Super! 
Oh, do you already have a YouTube channel? Chris Heinās libraries donāt get talked about much at all, so any insights and practical demonstrations would be really interesting!
Hi everybody, my name is Cristian and iām from Brazil. Im composer and sound designer for video games and i have also make some music for tv, advertising, digital booksā¦
Iām musician (guitarrist) since 1987 but Iām living professionaly composing music and sfx about 3 years ago.
Here my site with some works and studies.
I really glad to be here.
Thanks
Cristian
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I do, but I havenāt been active for a few years and Iāve been planning about starting over again since last march
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Hello all!
My name is Dan and Iām very excited to be a part of this community! Mike, thanks for starting this up and for your tremendously helpful and clear videos- theyāve been a huge time saver for me as I streamline my work.
Iāve been a professional musician for about 15 years now but never formally studied composition, with the exception of some mandatory counterpoint and orchestration in undergraduate school. Initially I was a French horn player but was swayed to the dark side of singer (GASP!) in college and eventually completed my graduate work in operatic studies at Juilliardā¦Iāve basically been in NYC since. Singing is fine and Iāve had a nice little career thatās allowed me to perform from Carnegie Hall to San Francisco Opera, but my passion has always been film music. My original goal was to become a studio musician and record for film back in the day, but a project as recent as just three or four years ago got me into arranging, which led to me buying stacks of books on orchestration and scoring, which then led to the sampling and virtual orchestration world (and its COSTS!).
Fast forward to now and Iāve just co-founded a production music company called The Soniq Haze with a fellow composer/producer (still in its infancy), have scored a couple of industrials, and trying to get a pinky toe into the trailer/tv biz. Iāve had very positive feedback from big libraries, but my mixing/mastering skills are a bit lacking.
Canāt wait to start learning from and with you all! Sorry for the novel!
Hereās my SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-860716329
Hereās The Soniq Haze SoundCloud (more to come soon):https://soundcloud.com/user-137733262
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Iām Brandon currently reside in Florida, and I joined to hopefully learn more about recording and production workflow!
Iāve always loved music and Im a singer/piano player and do a little bit of writing. I really want to learn how to look at my daw(logic pro) and have a workflow to go by and understand rather then opening up everything, plugging my mic to preamp, and then getting overwhelmed because ive got the instrumental but dont know how to start the vocal process. So I end up just shutting it down and walking away. Looking for some guidance! From recording to using a bus correctly even making a head phone mix.
I hope to be able to finally record edit and produce a basic cover video, and to learn from start to finish how and what to do.
Thank you!
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Hi everyone !
My name is Adrien, I am 27 and Iām not what you could call a professional composerā¦ yet !
I am currently composing only for my Synthwave project, A.GE, and am still learning everyday, can it be about composing, recording, mixing or mastering. Iām interested in all those domain and as I am not yet in a situation where I can make a living out of music, I try not to close any door on that matter.
My musical background is rather scarce : Iāve been playing guitar and composing for 10 years now, not on a professional level though. I did not go to any conservatory, I have not been in any orchestra. Iāve been writing for myself for years and only realized recently that I was taking wrong turns in my life and that music was in fact what I wanted to dedicate my life to. So Iām getting serious about it and I donāt regret choosing this path one bit.
Iāve started A.GE back in October, and therefore Iāve been playing synthesizer for a few years now, and it has become the instrument I play the most. Here is the link to my first EP, if you are willing to give it a listen :
I am currently working on an album, it is a lot of work (as I am actually composing, arranging, mixing and mastering it all by myself) and I canāt afford to spend all my time on it, even if itās something I wish Iād be able to do someday, but it turns out pretty well !
I am really glad I joined this community, I watch one of Mikaelās course on mixing a few days ago and I must admit it was really instructing and that is what motivated me to join you here.
Looking forward to share with you all !
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Hello Cristian, really nice to have you join the community! =)
I checked out your website, and it looks really amazing. Way to create an atmosphere right from the first impression!
I hope you will consider bookmarking this website and become an active member of the community. Please jump into the various topics, create new ones, ask questions, and connect with fellow composers.
Sincerely,
Mike
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Welcome Dan, Iām glad you decided to join the community! =)
And thank you for your kinds words.
Seems you went on quite a journey in music. I actually really appreciate hearing the full story in an introduction, as we all get to know each other better, which is what a community is all about!
