The creative process (music)...
In the beginning...
Ah yes, back to a simpler time, a time when all I had was an Amiga 1000, and I loaded up a cool demo from a group called 'Worlds of Wonder'... It was AWESOME! I sat there dumbstruck and listened to the song for at least an hour, over and over again, amazed that the computer could make music so cool. That was it. I was hooked.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Amiga, it was able to playback 4 sampled sounds (8bit) at the same time. Some clever euro hackers wrote a program called 'SoundTracker', and a new type of music creation was born. I began writing tracks and learning more of what it meant to write music, both analytically, and emotionally. My big break happened in or around 1988, when my neighbor managed to get a broken Ensoniq Mirage for $50 from a bar that a band left it at. He gave it to me, I replaced a fuse, and voila, I OWNED A KEYBOARD! Wow, it was like a whole new world, and it all revolved around four little letters... M... I... D... I. Sure, it was a crappy, hard to use, limited sampler; but it was MY crappy, hard to use, limited sampler. Trading in my computer keyboard for the piano keyboard as my primary musical interface, I began to appreciate what it was to feel a little bit more when writing, instead of getting stuck in the numbers (as I was inclined to do when using trackers).
My first performance playing music, in highschool; I wrote a dance remix of jinglebells with another student and performed it in front of the class. We wrote a rap to go over it, I still remember the lyrics, my favorite part being "We've got the beat, the style, the music. You know we aren't going to loose it. We are the best in the whole class - and you know it." hahaha... Those were simpler times.
Catching the bug...
After writing in a somewhat hardware minimalistic environment, where I never had more than two keyboards at any given time, I got to the point where I started missing sounds from synths I had traded or sold. At this point I swore that I would never sell or trade another of my synths again, and for the most part I haven't (and it shows). But even though I didn't sell any of my gear, it didn't preclude me from purchasing new gear, and purchase I did! Never any large amounts at a given time, but a constant stream over the years, to be what I now have in the studio.
My Inspiration...
It's so hard to put your finger on what it is that makes you feel like writing a song, but as a musician that's what you have to try to do. Sure, it's easy when something really emotional happens, and you need some sort of vent, but how often does that happen (hopefully not too often). For me, I write in three steps; the first is just playing around on the keyboards until I find (or make) a sound that grabs me... Usually when I find the sound, the riff just comes from it. Next I add layer upon layer to the sound, attempting to expand it as much as I can, end then simplify and refine down to whatever seems right. Finally, I go through and mix down the different parts, making the completed song. Now this doesn't necessarily happen all in a row, many times it might be weeks or months from phase 2 to phase 3, if it even happens at all. Right now I average about 20 riffs before I mix down one song.
Collaboration...
Working with other people can be the best and the worst that music has to offer. When you're all on the same page, and you're all in a creative space, and everything comes together, it's like magic, and the other people help sustain and feed that magic. But when any one of those magical little elements are missing, it can be a real drag. Since all musicians take music personally (at least, all the good ones I know), it's a little hard to deal with someone who may want to write the exact opposite style of track that you do. It all comes down to choosing people who you can work with when they (and you) are at their worst.
My favorite Synth...
Well, without a doubt my favorite keyboard has to be my Ensoniq TS-10... I've been an Ensoniq user for quite a while; my first real workstation keyboard was the VFX-SD. After a while paid and upgraded it to a VFX-SD series 2, basically just the same with a better piano and some more sounds. Then I sold it and bought a SD-1, which I have for many years (6 or 7), and served as my master keyboard as well. Finally, I traded the SD-1, and bought a TS-10, which is continuing the Ensoniq tradition in my studio as being my master keyboard.
Now even though I have had Ensoniqs throughout my career (dating back all the way to my first keyboard), I wasn't totally enamored of them. All of the Ensoniqs, with the possible exception of the TS-10, have the nasty habit of crashing, and requiring you to reload the OS. Now this is not a really big deal in the studio, but whenever I would play live, I always was EXTREMELY stressed that while I was playing, the keyboard would crash, and I would be stuck saying to the audience "Hold on a sec while I reboot the keyboard... " And it's not like it was a speedy process either, it usually took about 1 or 2 minutes to reload and reconfigure the synth. Just imagine doing that on stage in front of an audience.
Whew, I'm glad that's over...
It looks like I strayed a little from the original concept of the page, but hopefully it has maybe brought you some insight into what make me tick (if that is what you were interested in), or perhaps it makes you listen to the songs in a little different way. Then again, maybe it won't make you think anything, but I hope you at least enjoyed the read!
