I have always liked making music but had no training (or tallent?) on any instrument, I have since had a few piano lessons. I used to make sounds on old tape recorders as a kid but then from my first computers: Apple 2 and Sinclair Specturm I was interested in making them beep. Then when I got Octamed tracker for the Amiga I realised that I could make tunes at last! Those were very poor tunes as I was trying to do something different rather than silly 'lemmings sountracks', and it felt like I was just useless at music for a longtime. Things got better when I got some software on the playstation which let me express my ideas better.
My external musician pages (with mp3's):
I have produced tunes with every music software I can get hold of, ones that come to mind are:
Amiga: Octamed Soundstudio (and lots of other versions)
Playstation: Music, Music 2000, Music 3000, Fluid
PC: Storm 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, eJay (various packages), Cubase VST, FL Studio 8
(Fruityloops)
Unfortunately at one point I lost my computer and I sold all my sofware, selling Storm very cheap on ebay. I also owned a Yamaha DJX keyboard, but sold it cheap on ebay. The Playstation packages offered me nothing after awhile and I sold all those. Also during a blitz I killed all the mp3's I had online with various hosts. At this point my output had totaled x5 90min tapes. Then the tapes were lost and there was nothing.
Then I got a new laptop and a demo of Storm, then a full version of Storm 3.0, and FL Studio, so a few more of my mp3's got back onto the web. More practice and more time is what I needed now! I now have a bunch on mp3's online and I think I am getting better(?) as my new tunes seem a lot better than the old ones (see the download.com page for old and new together), those piano lessons seems to have done something, or perhaps it is my Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme soundcard that helps!
The type of music I make is mostly a sort of trance/techno, I also dabble with electronic dub and drum and bass. However I usually just make some sort of music which I like the sound of, and I usually have trouble when I have to decide what 'genre' to put them under. A lot of the time if I like the sound of a bunch of samples I put them together in a tune and making squelchy noises with synthesisers is great fun, 'Kraftwerk' style!
rtists who have inspired me are:
Richard H Kirk - techno/dub/ambient god!
Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman - minimal techo god.
Astral Projection - Goa techno masters.
Aphex Twin - experimental techno bod.
Kraftwerk - german pioneers!
Artist Mp3 Hosts
Download.comMyspace.com
Garageband.com
Not sure about this one: skwik.com/
Artists
thegreedyeye.comrichardhkirk.com
astral-projection.com
plastikman.com
richiehawtin.com
Aphex Twin official site
Eat Static
Software
arturia.com - makers of stormejay.com - simple music creation
steinberg.net - makers of cubase
Fruityloops - a sequencer/synth modules