When did you begin making computer music?

[crisis-at-music]

I started about 20 years ago using Scream Tracker and later Impulse Tracker. Switched to MIDI/Audio after getting a Yamaha MU10 (yes, MU10 not MU100...) soundmodule and Emagic microLogic in 1999.

[crazed one]

I don't make anything anymore.

Give it time and stay open to possibility. Inspiration and initiative go and come over the years. Rediscovering music is far easier than first conquering its learning curves.

That is my plan. I figure that if I get the desire again, that will be all that is necessary to drive me onward. If that never happens then I'll be okay. I'm just going with the flow and with what feels natural.

[Meffy]

A sensible, practical approach. Music is one of the pleasures of my life, but it's not all there is. Sounds like you're that way too.

[memyselfandus]

My first synth was a Korg DW-6000, back in 1984 or 1985. My first sequencer for the Mac Plus came shortly after that- "MIDIMac Sequencer 1.0" which was later known as "Opcode StudioVision"

You really are overly obsessed with this whole Opcode thing. You do realize that, don't you? Necro'ing an ancient thread just because I mentioned nine years ago that MIDIMAC was my first sequencer...

[memyselfandus]

anyone on here still use studio vision?

[crazed one]

do it brother.

If you do it for 30 min to an hour every day, you will create some shit that you will get into after a bit. That's just how the brain works. Don't convince yourself that it's just that you're "not inspired" anymore or something. That's not how it works. People get 'inspire' because they are working on music all the time so of course ideas are going to pop up more frequently.

Carve some time out for it. It's important to feed the soul. Like really important. I've watched to many suffer because they didn't do that.

This is a great suggestion as well. Thank you.

[crazed one]

Nice to see all you old bastards so that I'm still one of the younger folk here.

I started with Rebirth in 1999. I was 11, in 6th grade. Around 8th grade I discovered Fruityloops 2.

I really miss the pre-VST days of computer music. Well, I don't actually miss it, but I'm certainly nostalgic about it. Lots of creativity funneled through limitation. I wish I had the discipline to self-impose limits like those that used to be unavoidable.

Time flies. I rarely visit kvr anymore but it's nice to see old names here when I do come around.

I know what you mean about the limitations we used to have. When I was last producing tunes, it seemed that my biggest limitations were in having too many tools at my disposal.

[V0RT3X]

Here's my TLDR story.

My musical journey started with me at 13 learning guitar from this older kid in my neighborhood because I thought he was cool. previously to that I've always been drawn to music but never thought to actually make my own. So most of my early years were me learning how to play guitar, and it was hard because the lessons were pretty informal.

Eventually I went to a music teacher as i got older and signed up for voice and piano lessons, and it was really basic stuff. I didn't understand why I had to learn stupid kids songs so I got discouraged and quit. I figured music wasn't for me, I wasn't patient and eventually just walked away from taking formal lessons for a while.

When I was 16 a musician friend invited me to come with him while he recorded his album at the Banff Centre for performing arts. If you aren't sure what this place is, you can check it out here. https://www.banffcentre.ca/production-facilities

Once I got to sit behind a console and witness the birth of a full musical album I got really inspired and wanted to learn how to do my own so i looked around for options. Obviously there was not a lot in the remote area I grew up in, but a friend told me about these music programs where you could make your own stuff on a computer.

My first experience with a music program was using the Rebirth Demo and it honestly boggled my mind. I had no f**king clue what was going on, or how it even worked. I also had nobody to teach me, so learning this stuff was a serious lesson in frustration. I gave up on Rebirth, and then a few years passed and I signed up for a month long media production course at a film school. I enjoyed film production and still do, but once I found out about the soundtrack room and their music computers with Acid and Reason I couldn't stay away from it.

Acid was my first foray into production and it was easy, I would just drag and drop these loops and make a song. It kind of felt like cheating though, and so i wanted to know how to make my own loops from scratch so I started to explore Reason.

Reason was mind boggling but fascinating at the same time, and since I was older at 18 I had more patience in trying to figure out what was going on. The first few times with it, the most I could figure out then was how to load up a patch and play it on the midi keyboard. That was enough to get me inspired because the sounds were so amazing!

That was fun, to just load up a patch and noodle away on the keyboard, but eventually I wanted to know how to make my own tracks. I loaded up some demo tracks in Reason and was completely overwhelmed, it seemed so difficult and i had about a million questions with no answers. Once i left film school, those questions lingered on and bothered me enough to start demoing DAWs on my own laptop at home. I also started to pick up magazines by Computer music and the like to try and get a few answers and learn tips.

