How long have you been making midis?

[Normski]

...

[Graeme]

For myself, ten years or so, although I've been recording other musicians midi's for much longer. If you want to hear some, go to my Soundclick page;

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/3/graemejayemusic.htm

Tracks 1, 3, 4 and 6 are all midi, the others have audio elements as well.

[rknrne]

Originally posted by Graeme

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/3/graemejayemusic.htm


Nice work Graeme. listened to all of them.
time well spent . nice touch !:thumbsup:

[Graeme]

Thank you <blush>

[ZelRiptha]

Great stuff, Graeme! Nicely rendered and really fresh-sounding. :thumbsup:

[JackUK]

Great work, flows great!

Myself, been making for a year :)

[Graeme]

My goodness - I feel quite overwhelmed by this praise. Thank you, one and all.

[rknrne]

That's what you get for posting links on the board .
Interesting web site also.
Now, how do you make real money selling to the public?

[Graeme]

Originally posted by rknrne
That's what you get for posting links on the board .

Yeah - dangerous thing to do, I know :)

Originally posted by rknrne
Interesting web site also.

You mean the SoundClick site, or my business one?

Originally posted by rknrne Now, how do you make real money selling to the public?

If you mean 'how do I make money out of writing and playing music' the answer is I don't. I once did a 'buyout' deal on a tune I wrote which ended being used for some ad or other, but that's the only real money I have made from writing. I used to gig (only as a semi-pro) and that was lucrative at the time, but I haven't stood on a stage for about 20 years! At that time, I earned my living as a recording engineer - others did the hard work of writing and playing.

These days, music is only a hobby for me. I make my living doing audio restoration, selling machines to repair CD's and other equally boring things.

[rknrne]

I think the soundclick one had a little bio on you.
I'm not sure if it took me to your personal site through that.

I would like to get into recording & engineering, but I feel like I either have attention deficit disorder or one too many concussions to be able to delve into any manuals to get the equipment operating.

[Graeme]

Originally posted by rknrne
I think the soundclick one had a little bio on you.
I'm not sure if it took me to your personal site through that.

I can't imagine that the SoundClick site would take you to my business one - I'll have to check on that, since it's not suppoosed to. If you really want to see how I earn a living go to www.personal-cd.com . There's no music on the site, so don't go looking for any, although there are a couple of pics of the setup.

Originally posted by rknrne
I would like to get into recording & engineering, but I feel like I either have attention deficit disorder or one too many concussions to be able to delve into any manuals to get the equipment operating.

I got into the business by accident more than design - but it treated me reasonably well and I have no complaints.

In my day (Strewth! that makes me sound old) the normal route into recording was to start right at the bottom - making the tea - moving on to micing up, tape op, etc., etc., until someone was brave or stupid enough to let you engineer a session. At that point, your career was hanging on a couple or three hours work.

These days, there are schools and colleges who think they can teach you to engineer in a few weeks. I've seen some of the products of this system and generally, they seem to know what equipment does, but precious little idea of when and why they should use it and many of them couldn't engineer a session out of a wet paper bag.

Learning to use the equipment is only part of what you need and it takes years (literally) of experience before you really get good at it. Some musical knowledge is useful (though not essential, unless you are getting into classical or jazz work) and an eclectic taste in music is essential.

Working as an engineer is a bit like playing in a pit orchestra, you get to do a lot of things which aren't to your personal taste, but you still have to do the best job you can (and look as though you are enjoying it).

[Jimmygarn]

I've been around and about midi's for about five years, though I momentarily lost interest in them I have rediscovered the fact that they are quite nice, especially if you use them with software like Reason. (Reason sounds much better than I have ever been able to make SF2 sound).

[Kanix]

I've been working with & on MIDIs since about 1998 or so, when I was 15. It went from being a way to kill time back then, to me getting a place in a Metallica tribute band as drum programmer last year. Woot.

[mental_c]

I've started creating midi's about 8 years ago, when i bought my keyboard. The past few years I didn't use it anymore, my keyboard didn't work anymore. A few weeks ago I found it again, I repaired it. Since then I never stopped playing :)

[John23604]

I started in 1994, always a Cakewalk fan. My first controller was a DX7 that now is worth absolutely nothing. It has been amazing seeing the transformation, the sounds we had back then would give me a headache today.

[John23604]

Wow real talent there Graeme, I have always tried to jazz but it won't flow naturally, I admire people that have the gift.

[Graeme]

Thank you for the compliment.

I would never consider myself as a jazz player, although I have this jazzy/latin leaning (as you may have noticed :) - a case of too many restaurant gigs in my youth). I am always amazed at the number of times I hear people say you can't do this sort of music using midi - it's really not that difficult, especially if you turn the quantisation off.

[spherehunter]

wow you all are very devoted... I one day wanna be like that.. if i can even make an artist's midi! :D

[songer]

my husband has been making midi for a year... but he's been editing other people's midi for 6 years now... :D

[Master Jace]

Thats what I usually do. I edit MIDI files. Every once in a while I make one.

[songer]

i think every song programmer starts with editing song... actually, it's not easy to edit... my husband is editing endlessly, because we always move almost every 6 months... and different venue means different editing...

[songer]

but mind you... not all piano/keyboard player can program midis... i know some people who have been keyboard player all their lives, but they're just learning how to make midi files lately...

[Black_Kat]

:blush: Uh huh, I know people like that, too...*looks in mirror* *cringes in fear*

I've been creating horrible excuses for midis for 6 months :)

Good job Graeme! I liiiiiiiiiiiiiike!

[Master Jace]

I wish I was skilled enough to whip out MIDIs every week like mosto f the people I know....