Rain
kennywtelejazz
nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to how creative a musician can be in less than ideal conditions or using what some folks consider a second rate DAW
I heard some 4 track cassettes a long time ago that Steve Vai had done …
they smoked anything I was able to do using SONAR 5 at the time I heard them 
unfortunately for me...
I might add...that still may be the case 
Kenny
That's the thing, uh? I dare not check Vai's stuff out...
Here I am trying to justify spending more money on the home studio - which almost looks like Avatar by comparison to my brother's set up - and I hear his stuff... It comes like a slap in the face (though I'm finally beginning to hear little things - but I really had to search for them. Almost.).
Hello Rain , it's funny how we both were having a thing going on with our brothers and music production ...
my brother K...started out working at Dick Charles recording studio NYC as an intern
within a few years he was taken under the wing of a Film producer who specialized in documentaries
at the production facility in NYC where my brother worked he ran and operated a 48 track recording studio
then he moved out West when the production company relocated it facilitys in Cali ...
I don't want to do my brothers resume , but i will keep it lite
K... did work with a lot of top people on locations as a boom operator and a sound man ….I used to get a kick watching his name roll across the credits on a couple of well know television shows that are still popular….
I left NYC in 97 and moved out West to open a recording studio with him ..he was getting a lot of offers to score music for lower budget independant films and adult movies..lol
K... played Keys when he wasn't doing production work for hire...
when I stayed with him in North Hollywood he had enough equipment just in has apartment alone to open a full fledged production studio…
he had a sweet deal going on with the main production studio he worked for …he was family and every time they upgraded their gear they said to him do you want any of this older stuff ...
on top of that he had a long standing friendship / long term working relationship with a composer name Paul Baillargeon .
Paul would fly into LA to score the music for select episodes of Deep Space Nine , Voyager , and Enterprise ...
One of the things Paul did over the years was to keep everything he needed to score his music at my brothers apt
so he didn't have to flying w all that stuff…
in addition to letting my brother keep and own all the equipment that he used to score the shows ..keys , synths moduals ...hardware ...software..sequencers , drum machines …ect ect ….
He didn't like staying in hotels / motels ..so he actually scored many of the episodes of Deep Space Nine , Voyager , and Enterprise …he did in my brothers apartment
I'm the only person in the world that can tell you this ..and how do I know this …
because when I was staying with my brother I had to sleep out in my van when ever Paul showed up with his assistant to score the shows..
Paul was civil to me , he knew my situation ..he knew I was a musician and K…'s brother ...
so I stayed out of his way when ever he was in town ( truthful I would have been an unwelcome distraction )
he did throw me a bone on one visit …he scored an episode of Voyager and let me watch him and his assistant work for a couple of hours ….
I was grateful he let me sit there and watch , I got to see things first hand …
what happened after that which i didn't see was they took the score to the studio and had a full orchestra play the score…cool stuff ..a few weeks later I got to catch the episode on tv…..
anyway I moved out and got my own place …I never did get to open up a studio with my brother
he was always busy working on film locations doing sound …as a boom operator or sound man ..
in some way I felt that he was a little embarrassed by me …he was very well connected and he knew how to play the game …as we all know I can be somewhat of a loose cannon and a little outspoken
a few years passed and eventually my brother introduced me to SONAR … he was running SONAR 1 ….
we stayed in touch and hung a lot ..even dated a couple of the same girls ….eventually got married had a few kids
some how he wound up back on drugs after 10 + years of being clean …. it was sad watching him loose everything
my brother K….passed away in a motorcycle accident the day Whitney H….died...
sorry to share all this here…it seemed like the right thing to do
Kenny