Dusty B
ILLIEN
Battle Points: 38
What's up, folks. I've been on the forums for a few months now and realized I never did an intro. Here's a bit about my music backstory:
~2001 (12-13 yo): Came across some software on my uncle's computer called ACID. Started arranging songs using their out of the box loops and uploading to acidplanet.com. It was mostly techno, trance, and electronica at the time. Moby was really popular. I went by DJ Marz. Collaborated with some folks over a couple of years and learned the basics.
~2003: Really wanted to make hip-hop. I used to read the album inserts of Dre's 2001, Marshall Matters LP, and others. Played around with FL Studio (Fruity Loops at the time). Kanye's College Dropout came out and it opened my eye's to how much sampling is in hip-hop. I remember listening to the orignal song used for "What's the Difference" from Dre's 2001 and thinking "whoa, that's cool."
~2004-2007: Diggin records, making beats, Soundclick, FutureProducers.com, all that stuff. I think I sold maybe 5 beats in total at $20 a pop. Looking back, I should have spent more time learning the fundamentals and just focused more on making beats instead of being so focused on trying to sell beats. My style was often non-traditional samples, with a rock/alternative inflence. I'm a sucker for a killer guitar. I've gravitated back to that style often today.
~2007-2008: Graduated high school and finally had some money saved up. High school girlfriend bought me an MV-8000. My college dorm looked like a mini studio for a year. I remember actually really struggling to get used to hardware vs. software, and then with life changes (dropped out, moving around, joined the military, etc.) I ended up selling all of my gear, thrifting all of my records, and just thinking it was time to move on and focus on getting a real job.
~2021: I started working from home everyday and started listening to a lot more music during the day. Noticed a lot of lofi and gritty rap (huh, what's "trap"?) trending on Spotify, and eventually the itch came back since I used to make a lot of lofi and gritty beats.
~2022: Got FL Studio, satisfied an itch and made a couple beats using out of the box sounds. Mostly tinkered around with learning all of the new functionalities on/off for a couple months.
~mid-2023: Back to being comfortable with the DAW, bought an MPK Mini, drum kits and plugins in good order, getting my kids involved in smashing keys/pads on the MPK has been awesome, and been making beats every night. I'm a night owl and just only recently started smoking weed for medical purposes, so what you hear is a reflection of my mind while high and sleep deprived.
2024+: I've created a YT page, what else should I explore?
~2001 (12-13 yo): Came across some software on my uncle's computer called ACID. Started arranging songs using their out of the box loops and uploading to acidplanet.com. It was mostly techno, trance, and electronica at the time. Moby was really popular. I went by DJ Marz. Collaborated with some folks over a couple of years and learned the basics.
~2003: Really wanted to make hip-hop. I used to read the album inserts of Dre's 2001, Marshall Matters LP, and others. Played around with FL Studio (Fruity Loops at the time). Kanye's College Dropout came out and it opened my eye's to how much sampling is in hip-hop. I remember listening to the orignal song used for "What's the Difference" from Dre's 2001 and thinking "whoa, that's cool."
~2004-2007: Diggin records, making beats, Soundclick, FutureProducers.com, all that stuff. I think I sold maybe 5 beats in total at $20 a pop. Looking back, I should have spent more time learning the fundamentals and just focused more on making beats instead of being so focused on trying to sell beats. My style was often non-traditional samples, with a rock/alternative inflence. I'm a sucker for a killer guitar. I've gravitated back to that style often today.
~2007-2008: Graduated high school and finally had some money saved up. High school girlfriend bought me an MV-8000. My college dorm looked like a mini studio for a year. I remember actually really struggling to get used to hardware vs. software, and then with life changes (dropped out, moving around, joined the military, etc.) I ended up selling all of my gear, thrifting all of my records, and just thinking it was time to move on and focus on getting a real job.
~2021: I started working from home everyday and started listening to a lot more music during the day. Noticed a lot of lofi and gritty rap (huh, what's "trap"?) trending on Spotify, and eventually the itch came back since I used to make a lot of lofi and gritty beats.
~2022: Got FL Studio, satisfied an itch and made a couple beats using out of the box sounds. Mostly tinkered around with learning all of the new functionalities on/off for a couple months.
~mid-2023: Back to being comfortable with the DAW, bought an MPK Mini, drum kits and plugins in good order, getting my kids involved in smashing keys/pads on the MPK has been awesome, and been making beats every night. I'm a night owl and just only recently started smoking weed for medical purposes, so what you hear is a reflection of my mind while high and sleep deprived.
2024+: I've created a YT page, what else should I explore?
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