Get off my lawn and turn that music DOWN!!!!!!

I turned 59 twenty-one months ago.
 
Edited to add: I doubt that I would appreciate what we can do with a modern DAW if I hadn't grown up in the era when recording was something that most musicians only dreamed of doing. I suppose many of us here can remember when the PA system was an open channel on a guitar amp, and nobody even knew what monitors were. A few people had some sort of four track recorder that we could mess around on, but nobody really thought that you could make a record without going into a professional recording studio. To do that you had to have a decent band that could help the writers realize their idea of what the songs should sound like, then you had one shot in an afternoon to go into a studio and hope that the results would be satisfactory. 
 
For those of us who lived in that era having a modern DAW is magical. I think that's why there are so many of us who are having the best days of our musical lives now. It certainly can be frustrating and discouraging at times as we struggle through learning all  of what we need to know, but the reward for all that work is the realization of dreams we've had since we were teenagers.
 

I'll me 65 in a month or so.  I have been playing guitar for the last 50 of those years, writing songs for the last 30.  I went through the progression of recording to stereo tape, to 4 track Tascam cassette machines, 8 track digital machines then started with Cakewalk Home Studio about 10 years ago, moved through Sonar 6 to X1, X2 and now X3.  I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of this recording and mixing stuff, give me another 10 or 15 years and I'll be a force to be reckoned with.  I am about to release a cd of original material that I have recorded and mixed on X2 and X3.  I have finally gotten it to the point where I think it holds up with other stuff that's out there.  I'm hopeful it won't take as long to do the second cd.

One thing about this age bracket is that I'm guessing most were musicians back in the 60's and 70's as well.  Probably pounding the pavement in hopes of better musical and financial success, I'm guessing too.  Also, we've watched almost everything change ....from recording techniques and formats to record labels, budgets and lots of other stuff.  Owning X3 if you're like me, almost fulfills a dream of owning that "big boy" studio in that for the most part, it can do what the top tier studios could do back in the day.  It just takes the knowledge of the operator and the ignoring of distracting home noises!  I started on a Teac 3340...but skipped the cassette porta studios and also never owned an ADAT.  Always upgraded the analog tape machines.  I only make "mad money"...IF lucky.... for equipment for the studio.  Having a setup with X3 as the hub., makes things much more desirable...if you catch what I'm trying to say.  I have to admit, the technology at the rate it is advancing, plays a big part in keeping me interested.  Yeah...I'd still probably enjoy trying to keep my Arp in tune and bouncing tracks on my Tascam 38, but just getting a CA-2A for as MANY tracks as I want is pure GAS (and bliss), at a price my wallet can afford nowadays.  At this point, I enjoy it as much as hopping in the van and driving across town to the lousy 16 track studio, back in the day.  That was fun, but stuff like X3, Toontrack and Omnisphere is incredible.

63 ...still working a lot... I create everything from classical to trip hop... a high percentage of what I create sells for my clients and it makes me good money. I use X3e ...various synth combinations, guitar, bass and vocal....

SONAR X3 gets a workout every day here in Texas... also resuming live loud heavy rock in July...
 
It's best not to think "age" in a world that desperately wants to replace everything past a certain "expiration" date...
the times have changed a bit since my early days of playing music in 1963 New Orleans... while all us smart ass punks didn't listen to elders ... we at least looked up to them as what we could be when we grew up...

When we use "tools of  today" in such a way as to push ourselves to create "new" ...we at least eliminate the labels and get a chance to show what we got!
 
 

antelope freeway...1/4 mile...    antelope freeway.... 1/8th mile....  ;-D

I'm still here at gunpoint... It started when I was somewhere near 2.5 and they couldn't get the stringed things away from me... I'm 62 and will be 63 this year. I've owned/operated commercial studios back in the days of tape and vinyl and I don't expect the gun to disappear from my head anytime before death! They took my gun but left one permanently affixed to my head demanding that I create and record... So I must go on!


Keni

I'll be 61 in August and I'm recording more than I ever have.

I will be 62 in the fall.  I don't do as much recording/editing today as in the past due to having my left foot and ankle totally fused in 2ooo.  Then one year later I found out that I have adult scoliosis.  I am now forced to use a wheelchair and a power chair to get around.  I have been doing audio since I was 10 and had my own studio in the Seattle area from 1978 to 1993 before having to retire with all the surgeries on my ankle.  I have been in Las Vegas since 2001. 

Good Morning,
 
I have not made it to the club yet but wanted to comment on how inspired and how full of gratitude I feel in having the examples that you represent.  Music would not have been the force in my life without you. You gave me something to aspire to. Thanks for being what you are so that I could dare to think that I could also. I look forward to hopefully representing to other's what you represent to me..