Glad to have you join this fellowship of composers Sean, welcome! 
The story and journey of life is unique to every soul, and Iām glad to see you still have the good spirit after what you been through.
Sincerely,
Mike
Welcome Robin, great having you join us!
Really cool that you make games as well, seems you are full of creative energy needing to be released into the world. 
Sincerely,
Mike
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Welcome Michael, great having you join us!
I would like to ask you to fill in your real name in your profile in the ānameā field so that it shows in all discussion threads. The reason I ask for full name in the profile creation is that I would like everyone to be able to address each other by first name in order to create a more friendly and open atmosphere. You can of course still have your artist name in your profile description, including links etc.
Sincerely
Mike
Hi Mike,
iād just fulfill your request
Thank you for this great platform. I learned already alot from your videos.
Regards,
Michael
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Thank you Michael, I personally find it far more enjoyable to connect with people by name.
Iām glad to hear that you enjoyed my videos, more to come in 2020!
Sincerely,
Mike
Hi all, 
Im a 45 year āyoungā Swede that has my own studio in the basement of our house on the countryside outside Enkƶping, Sweden.
Im studying music production at the moment but has been a hobby producer since 2009.
I work in Pro tools and likes to produce all kinds of genres but for the most part cinematic music and epic soundtracks. I also created a company called Fireplace Records last year and my plan is to live from my music through this as a composer and recording studio.
Looking forward to joining this forum because its a fact, we composers need these kinds of groups to help each other. The problem is often thatā¦wellā¦who can really live on their music full time?
I think we should create a revolution here because we are so many but only a few will ever live at 100% from their music. Sorry, I started a discussion in my introduction ( typical meā¦) but with that said: im passionate about this and I hope to meet many more like me here.
Thanks for the invite Mike!!
Here is a instagram link to some teasers of my work.
Best Regards
Daniel
Fireplace Records
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Welcome Daniel,
Haha, well there is in fact a business section in the forum to discuss all aspects of the music business, marketing, networking, licensing etc.
You will definitely connect with lots of fellow passionate composers in here!
Sincerely,
Mike
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Hi neighbor IĀ“m sitting in Eskilstuna.
Hello everyone!
Iām Joonas, a Finnish generalist (composer, sound designer, graphic artist, game designer etc.)
I come from a very musical family (mom and brother work in the classical music industry and my dad plays sax in a couple of bands) and I started playing the violin at the age of four, then switched to trumpet when I was nine.
I started making dance music with trackers as a hobby in 1994, switched to midi and hardware synths in ā98 and then stopped composing music for many years.
I got a job working as a graphic artist in the games industry after graduating from school, and started to dabble with audio again, at first making some sfx for games, then also some music.
In 2015 I founded my own mobile games company and made most of the audio stuff for our games. I sold my shares in the summer, had a long vacation and now thought Iād give a shot trying to earn my paycheck by making stock music and sfx, so at the moment Iām building my portfolio and studying more about audio production (especially mixing and mastering).
I donāt have much (current) music online at the moment, but you can find my music and sfx in some mobile games like Hills of Steel 1 and 2, Retro Shot, Brawls of Steel. Three synthwave songs from Retro Shot are in my soundcloud.
Iām quite versatile in different styles/genres and I can write good hooks but my mixing needs a ton of work and I hope to learn from you, get some constructive feedback and pro tips!
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Hi, My name is Andy Ayers. I have joined this community to gather ideas around the recording tips others are using. I compose in a variety of genres using Guitar (both acoustic and electric), keyboards, bass and occasionally add in things like a friend playing resonator slide, baritone ukulele etc depending on the songs needs. My first love is keyboards and most of what I compose on it fits more comfortably with soundtrack/film style work however its a minority of my output. The majority of my songs are simple stories with a threadbare guitar/bass backup and tend towards blues. I have no samples available as yet (Still learning the recording craft) but will post something when I have mastered it a little more (using Reaper)
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Hello and welcome Joonas,
Thatās quite a range of creative outlets. How do you find time to do them all!?
I also started using trackers back in the 90s. Went through the hardware phase, and now all in the box with Logic Pro X and lots and lots of software plugins and instruments.
Why did you give up your mobile game dev career? Too much work, too hard to make money?
I wish you all the best for your music journey of course in any case!
PS. Please consider bookmarking this community website, which I often call āThe Fellowship of Composersā.
Sincerely,
Mike
Welcome Andy,
Very cool that you have great knowledge and experience in playing lots of real live instruments, as most of us composers in here (including myself) have gone almost completely software.
