The PowerBook Producer
I found myself becoming interested in music production in 1990 when I started recording tape letters as a fun way to communicate with a friend of mine who lived about 100 miles from me. I would post a tape with stuff on it, letting him know what I'd been up to etc. and he would then respond by doing the same thing. This went on for some time and the tape letters started getting more and more extravagent. All I had was a stereo, radio cassette machine with microphone input and a pair of headphones that I actually used in reverse as a mic. It sounded pretty bad, but as time went on my creativity grew and I was producing tape letters to my friend that compared to what are now modern day podacasts, all on a cassette.
My interest grew into a passion. I had been playing electric guitar for about a year and I borrowed a 4-track cassette portastudio from another friend. I created an instumental cover version of a Lenny Kravitz song that I had learned by ear and I was hooked after that. I bought my own portastudio and a cheap microphone. I wrote and recorded a handful of songs, which weren't that great, but I was in my element creating music and having a feeling that I could achieve anything. It wasn't long before I was playing in a rock band and enjoying the thrills of playing live. This was the feeling I had always dreamed about. I got more and more passionate about recording music and I even started my own company. A mobile recording facility, which filled a whole VW camper van and ended up going out of business before it really got started. I didn't lose my passion for the music though and I continued to play in various bands and completed an Advanced Audio Engineering and Production Diploma in London, which allowed me to hone my skills and teach me what my specialist talents were within the audio production arena. I got to experience the world of the professional recording studio and the large format mixing console. I cut my teeth on the SSL G-series console and Studer A80 24-track 2" tape machine.
A few months after completing my diploma and doing unpaid sound engineering work I made possibly the biggest mistake of my life. I decided to concentrate on getting a "proper" job, mainly due to certain personal circumstances I was in at the time and that was my music production life pretty much over until I got a new lease of life with a new songwriting partner and rediscovered my love for music production all over again, discovering the new world of the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) namely Protools and teaching myself a whole new way of working completely "in the box", without a mixing desk or loads of outboard studio equipment.
I now write my own songs, music for Movies, TV, Radio and Games and my goals of running a production company based in tropical paradise in Asia are growing. I am the PowerBook Producer and this is my PowerBook Studio.