I guess there is never simply a good way to inject yourself into such a well established community, but I figured just like anything, there is never a perfect time. This is my first post and I wanted to introduce myself. My name is August Hansen, I'm 33, just got married to the love of my life and am a lifelong creator of music. Currently, I reside in Tallahassee, FL. In my early twenties, I was the drummer of a "popular" band, we signed to Atlantic Records on a "demo" deal and moved out LA. Spent half a million dollars recording our "debut" album which was never printed on more than a burned cd, label dumped us, band broke up, still write music and found myself falling in love with the idea of keeping things smaller, doing things different, keeping it independent.

Which brings me here...

I grew up in the NES/SNES age. It had a huge impact on me. I am a fan of digital/analog art, clever level design and the combined efforts of talents merging to create a beautiful painting on a digital canvas. When beautiful code combines with great feeling gameplay, and a sonically pleasing soundtrack that ties it all together, there is nothing that makes my stomach drop more than that. I know I have found something truly special when these artistic forms merge to create such a climatic moment, it just makes you smile. Maybe even water your eyes. It is for these moments I find myself here, to be a part of that team and merely inject myself into it as a songwriter.

In fact, maybe some of you are like me. Maybe in some form or another, you have been run thru the corporate grinder. Maybe you are like me in the sense that you are thankful for those past experiences because they brought you here. They made you wise in the sense that you have learned what you want and what you don't want. The teams you want to work with, people you surround yourself with, and the climatic moments you want to create in life.

I relate to gaming not for the fact that I am an amazing gamer or that I have a million words of advice, inspiration or contacts to share, but I do indeed have a love for the art, for the people that chose the course I have taken, and for those mere climatic moments on the screen that make us smile.

Great to meet you all and lovely to be here. I look forward to learning and growing with all of you.

Have you ever played Auditorium? http://www.cipherprime.com/games/auditorium/ One of my favorite music games, aside from things like Rock Band and Guitar Hero which are quite different.

One of the things I'd love to see developed in the next few years is a music composition toy/tool which bridges the gap between games like SimTunes or Mario Paint Composer and professional composing software.

Welcome.

Playing Auditorium now. Wow, pretty cool concept! Agreed. I think using the iPhone or iPad as a composing tool is quite effective, if they could tie it into a composing game beyond the guitar hero's of the app world. In a cool, interesting way that really grabs you. Maybe they have I just haven't discovered it yet. Thanks for the heads up!

Welcome!

Be sure to say hi in the music & sound forum as well, it's one of our quieter ones, but the regulars are friendly and very talented! :)

Very Cool! I'm gonna go check it out now. Thanks for the heads up and warm welcome!