ORIGINAL: sammyp

...I'm glad i finally embraced the world of PC/audio. It's awesome ...........................and expensive.

I'm glad I got into synthesizers, MIDI and computers when I did. I feel like I got on board when things were in their early stages, yet developed enough to be useful. If I were just being exposed to synths, MIDI and computers today it would be overwhelming. Because I used two physical tape recorders to multi-track, I had an understanding of multiple tracks on a piece of tape. Because I started with an analog synth with knobs and sliders, I understand the components that produce 'patches' on today's synths and softsynths. Because I completely tore apart and rebuilt my first computer (8088), I understand the structure of the PC.

After a while, I got tired of paying $$$ for keyboard repairs, piano tunings, computer upgrades, etc....so I started researching and doing it myself. The first time I saw someone record and playback from a computer, I knew I had to have one. The first time I walked into a music store and heard a sampler, I knew I had to have one. You're right, it has been very expensive, but I wouldn't trade my education for any school-earned deploma. Yes, I have a BA in music, but they just didn't teach any of this from 1977-1981 at Southeastern College in Lakeland, FL.

Wow, that's a big jump. I hope it wasn't too much of a shock to you (learning curve, etc.). Before Cakewalk (Twelve-tone) introduced audio recording to their software, I used a 4-track cassette synced with SMPTE to add audio to the MIDI sequences. As much as I'm glad to have experienced those days and that gear, I'm glad their gone!

Fortunately for me I spent a few use going from Cubase 24 - Cubase 3.7 - Cubase SX 1 before upgrading cakewalk. It was still a hard jump. I still have my yamaha 4 track, and went directly from that to Cubase 24. There was quite a tech shock, a few books read, a subscription to electronic musician, and a patient spouse.

Ahh yes, I remember it well. 1987, running Cakewalk on a 286-10 MHz with 128K of RAM. We were driving some pretty cheap gear in those days (a Casio CZ-101), but were SOO happy to have a "keyboard player" in the band! akewalk was a LOT better than the POS MIDI-thing we'd been messing around with on the Commodore 64...

We were in heaven, hanging out in the basement, recording to the 4-track cassette and trying not to bounce tracks too many times...

Man, that's a long way from today. In so many ways... Where DID my hair go, anyway?!?!?

I started with the DOS.

First version of Cakewalk - DOS on a Comapq 8088 MPU-401 - My workflow was fast and simple...

-D

Ah yes.... The "old" times....

I almost hate to think of how long it's been... But it does have fond memories...

I started recording music back in the 60's and remember building my first studio around 2 Teac 334's (the "S" wasn't out yet) as the 70's began....

I also remember my excitement at experiencing the first Moog Modular Synths (Model 5 and Model 15) with all the necessary patching and tweaking everytime I wanted any sound at all... ;-)

Sequencing? Yeah.... After working endlessly at multitrack work to accomplish my music... I remember the early step sequencers... There was one by ARP that I always loved tho the model escapes me at the moment....

Then when MIDI happened, I bought the Roland JX-3P which was the first MIDI equipped synth to hit the American shores.... Followed within a short time by a C64 which I only bought because there was a MIDI interface available.... The Roland MPU401 was promised but not here.... So I bought a Sequential Curcuits interface along with the C64 and returned both the next day as did almost all of the other Seq. Circuits interfaces.... I boughtan IBM PC which was only 64k of memory... and waited for the mpu to turn up.... The day it did I grabbed it, but the Roland software hadn't come in yet... and I noticed a software by Roger Powell (Utopia) called Texture for the pc.... I bought it, used it, loved it, and worked with them to help develope it over the next few years and marketing companies....

Then along came Windows.... and at first I hated it.... But as I needed to create music for games and the likes, the need for a windows based system became too great... and Texture's competition Cakewalk by TwelveTones made the leap quite elegantly.... I switched and stayed.... I've had every version of Cakewalk since... First locking it to my tape machines via sync/clock devices and later to a Soundscape SSHDR1RP which gave me digital recording that I would sync with Pro Audio (whcih was still MIDI-only)....

I'm not a happy camper running 4.04 and dreaming of upgrading to v5 asap..... Too bad I've never succeeded at anything... I sure have worked at it for a long time! ;-) (My 4th Solo album is about to be released as soon as I receive the replication funds)....

Thanks for all the stories.... Fun to see how so many others got hooked on this stuff...

Keni

I think my first version of CW might have even been DOS.. or at the very least, the SMPTE side of it was. It was around 1992...

Sound card??? Sound card?????? My first version had an MQX 32m Midi interface...
no sound card until I got a DAL (which came with 2 cards by the way: an analog card and a separate Digital I/O card.).

First real audio production suite was Mac / PT, until PC's caught up in power and capability, when I switched to CW vers 8 or something, because I never liked the midi side of Digidesign. Still have PT though, but use mostly Sonar these days.

