Hi everyone

[DanielS]

Hi,

My name is Daniel and I am a synth addict. No offence, but I know before hand that this group will not cure me.

To get an undestanding of my age, my first synth was a Jen SX1000, italian mono synth at the age of 15. And I bought it new in a store. Ok, it was mid '80s, now I am 30-something, my hair tends to be replaced by weight.

I only started playing music because of the electronic sound, so piano I never wanted to learn, just synths. Down the road it proved I was wrong. So I got piano lessons because synths do have black and white keys afterall...

I consider pioneers in electronic music Vangelis and Jean Michelle Jarre. Nowdays, I enjoy trance music mostly. Besides electro sound and music, I really like Pink Floyd, Depeche Mode, Supertramp, Dire Straits, funk and admire those that can play jazz on a piano (though I cannot listen to jazz for more than 5 minutes). Classical music I cannot listen to for more than 10 minutes, though I really enjoy practicing/playing it (is that strange?). Favorites are Chopin and Debussy. I don't consider myself as a piano player.

Equipment wise, I got a Casio VZ-1 the time it got out in '87, my first real synth, after a lot of savings. I never cared about sample playback, so M1 was out of the question. I didn't even consider it a synth, just a hybrid. Next was Alesis HR-16 for drums, Alesis Quadraverb for FX and Atari/Pro 24 as a sequencer. All that at '88-89.

Then I got the Wavestation. Sold it many years later and got Akai S-2000 to explore the massive amount of libraries available and be able to make some money in my free time by scoring a couple of CD-ROMs and documentaries. Sold that about a year ago (computers rendered it obsolete) and got Motif rack for instant sounds.

Ever since I got the VZ-1, I tried to get that analog sound. Yes, it was not the right synth, but far better for sequencing than an analog 6 voices synth (not considered collectable items at the time). Never got any decent sweeps, but created a range of other great and useful sounds.

Is this introduction too long? Anyway, sometime in '92 I got a good deal for SeqCircuits Sixtrak (owner replaced it with the M1), so this is the real analog I own. At some time I got the MS2000, a year later the Virus C.

The music I make(made) could be considered ambient (I don't enjoy making trance tracks myself). Currently, I have made a setup that is ideal for live playing, and at a touch of a button the setup is DAW ready as well (thanks to Edirol UM880, highly recommended). Since I have ended up to be the only serious listener of my music (people do prefer easy listening), I devote my time experimenting and having fun rather to compose full songs.

I have spent numerous hours programming the VZ-1 (kind of FM) and the Wavestation when I still was a student. I am particularly proud of the piano sound I made for the VZ-1. I still enjoy programming, but now that I have the gear I don't have the time. It's either time or money for the hobbyist. However, most of the patches on the MS2000 are made by me. Do I program the Virus? Not as much as I would like. But then again, there are so many great/complex/all kind of patches available for the Virus, that all I really end up doing is refinements to my own taste rather than beginning from scratch. A great thanks from me to all those that share with us the result of many hours of programming.

I'm done for now.

Greetings,
DanielS