A brief history of music (Inphal's)

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Major Dates

2004

 

"Piano Goo" CD

2003

 

"Color of desire" CD

2002

 

"Pink Lies" CD

2002

 

The name "Inphal" is created and registered

1995

 

First experience composing.

How has it all happened

Dec '04

 

"Piano Goo" CD is out. It is as eclectic as everything else I've done before, but the general direction is trance. The music is influenced by several technology upgrades: new version of Sonar 3 came with the vSampler, which, it turn, came with a collection of new sounds. And I had a whole year to play with my new Waldorf Q - an amazing piece of German machinery; I feel really sorry that the company went bankrupt.

I also hired an outside help for the first time in my music "career": Slava Balasanov of Knightly Productions did the mastering and DiskFaktory did the duplication.

For the first time my music was offered for sale to the general public at Amazon, CD Baby, and iTunes (the earlier attempt at now defunct mp3.com does not count).

Mar '03

 

"Color of Desire" CD is out. In my humble opinion it's darker and more electronic than "Pink Lies".

Mar '03

 

Waldorf Q synth is given as a birthday present. I did not touch it until "Color of Desire" was finished.

Jun '02

 

"Pink Lies" CD is out. It contains an eclectic collection of tunes in various styles - since I do not make a living doing music, it allows me certain artistic freedom - and they say that money can't buy happiness!

Aug '02

 

The name "Inphal" is created (that's a whole separate story) and registered as an Internet domain.

'00-'02

 

I've got Cakewalk's ProAudio sequencer (later renamed Sonar) and re-recorded all the previous material with XV-3080. It all has started to sound real.

Sep '00

 

The A-90EX keyboard is bought for kids' music lessons. It was done against grandparents' will who desperately wanted a real mini grand. Roland XV-3080 got somehow "attached" to the deal, I don't remember the gory details.

1996

 

I've bought a Midisoft's MidiStudio software sequencer from my local software shop and started arranging where the keyboard auto-arranger left off.

1995

 

It all started when my wife gave me a kiddy's Yamaha keyboard as the wedding anniversary present.

It sounded kind of thin, but it had an auto-accompaniment feature, i.e., you play a melody with your right hand, chords with the left one, and the box plays like whole band in response. Amazing! So I played some tunes I remembered from my school days and one night I got bored and tried something I had not ever heard before. With the "full band" arrangement done by the keyboard it genuinely surprised me - naturally, it was a pitiful sorry kitsch, but not much worse that Yanni does (nothing personal, man) on a regular basis.

I wrote several more tunes and recorded them on a cassette player. It genuinely spooked my family and friends, but I assured them that I was not quitting my day job.

 
Why

Why do I do it? It brings me joy of sorts: the time between the conception and the result is relatively short, and the result is relatively enjoyable. Besides, it's totally different from my professional activities and this gives me somewhat unusual sense of accomplishment: whatever I do for a living has to be good, otherwise people will not pay for it and I'll go starving. With music I do not have such a strong stimulus, but it turns out OK regardless. Are you still reading this? Here are more reasons:

  • It's easy.
  • It amuses my friends.
  • My kids admire my tunes, especially more danceable ones.
  • My family does not have to think about birthday, or anniversary, or Christmas presents - I have an inexhaustible wish list of music making software (perpetually upgradeable) and hardware.