# What was your first Computer?



## memyselfandus (Feb 2, 2008)

What was your first audio computer/software like?

Pics?


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## José Herring (Feb 2, 2008)

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/m ... _iicx.html

I ran a Mac IIcx. Bought it in 1990 for $2000 used. Thought it would last me a lifetime. Finally gave it away after about 12 years of no use in 2005. Just to check before I gave it up I booted it up with my old floppy disk of Vision. Still ran flawlessly.

best,

Jose


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## Bruce Richardson (Feb 2, 2008)

Apple IIe, dual-floppies, forget what sequencer...it was green. For that matter, everything was green. It was pretty much a computer version of the 8-track hardware Alesis sequencer that came out a few years after.

Then a couple of Macs, PCs since then. First PC was a 386-20 with a (then) unheard-of 12 mb of RAM. ADATS, Couple of Spectral systems...

Holy shit, if I only had all the money I spent on some of that. The ADAT cash alone would buy me several $7k server farms.

This is why I just laugh when I hear people bitching about how much things cost today. Please.

B.


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## Mahal (Feb 2, 2008)

IBM PS/1: 386SX, with 2 MB Ram, 40 MB disk

due to the small housing, it was impossible to add an audio card

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS/1


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## Mike Greene (Feb 2, 2008)

My first was also an Atari 1040, although my sequencer was Hybrid Arts' SMPTE-Track. This replaced my hardware Roland MSQ700 sequencer.


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## Thonex (Feb 2, 2008)

Mike Greene @ Sat Feb 02 said:


> My first was also an Atari 1040, although my sequencer was Hybrid Arts' SMPTE-Track. This replaced my hardware Roland MSQ700 sequencer.



me too... Atari 1040 STE... with Cubase.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Feb 2, 2008)

I started with a Yamaha QX-7, then a QX-5 (great machine), then an Atari 520ST running Passport Designs Master Tracks Pro. After seeing how much better it ran on a Mac Plus, I switched over in 1985.

Rather than dealing with the floppy swap, I bit the bullet and went for a high-capacity hard drive: a 30MB CMS that cost $650. Maybe a couple of years later I hotrodded the machine by going way up to 4 megs of RAM.

Upgrading to a Mac II (then IIx and IIci) was out of the question - they cost as much as a house, and the SE wasn't much faster than the Plus, and it was really loud. But then in 1990 Apple came out with the IIsi, which was finally affordable, and I upgraded.

My first Windows machine was in 2003. I bought it to review VSL for Mix magazine.


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## rayinstirling (Feb 3, 2008)

Nick Batzdorf @ Sun Feb 03 said:


> I started with a Yamaha QX-7, then a QX-5 (great machine), then an Atari 520ST running Passport Designs Master Tracks Pro. After seeing how much better it ran on a Mac Plus, I switched over in 1985.
> 
> Rather than dealing with the floppy swap, I bit the bullet and went for a high-capacity hard drive: a 30MB CMS that cost $650.


I believe that fella who started Atari after leaving Apple Mac was threatened with legal action over using a similar operating system so there ended development at the TT
I had a copy of Passport but I used Steinberg's 12 track.
What about the matching Alesis HR and SR units. And that hard drive - the size of a bus.


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## Peter Emanuel Roos (Feb 3, 2008)

Apple II and much later an Atari 1040 (later a Mega ST). On my first job we started with 8088 PCs and Ataris (we made graphical software that ran on Atari, Mac and DOS/GEM) and my first PC (7 years later) was an 80286.


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Feb 3, 2008)

I started with an IBM 2000. Amazingly, I found an old pic I thought I had lost. Notice that I had hair back then...


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## Stephen Rees (Feb 3, 2008)

A Sinclair ZX81 with 1KB of RAM! Loaded files from (audio cassette!) tape. I remember the great day I upgraded the RAM to a whopping 16KB. Then it was really cooking. Or was that the heat sink being overwhelmed....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_ZX81


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## Nick Batzdorf (Feb 3, 2008)

"I believe that fella who started Atari after leaving Apple Mac was threatened with legal action over using a similar operating system so there ended development at the TT "

Jack Tramiel. Could be, but Atari also made a lot of mistakes as I recall.


