right now. Maybe if i can find the right people it will work out to be something special.

[glurgle]

oh yeah, and RR is 22? consider my mind blown.

That would be kinda hard when RR & I met over 13 years ago..

are we both talking about Robert Randolph? is he just playing mindfuck games with us? I take it he wasn't 9 when you met him?

I need to get out more

[DavenH]

Born 1987

was forced to start taking piano lessons at age 6. I did quite a lot of simple composition then...

I quit piano at age 11 because I hated practicing

next I picked up guitar but didn't want to take the time to learn that either.

I fiddled with keyboards for a time...

I was 12 when I got a P1 233MHz. I got hooked by the efficiency and ease of everything electronic

Enter P4. Woah.

FL Studio is proving to be indispensible. It's more powerful than 4.3 yottatons of trinitrotoluene.

[bluedad]

oh yeah, and RR is 22? consider my mind blown.

That would be kinda hard when RR & I met over 13 years ago..

are we both talking about Robert Randolph? is he just playing mindfuck games with us? I take it he wasn't 9 when you met him?

I need to get out more

could be wrong, but I thought a while back Robert said his wife was older than he is...

[clueless]

I was born in Rochdale

ya f**ker



(aren't you from oldham? )