Please consider bookmarking this website and becoming an active member in the community!
Sincerely,
Mike
Hello Brandon, very nice to have you join this amazing community! = )
Logic Pro is my main DAW since 2014, and Iām sure you already watched plenty of my tips and tutorial videos I teach on my YouTube Channel.
Regarding the vocal recording process, do please start a new topic where you ask about it, in the āComposition & Productionā section of this community.
I hope to see you become an active member of the community Brandon (consider bookmarking it in your web browser). 
Sincerely,
Mike
Welcome Adrien, itās great to have you join the community!
And donāt worry, this community for all composers on a journey to improve their skills and craft in music composition, production, sound design, business etc. The journey and adventure in music is what it is all about. 
You will also find that practically everyone in here writes music using only computers, sample libraries, plugins etc. The choices are so many today, it is truly incredibly what we can do.
No, please do post your music in your introduction post, I even encourage it! That way we can all get a sense for each others āpersonality and styleā as composers. So do please edit and add a link to y our EP.
Iām glad I could motivate and inspire you with my teachings, and I hope you will find lots of value in this community as well. Please consider bookmarking the website, start new topics asking questions, join the discussions and connect with fellow composers of all levels!
Sincerely,
Mike
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Hello guys! First of all I want to welcome all my musical colleagues to this amazing forum as well as congrats @Mikael on this site! Thank you to make this one possible for us and for what we love! Itās a pleasure for me to join you!
Now I want to introduce myself, if you allow me to do so. I guess it will be not an ordinary introduction as I will share some more or less personal insides, however I believe you will get a better idea of my person as well as why I am doing what I am doing todayā¦because it will be a longer story, please forgive me for mistakes in advance which I will do here and there
Hello once again! My name is Alexey and I live in Hamburg, Germany right nowā¦a beautiful city by the way I was born in Moscow a couple of decades ago, but in the 2000s my family moved to Germany, so I am kind of a split between the two nationalities
My family is a musical family from the roots, so it was clear that I will do music as well I guess. My grandma is still a piano teacher nowadays, almost 83, and a choir conductor, as well as my grandpa was when he was alive. My mother is a choir conductor and a piano teacher as well. My father learned classical concert piano, with the years he found jazz and musicals interesting ā at the moment he is a music director, playing piano/keys and conducting (Chicago, Flash Dance).
I remember when I was six years old, my father was playing the piano and I was kind of flashed how it was possible to play an instrument as well as he did and more importantly how beautiful and musical everything was sounding. My grandma asked me, if I liked it, and there was no question about it, but I never wanted to do (play) it myself. I knew already at this point, I will never reach that level of musicalityā¦it was never my goal to be ābetterā than him. Even now after 20 years I am flashed by his talent, but what Iāve learned from him is āYou can reach everything you want yourself, but there are two rules: persistence and work you ass off! Talent is only 5%, 95% is work, love and focus for the things you do!ā ā not only in music, but in life in general.
So back to the point when I was six year old, my grandma took my hand and placed it on the Ā«middle CĀ»ā¦basically the beginning of my music career. Without her, I guess I wouldnāt be doing what I am doing now and wouldnāt have composed music. It just wouldnāt exist todayā¦if you think about it for a momentā¦I believe itās really important to understand. Something or someone influenced you that much, that you have started your careerā¦isnāt it kind of crazy?
Okayā¦so after a couple of years of music education with my grandma, me, my father and mother moved to Germany, I believe the times and opportunities were not great at the moment to stay in Russiaā¦I was 8 almost 9 years old and at this age you just see the world with different eyesā¦first you think about all the people you left behind, your friends, your second half of the family and so forthā¦but because you are thrown into cold waters, donāt know a single word in that language, you just focus on different thingsā¦you start with nothing, but you slowly grow because you adapt ā you have to. At this point we had basically nothing and a Korg M1 from the early 90s, which is still in great shape I was playing/training on this one for a year I believe before my parents bought a white piano from Yamaha.
