intro

Hi,

My name is Johan Walraeve and i was born in Belgium in 1970.

Since I became about 6 years of age I was fascinated by music. Over time musical interests evolved from Disco to various genres of music. More specific synthesiser music. It was mid 1980’s back then, and some of the big names like Jean-Michel Jarre (to name one) with his album Oxygène (1977) or single Equinoxe (1978) were two of my favourite pieces of music. As time passes by, I bought my first digital piano, a Yamaha E203 ( early 1990’s ) which is still fully working and still in my setup. My interests in music came out as a hobbyist DJ who never played professionally but making mixes for all of my friends. In 1999 i became the main-stage light jockey at Cherry Moon Club located in Belgium Lokeren. Did this for some time but after a huge dispute with one of the co workers decided to stop. I never really had the time or money to turn my hobby into profession (my father never supported me in music) and couldn’t buy any descent equipment up until 2 years ago when I switched between jobs. Now my hobby has been evolving very quickly and keeps on growing.

In the mid 90’s i discovered midi on PC’s in the way of midi connections from the pc into a sound module that supported General Midi sound modules like the Roland SC 55(st). These sound modules came without a keyboard and could only played via midi connections. Onboard were multiple sounds on several simultaneous playable midi channels. My fascination for midi was born. Even when i stopped my music hobby for several years i never lost my interest in midi and what it was capable of.

As a result, when I picked up the hobby again in 2020, i was very surprised that the technology was still the same and worked the same as in the mid 90’s.

After spending a few days on the internet getting back familiar with the whole concept, i started out with buying a Numark NVII DJ console. From there on, my interest in music generally AND synthesisers skyrocketed in a few months. Figuring out how the midi side worked was a matter of a few minutes per instrument , audio wise was just a like, and here I am with a “mini home hobby studio” .

When I look for new stuff, I’ll immediately search on YouTube and facebook.

On YouTube I spend days on reviews and setup videos for that instrument and look for Facebook groups specialised for that specific instrument.

Very often the same questions rises on how to setup audio and midi.

I am good in wiring and setting up audio and midi, but to be fair, i don’t know sh*t about writing music, lol.

So being good in setting up things, i got into the idea of making this site to 1) share my setup, and 2) to share my knowledge on the wiring and setting things up on audio and midi side of a small setup.

I hope that what i try to explain will help some people to understand the different aspects of the process to get their gear up and running.

Please keep in mind that like ,just about everyone else, I know my own gear the best.

My knowledge is limited as far as my own instruments and audio interfaces.

Specific questions about other gear you want to ask on facebook groups that are specialised in that specific type of gear.

Kind regards to all of you who want to start a hobby in the magical world of music making :-)

Johan