The Himalayas – My first original composition from 2001
In 2000, I was studying at the University of Wisconsin. It was the era of Napsters and AOL. High-Speed Internet via DSL was new. In Madison, a small company, Sound Forge, made professional audio and video editing software. As a student, I had access to the software at lower prices. I ended up purchasing Sound Forge, Acid, and Vegas from them. That started my foray into composing my own music.
Acid primarily helped me edit and arrange the music I was putting together. After getting familiar with the tool, I purchased the loops, which were used to stitch it together. Acid also has a very powerful editor as well as looping features to fine-tune what you want to do. There was one hiccup, I needed to create some underlying pieces to put the whole thing together. That’s when I came across another tool – Magix. It is essentially a MIDI editor that can be used to create the pieces you wanted. I was not at all familiar with tablature or writing sheet music back then, so I used my ear. I had to learn MIDI). With these two tools, I was able to put many pieces together. Using my old IBM Thinkpad running Windows ME (yes, I had that version). Here is one of the first pieces of music I composed and arranged.
It is called The Himalayas. When I was working on it in 2001, I was thinking of mountains – tall and majestic; the sounds I used and created reminded me of them. The highest mountain range in the world. The place where the temperatures drop way below what humans can endure. Survival becomes a challenge, yet life sustains under such harsh conditions. Take a deep breath and join on a ride that traverses through the Great Himalayan Range and appreciates the sheer geographic diversity – from the verdant, forested valleys to the tropical jungles. Welcome to the roof of the world.
ACID is an incredibly powerful tool that can help you create pieces of music that are truly unique. You’ll be able to experiment with different sounds and effects to create a soundscape that is unlike anything else out there.
JPS Nagi
Sept. 7, 2022
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