Just curious. Personally, I started voicing the characters in a StarCraft campaign of mine with a basic and crappy mic I had lying around. A few years later, I now operate a voice acting guild (SAVAGE- http://savage.samods.com) which helps out freeware productions, own a Shure SM58 and can use most of Goldwave, Cool Edit 2000 and Sound Forge. I may delve into music composition someday, though I''m busy enough. I''m starting to think of getting into it more as a career, though I still have a long way to go for learning if I decide to do so (Right now I''m getting through university).

I learned from a friend how to use Fasttracker II five years ago. It interested me a lot, but posed a problem: The style of music that really interested me was orchestral - something which is really difficult to make with tracker programs.

Instead of taking the sensible route and learn how to use another program better suited, I kept trying to push the tracker into working with me the way I wanted to. I''m still using a tracker program, but at least my music sound a lot more authentic now than it used to.

***
Looking for a music composer for your game? Go to my page to listen to samples of my orchestral pieces and find info on how to contact me.

I didn''t.

Much like the above poster, I was pointed to tracker file formats by a friend, and in the process of finding a good player, found the tracker itself. Joined TraxInSpace(Rest in Peace), got myself some friends who helped push my style, married my new love to my love for video games and my interest in game production, and there you have it.

I started writing music out of sheer love of it and decided to go to college and get a degree in it. =) Now I''d like to get into writing game music. I use sequencers and also score for live orchestra/ensembles.

Check out some of my stuff at www.scottbmorton.com

Peace!



____________
SoNiCThReAdZ

Composer
SpaceOpera Studios
www.spaceoperastudios.com

Been into music since the age of 4 as I could play by ear what I heard on TV without lessons.

Took keyboard lessons for 8 years, got sick of playing other peoples crap, and started composing around 11-12 years old, got a midi synth with sequencer did that for a few years.. out grew that "midi - keyboard sound", and switched to tracking 14 years ago on Amiga 500. Joined a demo crew, wrote more music than they made demos.. (did a music disk). Then was asked by a friend 4 years ago to write music for SouthPark Rally, took a break from life after that and went travelling for 4 years, got back into Game Audio again 8 months ago. Did a few shareware/freeware games (both music and sound effects), and within 6 months was asked by another friend to work on a GBA game. Now still working on a few paid shareware projects and commercial projects. Quit my day job and am thinking of taking an Audio Engineering course to supplement my skills.

*take a breath*..

ie... love of music/audio, dedication, commitment, passion.

Geez, it''s been close to 20 years since I first started writing songs. O.o (Started when I was 8, am now 26. You do the math. )

Many many moons ago we had this keyboard that was so old we called it an organ. I piddled around but didn''t seriously write anything, at least nothing GOOD. Then we got an old Yamaha keyboard with 8 whole instruments and 4 whole rhythms. Once we moved, I started writing (bad) songs on it.

The fair that came here every year used to include a guy from some keyboard company or other who tried to sell all these big clunky ancient keyboards (they weren''t ancient at the time, but man they look like crap NOW). We actually paid $5000 for one of them, and I started writing in earnest. Then a few years later we got a Roland Some-Funky-Number sound module (for a mere $1000 ) and my stuff actually started sounding halfway cool. I used to figure out my favorite songs from existing video games and play them by ear, as well as writing my own stuff. (I actually wrote a song or 2 from a really stupid Crystalis-alike I thought would be cool to make when I was a kid heh.)

Unfortunately, that''s about as far as it ever went. I wheedled some DJ at the college radio station into letting me play a few songs on the air, so I then wrote & recorded some REALLY BAD songs for the purpose. Ugh. Anyway, now that the old expensive keyboard''s gone kaput, I have to satisfy myself with a cheapo keyboard with no save features. I guess if I ever wanna write anything good again I have to get unlazy enough to hook it up to the comp and install my old MIDI program.

Ok, why did I just post all that, other than from complete and utter boredom?