So time went by and when I became a teenager I remember that I always improvised more than I really played from the sheets. At some point I hated the piano. I couldnāt stand it anymore. Three hours of practicing every day, Bach, Schubert, you name itā¦here and there a concert to playā¦I never wanted to play for anybodyā¦only for myselfā¦then you have to play a concert for 850 peopleā¦it was greatā¦I was surprised how well it wentā¦but after all that I said to my parents: Ā«Thatās enough for meā¦no more music, no more concertsā¦Ā» My parents were cool with it, because I made it really clear, that I wasnāt happy at this point anymore. I think I didnāt touch the keys for the next two years. Never push anybody to do something they donāt want, although I am really grateful that my parents did it. I slowly started to compose and improviseā¦here and there small melodies and for my ears good and stable sounding chord progressions. It was cool and really liked it. I felt it from the deep of my heart, because music brings you on another level, isnāt it the case? Thatās where the real passion comes from! I still believe that the Russian mindset for education in general is one of the best, even if it sounds hard and strictā¦but I believe as well that you have to learn and explore your own ways how to keep the fun and passion in yourself going. You need to find yourself and the inspiration!
So another couple of years went by and I was in the 11th grade where I had to decide what to do next in my life. School didnāt go the way it should, I had some conflicts with my teachersā¦so I decided with parents to leave the school and do something which I could do best at this timeā¦musicā¦playing the piano, although my level really dropped due to the fact I didnāt practice the techniques anymore. It was hard to get back to my abilities from 5-6 years ago.
So I studied at the Hamburg School of Music for three years, made my musical and educational certificates there ā main subjects were piano, drums and music harmony. It was back in 2009 where I was introduced to the modern music production classes. When I was done, I knew I havenāt learned enough for myself, so because of the music production course and my compositional background I thought about doing film musicā¦learning how to compose for films. I believe the spark for it was Ā«AvatarĀ» and James Horner scoring this epic movie. The only little problem at this point was to find a place which will give me good fundamental basics as well as music production knowledge ā not only the raw compositional tools. Germany has a lot of classical composition classes to offer, basically every university will offer you something in this direction, but as I mentioned before, I wanted to do it in a more modern kind of way, so my decision fell to Bonn, the Musicube. I wonāt make any advertisement for anything, but I felt it was the best start to learn from real life producers and composers. Actually the Musicube offered a separate education program, but at the same time this year there was the perfect preparation for the real bachelor degree in the Netherlands, which I started in 2013. To summarize the year at the Musicube Iāve learned the basics of music production, composing for films and other classes like notation in Sibelius for the orchestra for example. 2012 was the best year in my personal life, especially due to the fact that Iāve met my future wife, as well as I could really focus on my music.
The next chapter was the university in Arnhem, the B.A. of Arts āComposition for Film and Theatreā program. This year was actually completely different compared to the year in Bonn. Not only because I had to deal with the fact that I was not in Germany anymore, my girlfriend (todayās wife) moved to the north of Germany and I realized at some point that the program wasnāt really the program I thought it would be. This year was really hard mentally wise ā I was unhappy and often times depressed which is not the real way to go. So I decided for myself that I donāt want to study there anymore ā I quit the classes and moved back to Hamburg. At the time I had a lot of things going in my head, asked me every day whatās the plan to move on, how to continueā¦I realized that I was really happy with my composition abilities, but I wasnāt satisfied with my production qualities, although I have put a lot of time and effort to learn everything at home, because the B.A. program felt too short on this topic in my opinion.
I wanted to round my knowledge in music production in general and decided to study at the SAE Institute in Hamburg. It offered me the B.A. of Arts Program in āAudio Productionā which I completed in 2016. The SAE Institute is known for its great and modern studios, where you can do all kind of music and audio sessions, mixing, mastering etc., but you need to pay a good amount of money for it as well. A lot of people say that the SAE is a money making machine and you can invest your money in a better way as well as the reputation isnāt good in the industry. In my opinion itās true to a given point, but isnāt it everywhere you see or meet enclosed students who say they can do everything? To make it short, the SAE really helps you with the name first of all, but the real work is on you. You can study at Berklee or Cambridge but at the end of the day itās about you and your attitude how far you will go. I see why companies complain about some enclosed students ā āTheyāve learned nothing there! They canāt do anythingā¦ā, I was there and I can tell you only 10% of all the enrolled students did the work ā all others almost never came to learn how to run a session, what type of microphones to use when and where and I saw people who couldnāt start a ProTools-Session at the final exam, due to the fact that they werenāt interested at all how ProTools looks like and what the studio was all about. Thatās the point. Thatās the truth.
