Last Updated on Sunday, January 23, 2000 08:56 PM
Last Updated on Sunday, January 23, 2000 08:56 PM
Hits
My musical life started way back when I was a little kid. My dad bought me my first plug in organ. I would sit in the basement and play "scary music" by hitting a few weird chords (with the auto chord buttons) and smashing my right hand along the keyboard (I would sing to myself like a ghost and turn the lights off). After that organ broke down (I never could figure out if it was because of my smashing or if my mom decided to bring peace to the house), I turned to the computer.
I had one of the greatest computers around at that time- a Radio Shack Co-Co 2 (ahhh, the memories!). My dad got me a synthesizer card for the computer. This was amazing at the time because this card would let me program music with 4 voices (in different instruments). I would spend nights programing songs from piano books into the computer- and yes, I do mean programming! There was a special language that you had to use to program the music, no musical notations what-so-ever (It was like the old Sound and Play commands in BASIC). I remember the night when my dad and I finished the entire theme to M*A*S*H.
I soon got a new keyboard, a Portasound of some-sort. This keyboard was actually really cool because it was loaded with dozens of buttons, programmable, and was MIDI. I soon was composing short multi-timberal songs in the limited memory it had. Then- the day I will always remember- my first Four-Track Recorder. For those of you who don't know, a Four-track recorder is basically a tape deck that lets you record on four tracks, independently. Mine had a built in 8 channel mixer. I spent all my time singing and playing my keyboard into the tape deck and to this day, still have copies of my first musical endeavours.
During this time I was in Junior High band, learning Flute.
When I entered High School, I made friends with another band mate and we started a band. We ended up calling ourselves "Basic Denial"- I though it was a cool name at the time (although I have to admit, I still think it is a cool name). He basically had a semi-pro Yamah b-200 keyboard which I was able to snag from him some weekends. We made one song called "You Gotta'" which we really masacred (but it had a cool dance beat). This really got me going into MIDI.
I graduated High School, finishing up 6 years of band class and was fortunate enough to be able to do some really neat musical things (wrote music for some school PA ad's, as well as did an original score for the school play "Dark of the Moon"). Now I was taking a really big, and risky step. I decided that I would try out for the University of Victoria (which at the time had a really great music program, and still does today!). Somehow I was accepted and was off to live on my own for the very first time.
When I got to University, I immediately set out to buy a midi interface for my 8086 IBM PS2 as well as purchased Dr.T's Music publishing program for DOS (another great archaic notation program). I realized that I needed a sequencer and saved to get Cakewalk 4.0 for DOS. I began to sequence and record songs but didn't like how they sounded. I finally gave in and got a Kawai K1 Synth and Desktop module (thank the Lord for monthly payments!!!). I would record a bunch of songs and snipits as well as write about 20 sets of lyrics.
After my first year at University, I returned home to work. I ended up not going back to UVic and came to Bible College instead (BTW- I am trying to focus on just the music part). This was when I changed my K1's for a Roland JV-80. This was my keyboard for the next 4 years and I was able to a lot of music with it. After Bible College, I came back home and got married (maybe my wife should have read this before she said "I do"- this stuff isn't cheap). I also traded in my axe for a new beast, the Alesis QS-6. I believe this was a good trade. I found that the JV-80 was a great keyboard with awesome sounds- as long as you didn't need to sequence much as the sounds didn't mix well and there wasn't enough voices (28).
I have now had my QS-6 for almost a year now and am still pleased with it. It has some great sounds and works really well in the sequencing world. I also have used it to lead worship and prefer it over the JV-80 for overall sound. I also acquired a Korg ih. This little unit is a vocal harmonizer and will add up to four parts of harmony, all according to what you play through MIDI (it also has a vocoder but I haven't found any use for that yet).
There you go. A short history of some of my musical endeavors. It would take to long to go really indepth (band, vocal jazz, stage band, marching bands, etc., etc.). I hope that some of you will send me some short backgrounds of where your musical lives began.
God Bless,
Jason
Here is a list of my musical hardware that I own. (updated Jan 24th, 2000)
Here is the music software that I OWN (note- I own all of this- not copies but originals. Please don't copy music software- if you need to, give me a shout as I have some older copies of Cakewalk that I can sell you for cheap!)
Finale Music Publishing Software
Cakewalk Pro 6.0 (upgraded from 5.0, 4.0, Win 3.0, etc., etc.) (I just want to say that Cakewalk is the best software out there for sequencing and recording music. If you have the chance, pick it up. It has great recording capabilities as well as audio recording. For you worship leaders that would like to use sequenced parts for worship, Cakewalk comes with a Live player that will let you play back sequences for live performance. I have used this in a touring Bible College group and it worked great)
Various sound editing tools
Three sampling CD's (XX-Large Dance Loops, XX-Large the Killer, Liquid Grooves)
That's my studio, thanks for taking the time to visit.