Stephan b wessels
I've been making up music in my head since I was a little boy. Even when listening to music on the radio I was always imagining a counter melody or an additional harmonic line to go with the tune.
When I was little my mom and dad bought a piano-accordion for me and I took lessons for around 6 years. Then when I was in high school my dad gave me a guitar and I taught myself how to play it too.
Until recently, since 1984, I didn't have the means to really adopt my musical sketches and then with the advent of MIDI, and a certain level of discretionary income, a lot of things became possible.
Here's a list of the MIDI gear used for creating my own music compositions.
- Macintosh IIcx, 32MB RAM, 2GB HD, AudioMedia II interface
- Yamaha CDR-102 CD recorder
- Kurzweil K1000 keyboard
- Yamaha DX-7 keyboard
- bit-99 synthesizer keyboard
- (2) Studio 4 by Opcode
- Kawai MX-8R 8 channel rack mounted mixer
- ART ProVerb
- Roland A-880 MIDI patch bay and merge
- bit-01 rack synthesizer
- Panasonic SV-3700 DAT recorder
- Digitech Studio Quad effects unit
- Alesis DM5 sampled percussion module
- Emu Systems Proteus Orchestral/2
- Kurzweil K2000/RS 64MB RAM with Orchestral Block
- Roland M-VS1
- MOTU 7s automated mixer
- Alesis 1622 16 channel mixer
- Ensoniq Mirage rack mounted sampler
It's a little "out-dated". I haven't been paying enough attention to getting my music studio "up and running" again. Truth is, I haven't used it since 1997. Career, family and other hobbies have distracted me. The computer technology has evolved so much since that system was created. The MIDI-based musical instruments are still valuable, but the computer and MIDI-to-computer interface and software needs to be upgraded.
With all this stuff I created a lot of my musical dreams in a very professional and acoustically credible manner.
Although it's still a hobby to me, and probably always will be, I've had the opportunity to share my music with folks in a number of small projects. I've worked on background music and sound effects for a set of industrial training films, background music at the Homerama home show in the Greater Cincinnati area, and I've participated in numerous concerts given by members of the local Apple users groups involved with MIDI.
For Christmas in 1995 I decided to collect a number of my compositions and produced a custom made Audio CD of my work and gave it to friends and family. The name of the album is called Mood of the Moon.
I have published this album to iTunes, Amazon and others and it should appear on-line and available sometime around early October 2008. You may also read some background information about these compositions.
These are the tunes on my album "Mood of the Moon".
- Take Five
- Bruce
- Desert Hymn
- Circles Around You
- Mood of the Moon
- Just This Once
- Leaving Me
- Knock Three Times
- Quiet Room
- Interlude
- Parts of Me Lost
- Nine to Six Grinder
- An Embrace
I've received a lot of help and guidance over the years from a good
friend of mine, Bill Gwynne. He's co-owner of a recording studio in Northern
Kentucky called
Group Effort
. Bill has been invaluable for MIDI and production advice as
well as providing rhythm track and instrument arrangement help on many of my tunes.
I can compose a lyrical melody but have difficulty writing good rhythms. Bill's been a real
help in that department.
