About Jimbo:
I started my musical career in band back in 4th grade. Played the Snare drum and the big “marching” bass drum. Tried Trumpet, Saxophone and bass guitar in high school. Basic stuff…
Purchased my first synthesizer in 1983. It was the Moog/Realistic MG-1. The first synth I had that you had to mess about with all the knobs and settings to create a sound. Then my brother bought a Korg Poly 61 in 1985. That was the first synth I used with an arpeggiator on it. That was a good combination. Created two cassettes worth of noise and ideas. I didn’t have a proper mixer so I had to bounce from cassette to cassette.
Sometime in the 1990’s my sister bought a keyboard with presets. I created three more cassettes worth of musical ideas. Around that time I was in a band called “Vortex in a Bag.” I played flute and bongos….
I picked up my musical endeavors back up in 2005. I started playing and building guitars. My acoustic guitar playing was good enough for me to perform at local coffeehouses and open mics. I discovered alternate tunings and wrote 11 songs. Each more complex than the last. Also started writing blues rock songs and submitting them to the local radio station. They had a late evening program that featured local artists. I had several of my songs played.
I recorded a cover version of “Roadside Flowers” by Winter Hours. Michael Carlucci (Winter Hour’s guitar player) heard the song and included it on a tribute album called “A Few Uneven Rhymes.” It was played over satellite radio on “The Loft: In Spite of all the Danger.” Funny how a song recorded in my living room can be broadcast over satellite. Thats technology for you.
My brother had an Antigua Stratocaster in 1979. I guess that is what started my obsession with stratocasters. I built over 25 guitars between 2005 and 2008. I sold 20 of them. When I figured out what set up the suited me it was very close to the 1964 Stratocaster.
My coffeehouse days built up to a grand finale as I was invited to perform at the Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor for an hour. The first half of my set was acoustic finger style songs. The second half was my favorite songs throughout the years. It was fun.
The coffeehouse days came to an end as I found a full time job. Plus the local coffeehouse closed. I rediscovered my passion for synthesizers. Starting with songs created on my iMac using Garage band. I used the internal synthesizers. This expanded to iPad synth programs from Arturia and others. Then I discovered Arturia VST synths and upgraded my software to Logic X Pro.
The first albums were all created in Garage Band. Then the iPad synths recorded into the program. Then the virtual synths. I searched for more software synths and discovered the Waldorf website with PPG Wave 2 and 3. Then I found SonicProjects had an Oberheim clone. The next step was finding a good sequencer. Up to this point I was mixing and matching presets with the same beats per minute. Tedious. The B-Step sequencer fixed that problem. I’ve created several albums with this setup…. Around 35 albums to be precise…. Then came the big investment into hardware synthesizers…. Starting small with the Roland Boutique series…. Then finding better ones like the Roland D-550 rack synths, DSI Prophet 08 PE rack synth, Oberheim Matrix 6r, Waldorf Microwave 2 rack, and Access Virus B rack synth. Then…. Like my old Moog MG-1…. I bought the Moog Grandmother synth. My first synth with a keyboard since 1983. This year (2020) I bought a Korg minilogue XD Synth. Very nice! So now I have 60 albums of electronic music. It is a fun way to spend my free time. I have songs on iTunes, etc as well as band camp.
So that’s me in a nutshell…. Oh, yeah, I was also a professional radio DJ from 1986 - 2001.
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