Not quite sure how to describe myself actually. I have played keyboards in many bands over the last 30 years or so (some well known - some not), playing gigs ranging from Reading University to Swindon Working Men's club (glad I never have to play "old shep" ever again).
In 1995, after a long spell in hospital, I moved to Ilfracombe on the North Devon coast and for a while, did not play (live or otherwise).
After a while the "bug" bit again and I formed the band Thin Ice and, as the name suggests, we did a lot of Pink Floyd covers. I loved this as, by this time, keyboard technology had developed to the extent that I could provide an entire orchestra.
I spent the majority of my life in the IT Industry and, how lucky am I that the whole recording industry moved toward being computer based - as did the primary instrument I play?
In 2004, I achieved my life's dream of having my own recording studio. Although it's only small (and primarily designed for my own use), I did it properly and it is fully soundproofed, air conditioned and the main recording "rack" has a quad processor system with almost unlimited super fast storage.
The studio is based on Cubase and has getting on for 1,000 VST plug ins that I can call on. In addition to all this I have a separate vocal booth, masses of instruments a full drum kit and over a kilowatt of sound "re-enforcement" in the studio.
In 2007 I broke my back and despite operations, I am now wheelchair bound - so playing live is now "out of the window" now - as is my idea of using a 16 track mobile I had (since sold) to record new groups, mix the tracks at the studio and promote them.
Nowadays I tend to sit in splendid isolation recording mainly instrumental stuff (Occasionally I sing - but it's not good) and doing production work for other people.
To this end, I now have my own Internet server that allows people to upload full quality tracks to be produced and mixed in the studio. This approach (as I have found) is fairly new, as I can set up FTP accounts for each group or artist to upload their tracks in full quality (getting around having to mix compressed MP3s and the 10 MByte limit on emails). This is something that I am quite keen to pursue.
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