In 2001, I started looking into going to school for electronic music. I found a fancy, flashy school in Florida, with amazing facilities, however, with further research, it became apparent that the cost was exorbitant, and the policies surrounding attendance and so on were really setting you up for failure. My mum started digging and found out that Wayne State University offered an Bachelor's degree in electronic music, WSU being an accredited public university, and a good one at that. It turned out to be a music degree with a core focus on electronic music. I was already a collegiate classically trained vocalist from a previous exploration into a music theatre degree at another university. I applied to WSU as a vocalist and was accepted. Other than my typical issues with attending university, I did really well in this degree. The thing about music degrees is, they essentially decide on the list of things they want you to learn, and then spread all of that out in low-credit classes, so, attending full time, you're basically in school 9am-9pm. Music theory, ear training, your instrument classes, piano classes, your core focus classes, various other music related things such as music business, and in my case, chorale, then add in practice, juries, and performances, and you're incredibly busy. Only marginally related to all of this (surprisingly), for various reasons, I ended up needing to leave school.
Ultimately, I only ended up taking one core electronic music class, but had such an amazing time doing it. The final was supposed to be to write a piece of music with four tracks, and something like at least 24 measures. The music for this, printed landscape on paper, came out to about four pages. By the time I was done with my piece, I had 18 tracks, and printed portrait (because it wouldn't fit landscape), it came out to 48 pages. I had turned in one assignment the entire semester and had begged the professor to let me turn in the rest late. He said, we'll see. After the final, he called me over and said, "You don't need to turn in anything. You obviously learned something."
After leaving school, I did not keep up with making music. It never left the back of my mind as something I wanted to do, though, and throughout the years, I've looked into it at various times, gotten overwhelmed, and dropped the research. Another huge factor was cost; electronic music making can get very expensive. Over the years, many more, less expensive options have become available, lowering the barrier to entry from a cost perspective. I still struggled with it, and continued to avoid getting back into it.
Fast-forward to a few months ago, and a conversation with my friend Tammy who had no idea this was a passion of mine, and happened to have some synth and MIDI equipment for which she was looking to find a home. She happily sent them to me. Over the holidays, she told me about synth course hosted by Anthony Marinelli, and said she wanted to get it but the cost was too high to justify. She went to the page to send me the link and was surprised to find the course on sale. She immediately picked it up. After some personal back and forth, I did the same. However, even with my own synth hardware, and a synth course, I still struggled to jump back in.
A few weeks ago, it was time to figure out what I wanted for my birthday from my wife. I had no idea. Tammy said offhand, "Music something?" So for the hell of it, I started researching good beginner synthesisers. I found what I thought I wanted, and asked for feedback from a couple of friends who Know These Things, John and Tod. They were both in complete support of my choice. So I asked for an Arturia MiniFreak for my birthday, specifically the limited Stellar Edition. My wife ordered it immediately which meant it was going to get here well before my birthday, and, she did not intend to make me wait to open it. Naturally, it arrived while she was on a work trip, and I expected to wait until she returned, but she said as long as I videoed opening it so she could watch, I could open it as soon as I got it. I followed through and made the most awkward unboxing video ever, which I'm only mentioning to explain why I'm not sharing it here. It literally starts with me saying, "I'm..... opening a box." It's not you I'm sparing from the awkwardness, it's me I'm sparing from the embarrassment.
Finally, I had my brand new, beginner-friendly synth sitting on my desk. The manual and documentation assume you have the latest firmware, so my first task was to get it updated. I did not expect to spend the next two hours fighting with the software, and a dead USB cable, to get this done. Technology, right? I eventually stumbled my way through sorting it out, and had a happily updated MiniFreak. I was exhausted at this point, so I made a few sounds with a couple of presets, and called it a day.
Now that the MiniFreak was ready to go, I had no more excuses, other than paralysing thought processes. I was still talking with John about things, and he commented to the effect that he loved the idea of me watching Marinelli teaching something specific in the synth course and then me recreating it on the MiniFreak while tweaking the settings. That comment was enough to get me past whatever was blocking me from starting. I watched the intro, and then set aside time every day in my calendar to work on learning synth concepts and more about how to use them on the MiniFreak.
So far I've learned about oscillators, waveforms, pulse width modulation, and low pass filters. Along with that, I'm learning how to use and access these concepts and features on my MiniFreak. The synth concepts are almost entirely new to me. The music theory is rusty, but still there. I've also sorted out recording audio from my MiniFreak to my computer. So, when I'm ready, I'll be able to share what I create. I have in the past been terrible about buying into something and then never actually learning how to do the thing. So, I am excited and a bit surprised about the effort I've been putting into learning how to use my synth. I'm nowhere near sorted on it yet, but I'll get there.
It's been interesting translating Marinelli's course, which is taught on a modular synth, to the features on my MiniFreak, which is a hybrid analog/digital synth. Teaching concepts on a modular synth makes a lot of sense because it provides a visual of the fundamental concepts. On a modular synth, you hook up different modules to each other using patch cables to create different sounds. On mine, I turn a knob and it changes a setting to create a different sound. If I learned entirely on mine, I would have less of an understanding of what is happening behind the scenes. Seeing exactly what's involved in creating a particular sound has been super helpful. All the terminology still applies, so my way of translating this has been to go through the concept in the course, and then find it in the MiniFreak manual and figure out how to do the same thing. For the most part, it's been relatively doable so far. There will definitely be a few modular synth concepts that don't apply to or have a direct way to access them on the MiniFreak. However, ultimately, all the fundamentals are there. It's simply (hah!) a matter of figuring out how to make them happen.
To that end, John offered to help me with anything I bump into, for which I am incredibly grateful. Lucky for me, he's excited to teach the concepts because it gives a boost to his own understanding, so I don't even have to feel the slightest bit bad about pestering him with questions. (Well I don't have to, but, of course, I still do a little.)
After over 20 years, I'm finally making music again. I've been thoroughly enjoying this learning process, and I hope to share some of that here. Beyond that, I'm looking forward to sharing what I create. I hope you'll bear with me while I find my sound, and perhaps enjoy things along the way.