Hi. I'm LegoFan101. You know. The one from over at LUN? What, not ringin' a bell?
Ah well, if you haven't noticed from my first issue of The Many Adventures of Brickerson Monroe, I just LOVE making music.
Matter of fact, I've been doing it for years.
There's a bit of a history behind it too.
See, I started out on my old iMac G5. At the time, I had no idea what an Apple computer was, what it could do, or even if it was a computer, for that matter.
We had just gotten a refurbished one (because our Windows 2000 computer got infected), and although I INSISTED upon getting a shiny new Windows computer at Staples, we ended up getting an iMac.
At first, I wasn't too pleased.
I thought the Mac was going to be some silly little computer that no one ever heard of, and that worked poorly.
I was WAY off.
When it got at our place, we opened it up. I can remember setting it on the desk and turning it on to hear that "Ding!" sound as it started up. The grey screen with the Apple logo popped up - needless to say I was already impressed - and the introduction animation was displayed.
Needless to say we were ALL amazed by now.
We got the computer set up to its gills, then I was the first to try it out.
First app I tried was GarageBand, and I've been hooked to it since.
I started out by singing my first song (and only song that I actually sang to since), "I Love You!". It was definitely basic - only ONE piano looping OVER and OVER (which, by the way, wasn't actually dragged into the project - it was played from the built-in speakers into the built-in microphone), along with the metronome in the background to keep beat. (I didn't know how to turn it off at the time, or I probably would have.)
Several silly songs later, I figured out how to piece together a song using Apple's pre-made loops. Boy, did I ever go to town. I made about 100 songs using this method, and I burned about... 19 albums to CD's. (Almost all of which I have lost by now, sadly.) And then it got better -
I learned how to make my own loops!
I used a method that was very difficult. (Compared to what I do now.) First, I took a little bar (or a note) and dragged it into a loop box. I lengthened or shortened the duration of the note to my liking, then I copied and pasted it multiple times. Soon, I had a full range of notes. Then, I took the loop, and copied it several times. Towards the middle, I'd have to go back in and move all the notes around to make it sound better. Then I'd have to start over again with another instrument.
While I did end up making about 30 songs or so this way, the method was still very time-consuming, so I decided to try another method - which I'm using to this day - the MIDI cable.
The MIDI cable has changed the way I make music, in more ways than one. It allowed me to play directly from my keyboard (not talking about the type that you use on your computer) into the computer, freeing up HOURS of time.
And that's basically how I got to where I am now, if you would really consider that to be much of a place at all.
Thanks and Praise be to HIM that taught me everything I know. May I glorify HIM with every song that I make.
