Audio
I've always been a technology fetishist, a nerd and - for a little part of my life - an hacker. The name of my preferred site is www.gearslutz.com ... and that says a lot! By the way, I think I have such a balanced attitude toward technology .... I mean... Can I live WITHOUT gear? No. Can I live ONLY WITH gear? No.
My problem is that I have more gear attitudes...
Everything starts from the wood energy for the taoist point of view... and I started by a guitar! The first one was when I was so young that I can't remember it. It was said to me by my mother and nothing can testify it better than a photographic document. When I was thirteen I asked for an electric guitar to my parents. It was a beautiful an Eko guitar, a copy of Gibson 335 "cherry red" model, and a Davoli tube amplifier. Ok, at the present it could be sound cool, but - at that transistor only times - tube amplifier were only an old and not very well functioning stuff. So I try to change them very quickly. And this led me to the effect pedals + electric guitars + amplifiers second hand market hell...
And then I was interested with synthesizers. Guitar wasn't enough? No, but a synthesizer sound tremendously charming if you can cope the steep learning curve. The first time I took a synthesizer in my parents house was a monophonic Korg MS10. Something someone could kill today for. But at that day... Ok I begin to be repetitive. I bought a lot of synthesizer from then, but the first one I bought brand new was a Roland D50, and then a Korg Wavestation.
And then I was in a recording studio. Have you ever been in a recording studio in the Eighties? Oh, guys it was like to visit a spaceship! It didn't take a lot to fall in love with studio outboards and multi-track record decks. I suddenly understand that music was (and is) not just a spiritual flow made audible, but also something to be build up with a strategy, a direction. And this is music production, this is audio engineering and this is arrangement stuff too.
At a certain point came the digital revolution. My parents bought me an Atari 1040 with a MIDI sequencer: Steinberg Pro24. I was very comfortable with it, but the company launch a new product as substitute and I was very upset. I wandered why they change the graphic user interface, every function and, moreover, the name: they choose an ugly name, not very gear added: Cubase!
And year over the other one and my Atari became old. I bought a PC (a shining 386 model, Windows ready: when none have seen Windows yet...) and also Cubase grew up, acquiring audio recording capabilities. And then came the VST technology and the audio plugins era: I begin to meet the same things in their virtual side: equalizers, compressors and so on.
With the Aurasonora line up, I begin to use an Apple Macintosh. When someone ask me why I pass to Apple, I can only answer that if you go on stage, you don't want to have ANY problem with your computer. Everyone encounter problems with his Microsoft Windows computer in the lifetime, but often it happen in your house or in your office and you don't even realize how critical this issue can be in music performing. In house/office situations you have time to react at such malfunctioning events. You don't have the same time (and focusing capacity) when you are in front of a crowd that have paid for (and then is waiting for) your music. I never forget that time we finish one Aurasonora gig: people was still clapping hands, and I went (with a smiling heart) to my Apple Powerbook in order to stop the sequencer. Then I realize that the computer has got a fatal error during the performance, but the sequencer played all the songs without a hitch up to the end! Saint Apple Powerbook! Just for sake of clarity, the Apple service reported a memory burnst and a not recoverable Hard-disk problem... not just a typical "Microsoft Windows" problem! You got it?
My problem is that I have more gear attitudes...
Everything starts from the wood energy for the taoist point of view... and I started by a guitar! The first one was when I was so young that I can't remember it. It was said to me by my mother and nothing can testify it better than a photographic document. When I was thirteen I asked for an electric guitar to my parents. It was a beautiful an Eko guitar, a copy of Gibson 335 "cherry red" model, and a Davoli tube amplifier. Ok, at the present it could be sound cool, but - at that transistor only times - tube amplifier were only an old and not very well functioning stuff. So I try to change them very quickly. And this led me to the effect pedals + electric guitars + amplifiers second hand market hell...
And then I was interested with synthesizers. Guitar wasn't enough? No, but a synthesizer sound tremendously charming if you can cope the steep learning curve. The first time I took a synthesizer in my parents house was a monophonic Korg MS10. Something someone could kill today for. But at that day... Ok I begin to be repetitive. I bought a lot of synthesizer from then, but the first one I bought brand new was a Roland D50, and then a Korg Wavestation.
And then I was in a recording studio. Have you ever been in a recording studio in the Eighties? Oh, guys it was like to visit a spaceship! It didn't take a lot to fall in love with studio outboards and multi-track record decks. I suddenly understand that music was (and is) not just a spiritual flow made audible, but also something to be build up with a strategy, a direction. And this is music production, this is audio engineering and this is arrangement stuff too.
At a certain point came the digital revolution. My parents bought me an Atari 1040 with a MIDI sequencer: Steinberg Pro24. I was very comfortable with it, but the company launch a new product as substitute and I was very upset. I wandered why they change the graphic user interface, every function and, moreover, the name: they choose an ugly name, not very gear added: Cubase!
And year over the other one and my Atari became old. I bought a PC (a shining 386 model, Windows ready: when none have seen Windows yet...) and also Cubase grew up, acquiring audio recording capabilities. And then came the VST technology and the audio plugins era: I begin to meet the same things in their virtual side: equalizers, compressors and so on.
With the Aurasonora line up, I begin to use an Apple Macintosh. When someone ask me why I pass to Apple, I can only answer that if you go on stage, you don't want to have ANY problem with your computer. Everyone encounter problems with his Microsoft Windows computer in the lifetime, but often it happen in your house or in your office and you don't even realize how critical this issue can be in music performing. In house/office situations you have time to react at such malfunctioning events. You don't have the same time (and focusing capacity) when you are in front of a crowd that have paid for (and then is waiting for) your music. I never forget that time we finish one Aurasonora gig: people was still clapping hands, and I went (with a smiling heart) to my Apple Powerbook in order to stop the sequencer. Then I realize that the computer has got a fatal error during the performance, but the sequencer played all the songs without a hitch up to the end! Saint Apple Powerbook! Just for sake of clarity, the Apple service reported a memory burnst and a not recoverable Hard-disk problem... not just a typical "Microsoft Windows" problem! You got it?