A Short History Of You?

[CypherOne]

I guess this has kinda been done already but I thought it might be interesting to get a bit of a history on you guys, i.e....

me, CypherOne:

Been making 'music' for about three years, only as a hobby (not good enough for anything more if I'm honest).

I've only ever used software, I don't 'play', I program. I started by using Music 2000 for the Playstation, but that was really limited and basic. Then about two years ago my brother showed me Rebirth and sadly opened the door to what was possible with a PC. To make matters worse, he then proceeded to give me an old PC and a copy of Computer Music and it's been downhill from there.

I then bought lots of sample CDs and got frustrated that I couldn't make drums myself to the same standard.

Now I'm at a stage where I don't use loops (and haven't on any of the tracks I've put on KvR, for the record).

I have no aspirations to get anywhere with this music bollocks although I did listen to my 'archives' from the past couple of years the other day, and at least it was pleasing to discover that my production abilities have improved greatly (still can't write tho ).


So, what about you? How long have you been doing what you do? What are your aspirations? How did you start out? Why are we here? Does anyone have a good recipe for fish stew?

Cheers.

[crazed one]

Hey, cool thread cypher

crazed one:

been playing guitar for last 12 years on and off. Played in many bands as guitarist, bassist, drummer. Currently playing the guitar in my band "Last Chance." (yes, the name is generic, and also taken by another band, I want to change it)

I'm 26, soon to be 27 and I'm still trying to finish school. (slight drug problem in the past ) One semester left after this one!!!

Anyway, I got into digital music a while ago. My brother had Magix Music Maker and I started off messing with loops just like a lot of others. Then I didn't do anything of the sort for years until a buddy of mine got a roland and hooked it up to a computer with reason on it. When I saw that I knew that I would have to do something like that myself. He was a kind of a dick and wouldn't show me shit. He would say shit like, "it's complicated, you wouldn't understand how to use it." I would just sit there and be like, "motherf**ker, you know I'm a computer major in school right?" So I had to learn by myself.

I started off on a site called oneshotsamples.com and traded loops and shit and asked people about how they hooked up their soundcards and what they used. The forum and the people sucked so I didn't get very far. I had a cracked copy of cubase (That's right, I said cracked! ) and a midi controller and an onboard sound card. Then someone at that site told me about KvR-vst and mda-vst in reference to some free vst's. I ended up here on the forum one day and started reading up on music production, I was blown away by the jargon used but decided that I really wanted to learn badly so I just kept a low profile and read up on things and tried to make sense of it all. I also noticed how people didn't take to nicely to warez users which was weird at first, so many people used cracked shit these days that I just took it for granted.... you know what I mean? So I decided to bite the bullet and I shelled out some cash for legit stuff and also picked up an ASIO card and now a year and some months later, here I am... a KvR junkie



So there's my short story.

[vurt]

playing guitar for nearly 20 years and im still pretty shit
had a few bands through my teenage years just covers n stuff of mainly heavy metel and i mean heavy!

got into computer music pretty much same way as cypher altho the original music prog on the playstation it was a few yeasr before we got a pc and i stumbled acoss a copy of CM in smiths.then i moved onto magix music6 i think it was minor instrument playability.altho never used a straight sampled loop even in my early days before the array of tools i have i would mangle the feckers.

no aspirations here either do it because i enjoy it,and yes i have noticed ive gotten a little better over the years and even some people appreciate what i do which is nice.


cool thread btw cypher

[mystahr]

I'll just do a little history on me, George can do his own

Been a DJ for I'd say about 15 years which started in the mid eighties. Having been a big appreciator of music what drew me most was the dance-factor of music and the enjoyment that could be given to people as a DJ. This grew from a bedroom hobby (with a turntable and tapedeck) to a profession and being a full time DJ during the nineties. Had many a moment of glory and highlight moments. At some point I shared a little studio where for about half a year I tutored myself into music making. It was sheer joy, and I did many a spaced out session to end up with nothing really valuable.