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## Trev Parks (Feb 3, 2008)

Stephen Rees @ Sun Feb 03 said:


> A Sinclair ZX81 with 1KB of RAM!
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_ZX81



Hey...mine too!. I completely forgot about that. Oh, the fun I had typing in Goto10 and watching it multiply across the screen. The car driving game was a bit like navigating a rover on mars from earth the delay was so huge. I remember the BBC micro and commodore 64 were considerably more impressive.

The first sequencer/computer I owned was a Yamaha CX5 which, as someone barely in their teens, was the only route I had to FM synthesis. It was actually quite good for its day, basic as its sounds were, and flexible too with 8 outputs.


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## re-peat (Feb 3, 2008)

I started with a Commodore 64 (running Steinberg sequencer software, I think) and after that, I spent a few years with Atari (again with Steinberg software which, by that time, was already called Cubase). And then - can't remember which year - I switched to Mac and Logic. Logic 3 it was, I believe.
The first sequencer software which I used however was the one that was built into the Roland S-50 sampler. Well, not actually 'built into', but Roland did have software which added sequencing functionality to the S-50. That's how I seem to remember it anyway.

_


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## R. Soul (Feb 3, 2008)

This is not me but that made me laugh :lol: 

Indeed the C64 was my first computer

http://static.flickr.com/111/279868606_1a5203f55e.jpg

Then the Amiga 500 which was the first computer I made music on. 

My first sequencer looked like this. Back in 90 (or thereabouts).


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Feb 3, 2008)

Seriously, the first computer I used to make music was a Mac +, using MidiPaint. Editing the next year with Sound Designer I. Trim 2 seconds from the start of a 3-minute piece? That'll be a 60-sec wait, while you watch the wonderful hand count on its fingers. I *really* don't miss those days! :roll:


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## drasticmeasures (Feb 3, 2008)

I had an Apple IIC when I was 5 years old, but I never made music on it.


First music computer was when I was 12 or 13 years old - 486 (i think) running Windows 3.1 that I built myself (poorly), running a cracked version of Cakewalk, connected to a Yamaha PSR 48. 

Several years after that like...1997, I upgraded to a Mac 7100 running Logic, connected to a Roland JV-1000. Good times.


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## dcoscina (Feb 3, 2008)

I used an Atari 520ST with Steinberg 12. I quickly moved to Passport Mastertracks Pro though. After using that for a year or two, I stepped up to Notator 3.1 SL. Used that for 5 years until I got a PC (486DX266 running Mastertracks Pro and Encore).

Ah, this takes me back!


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## sbkp (Feb 3, 2008)

Commodore PET - 1981


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## Chaim (Feb 6, 2008)

I came later into the game, mine was a G4 500 mhz single processor.

Then the G4 1ghz dual proc.

and now a G5 2X2 ghz

waiting for apple to put out chips at 4ghz speed


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## ComposerDude (Feb 6, 2008)

Tragically, almost the same age...


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## David A (Feb 15, 2008)

Great topic.....through all the previous posts and the inclusion of mine, we can truly measure the progression of technology.

My first PC was a Pentium 4 3.2GHz. Im still using it now mind you-I love it. Cant live without it. I bought it in 05'

However the next PC I invest in I intend to make my last...with technology at such a high standard nowadays the old PC farms setups composers used in the past can now be realized using 2 or more PCs (if you know what you're doing).

Upon the purchase of my SECOND machine-leaps and bounds would have been made in computer technology. Crazy isn't it? This is why I am so very careful with every investment I make. 

Dave A.


