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BIOGRAPHY

 
   For my Past job (Non-music) Information/History, up to my Retirement......see ....LinkedIn:
  • Circuit Board Electronics (Copper foil based) for; Cell Tower / Early Warning Systems / Friend from Foe Antennas, Stealth Skins for Battleships, Super Collider Partical Collector Boards, Digital White Boards for Conference & Classrooms; etc.
  • Printed Conductive silver ink circuits
  • Custom Converting
  • Manufacturing & Production Engineering
  • Chemical Engineering
  • Process Development and Control.
  • Equipment Design, Modification and Development.
  • Facility & Manufacturing layout
  • Sales, Customer Service, Estimating, Materials procurment, Planning, Training, Quality Control, Logistics.
  • RETIRED 
   MUSICIAN:
    At the age of 9, I began my formal music education. For 4 years I continued with private lessons, primarily keyboards, which in hindsight taught me to read both the treble & bass clef along with understanding the various Time Signatures, not to mention C, D, E, F, G, A, B....and evrything in between.
    My influences were any sheet music that I had in my possession to read/practice & play.
    At the age of 10 I was in a band with my brother and two of our cousins. We were playing the Wedding, Communion, Confirmation and Birthday Party, family, friends & neighbors circuit.
    Looking back...we seldom rehearsed, because.....we individually learned the written music, then we just showed up with our box of sheet music, opened it up onto our music stands and read & played whatever songs that were  decided before the set or requested during the set.
The only musical prep-work that I can remember was the transposing of some harmony instrument parts with my brother. We had a pretty good idea what songs to have on hand as our musician Uncles who preceded us years before, had suggested. They were also kind to us by handing down most of their sheet music that we would  perform... and even at the age of 10 to 12 we had a pretty good idea what songs were expected at a wedding, gig, etc.......
     
   Instruments:
  • Lead & Rhythm Guitar, Acoustic GTR, Slide/bowed Guitars & Pangolin.
  • Bass Guitars.
  • Keyboards: Synths, Sampler, Bass Pedals, Accordion, Harmonica, Jaw-Harp, Kalimba.
  • Drum Machine/Computer/MIDI Programming.
  • Maintenance, repair & modifications of Synths/Keyboards, Effect pedals/processors, Amplifiers & Guitars.
   
    PROGRAMMER/SOUND DESIGNER:
    
    So....early-80's: Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) was just born way back then. I had just bought an Analog Roland Juno-60, MOOG-Source and then a Yamaha DX-7, TX81Z & RX-11 and....as luck would have it, they threw in a free Yamaha CX5M Computer. The computer helped immensely with the vastly obscure task of programming the Frequency Modulation Synths (algorithms, operators & carriers) on the DX-7 & TX81Z .....a great brain exercise!! So now, for the first time, with the computer hooked up to a CRT Monitor I was able to get visual feedback  as I programmed my Sound Designs into the synths, samplers & drum machines.
   Shortly there after I bought an Ensoniq VFX and a Roland S-550 Sampler that required a MIDI Keyboard Controller.  Sampling was new (and very expensive) in the early '80's and just another great mathematical brain exercise for your minds eye back then, I suppose. 
   Exciting stuff for the 1980's, for me anyway. In hindsight this was simply a thorough education / training  for what it is  to be  literate with software based technologies and a hybrid-musician at the end of the 20th. and beginning of the 21st. century.
   The more knowledge you have, the more freedom & less dependance you have. 
   
  
    Composer / Sound Design:
     To capture an idea, to create, I'll always try to have an analog or digital recording device handy, if not.....a pencil and paper will always do.
     As for music; the creation....mysteriously shows up when I practice; be it during sound design (working with LFOS's, FILTERS, ADSR's, etc....) drum/beats/sample programming, Sequencing, scale/chord study on the Guitars or Keyboards. 
    So when the subconscious mysteriously shows up with an offering, it is captured.
    An example: 
    From my teen's to early 30's (I.e. 60's, 70's, and early 80's) were a time when the word "PRESENT" did not exist in regards to synths and FX pedals.  I recall a friend who worked at MOOG MUSIC here in Buffalo, NY, dropped off a Modular Synth to check out for a few days. At some point one evening I fired up this synth. I began by turning on the TEAC 4 Track Tape player to record/archive. Then coaxing a sound from the MOOG and an ARP AXXE; Noise evolves to tone, Random Wave Generator turned into a sequence and then with a few ADSR tweaks a tone is tamed, from which I played a melody and out came an idea. And (as from this example) that's how the Song "Nothing at the Moment" materialized, 
    So when one starts with noise, generates it into a Sound and then have a song / composition emanate from that evolutionary process, to me has always been and will always remain, curious.
    The song is a perfect example of how the action of turning on a bit of white noise generated into ones mind, materialized into a song and then was produced into the material world, as this invisible object yet an audible image. A flowchart  of Soul, Mind, Spirit, into Nature, for Consumption......Sound Design/Compose.
     AUDIO RECORDING:
    Recording has always for the most part been around me superficially since the 1960's, So in the 80's  I began to study the techniques, starting with (The Old School) analog to the current digital formats of the 21st. century.
    Since '94, my investment was towards Digital Recording (AKAI, DR-8, 8 Track Digital Recorder), Processing and Mixing Hardware which then technically evolved and matured into Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software based recording, processing, AI assisted processing and virtual instruments.
     Safe & Sound Communications began around 1997, recording artists for CD distribution. 
     I continue to study & practice the Audio Art of Mixing and Mastering.
  • Mix and/or Master (for Streaming, SoundCloud, MP3 or CD Duplication) Including  Album/Song ISRC and UPC  Metadata embedded, if required. A UPC barcode (or Universal Product Code) is used to represent and track your music as an entire physical or digital product, in contrast to an ISRC code (or International Standard Recording Code) which represents individual tracks or sound recordings.
  • All of my original compositions are available for mutually agreed use & profit by license.
  • Create Music for Video, Soundtrack, Trailers, etc........... 
     
     Have any questions, feel free to reach out to me via my " CONTACT " page. 
    I Look forward to hearing from you..............
     Jack 
    
 
      
     
     
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