MIDI Studio: 1993

Getting my first PC (a 386) seriously re-introduced me to sequencer software (my first seq was WinJammer, if I recall) and music programming, something which had laid dormant in me for almost ten years.  After getting my first MIDI keyboard, the Roland JX-1, I gave it a permanent home on my desk. During this time, I learned something about SysEx, as used by the JX-1 to receive and transmit slider values. I thought it was pretty hardcore. I invested in small plastic battery-driven PC loudspeakers. Active monitors, as it were.

Sadly, no pictures exist of that setup, but you’re not really missing out on much.

Musical Output From This Period

This next paragraph is from elsewhere on this site, but it’s worth repeating in context: Late one night in 1993, while studying for an exam the following day, it occurred to me that composing was basically just a matter of putting notes in an order which sounded pleasing, and to surround them with even more notes in another pleasing order. So I skipped studying that night and wrote/produced my first song ever, from start to finish, following the by then very familiar Depeche Mode song structure. After the exam (which I, amazingly, passed, even though not having slept the night before), I went home, pulled another allnighter and sequenced my second song, went to bed, slept the entire following day and got up and immediately produced my third one. Needless to say, I was hooked and absolutely amazed I had it in me.

[Edit 29.11.2021] Yesterday I found the actual exam paper in question, dated 1993-09-03, so I can now happily state that my first song ever was made 1993-09-02.

During this period I started close to twenty songs, but they remained in Under Construction-mode for quite some time. Many of them were never finished, but maybe one day…

The original versions of my first three tracks have been lost. They are probably on a C-cassette somewhere, as in those days I couldn’t record onto the hard drive. These versions are structurally the same (same individual melodies), but the sounds are different (except for the lead sound the JX-1 makes in each song). The original Gravis Ultrasound sounds have been replaced with SC-88 and Akai S-2000.


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Humble Studio Beginnings: 1993

It’s a start. Laptop studios sure have evolved since those days. But anyway, there it is, my first synth. A Korg of some sort.

The term studio is far from my mind at this point. But it’s the beginning of it, nonetheless.

No music survived this period.

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ROLAND JX-1 [1993 – 2000]

A sample-based mono-timbral polyphonic rompler labeled as “Performance synthesizer”. Quite basic sound editability: 2 ADSR envelopes, one for the volume and the other to modulate the lopass filter. Reverb. 2 sound banks with 32 factory sounds each, and a possibility to save another 32 in a user sound bank. Two sounds from the same bank could be combined into one by selecting them simultaneously. Even though this one really doesn’t count as a synthesizer, it was the one that got me into synths. It also introduced me to MIDI, when I connected it to my first 386-PC with a Gravis Ultrasound sound card. I used it mostly as a master keyboard, for which it was quite nice. Having not really used it for several years, I ended up selling it in 2000. I don’t particularly miss it.

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KORG SOMETHINGOROTHER [1993]

Analog one-oscillator monosynth, looking very similar to the Korg MicroPreset pictured here. I never really did anything with this one, but on the other hand making music was far from my mind when I got this one. I just bought it because I had always been interested in sythesizers, and music made with them. Plus, it was dirt cheap. As far as synths go, this one was so simple that it wasn’t even particularly interesting. It had selectable basic waveforms (square, triangle and sine, and possibly even noise, I think) and a lowpass filter which could be modulated by an envelope. It may be possible that several wave forms could be selected simultaneously, but I’m not sure. No other modulation was possible, so this was strictly a beep-and-bwaaooouunngg-machine. I only listened to it through its crappy internal speaker, so for all I know it could secretly be the ultimate bass machine. I sold it quite quickly, and bought a Roland JX-1 instead.

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