bucketbeck

Where I started: Simple enough -- piano lessons. I started at age 9, and took them for 5 years, but I never took it too seriously (although I got pretty good). I played alto sax in my junior high band for a few years, but I never much enjoyed instruments that required that I put a stick of wood in my mouth. In 9th grade, I got my first bass, hated it, and bought a guitar, loved it, and never really played it much until 12th grade when the wonderful world of Buckethead changed how I look at music and helped me to take it seriously for the first time. I started playing guitar 6 hours a day, speed metal mostly, but I got burnt out, and the first couple years of college were nasty (pre-med at the time, hell-to-the-no anymore), so I didn't have much time to play. These days, I'm focusing on keyboard, theory, electronic music, and training my retarded ear. How I studied: Not a lot until 12th grade. Like I said, tons of guitar, tons of YouTube and otherwise instructionals, tons of emulating my favorite solos and whatnot. Now, I don't play much guitar, and instead I'm focusing on theory and keyboard to get my composing chops in order. It's working!!!!! YEEEAAAAAHhhhhhhHHH!!!! Where I stand: Not where I'd like to be, by any means, but I'm improving every day, and I'd love to contribute to OCR once I feel like I'm creating music up to snuff. Yes, I know that my story isn't terribly interesting. Maybe yours is, though, and maybe some of us can learn from it. Share. NOW.

Thanks! I'd never heard of Tracked in Time. Awesome stuff. Time to analyze

Hey, there. Long-time listener, first-time poster, perhaps an impending contributor, etc., and stuff. I'm just getting into electronic music from years of piano and guitar, and I feel like I've finally gotten my head above water. WHAT. A. LEARNING. CURVE. I've never seen anything so front-loaded as electronic music. At this point, my biggest hangups are figuring out exactly what the hell you do in Reason and how to make fantastic 8-bit leads that sound similar to Anamanaguchi and virt. I've been hand-drawing my waveforms in Renoise, and while the waves sound good, they don't sound fantastic. The sound I'm really shooting for is the more pure and piercing lead tone often found in Anamanaguchi (basically every song in Dawn Metropolis) and several virt songs as well. Anyone have some advice on how to achieve those tones or just 8-bit (or otherwise) instrument-making in general? If it helps at all, I've become very familiar with Renoise, so speaking in terms of that program would be easiest for me to process. Thanks!