After twenty years or so of playing around with music on computers I have launched into the publication game with www.download2mp3.com .
Right from the start the Acorn BBC B computer had midi connectivity and very simple sequencer software began to appear. Keyboards and even a drum machien were added following the upgrade to an A2000 and an interface card that enabled multiple midi connections. A little while latter a trip to (Tin Pan Alley) Denmark Street saw me carry away a Roland SC-155 synthesizer and things began to get more serious.
A trip to New Orleans took me into a music shop on the same street where Jelly Roll Morton used to play - a book of Library of Congress transcriptions of his compositons came home with me. The labourious MIDI encoding which ensued was rewarded by some quite decent piano sounds and then jazz band arrangements. CDs of his original recordings started to appear and I was impressed by the similaries with my efforts.
Before embarking on the next piece I decided to check whether anyone else had already done it by searching the internet which I had recently aquired access to. Search facilites were relatively primitive then but I found enough to encourage me to continue searching for MIDI files - building a collection and then making it available to download from my website. There were obviously some copyright risks and I empasised the personal use limitations which some of the sequencers associated with their work. After an approach by a copyright agent I took all the pop music off the site and carried on until my ISP inexplicably took the site off the air.
Things were left like that until earlier this year I started to read about the VST emulations of famous synthesizers and the Hammond organ of my youth. After another trip to Tin Pan Alley I came away with a Moog Modular V5 emulation and started re-arranging all my Emerson Lake and Palmer files.
Download2MP3 was born from the observation that computers are best their best with percussive music, a chance discovery of a really impressive steel drum emulation and a desire not to infringe anyone's copyright.
This blog will track my progress and hopefully provide an opportunity to interact with other music producers and listeners.
Right from the start the Acorn BBC B computer had midi connectivity and very simple sequencer software began to appear. Keyboards and even a drum machien were added following the upgrade to an A2000 and an interface card that enabled multiple midi connections. A little while latter a trip to (Tin Pan Alley) Denmark Street saw me carry away a Roland SC-155 synthesizer and things began to get more serious.
A trip to New Orleans took me into a music shop on the same street where Jelly Roll Morton used to play - a book of Library of Congress transcriptions of his compositons came home with me. The labourious MIDI encoding which ensued was rewarded by some quite decent piano sounds and then jazz band arrangements. CDs of his original recordings started to appear and I was impressed by the similaries with my efforts.
Before embarking on the next piece I decided to check whether anyone else had already done it by searching the internet which I had recently aquired access to. Search facilites were relatively primitive then but I found enough to encourage me to continue searching for MIDI files - building a collection and then making it available to download from my website. There were obviously some copyright risks and I empasised the personal use limitations which some of the sequencers associated with their work. After an approach by a copyright agent I took all the pop music off the site and carried on until my ISP inexplicably took the site off the air.
Things were left like that until earlier this year I started to read about the VST emulations of famous synthesizers and the Hammond organ of my youth. After another trip to Tin Pan Alley I came away with a Moog Modular V5 emulation and started re-arranging all my Emerson Lake and Palmer files.
Download2MP3 was born from the observation that computers are best their best with percussive music, a chance discovery of a really impressive steel drum emulation and a desire not to infringe anyone's copyright.
This blog will track my progress and hopefully provide an opportunity to interact with other music producers and listeners.