What got you started and with what ?

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cjacek

cjacek

Analogue Enthusiast
Just a fun little thread.

Just wanna know:

(1) What got you into music ? What influences or what events led you to become a "musician" ?

(2) What gear did you start out with ?

(3) Have you ever, briefly, delved into "digital" (God forbid) ? What got you out ? ;)

(4) What gear do you use today ?

Could be fun!

Me first:

(1) Elvis (as in Presley) ;) . His voice to be more specific. I loved his 70's stuff. Used to listen to him constantly and wish I'd only sing that way! :o (It started when I saw one of his concerts on TV). Yeah, and later on, I very much got to respect and enjoy and be very much in awe of the recordings, from a technical perspective - the musicians, engineers, compression, reverb and all those "vintage" sounds not found in todays music. Ain't it amazing that there was a time when they actually sung all the way through and they put it on tape. Strange, huh ? ;)

(2) Started with a very cheap kenwood cassette deck and radio shack dynamic mic and sung to backing tracks. Did some cool mixes with that rather "constrained" set-up. You should have seen me trying to record a steady signal to cassette without a compressor. Damn! ;)

(3) YES, I admit, I "delved" into digital for a brief time. I got all hopped up on all the "hype" at that time and thought it must be the greatest thing since sliced bread. I was wrong. I tried it and hated it. This was in 2000/2001. Went to cassette (4 track this time) and was a lot happier. This took a lot of "guts", or whatever you wanna call it, cause this certainly was not the way the mainstream was going. I basically had to say: "F*CK MAINSTREAM" in order to go about my business.

(4) I currently have a TASCAM 34B (NIB) x2, TASCAM M-308B, TASCAM 244, 246, upright piano, sony double cd recorder, akg headphones (can't remember the model), Pioneer se-305 headphones, DBX 118 (on its way), Alesis microlimiter (on its way), microverb (on its way), DBX 163X, sm-57, ev 635a (on its way) and my 'ol trusty kenwood cassette deck. :)

A guy recently said that there's too much choice in music media today (referring to cds, dvd audio, dolby 5.1 etc etc ...) and that new things are popping up everyday and that one thing replaces another and so on ... He finally said he'd wish they bring back RECORDS as this was a simpler and more happier time to live and enjoy music. Yeah, BRING BACK ANALOG, I say!

~Daniel
 
Good Lord, the whole pedigree?

We always had a piano in our house. I was playing early. One of my friends had a guitar. We had a "band" by age 8.

By the time we were in middle school (age 14) we had a full band with drums, guitar, bass and me on an old Farfisa organ and a Wurlitzer electric piano. We gigged at school dances and private parties. My older brothers had to drive us. We got too much into the sex, drugs, and R&R of the '70s to get serious about promoting a musical career. We never really split up, just grew up.

Never went digital, but looked into it. Sometimes I'll record live to my iMacs HD at 48kHz and 16 bit resolution, but just when I don't want to tweak the performances.

Didn't start recording at all until recently. I have a 424 mk III (new) and a used 464, I'm not much of an engineer yet.


Equip.?

Hammond M102 w/ Leslie 146 cab, a Rhodes 88 stage piano, Roland U20, trusty old Fender a/e guitar, Fender Pbass, Schecter E guitar, a mongrel drum kit, countless effects in the rack, a headphone amp for when the boys come over.
 
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My dad had a 7 piece country swing band he started in the 50,s
and i would go listen to them and got into the drums from that.

My first recording was done on a portable 5 inch reel to reel when i was about 8 or 9. The group was my moms aunts and uncles doing southern gospel music. All vocals. My mom still has that recording but she wont let me have it to make a copy of it so I can preserve it.
I guess she thinks I will mess it up some how.

Tried digital a couple of times and went back to analog . And to the digital people that keep making excuses, some day you will get it. I hope:D

Now the other day the doctor told me to stay away from all loud noise cause my hearing is at about 25 percent in each ear.
Dont know what Im going to do now. Told me I would probably be deaf by time Im 55 or 60 Im 50 now.

Something to look forward to.
 
Sorry to hear that , Herm.

You still bangin' the drums?

Why does UPS owe you $700?
 
DigitalSmigital said:
Sorry to hear that , Herm.

You still bangin' the drums?

Why does UPS owe you $700?
Click to expand...

I can't speak for Herm but I know UPS trashed my M-308B mixer. It works but the beautiful veneer side corners are smashed and one of the channels cuts out at times and needs an adjustment. UPS is absolutely HORRIBLE at shipping. They play ping-pong with your gear so be aware. NEVER, EVER have your equipment shipped through them. What's even more important is that the seller packs your gear VERY, VERY well. Yes, UPS indeed sucks! :mad:

Btw, thanks for all your responses guys!

Daniel

PS: Sorry to hear about your hearing Herm .. :(
 
I once heard from a guy at Fed Ex that all of their packages take a 3 foot drop in the sorting facility.
 
Geez Herm that just blows beyond my abilty to put it into words powerful enough.

A guy works all his life to have a place and the time to set up a studio only to get the rug pulled out from under him...Damn.