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## jonathanparham (Feb 18, 2008)

Timex Sinclair


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## damoy (Feb 20, 2008)

I first started with Personal Composer on my 286 PC (AST I think it was). My next purchase was a Mac SE - I dabbled with MasterTracks Pro, but ended up going with Motu's Performer for most of my stuff. I switched back to the PC around Cakewalk Pro Audio version 9 and I'm pretty sure I was running that on a 90mhz Pentium. How time flies. Now I kind of wish I had been born 20 years later. Seems like I spent the first 20 years of my life waiting for all this stuff to be invented :wink: 

Now here's a story - somewhat related to this topic (since we are going back in time). I was still a student (living off mom and dad), but I had my eyes set on the Synergy. Anyone remember that thing? I had the brochures, even had the demo LP to try to sell my dad on this $5000 beast. I made the pitch and he said he'd think about it. A few weeks later I came home to see a delivery trunk leaving the house. My heart starts to race. I run into the house to see my dad with grin ear to ear, and there is packing plastic all over the floor! I run upstairs to find a $5000 one-man-band organ with foot pedals, flashing lights, and the lastest polka music programmed into it. Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrg! As I start to lose my lunch, I hear over my shoulder "Now see, I got you something much better than that Synergoogoo thing you were looking at." Maybe someday when I muster up the heart, I'll relay the details of my failed attempt to sell him on the virtues of a Prophet V. :mrgreen:


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## lux (Feb 21, 2008)

In Italy it was called Commodore Vic 20. Not sure whats the international name, it came before the C64.







I had soooo much fun...


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## wonshu (Feb 21, 2008)

Mine was the C64.

It rocked.

I wrote letters on it for one of the biggest clients that my dad ever had.

And I PLAYED!!!!


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## spoon (Feb 21, 2008)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_128

Commodore C128..... BUBBLE BOBBLE ruled my life


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## Lunatique (Feb 21, 2008)

Mine was back in 1998. P2 400mHz, 768 MB RAM, Turtle Beach Pinnacle Sound Card with Digital Orchestrator sequencer.


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## careyford (Feb 22, 2008)

First computer: TRS-80 Color Computer II in 1983 or so. First computer with a floppy drive: Apple "Fat" Mac with 512K! I think it's still in one of these closets... But the first computer for music was Mac SE with 2 floppies running MOTU Professional Composer.


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## Hannes_F (Feb 26, 2008)

1993 or so I had a 486 PC with 32 MB RAM and Cubase score 1.0 on it. Also had two Roland MOC-1 Orchestra expanders.

The result was so discouraging that I went away from midi and returned three years ago with a laptop and headphones for a second start. Man, how sample technology had eveloped within ten years!


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## Tod (Feb 26, 2008)

Same as Peter, an IBM 8088. Got it in the early 80s and used Voyetra Sequencer Gold Plus. Locked it to tape via SMPTE.


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## joecool (Mar 22, 2008)

Mine was a Rokoman, the one with a brid on the pick guard...
Seriously, Atari ST 520, with cubase 2.0, with the Unitor key, with SMPTE and of course, bolo.... years ago...


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## Laurent K (Apr 3, 2008)

hello all,

my first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum (zx81)
(also, amstrad, Apple, oric, etc ...  )

after : 
C64 (begining music by computer, with Score track)
Atari (Creator / Notator)
Pc : Logic

and Mac


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## Bruce Richardson (Apr 6, 2008)

madbulk @ Fri Feb 22 said:


> Apple II with Alpha Syntauri.
> 
> Nick mentioned the yamaha sequencers. The first sequencer that I really got into was that Alesis MMT-8 and the HR16 that was paired with it. I think just about everybody bought that combo then.



Ditto that, haha. People used to stare in disbelief at my array of two floppy drives! Why on earth would anyone need that much storage???

I **STILL** have my MMT-8...


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## Nick Batzdorf (Apr 6, 2008)

I don't remember if I'm repeating myself repeating myself repeating myself, but I used a cassette deck for backing up my Yamaha QX-5 sequencer - or I should say I dumped cues to tape when the sequencer filled up (because that was the data storage format - they only came out with a floppy version much later, when the machine was out of date).

At one point I had 70-odd spots I was doing for a series sitting on a single tape that broke - several weeks' work under major league pressure.