I ran CW 3 for windows on Win95 using a 386 for a long time, midi only of course.

D.

Wow! That's going back a ways. I started with Cakewalk DOS v 2.0 and I think I used it with the CMS Music Supply MPU-401. I'm guessing that was about 1990??? (Maybe earlier). I think I was using a Kurzweil K-1000 keyboard. It had some nice sounds. BTW, I wasn't so young then. I got my B.M. in 1973.

Nifty-neat-o. Lot's of old users here.

My first sequencer was MasterTrax on the Mac. This was like 94. I actually had a MIDI class in high school and did a lot of my stuff there on an old Proteus. Then when I wanted to work at home I found a demo for this program called Cakewalk 4.

I bought a copy of ProAudio9 soon thereafter and used Goldwave's Multiquence to line up my bounced MIDI with some live guitar...plugged in direct to my Soundblaster.

Funny, I'm actually going through all of my old files and seeing which projects I can "spruce up" with my new toys. Anyone doing that? I'd like to hear everyone's "old" stuff!!! Redone or just plopped straight out...I think it would be great to hear everyone's humble beginning projects if they still have them!

Tony

Yep... and that was around the time when the 5.25" floppies were the SMALL ones...

I guess I go far enough back to remember 8" floppies, but thankfully, no PC's that I ever ran into used them.

I go back to Cakewalk 1.1d for DOS that I got from CMS in early 1987 (I think). I recall using some MPU-401 clone, but soon upgraded to an MQX 32 interface. My rig consisted of just a Yamaha Clavinova and an FB-01 run by a 80386SX "lunchbox" computer with a plasma screen that ran so hot, you could feel the heat from the screen on your face. I used that rig for a LONG time. I quit upgrading for a while when Cakewalk went to Windows, because the lunchbox wouldn't run Windows worth a darn. I finally got back in the flow when it became Sonar and a new computer appeared to run it.

This was back in the day when Greg Hendershott WAS Twelve Tone Systems. I think he had a newsletter that he'd send out every so often. It eventually announced when Twelve Tone Systems hired their FIRST, non-Greg, employee...a secretary of some sort. A while later they hired their SECOND employee...another programmer. This is also long before the web became ubiquitous. There was a music oriented BBS from somewhere around Oklahoma City that had an informal support forum where you could fire off requests and questions and Greg would respond personally...because there WASN'T anyone else.

...uh...in the snow...uphill...both ways...yada yada...

Yup.. Cakewalk 3, an MPU-401 and a D50 as a mother keyboard.. And I can recall shocking a friend who was using Cubase with an Akai sampler or something similar at the time with Cakewalk's sophisticated layout :) A far cry from those clunky Oberheim units in the 80's..

Cheers!

I don't feel so lonely anymore.

Started out in the seventies, with a borrowed microkorg and a Hondo-guitar - recording "sound on sound" on a Philips reel to reel. Later had a Tascam 244 with gadgets I built from Andertons books and a drum machine from Paia. Got into computers and programming so I even programmed my own midisequencer and got it to work - but it just wasn't worth it. First PC-sequencer I bought was Voyetra's sequencer plus, didn't like it or its copy protection so I got Cakewalk DOS 2 and have stayed with TTS/Cakewalk since.
Those of you who haven't seen how the original Cakewalk looked like (and are interested) have a few scans over at Cakewalknets history-section (some of them by me).

I started off way back when with Cakewalk 2.0 along with a Yamaha DX7 and TX81Z, Alesis HR16, Akia X7000 and a Korg DW8000. (I had already ditched my Hammond /Leslie, ARP's etc. (sniff)

I always liked the DX7's but they made a lousy controller. For anyone thinking of using one for a controller, bare in mind that the DX7 only had a maximum velocity level output of 99. So any notes from 100 to 127 would sound just like a 99 velocity. That was the main reason I finally parted with it.

Michael Japan has tons of talent...but Mike, I wouldn't try & play electric guitar while you're lounging in that blue tub.

Not sure if this is old school, but...Pro Audio 9 on an pathetic old Gateway w/ a PII & a SoundBlaster. I'm thinking 1995, maybe...'96?

(Actually...started off on a TEAC A-3340S about '75...but got "digitally delayed" for about 20 years.)

mark4man

Yep... waaay back ...
I started making electronic music on an Air Force GYK-1 S.A.G.E. papertape and drum system in 71 I think it was. I figured out how to control the "alarm" buzzer by programmatically controlling the voltage going to the buzzer!!! My very own VCO!!!

My commander was so impressed that he had me writing programs for various songs (Yellow rose of Texas, Dixie, etc...) that we would have the system play when he was giving tours to important people.

I continued on with my very own Altair (kit built)...then the "trash80" model 1 (with 4K and a audio cassette storage). Then it was voyetra to CW 2 dos to Sonar5 via A LOT of MONEY and way too many years... I don't want to think about it anymore...