I know it's not what you'll want to read, but maybe you can get outfitted with some high tech hearing device and end up with better ears than most of us.
(If you do get something like that, hopefully they won't send it to you via UPS.)

Obviously i don't know the circumstances that led to your hearing loss, but it's an important (Way overlooked) facit of music and recording that we should all be aware of. (Especially the youngin's here that might be into the loudest stuff).

Hey maybe you can get hooked up with a company that is developing hearing devices and offer your situation and musical involvment as a research outlet...I don't know, just stay posistive somehow Herm.

Billy
 
Oh yeah,

(Hell I forgot what the thread was about!)

What got me into it...

When I was little my parents had a bar with a jukebox and while I was too young to comprehend the musical entity, I was however just old enough to be fascinated by the cause and effect of hitting some buttons then watching the jukebox's mechanism pick up a 45 and (For lack of a better description) put it on the platter thing. (It seemed like a robot or something to me and that was the greatest going!) It wasn't all good though.. I got an ass whacking for getting my little paws (Covered in peanut butter and jelly) all over it one day when no one was looking, so no more "Robot", but screw it, I was hooked!

One day I was supposed to be sitting at the bar eating lunch
(like after half day Kindergarten) while my mom was cleaning in another part of the bar.. I guess I figured "Hey, what's one more ass whacking?" and i dragged the bar stool over there and climbed up. My mom heard the bar stool drag and KNEW what I was up to, but figured she'd give me a chance to lie, so she just asked without looking if I was fooling with the machine.

Of course I said "What machine??" to buy alittle time, but I heard her and the rolling mop/ringer bucket growing near, so I just hit a bunch of buttons and bailed out in a hasty frantic abort mission fashion... See, we used to have the jukebox wired to speakers all throughout the bar and my mom KNEW If given a chance, I would try to get that badboy working even if I did get in trouble, so she had turned it up pretty loud that morning like a trap!!

Well I jumped down off that bar stool and was already thinking about a place to hide when it came on so loud that it freaked me out!! LOL

But the thing that froze me in my tracks and made me sit right down on the floor was:
"Let me take you down 'cus I'm going too Strawberry Fields..."

I lost or found part of my mind right there!!!
I thought it was like the Robot was telling ME a story and the sounds just seemed "Colorfull" like I was watching a cartoon in a whole new way... It tripped me out!!! LOL

My mom had been watching this happen from over a room divider and later told me I looked so scared and mystified at the same time that she just laughed to herself and left me there.
After that I learned how select B- 11 on the buttons and get that story, then other ones!

There were a few times after that when the bar would be open and people would be like "Oh look at the little guy he's gonna play a song" and then "Din ding a ding ding chicka ding chicka ding..." I'd bust out like "Whole lotta love" and trip the 70's freaks right out and myself right with'em! LOL

So there you have it.
:)
 
Ups and THe ups store is the Devil. Never use them
THey will break your stuff and then not pay up on the insurance that they took good money from you for.
The whole ups and ups store thing is a huge scam.

Any way my hearing problem isnt a band thing as much as a runs in the family thing. But playing drums all my life didnt help. Its just too bad i didnt know that till it was to late.
I ordered some of those vic firth headphones but they are on back order. And I canceled a band I was suppose to record
cause there is no way to do a recording of a band and not get in the line of fire unless you have the mega isolation studio thing.

I got checked about 5 years ago and had about 50 percent then
but now it has just got so much worse.
 
My lifes story.

What got me started?

The Eurovision Song Contest.

Yes, really. Me and two friends (one who recently got kicked out of a band, and the other claiming he could sing) was complaining about the moronic songs in the eurovision song contest. So we started a band with the specific intent of writing a song and submitting it.

We never did, of course.

That is the actual start. Of course, I already owned a synthesizer. This was due to a combination of many factors, which in order probably is:

1. Kraftwerk
2. A so called "friend" that convinced me I should buy a synthesizer with the money I earned during my summer job.
3. Interest in electronics, computers and technology in general.
4. Jealousy of a friend who owned a Korg MS-20.
5. ELO.

But the start was frustration over the crappy music in the Eurovision Song Contest. Amazing, really.

The band we started had a long and pointless name, the initials was I.M.U.R. Clever, I thought. We had one or two good songs, and a bunch of crappy ones. After two (in our opinion) disastrous concerts we changed are name, to get rid of the stigma. Of course, the fact that everybody though we were called 'eemour' contributed.

So, we switched to "Einen anderes ausgang" and started building our music from tapeloops of us banging on metal. "Trés cool" and completely unlistenable. But fun.

Then we changed our name to "Daughters of the american revolution" and started playing goth. I bought a black guitar. We still weren't any good, except for the odd song. "Daughters" collapsed for reasons that are lost in the mists of time.