Amazingly I only lost one cue that I'd already mixed *, because you can splice tape and it only broke in one spot.

That was 1987 I believe.

* on a Teac Model 2 mixer - cute little thing with a mock wrist rest.


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## Jack Weaver (Apr 6, 2008)

1982, NED Syclavier II w/ their computer (was it an Able?) and a DEC VT100 monitor. 

.


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## Sean Beeson (Apr 7, 2008)

I don't remember any of the specs, as I was only like 2 


I do remember when my dad bought a PC with a CD-ROM for work, complete with multimedia capabilities. He doubled the video ram in that sucker for something like $400. The pixelated graphics of King's Quest V REALLY came to life! haha


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## Jaap (Apr 7, 2008)

I worked my first years with pen and paper and piano. My publisher at that time demanded computer written music so I bought an 486 and Finale 3.0 (happily Finale improved since that moment haha). I didn't use any other audio related stuff till last year actually. Upgraded my Finale every now and then (got my 486 till 3 years ago ^^)


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## Nick Batzdorf (Apr 7, 2008)

"I worked my first years with pen and paper and piano."

Everyone who was into this before 1983 or 1984 at the earliest did, of course. I'm very glad I finished Berklee in 1981, just before the digital revolution, so I could concentrate on music when I was in college.

Yamaha QX-7 sequencer, DX-7, RX-15 drum machine (which I still have), and then a succession of reverb units...that rig was an overwhelming thrill - I couldn't tear myself away from it any hour of the day.


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## Tod (Apr 7, 2008)

Although it might not be computer, don't forget the old "Linn Drum". I'm not sure when I got it but vaguely the late 70s comes to mind.

It had the means to stripe tape and lock in. It also had the means to save songs / sequences to cassette. I actually pulled it out a couple of years ago so I could get a song that was done years ago on multi-track into the computer. I found the cassette, loaded it into the Linn Drum and it still worked without a hitch. :shock: :D


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## Tod (Apr 7, 2008)

All this brings another little nostalgic thing to mind.

*When was it the first time you saw a computer used for recording?*

For me it was at an AES convention in LA sometime in the earlier 70s. I think it might have been 1973 but not siure. At any rate I think it was a company from Colorado that was introduceing their new computerized system and if I remember correctly it was basically four tracks. Their booth was literally flocked all 3 days. It might even have been the beginnings of digidesign, although I don't have a clue if that's true or not.

I think it was the same convention where I first come to know Rupert Neve before he got famous. He had a little booth where he was showing a 16 input mixer that looked like it was all made out of white plastic. What I remember most about him is that he was one of the nicest guys I'd ever met.

Tod


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## Nick Batzdorf (Apr 7, 2008)

It wouldn't have been Digidesign. They started in the early 80s doing chips for the Oberheim drum machine.


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## SvK (Apr 8, 2008)

A Merlin....



SvK


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## Robobino (Apr 11, 2008)

Before getting my first computer, I started making music with a Yamaha DX7IIE! (with the internal sequencer, and no onboard fx)... It was quite an ordeal to use, but just being able to do multitrack recording made me feel like a magician, and it was very rewarding...

Then I bought a 486 PC running under Windows 3.1... It was quite another experience to do music looking at a "large" 14 inch screen under Cakewalk 1.0... Then I got a Korg 01R/W... and a Yamaha TG500... Pure delight!

Then I got rid of my PC, and got a 8600/200 Powermac with Cubase 3.7... It was supercool, but it was extremelly frustrating to use VST plug-ins and instruments with these early "underpowered" processors... Virtual instruments were promising, but I was still relying mainly on my tone modules... My first sampler was the Bitheadz Unity... Very exciting, but it was crashing my computer a lot...

Then I got a Dell Pentium 4, with 1 Gig of RAM under Windows XP... I did a lot of valuable work with that computer, and I'm still using it as a slave...

I built my last computer myself, buying all the components separately, and I don't regret getting into that journey...

A lot of work, a lot of pain, but how rewarding when you get the stuff done!


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