I remember there was a Demo for Ableton Live and so I gave it a test and found that it was way different than Reason, It also visually just seemed kind of bland so I got kind of turned off and never really explored it much. Reason was $400 which was out of my budget because i wasn't employed at 18 so I got discouraged. I figured only pros would pay for something like that and I really just gave up on the whole thing and stuck to guitar lessons again.

Eventually after a bit of guitar playing I returned back to electronic music and tried the Ableton live demo again, but this time for some reason the workflow with the sessions view clicked with me. It kind of reminded me of Acid, but i was producing my own loops so it was the best of both worlds.

I think it really all began then, and i started learning all these cool ways to make electronic music. My parents basically saw how interested i was and for Christmas they bought me a copy of Ableton Live 6 and suddenly a whole new world just opened up for me. Later on I saved up and bought Reason 5 on it's release and began to rewire Live into Ableton and i felt i had the best setup ever. I started to churn out a bunch of music and had a work flow that worked and it only really got better from there.

It kind of became an obsession that I couldn't quite understand, but i always got drawn back to it even though it often got me really frustrated.

Now I use Bitwig Studio as my only DAW and own a bunch of awesome plugins that I am still learning how to use, and I am absolutely loving producing. I think now as I'm older I know where my short comings are, and it helps me as I know this journey will probably never really end. I don't plan on quitting, actually I feel like I'm just getting started.

[goldenanalog]

It kind of became an obsession that I couldn't quite understand, but i always got drawn back to it even though it often got me really frustrated.

There it is. Right there. Art is work - it can even be harder - sometimes much harder - then 'regular' work.

[spaceman]

Computer music, in 2004 with Orion. I had demoed Reason first but went for something slightly cheaper (and something that could run the VSTs I had been reading about) in case the hobby didn't last. Unfortunately it did last and it has cost me a lot of money over the years.

What's a pity is that, for me, the magic has disappeared now. All the DAWs are extremely powerful and they can do a million things. I preferred it when I didn't know much and the options were more limited. Here I am now with Logic, Reason, Renoise, Tracktion (and Reaper, collecting digital dust) and the software distracts me too much.

[kelvyn]

1984 with a Commodore computer and the Steinberg program. Then Notator from eMagic with an Apple - a short time on Cubase Audio because they were the first DAW with audio - and then on to Logic Audio. Been on Logic now for almost thirty years - My God!!! - I purchased the Pro Tools Mix Plus system in the 90's but hated it for composing, it was expensive as hell and was always breaking down so I got rid of it... am still in love with Logic:)

[DJ Warmonger]

At the age of 11, which was... 15 years ago. Of course I was completely clueless by then.
Oh it's not easy even with degree in electronics.

[Lejurai]

Fruityloops 1. Then Fruityloops 2. Then Reason 2 aaaand then I had years of break from music making. I became a drunk and spent rockstar life(style) without being famous soooo generally people though I'm just pathetic

Then I had my first kid at 2011 and I decided to end my glorious career as a drunk. Even though the days were busy (nights too really), I still felt a bit empty and I though "what should I do to get booze out from my mind". Then I remembered my old love. Reason. Well I didn't want to pirate it and I couldn't afford to buy one, I found out Reaper. This was around the end of 2012.

[PurpleCatfishBettie]

it must have been around '92. had a win 3.1 386 with a 'motu sequencer'. those computers needed a midi card for the connectors. the synth modules were outside the computer; yamaha ry30, tg33, and some korg thing. was recording onto an adat with no real knowledge of mixing whatsoever. had 'moved up' to this computer setup from an 8-track cassette machine; maybe it was a tascam.

after the thing with the computer sequencer and adat, moved back to cassette-type multitrackers, only by then they were digital media. there was a fostex 8-track which had this really good scrubbing. went from there, on through several boss units.

forgot about computer sequencing for 10+ years, then started in with vsti/vst plug-ins in 2010.

started with hammerhead, tunafish, cubase le (came with the lambda i/o device), then moved to renoise. had never tried a tracker before and liked it from the get-go. first time i loaded renoise, it was like, 'wow this looks like an old dos app.. cool!'

[Vintage73]

See my forum "since" date? Yup, that's when I started in music ITB, though I truly started with the trumpet in third grade and electric bass in 10th.

I started with a Keystation 88es and Sony ACID Pro 7, along with a bunch of free and dirt-cheap plugins (that I found here!).

Then, a couple of years ago I purged, and came back December of last year, and finally started on another track this last weekend.

Now I'm completely concentrating on me. I'm not making anything for anyone else. I mostly just noodle without hitting record. It's totally satisfying. Me, me, me. Screw all you others.