Music

I am a musician that plays French horn, trumpet, and various music apps on the Mac and iOS platforms.

I am the youngest of five so when it was my time to choose in instrument, the following were already taken:

• oboe
• clarinet / bass clarinet
• flute / tuba
• trumpet

That last one was the problem.... I kind of liked trumpet so when it was time to go to the band orientation meeting, my parents said... "if you aren't sure what you want to play, choose something the school owns so we don't waste money on rentals". So I started on tenor sax and ended up sitting next to a girl that played horn. That is kind of like a trumpet I thought.... I asked if the school owned one of those, and he said no...

Several weeks later, I got pulled out of science class to go to the band room. The band director had asked the high school director (Dave Habley), if they had any extra horns because they had a kid that wanted to play it.... and he said... hell yea, and we are going to need them in a few years.... no one is playing them.

I've played horn for years and also a little trumpet as well in the Buffalo Grove Symphonic band and Jazz Bands..

Music Technology

MIDI, MPE, physically modeled instruments, and more...

My father got me interested in computers, and computer-generated music at a young age. I remember listening to one of those records that came inside of a magazine with Wendy Carlos playing an early synthesizer.

As a software engineer by day, I am familiar with computers and have $pent a lot o time tracking the technology as it has gotten better and better over the years.

Eventually I bought a MIDI synthesizer and controllers but since I never really learned how to play piano, I only got so far.

Once iOS and specifically the iPad took off as a music platform, I have been amazed by what you can create with a pretty minimal investment in apps and until recently this has been my main platform.

I started with an app called Geosynth from Rob Fielding. Geosynth is still unique as far as I know in being able to play various levels of micro-tonal music. Its touchscreen layout was the first I had seen that was so incredibly intuitive to play on a touch screen.

Eventually Jordan Rudess from Dream Theater teamed extended the concept and what came next was an app called GeoShred. The sounds engine for GeoShred is mostly Julius Smith and MoForte.

GeoShred took it to the next level. While it wasn't as micro-tonal focused, it incorporated many really good sounds that took advantage of the MPE capabilities of the iPad. MPE stands for MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) Polyphonic Expression (every key has its own expression parameters vs. a single mod wheel or pitch bend control).

Macbook / OSX

Taking a big step up!

My main MIDI controller is the Intuitive Instruments Exquis. This thing is amazing.