History..... of Madsen
Born in 1974 in the Norfolk town of East Dereham I couldn't say much at first! Or do anything much really. Looking back though, I couldn't have chosen a better decade to be born in for music. The music of the 70s (pop music) is pretty bad but it was quite a decade for revolutionising (is that a word?) music. From artists like Jean-Michel Jarre to Kraftwerk music production was being changed for ever and synthersizers were becomming more mainstream.
In fact my first memories of music were made up of bands from the sixties and the great Jean-Michel Jarre. Oxygene and Equinoxe are two of my favourite albums of all time and still sound brilliant today and it was these two albums that really influenced my musical tastes and sent me to where I am today. The pad sounds and some of the more analogue sounds I use are as a result of listeneing to these albums. But lets not get ahead of ourselves.
It wasn't unitl I was about 11, and had got football out of my system that I first started to create music using a Casio Keyboard; an MT 65. As most kids do, I got bored of playing with the rythms and sound FX and stopped using it. It wasn't until later that summer (1986 I think) that a very good friend played me a tune on his Yamaha keyboard. It blew me away! Not only was the tune great (I can still play it today) but the fact that he had written it really showed me the way ahead. Jonathan George was his name and I shall be forever thankful to him as he gave me a hobby that I have never stopped doing.
Well soon after that I wrote an album of my own and one with Jonny. I then caught the Tech bug and started to save up my pennies to buy new keyboards, the Yamaha PSS 570, PSS 680 (I think), PSR 75, Casio HT 700 (brilliant kids keyboard) and then eventually onto my first computer. It saddens me to think that these days we have only the choice of PCs or Apple Macs, no matter how good they have become. No more Atari or Amstrad or Commodore, and Commodore it is that I remember most fondly. I bought a Commodore Amiga A500. A brilliant computer which allowed me to use midi and four channels of 8 bit samples (and play Kick off 2). All being controlled by the fantastic Octamed Pro tracker programme. I soon bought my first synth, a Casio CZ 1000 (crap if you ask me) and soon sold it and bought a Yamaha TG 55 (brilliant filters, FX and waveforms). It was the combination of the Yamaha and Amiga that enabled me to begin my ventrues in electro music.
Gradually my studio built up, a six channel 'Realistic' mixer, a Korg 05rw (still use it), Akai SG01V (brilliant analogue sample player), a Roland D110 and some Akai desktop sampler in the days when Akai was king. But despite a decent set up I could never get the sound I wanted, it was always a bit frustrating as I never had enough equipment at any one time to get the sound I wanted. Looking back, I spent far to much time in second hand instrument shops doing part exchange deals.
Ahh, the Yamaha TG 55. If you find one, buy it and then send it to me so I can have it!
However, it was during this period of the late 80s to the late 90s that I learnt most about music. Home produced music was becomming a bigger deal and Future Music magazine lead the way with tutorials and free sample CDs. I was also part of the Electro duo 'Polacanthus' with my great freind Colin Whaymand. Between us we produced some strange and original tunes, often using just two Amiga 500s playing 8 bit samples. He remembers, like me, how we used to start them playing their sequences by holding two mice, one in each hand and pressing the left button at the same time. A simple but very effective method of ensuring good snycronisation! We played a few tiny gigs and then careers got in the way!
But the late 90s also saw a renaisance for analgue gear and producing a true electro sound was impossible without a big bank balance or big bank loan and I wasn't that desperate for success. Roland seemed to rule the roost for gear at the time. £1000 might get you a piece of kit if you were lucky. And then you would have to pay more to get it set up for MIDI.
In the early 00s I nearly gave up on music. I couldn't afford to extend my set up and was bored and frustrated. But then came the world of Broadband internet and cheap PCs. Just a few years into my time with PCs and I am close to where I want to be with my music but there is still a lot of work to do.
The music scene has become an inspiring place once more with great artists on line such as Sound Protection, Mode, Orillasound, Phatso Brown and Foxie Creations. Free software is available that can produce great results and even hardware kit is cheaper, the Korg MicroKorg is my latest buy and I highly recommned it.
Well that's it so far for my music, maybe in a few months I'll update this page with news of my huge success! I hope so.
P Madsen
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