In '99 I hung up the needles and was music free for a few years untill last summer I had saved up enough to buy myself a small studio. Needless to say I became a hardware/software junkie to end up making mad ambient tunes.

Robert Miles expressed it best when he sang: 'Music was my first love and it will be my last'

I am a great appreciator of all music (although please don't play me any opera; I can't stand the wailing of that) and always want to hear something new

[Ja.x]

I started to take piano lessons at 7, centurys ago. Never studied it hard, really, although I got some ideas what music is about (can read music, etc.). I played organ in a church as a teenager, I taught to play guitar myself (a book, using music theory from the piano, with friends...) and I joined with friends in a band playing organ (late 60s, early 70s). Great fun, nothing else. Until recently (2-3 years) haven't done much more; then I got a basic sequencer in the CD cover of some magazine (GM only), and it was the turning point. I've never been really a performer, more a composer, use more the piano roll than the heyboard.

[pHz]

phuzzy / pHuzZ / experimentfour / pHz / the teach / rob ...

... total music head since my teens but always frustrated by my apparent inability to play any instrument i tried until i found music on the PS1 (yup - me too) tinkered with that for a while until i got a PC and picked up a copy of CM with cubasisAV on the disk and started playing with samples and loops found on the net which led me to audiomulch then on to K-v-R eventually where i learned about VST and discovered massiva (energyXTs progenitor) ... from then on its a story of compulsive sequencer-hopping (cubasisAV - audiomulch (stayed with me though) - massiva - magix music studio (for the audio side) - tracktion - fl-studio - live4 - ) and serial procrastination when it comes to finishing anything

slainte rob

[ew]

The condensed version;
I started out playing drums in '65(my God!That's almost 40 years ago ).I played them in almost every conceivable idiom until the early '80s,when I put down my sticks and grabbed a pick,and bought my first synth.Through the '80s and early '90s I was the guitarist/synth player/songwriter for a couple cult bands around the Twin Cities.In between bands,I'd either do a freelance sound gig or join one of the SR companies around town.After a near brush with fame had left a bad taste in my mouth about the music business,I quit playing until '98 or '99,when I picked up a guitar again(I'd held on to a couple synths over the years as well,so I wasn't completely lost).
I'd avoided the home PC craze until a friend of mine brought over an ancient Pentium 133 in 2001.I started looking at what was out there for toys,and promptly built myself a new machine and spent lots of money on synths and other goodies The rest is history
ew

[bluelife]

Started playing guitar and singing 22 years ago, moved from England to Austria in 87, lived from gigs for 2 years, got an Atari in about 92, did some recording, had a rockband for three years during the 90s, played lots if gigs with others, started buying proper recording stuff in 99, play live in a duo The Big Lebowskis, recording a demo CD for a German songwriter.
Will start recording other people soon with a mate when we can find some cheap rooms here...

blue

[kara]

Playing piano since allmost 40 years now, started learning at 7. My mother and grandmother where modern classic piano players.
Played in alot of bands, rock, blues and a bit of jazz.
I have an association where I help young kids to compose and record wich is called Karamusic.
And I'm a piano teacher.
Got in recording with some old Roland midi hardware recorder, that was more then 10 years ago.
Now I'm using tracktion, live and getting into XT.

As a music lover, I do love all styles of music. I must admit that some of them I don't understand

The story of my live ? You don't want to hear it, way to long

Rony

[Big Karma]

Been a lover of music since I was a kid and my bro had a band - used to watch them gig and developed a taste for live music.

Laterly I have friends who are musos and reherse in my kitchen every weekend Still love the live scene and am in touch with local musicians around my county.

Play the dij to a reasonable level and can tinker on piano to low level

Never had any lessons and seem to have very little skill!

