I am a new member from the Raleigh, North Carolina area in the US. I just discovered this site tonight and it looks like a wonderful source of information and a nice community.
A bit about me: I'm a computer professional, that's about all I can really say about my paying job. I often refer to myself as a "geek of all trades" because my job has me doing everything from desktop phone support to software development to 3D graphics to network design and support. Unfortunately my work is almost completely Windows based. I've been using Linux since I first installed Slackware back in about 1996 and I've been using Linux exclusively on my home computers for about the last 4-5 years, mostly SUSE.
I've been playing guitar since 1984, although I haven't really played seriously since the mid-90's. That's changed in recent months and I'm hoping it will be a trend that continues. I also play bass and a little piano. I've been into songwriting and interested in recording for many years. I used a Tascam 4-track and a Boss DR-5 to record some material way back when, then upgraded to a Roland VS-890 a few years ago but I haven't used it much.
A few weeks ago I found myself with a spare, semi-modern PC (Pentium Dual Core, Intel MB, SATA, 2.5Gb of RAM) and decided to make the jump to a computer-based workstation. Naturally, being the anti-Windows, pro-Linux guy that I am, I decided to take a swing at it with Linux and downloaded a copy of Ubuntu Studio and I've been having a blast ever since.
My studio is very sparse at the moment but it's doing fine so far. It consists of:
- The aforementioned PC with Ubuntu Studio 8.04
- A M-Audio Delta/66 and Omni I/O interface
- A Korg Triton Le keyboard/sequencer hooked up through a USB MIDI interface
- A Digitech GNX4
- A couple of mics, the most-used one being a Shure SM57
I'm mostly interested in writing and recording original songs, although I have a plan with a couple of friends to record some cover tunes as well. That's mostly because I want to gain experience with my studio setup and because they are songs I've always wanted to play.
I'm looking forward to spending some time here and learning from all of you!
Noel