Me and the singer started a punkband which name translates roughly to "The Love of the Dead Monkey, or Sylvia Wrethammar and His Bloody Mens Choir". (It may be noted that Sylvia Wrethammar is a well known swedish female singer). The music we made, with a cheapass "Superstringer" keyboard, a ProOne that we sequenced to play the bass and a guitar (note the absense of anything even resembling drums) was experimental, weird, funny, dadaistic and mostly ment to make you confused. We made one celebrated concert in the singers dads garage, with 8 people attending, mostly friends. It actually achieved some local notoriety for a year after, but I expect that now everybody has forgotten about it. To bad. It was cööl.

Daughters of the American Revolution then reformed, now as a five-piece with a new singer. In true Sisters of Mercy fashion we had two guitarists a bassist and keyboardist and a drum machine. :) This incarnation of Daughters of the American revolution were actually pretty good. We even made an 8-track demo. I moved to Stockholm and left the band, sadly. The remains did get played on national radio once, even. :p

Since both me and the singer now lived in Stockholm, we made an attempt of new band forming. We had both been writing songs separately for a year or two, and recording some of them in by bedroom while I was studying computers for a year. The new band, called variously "The Fridge" and "Motorpsycho" (good name, eh? No, you can't have it. Because there is now a Norwegian band that came up with the same idea. Sorry.) It never worked out very well, and then I moved to Norway. In norway, I suddenly learnt how to write GOOD songs :eek: and I have been fiddling with recording them mostly on my own ever since. Lately the singer has "reunited" with me, and it's this guy you'll hear on the comp cd.

Yup. We have now made music together for 19 years. Shocking... Man, I feel the midlife crisis sneaking up on me...:rolleyes:
 
I'm only 28, but listening to my dads music growing up,Motown, classicrock,some early sixties psych. I grew to love harmonies especially the BeachBoys and the Mama's and the Papas and so on.The biggest thing that made me pick up the guitar was David Gilmour,My soul just craved to dig deeper into his melodic world(no I'm not gay).If it wasn't for listening to david (PINK FLOYD) I would be stuck in this world with no happiness, it truley touches my soul that much.


MY GEAR: I started out with a Westone Guitar,and a Peavy amp(small), and some sort of distortion pedal that was in 1989.



DIGITAL: I just started recording within the last month,and so far I'm pretty much old school.




GEAR I HAVE NOW: I really dont have anything special but it sounds pretty good. I have a Austin Guitar, Fender automatic amp, a couple of stomp boxes, Yamaha 10/2 mixer and a mf-po1 Tascam four track. I pretty much use the recording gear just for my ideas, I soon will be purchasing better stuff in the future as I learn the techniques.Soon I will be recording my first cd, I'm really exited to get started.
 
Billy! that was a great story. LOL Sounds like a great way to get introduced to the Beatles.

regebro said:
Lately the singer has "reunited" with me, and it's this guy you'll hear on the comp cd.
Click to expand...

The comp CD? When is that coming out? Why are these great songs not on a website?

And you cjacek. Promises of mp3s, but none forthcoming! Shame on you!
 
DigitalSmigital said:

And you cjacek. Promises of mp3s, but none forthcoming! Shame on you!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know .. :o Next time I'm just gonna post 'em and not talk about it. I have no defense. You're right. I'm busted .. :o :o

I say on record here that I will post a tune or two sometime in February (YES, of THIS year! ;) ).

Daniel
 
So, I have to pay to hear your work. I see.

What criteria must be met to merit a cut on the Comp CD?
 
No, you should pay to support the BBS! :)
I bough five copies! Now go an order!
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/homerecording2

The criteria was a certain number of posts, I think. I don't remember. If there ever is a volume III I'm sure the criteria will be slightly different.
 
getting back to the original theme

(good thread !!) started on piano at age 8, had an older sister who was into music, this was mid 50's, so it was Elvis, etc, and Ed Sullivan became a Sunday night fixture in our house.

so it was gerry and the Pacemakers, etc, until 1963... and the Beatles!!!! (but how many remember the Dave Clark 5, and that they got on ES first ?) so between DC and ringo, swithched to drums...

Herm - I hear ya and feel for ya - don't know how my ears survived - by the late 60's I was rappin cymbals so hard I used to physically break the damn things (not to mention sticks!!)

Played in bands from 8th grade on thru college, first recorded on a Radio Shack 7" reel to reel stereo tape deck, for band rehersals, circa 1967 - damn I wish I still had some of those tapes!!

anyways, back into music about 10 years ago, had switched to guitar along the way, met a bunch of guys off the net, various guitar forums, and we'd get together and jam, got back into recording to record the jams, got back into the band thing, was playing out as recently as last year at age 50 - Nothing like a live audience, and getting them up and moving... and it's amazing how some of the old classic rock staples will do that, even for kids who weren't even alive when Jimi Hendrix was.

so, went thru a Tascam 414, tried the digital thing with a Fostex Dmt 8vl, and now have a tascam M320b board with full meter bridge feeding into a Tascam 38. still use the fostex digital to master down to, and some outboard gear, and then a stand alone CD burner.

and it's all too damn much fun.... thank God.

an if I knew of a good site to post a clip, I've got some good jam stuff I'd throw at ya!!

b-h

just keep groovin'
 
Try this site..

It's free and easy, like Paris Hilton.
Soundclick

What kinda blues we talkin'?
 
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