In the 1980’s I had many musical interests, graduating from piano experimentation to multi-trackers and experimental sound loops on my Apple IIe in the late 1980s. During that time, I began to explore what was possible, gravitating to a more experimental classical sound. Unfortunately, during this entire time, nothing I created would last beyond the first playing. Since I had no formal training in the piano, I could not easily write down what I had created: once played it was lost forever.
Then, sometime in 1990, I began playing around with an old-style Macintosh II computer that was housed in the office of the band instructor at my high school. It was hooked up to a Yamaha MIDI keyboard and was using a notation software package that I believe was called Encore. I realized that I could play pieces on the keyboard, which would then be transmitted to the software via MIDI. Then, once safely stored on the computer, I could not only save it for later playback through the keyboard, but then edit it to eliminate mistakes from fat fingering notes! But that wasn’t all: I could record musical thread, store it in a sort of rudimentary track, then play it back while recording another track to go along with it. This gave me a seriously amazing opportunity to play with more complex creations.
It was during this time that my first album, “Aurora: First Light” had its genesis. Interestingly, I never really had the impetus to actually save and record multiple different musical efforts up until this point: I was just playing around, not taking it too seriously. However, late in 1990 / early 1991, I was given an assignment in English class to create an artistic piece based on the feelings inspired by reading the book “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte. That was the prod that pushed me to create “Organ March #1”, “Icy Fields”, “Somber Strings”, “Piano Excerpts”, and “Winter on the Heath”. In case you’re interested, eventually, after much discussion with friends, I chose “Winter on the Heath” as the piece to showcase for the assignment.
However, the ending of the assignment was not the ending of my inspiration: I was bitten! I decided that whatever I was doing needed a suitably epic introduction, so “Brass Overture #1” was born. Soon after this, both “Organ Overture #1” and “The Rapid Organ” came into being as my constant playing of the keyboard had increased my technical skills. Finally, after several months of constant experimentation, I culminated all of this work with the creation of the four movements of my first “Organ Symphony”.
An interesting tidbit of this album is that it was not directly recorded into a WAV file or some other “modern” method. Instead, remember that the sounds were created on the keyboard itself. I would play the music on the keyboard, listening to what was being created, while those same notes were simultaneously stored in the Mac’s Encore software package. I would then use Encore to edit out mistakes and sometimes create multiple tracks of music (e.g. “Organ March #1”). Then, for final recording, in order to get the same sounds for the final mix, I would use the computer’s MIDI out function to have Encore push the same, edited notes back through the keyboard. The final step in the recording process was to hook up an analog cassette recorder to the Yamaha keyboard to capture the songs over a 1/4" stereo headphone jack. It worked great – almost perfectly – save for one song where the Encore software crashed during playback and I ended up with the final note going on forever. For that specific piece, I ended the final note by just pressing stop on the cassette recorder. You’ll probably be able to figure out which one it is just by listening, but as a hint, my guess is that the software crashed due to the length of the piece being played back...
As 1991 moved into 1992, I had a cassette full of my songs that I would then play for people, usually girls in whom I was interested, but I never did much else with those songs. Then, things changed in 1998.
During that time, I came upon a site that enabled independent artists to reach audiences without significant expenditures, MP3.com. I decided that I needed to enable my music to be available on CD and download for the first time, so I set to work. I completed the album art and got ready to publish it. However, I realized that I lacked a record label, both for legitimacy and reach. So, I set about creating my own, which eventually became Whitestar Music. Sooner than I knew it, my first album, “Aurora: First Light” was created and published on MP3.com.
Since that time, Aurora has been inspiring more people than I can count. I look forward to much more musical madness and exploration to come.
Then, sometime in 1990, I began playing around with an old-style Macintosh II computer that was housed in the office of the band instructor at my high school. It was hooked up to a Yamaha MIDI keyboard and was using a notation software package that I believe was called Encore. I realized that I could play pieces on the keyboard, which would then be transmitted to the software via MIDI. Then, once safely stored on the computer, I could not only save it for later playback through the keyboard, but then edit it to eliminate mistakes from fat fingering notes! But that wasn’t all: I could record musical thread, store it in a sort of rudimentary track, then play it back while recording another track to go along with it. This gave me a seriously amazing opportunity to play with more complex creations.
It was during this time that my first album, “Aurora: First Light” had its genesis. Interestingly, I never really had the impetus to actually save and record multiple different musical efforts up until this point: I was just playing around, not taking it too seriously. However, late in 1990 / early 1991, I was given an assignment in English class to create an artistic piece based on the feelings inspired by reading the book “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte. That was the prod that pushed me to create “Organ March #1”, “Icy Fields”, “Somber Strings”, “Piano Excerpts”, and “Winter on the Heath”. In case you’re interested, eventually, after much discussion with friends, I chose “Winter on the Heath” as the piece to showcase for the assignment.
However, the ending of the assignment was not the ending of my inspiration: I was bitten! I decided that whatever I was doing needed a suitably epic introduction, so “Brass Overture #1” was born. Soon after this, both “Organ Overture #1” and “The Rapid Organ” came into being as my constant playing of the keyboard had increased my technical skills. Finally, after several months of constant experimentation, I culminated all of this work with the creation of the four movements of my first “Organ Symphony”.
An interesting tidbit of this album is that it was not directly recorded into a WAV file or some other “modern” method. Instead, remember that the sounds were created on the keyboard itself. I would play the music on the keyboard, listening to what was being created, while those same notes were simultaneously stored in the Mac’s Encore software package. I would then use Encore to edit out mistakes and sometimes create multiple tracks of music (e.g. “Organ March #1”). Then, for final recording, in order to get the same sounds for the final mix, I would use the computer’s MIDI out function to have Encore push the same, edited notes back through the keyboard. The final step in the recording process was to hook up an analog cassette recorder to the Yamaha keyboard to capture the songs over a 1/4" stereo headphone jack. It worked great – almost perfectly – save for one song where the Encore software crashed during playback and I ended up with the final note going on forever. For that specific piece, I ended the final note by just pressing stop on the cassette recorder. You’ll probably be able to figure out which one it is just by listening, but as a hint, my guess is that the software crashed due to the length of the piece being played back...
As 1991 moved into 1992, I had a cassette full of my songs that I would then play for people, usually girls in whom I was interested, but I never did much else with those songs. Then, things changed in 1998.
During that time, I came upon a site that enabled independent artists to reach audiences without significant expenditures, MP3.com. I decided that I needed to enable my music to be available on CD and download for the first time, so I set to work. I completed the album art and got ready to publish it. However, I realized that I lacked a record label, both for legitimacy and reach. So, I set about creating my own, which eventually became Whitestar Music. Sooner than I knew it, my first album, “Aurora: First Light” was created and published on MP3.com.
Since that time, Aurora has been inspiring more people than I can count. I look forward to much more musical madness and exploration to come.