Do please join the discussions, start new topics, ask questions and connect with fellow composers and producers. And do consider bookmarking this community website!
Sincerely,
Mike
I donāt 
I love doing everything and switching to something else when I get tired of it, one day I make sound effects and when I wear out I switch to drawing. I have completely different energy banks for different things.
I kind of still use trackers today since my sequencer is mainly Renoise 
I do some FL Studio if thereās something thatās hard to do in Renoise. Iāve mostly switched to VSTās but I still have my synths and hardware effects in my home studio.
I founded the company with people I really didnāt know well and there were lots of personality clashes over the years. When the company became profitable, after years of busting myself with a low salary, I wanted to work less and focus on the audio side only since thatās what I love the most, but my co-founders basicly wanted me to work even more instead, so It was better for me to take my money out at that point and focus on myself and what I really want to do.
So thatās why Iām here, studying and working hard (watched most of your videos in skillshare, good stuff!) and doing only the things I like the most 
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Thatās really cool, I wish I could program, draw or something like that. But nah music is my gameā¦well, perhaps video production as well since I evolved my skills naturally in that over the years on YouTube and making courses etc.
Got to keep moving forward, whatever fields we go into. Keep learning, and keep creating.
Greetings!
My name is Riku - just an ordinary music enthusiast from Finland.
I started my musical journey back in the 90ās when I discovered the trackers like Scream and Fast Tracker. Back then I got hooked to those immediately. Path to understand how those antique DAWs worked was a really long as I didnāt have any musical background prior to that. Probably at the same time, I also picked up guitar and played eventually in a metal band for sometime in high school. After high school I pretty much stopped doing and playing music due to a military service and software engineering studies.
Letās fast forward to the end of 2017. So nearly 15 years later for some reason I installed DosBox to my computer and started to listen to my old pieces. My initial thought was to go full retro and do some tracker stuff but eventually I wondered what could the modern technology provide on the table. I started digging and learningā¦
I have to say that these past couple of years have been a ride. The information that can be found about composing, mixing and mastering is unreal and especially these kind of communities where the more advanced composers openly share information for anyone, even for newbies like me. I really appreciate that!
For me composing or producing music is purely a hobby. What I enjoy the most about it is the complete freedom of creativity and the fact that you can never master this art. The endless possibility to learn and become, hopefully better drives me forward. As a simple guy, I prefer simple and catchy melodies bundled with groovy rhythms tied to a soundscape which can tell a story to the listener. Well, that wasnāt so simple after all and probably didnāt make any sense
Feel free to check my Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb3hqR0Dwsjq94v6_RuXDRw
Iāve released only 2 songs so far, although the 3rd one is on the way soon.
Br,
Riku
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Welcome Riku,
Haha, I also started with Fast Tracker back in the 90s!
Indeed the creative opportunities today are remarkable, and only increase every year with new technology etc.
PS. Please consider bookmarking this community, join the discussions, ask questions, share tips etc.
Sincerely,
Mike
Welcome, Riku!
Another tracker user! \o/ I started out in that general domain as well, though I got into (hardware) synths, DAWs and EDM already back in the 90ās, but have a similar story of many years of absence, and then rediscovering music a few years ago. However, I only recently started playing ārealā instruments; 2 years violin and 6 months cello now. Never too late though, and Iāve been making way quicker progress than I expected, especially on the cello.
Anyway, great arrangements and strong melodies there - way beyond what one would expect from an ordinary entusiastā¦!
Hi Mike and David,
Mike: This community has already been bookmarked for a while It just took some time to actually register and make a proper introduction.
David: Thanks for the kind words! Trackers were truly something special back in the days. After the trackers itās been quite effortless to understand how the midi stuff works in the DAWs. Iāve actually had an idea for a while to remake one of my old tracker songs with the modern āmethodsā. Would be nice to see how it would turn out.
Itās really nice to see that people pick up instruments a bit older too. The sound of cello is something mesmerizing. Probably my favorite string instrument nowadays.
-Riku-
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Ah good to know!
I think doing something with tracker software today and making a āmusic videoā from it might actually do well with the current āretro trendā both in music and more importantly on YouTube
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For the real retro deal, you might want to try FamiTracker (NES/Famicom, also supporting the extra sound chips that some games have) or GoatTracker (C64). Apart from offering the rather tough challenge of getting non-awful sound out of extremely limited hardware, these can also export music that will play on the actual hardware - so weāre not talking āfakechipā here; this is the real deal.
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