Computers & Music

I first started doing computers for a living in 1989. I first started playing music in the 6th grade. (A little before 1989.) Except for collecting MP3 music files, I've never done the two together. Recently, I thought since I'm now retired and have way too much time on my hands, it might be fun to do something musical again.

 

I used to play clarinet and saxophone. Since I live in an apartment and since playing sax is not a quiet endeavor, I haven’t been doing anything musical for a number of years. Well, except for some karaoke singing from time to time, but I usually go out to do that. I do have some karaoke song files purchased from Amazon.com’s MP3 download section, but this is mostly for practice.

 

At first, I thought it’d be fun to start learning how to play guitar again since I can do this over my headphone and not alienate my neighbors. Then, knowing a little about MIDI, I thought having a keyboard would be useful, as well. I’m familiar with both guitar and keyboard, and can work out parts and such, but don’t really play either one.

 

All of this pondering led me to explore multi-track recording/music creation software. I’ve been well aware of digital/computer recording for a long time, but have never really checked it out for myself. I’ve also been aware of music composition software, but again, haven’t bothered to get my feet wet in that end of the pool yet.

 

As I began to check out different programs, and learn more about such things as MIDI and digital recording, I also became aware of how computer music is put together.

 

I’ve been enjoying trance and ambient music for years, and fully understood it was a lot of computer music, but had never researched just how the nuts and bolts of putting it together worked.

 

Along with the software I was test-driving came sample files for the sake of tutorials and to give one something to play with and of course, as something to tempt, or tease one into wanting to purchase the full version of the software.

 

After checking out a couple of these programs and almost instantly understanding what was going on, I realized this is something I could do. Between what I know about computers and what I know about music, it was all quite familiar.

 

Although almost immediately familiar, it’s like most musical and computer endeavors, there’s no end to what you can do, and how much you can learn.

 

This was starting to look like a great way for me to self-entertain.

 

I’m still test driving software and having a great time. I’ve mashed up a couple of songs without using any actual musical instruments, but I have used some of my musical knowledge.

 

Since I haven’t yet “thrown down” for a fully functional program with lots of loops and sounds, I have a very limited library of sounds and loops, but have been able to have some fun and make some music.

 

I thought it’d be fun to share some of what I’ve been doing here. I’ll spare everyone the software reviews and the technical stuff, but if anyone wants to get into that stuff, please leave me a comment, or send me a message.

 

For now, an early effort called, “Erhu”. Enjoy.