Laptop Recording Studio Logbook

05-03-22

Week one of MUSI20174… in retrospect! The beginning of this year has been incredibly busy for me. I was questioning whether to enrol in this class, as I have quite a lot of experience. I have been working and experimenting in the field of computer music and laptop recording for at least 15 years I guess. It all seeded from the underground club scene in Sydney in the early 1990’s. After experiencing my first few club nights and warehouse parties as a punter, I was determined to get up there behind the decks! And I did. I started collecting records, made friends with DJ’s and club promoters, hovered around the DJ booth and soaked it all in. I practiced on my housemates turntables and got my first club gig in 1992.

Very quickly I became drawn to production, I wanted to remake and remix many of the records I was buying and playing. As a DJ you are already halfway there, each long mix out of one track and into another is an opportunity to produce something new.

I first purchased ProTools and an MBox 2 in the mid to late 90’s, I also picked up some studio gear. Tanoy monitors, Alesis MIDIVerb, some microphones and a Sequential Split-Eight synth. I started a course in Audio Engineering and Electronic Music Production. I fell out of love with ProTools, got excited by Ableton Live 5 and it’s potential as DJ performance software then fell in love with Logic Pro. I would say that my hobby was electronic music production and my day/night job was DJing (I also worked in a record shop, very handy for a DJ).

DJing and the scene shifted and I began to want to formalise and realise my ideas in electronic production. I was also very interested in making sound for art, not just music production. Soundscapes, sound art installations and sculpture also podcasts and long form radio works. I moved to Melbourne in 2012 thinking I would realise this by studying Interactive Composition Degree at VCA, instead I began to make art. I collaborated on installations and created my own works.

In 2019 I obtained a Graduate Diploma of Sonic Art from Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand. I was lucky to be accepted to the program on my experience (without a competed undergrad). However the experience inspired me to consider a Phd, and for that I need to formalise my undergraduate study. With the pandemic of 2020 my oppotunty came to return to university. I am studying a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Anthropology with the focus to deepen my practice as a Sound Ethnographer.

I am so thrilled to be in this class for the opportunity to reconnect with my gear each week, to reassess my knowledge and techniques and to hopefully meet others who share my fascination with music technology.