Have been watching GB and others make music via PC and decided about 4 months ago that I should at least have a crack at learning - its a struggle but I have started to put a few little bits together using Muzys and CM (cheers Mick! )

Finally got my hands on crystal yesterday and so am currently having a play with that - seems fab!

Hope to produce something that vaguely sounds like music in the next few months but at present feel like I am starting from scratch.

Have had huge help from KvR in trying to sort stuff out and for this I am very very grateful to all who have answered my random and probably stoooooooooopid questions!!

All I can really say is 'watch this space!

[Sepheritoh]

Very interesting to read all the histories again. This time I want to save this thread in my favorites somewhere.

Sepheritoh / BloodHound / The Soundbuster / ECS

I started playing guitar at school when my brother bought me a acoustic guitar for Xmas in Std 7 / grade 9. Did not take it too serious at that time. My first song I could play was a little Didi called "Butterfly" by Daniel Garrard. After school I was drafted to the army for one year, and as it went, I was I bad soldier. Ended up in the stores with all the other "unsavory elements". I met a guy there who was heavy into the Bob Dylan stuff. I can't remember his real name, but we just called him "bossies", which means crazy. By the end of my year in the dumps I was heavy into protest music (Guthrie / Dylan / Baez / Zappa / Hendrix / Stills).

At Varsity I moved into a dormitory. Everybody thought I was a hopeless case untill somebody mentioned to me that there was a 2nd year student around who had the same interests as me. I searched for him and we started our own folk band. I'm still great friends with him after all the years.

Later on my pal (Nico) joined a country / western band (The soundbusters) as lead guitarist and got me a position as rhythm guitarist. The band soon changed to a blues / rock band and I took over Nico's position as lead guitarist when he left (he went to Marion Island for a year).

Eventually I got fed up with doing covers and pop and got fired from the band when I bitched too much. I started playing solo and busking and needed some basic backing. That was where I got into computers. That was in 1984 and computer music was limited to a soundblaster with a midi port and Voyetra Gold for DOS. When Cakewalk issued their first windows version I grabbed it (I think it was CW7 or .

By that time I was married, got a decent job and time was against me. I ran my own mobile disco as "The Soundbuster" for extra money for years and played in a number of bands just as a sit-in / session guitarist. For a short period I called myself ECS, which was really a silly little name and soon changed to BloodHound at about 2000 when Cakewalk issued their Sonar 1. Suddenly the world of digital audio and VSTs became a new reality. I started to dream of a home studio, which I already named at that time as the Dog-on-Blues studios.

Anybody who want to know anything about VSTs and computer music will get to know about KvR pretty soon. From the time I joined, KvR became my central focus point of my music development. The inspiration I got from the people here pushed me in a new direction. Emerald Tablet (or Poweruser as we knew him then) was probably the greatest influence in getting me to compose my own stuff. Wopelka, vurt, beardedone and many others pushed me into a more synthesized / soundscape direction. For the first time I started to bother about music theory in more seriousness and started to buy books about orchestration etc.

By the end of last year I started planning the building of my studio. That was ready for occupation in May this year. In this process I decided I have grown so much over the last year and my style of music has changed so much I wanted to change my name as well. My Son came up with this new name, Sepheritoh, basically taken from a computer game (FF7).

Now I am in the baby phase of music, but once again it has become a central point in my life.

Sorry for the long and boring story. Tissues are issued at the door as you exit.

Cheers to all our friends here at KvR

[Kriminal]

Messed with gear in the mid/late 80's, just playing around. Synths and drum machines mainly.

2 crappy bands with my mates, 'Godscharm' and 'Aces High', mailny covers and goth crap, biggest audience, about 20 ppl at a party. Good laugh, but not too musical. Played guitars, synths and drums, very simply


Amiga 600/1200 and OctaMed Pro/AudioMaster - 1990 onwards under the name of Diablo

DJ-ed for about two years at small parties, mostly acid techno and Cosmosis type 'trance', usually with my mate under the name of The Holsten Brothers


PC and Quartz Audiomaster/Orion - Dec1999

Feb 2000, Orion Pro and Soundforge under the name of Digital Pimp, and finally Kriminal

Presently doin nowt

[Hunter]

My name is Jim and my last drink was last night. Sorry sorry just messing about...


