Music

Born in the 50’s, raised in the 60’s, gigged in the 70’s.

Those were the days… sleep all day, play music all night, and you actually got paid for it. The picture of me on the left with my PolyMoog and MiniMoog on top of my Hammond B3 was me at about 25 years old. (I still have all three of those instruments today) I was playing with The Andy Gootch Band at the time. Like I said, man… those were the days of Rock & Roll.

Today I’m using all Virtual Instruments (VSTi) to record but I still have some vintage keys like my Hammond B3, Minimoog, Pollymoog, EMU Proteus/1, EPS Sampler. SQ-80, ESQ-1, 3 Yamaha TX7’s, and Roland MKB-300 MIDI Controller.

Songwriting

These days I do my music composition with Sony ACID Pro 7.0. It is the best loop based composition software I have found. I looked at Cubase and SONAR but they were just overly complicated. Not that I couldn’t learn them, but that I just wanted to write music, not learn software. ACID has a nice streamlined interface that doesn’t get in the way of what I’m trying to do. i.e., Be creative!

I like to write in sections and then arrange those sections into a song. ACID lets me do this easily because its loop based approach allows me to record a verse or chorus once and then use it easily as many times as I want. You can quickly throw a song together and hear how it will sound. Also since I write alone, it nice to be able to have Mick Fleetwood lay down a drum track and Rudy Sarzo a bass track to inspire me. 😉 Of course I’m referring to the ability to purchase loops from other musicians and use them in your compositions royalty free. Quite often when working in a band, someone will play a riff that will inspire a jam that turns into a song. ACID Loops provide the same kind of interactive inspiration.

If you’re doing any MIDI compositions, you’re going to want some great virtual instruments (VSTi) so check out my VSTi page. You might also need some audio plug-ins. I use Waves plug-ins and you can get a 10% coupon if you purchase through this link: 10% Coupon

The Bands

Over the years I’ve been in a number of bands playing 5-nights week paying my dues. I started out in High School and played professionally for 10 years after that. Check out my Bands page for more details.