If you came to this point and have read all Iāve written above, you should know by now how my study life looked like. After my studies I had to finally work somewhere to pay my studies back and learn the real life as an engineer, producer and composer. I started working for Aida Cruises (ship) as a sound technician and front of house engineer, mixing shows, bands and guest artists. At the moment I work part time as an engineer in different theaters which run the musicals Mary Poppins & Lion King. All the other hours I compose, educate and do other engineer jobs like recording, producing, mixing and mastering. Itās not easy all the time, but you need find a good balance between the job, your financials and your family life as well. If something is more prioritized, the other parts will suffer from it, which I make clear for me every day.
Thatās it for now. Thank you for reading until the end! I know it was longer than youāve expected, but I find it more interesting to get more insights from someone, especially the ones who do more or less the same job as me. There are thousands of so called composers and producers, but to learn someone better especially in todays internet world, you need to give more information and insights who you are, what you do and how you came there. I am really grateful that my parents helped me a lot in my life, but my father says I did the same for them as well. If you receive, give back ā you can only win! I hope that I could give you more or less of this. Still if you have any questions, ask me anything I would love to answer your questions!
Once again a big THANKS to @Mikael who made this site possible! Itās only the beginning
Best musical regards,
Alexey
PS: If you are interested to hear some of my music, you can check out my Soundcloud profile here:
Itās still a lot in the makingā¦but itās another topic
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Hi Siegfried,
can you tell me how you emblemed the soundcloud player? I couldnāt figure it out, the preview showed only the pictureā¦
Thank you in advance!
Have a great day!
Alexey
Hi. Iām Bruce, a drummer writer and (new) producer from Edinburgh.
My favourite kit is my Yamaha Beech Custom with Zildjian and Sabian cymbals. Iāve invested in an X32 to record with and record in logic on a 2017 Mac book pro.
Iām writing and recording my own stuff which is easily the hardest thing Iāve ever done in my life but also the most rewarding.
Iām looking forward to picking everyoneās brains. Behind every great man, thereās an amazing forum 
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Hello Alexey, Iām so happy you joined the community, and thank you so much for your kind words!
Now that is what I call a proper introduction, haha. Amazing!
Wow, an 83 year old piano teacher, that is respectful. Lots of piano in the family I see, I think it is the best instrument to master as a composerā¦even though I personally am only good enough on the keys to get by recording my parts as a composer (with too many re-takes still lol). I have no intention of getting to a āperformer levelā, but I would like to improve to get a faster workflow as a composer.
I agree on practice and hard work beats talent any day. Talent is often simply a word for āpassionā in my experience.
Ah indeed! Music takes you on a journey of emotion, soul and adventure beyond this world!
Iām glad you find a way to balance your life in music and everything else, and are able to make an income from the hard work and study you put into it!
I really hope you will become an active member of this amazing composer community, so please consider bookmarking this website.
Sincerely,
Mike
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Thank you ! I edited my post just now !
Yeah this is amazing to see how much variety there is in music now and how easy it is to make some nowadays ! Well Iāll go on my way right now and explore these topics and share all I can !
Letās make this community the best in the world !
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I am James M., aka Bard of Asher, and I have no musical credentials to post. I have my soundcloud and thats about it, I compose because it is the only therapy that works to bring peace to me. I love music. I have mental illness struggles, and those have kept me from excelling, but, studying under Mikael has taught me very much, my heart overflows with gratitude for what I am learning. Not just musically directly, but also attitude wise. The spirit and the passion, for a guy who has been bullied, booed, and put down, having someone be encouraging, patient, kind, means very very much. Music has literally given me a reason to keep living, and not just live, but live more abundantly. Words do not do justice. Having a kind voice thoughtfully explain how, why, and little memory/emotional/attitude example goes a very long way. I deeply believe music, that is, tones, harmonies, frequencies, etc. are the actually build blocks of all life and all thingsā¦peace, and I look forward to learning from everyone here!
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The soundcloud link isnt working, just a heads up, unless its on my end then oops and sorryā¦
Thanks for the heads up! I fixed it. Thanks and have an excellent day!
Cheers!
Brian
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Hi Alexey,
I had to copy the embedding code that was created by Soundcloud into some part of the Body-Area of my page. Thereās a placeholder which was created by my Xara-Software, this must be replaced by the code. Unfortunately, I dont know more about HTML etc., so I was using Xara.
Best regards,
Siggi
Glad you liked it @Mikael ! I think I bookmarked the site from the very beginningā¦itās a pleasure for me
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