Interesting thread this.

I started playing Piano when I was a kid, after my sister had started and my parents and teacher realised she was gifted at it (she went on to study music at the RSAMD in Glasgow). I then picked up the Double bass after seeing Vic Pitt playing it with Chris Barbers jaaaaath band. That was a very cool instrument though got fed up of playing in the school orchestra and ended up quitting it, and the piano, when I went to university in 1995 and discovered booze, spliffs and girls...

Then a few years of musical input as opposed to output before I got a copy of fruityloops 2 demo in about 2000 or something, which was my intro to computer music, and also wouldnt let you save anything if i remember rightly

Messed around with fruity for a year or two making really shite tarnce, then moved into a spare room in a flat with a couple of guys and a certain chap called Ben, who made a Vst plugin... Beta tested Camlephat a wee bit... then before you know it was witnessing the birth of and alpha testing Cameleon...then after a few months of that was doing more and more work for Camel... sound design , tech support, lots of beta testing... and now here I am... got all the gear, but still no idea...

Have had the privelige of meeting some really interesting people like biomechanoid, Bob moog, you lot, through this Vst malarky. Also the privelige of getting emails from stupidly famous and well respected musicians about Cameleon... and the knowledge that some of my patches for it may be in soundtracks in films like I,Robot

Now I'm just having fun with software on me PC, doing some sound design etc. Trying to get better at music basically. Aspirations of doing live stuff are creeping in too...

Jim

[opiadream]

long time ago had a bass but just played along as best I could to records
never joined a band

started dj'ing at some local bars and clubs in the mid-90 when club music became bearable

got my first real computer in 99
found acid2 in 2000
then soundforum synth,simsynth,virtual sampler etc etc
found the bjork remix web and cut my teeth extracting her vox from cds and making remixes to submit there

got tired of being a dj and started writing my own songs
experimented with 'singing'

found k-v-r

[tetraplan]

When I was a little kid, my parents warped my mind for good by playing stuff like Kraftwerk's Autobahn and The Beatles' Revolver.
This led to me being in several bands that never made it beyond the rehearsal stage but did interesting little things like using microphone-feedback as a musical instrument (while set out making rock or something. These things happen). Got to drum in a New-Wave band in the late 80s that started out making interesting music, but when our keyboard player/samplist left we ended up sounding like a cross between Ride and the Cure and after that, we simply ended.

In the mean time, I heard all kinds of disturbing music like Current 93, Nurse With Wound, Coil et al. and decided that my ancient (as in early 60s vintage) reel to reel recorder might make an interesting instrument.
Did a ton of weird tape-mangling stuff and enjoyed myself very much. Spent weeks in front of an AM-receiving boombox.

Got hit by the acid-house bug around that time, too, but that didn't really hit me until years later.

Got into what was later called Grunge, but after I heard a song on the radio and could predict the entire song while I had never heard it before, I discovered that I was basically fed up with rock.
I discovered that there was music which was still fresh, innovative and cool: Acid and Techno.
This must have been around '93/'94.

I decided that this was the music I wanted to make.
Spent the next couple of years spending all my money on a couple of synths, a drummachine and a sequencer.
Got the bug again (I'm sure Spanky put in there).

In '99 I got my first computer. Discovered the computer as a music-making tool, still for techno, but got back into experimenting again a bit later on.
Around that time, I rekindled my love for the weird music I heard in the mid-late 80s.

Combined the two.

Discovered K-V-R in the process.

Things will never be the same again. I can now basically do what I wanted to do 15 years ago without the hassle. Which is nice.

Oh, and I'm doing it, too.

Groet, Erik