Ah yes, back to a simpler time, a time when all I had was an Amiga 1000, and I loaded up a cool demo from a group called 'Worlds of Wonder'... It was AWESOME! I sat there dumbstruck and listened to the song for at least an hour, over and over again, amazed that the computer could make music so cool. That was it. I was hooked.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Amiga, it was able to playback 4 sampled sounds (8bit) at the same time. Some clever euro hackers wrote a program called 'SoundTracker', and a new type of music creation was born. I began writing tracks and learning more of what it meant to write music, both analytically, and emotionally. My big break happened in or around 1988, when my neighbor managed to get a broken Ensoniq Mirage for $50 from a bar that a band left it at. He gave it to me, I replaced a fuse, and voila, I OWNED A KEYBOARD! Wow, it was like a whole new world, and it all revolved around four little letters... M... I... D... I. Sure, it was a crappy, hard to use, limited sampler; but it was MY crappy, hard to use, limited sampler. Trading in my computer keyboard for the piano keyboard as my primary musical interface, I began to appreciate what it was to feel a little bit more when writing, instead of getting stuck in the numbers (as I was inclined to do when using trackers).
My first performance playing music, in highschool; I wrote a dance remix of jinglebells with another student and performed it in front of the class. We wrote a rap to go over it, I still remember the lyrics, my favorite part being "We've got the beat, the style, the music. You know we aren't going to loose it. We are the best in the whole class - and you know it." hahaha... Those were simpler times.
Catching the bug...
After writing in a somewhat hardware minimalistic environment, where I never had more than two keyboards at any given time, I got to the point where I started missing sounds from synths I had traded or sold. At this point I swore that I would never sell or trade another of my synths again, and for the most part I haven't (and it shows). But even though I didn't sell any of my gear, it didn't preclude me from purchasing new gear, and purchase I did! Never any large amounts at a given time, but a constant stream over the years, to be what I now have in the studio.
My Inspiration...
It's so hard to put your finger on what it is that makes you feel like writing a song, but as a musician that's what you have to try to do. Sure, it's easy when something really emotional happens, and you need some sort of vent, but how often does that happen (hopefully not too often). For me, I write in three steps; the first is just playing around on the keyboards until I find (or make) a sound that grabs me... Usually when I find the sound, the riff just comes from it. Next I add layer upon layer to the sound, attempting to expand it as much as I can, end then simplify and refine down to whatever seems right. Finally, I go through and mix down the different parts, making the completed song. Now this doesn't necessarily happen all in a row, many times it might be weeks or months from phase 2 to phase 3, if it even happens at all. Right now I average about 20 riffs before I mix down one song.
Collaboration...
Working with other people can be the best and the worst that music has to offer. When you're all on the same page, and you're all in a creative space, and everything comes together, it's like magic, and the other people help sustain and feed that magic. But when any one of those magical little elements are missing, it can be a real drag. Since all musicians take music personally (at least, all the good ones I know), it's a little hard to deal with someone who may want to write the exact opposite style of track that you do. It all comes down to choosing people who you can work with when they (and you) are at their worst.
My favorite Synth...
Well, without a doubt my favorite keyboard has to be my Ensoniq TS-10... I've been an Ensoniq user for quite a while; my first real workstation keyboard was the VFX-SD. After a while paid and upgraded it to a VFX-SD series 2, basically just the same with a better piano and some more sounds. Then I sold it and bought a SD-1, which I have for many years (6 or 7), and served as my master keyboard as well. Finally, I traded the SD-1, and bought a TS-10, which is continuing the Ensoniq tradition in my studio as being my master keyboard.
Now even though I have had Ensoniqs throughout my career (dating back all the way to my first keyboard), I wasn't totally enamored of them. All of the Ensoniqs, with the possible exception of the TS-10, have the nasty habit of crashing, and requiring you to reload the OS. Now this is not a really big deal in the studio, but whenever I would play live, I always was EXTREMELY stressed that while I was playing, the keyboard would crash, and I would be stuck saying to the audience "Hold on a sec while I reboot the keyboard... " And it's not like it was a speedy process either, it usually took about 1 or 2 minutes to reload and reconfigure the synth. Just imagine doing that on stage in front of an audience.
Whew, I'm glad that's over...
It looks like I strayed a little from the original concept of the page, but hopefully it has maybe brought you some insight into what make me tick (if that is what you were interested in), or perhaps it makes you listen to the songs in a little different way. Then again, maybe it won't make you think anything, but I hope you at least enjoyed the read!
Last updated on Tuesday, March 9, 2021 12:24:39 PM PST. AnalogX trade is a registered trademark of AnalogX, LLC. All other trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners. All contents copyright ©1998-2009, AnalogX. All rights reserved.