About Raygee & Raygeemusic
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| Raygee, 2012 |
In 1989 I had my own drums, I had a few lessons, but soon I could play much better than the teacher, so I quit and kept teaching myself^^. I played them just for fun or also 2 years in a band at school, when the drummer wasn't available. In this band I mainly played the piano and the keyboards (Pop and Rock music). After playing the drums to Rock and Heavy Metal for a while, I later had to sell my drums in 1993 unfortunately for space reasons.
I got more and more interested in listening and playing Pop and Rock; as much I love playing the piano, as much it was and still is a cool thing for me playing a keyboard/synthesizer when the sound doesn't fade after touch ;-) I played so many Rock and Pop songs on my old piano (it still exists), but so often I missed the non-fading sounds. I mean, you can't play f.e. Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" with fading sound ;-)
But there's a lot of music I do need a piano for, or at least a synthesizer with piano or e-piano sound. F.e. I love to play pieces like Marvin Hamlisch's "One", which chords and everything else I figured out myself and added some extra notes for playing it much more complex. Or Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade", which I've re-arranged to a more jazzy and faster version (I figured out the chords etc. by myself, too, I always do); I've practiced it for months and even years and could play it even while sleeping ;-) Both of mentioned pieces were a real challenge for me, it was a lot of work, but I had some fun also, of course :-) I also love to play some other pieces f.e. from Glenn Miller, Jerry Goldsmith or Tschaikowsky, as well as pieces from Supertramp, Herb Alpert (I also re-arranged "A Taste Of Honey" to a more jazzy e-piano version), and so many others. I'm also a big Bossa Nova fan; it's hard to figure out some chords, but it's doable. I admire Astrud Gilberto, and I also sing a lot myself. :-)
Anyway, in one of the classical concerts in the 80's I also played the percussions (besides the piano), this was one of just a few pieces in this concert that some musicians played together (instead of the single performances), some on the stage, some others in the first row, it was really a great sound, I remember.
I continue playing the piano, mostly Rock and Pop, sometimes classical music. I didn't have my own Synthesizer/Keyboard these times, but I played somewhere else. And 1996, a half year after I had my son, I bought my own Synthesizer, this was the Korg N364 :-) The first about 4 years I recorded my own pieces within the built-in sequencer, which wasn't so easy to handle. In 2000 a friend gave me his old Atari computer and Cubase 3 (later 2, the other one made some trouble in the Atari) on diskette, this was a great thing, so I finally had the chance to record AND edit the single midi tracks much more exactly than before.
In 2000 I became a big fan of "Space Night" (a television program at night here in Germany, mostly with pictures/movies from space, accompanied by Electronic and Ambient music from the label "Elektrolux"), which has influenced my own music style a lot, it became slowlier, and also better after a few years practicing ;-) Earlier I also got more and more interested in Techno and Trance, I'm still a big fan of the '93 - '99 Techno Classics.
So I kept playing and recording with the Atari til 2003 (or 2004), then I finally had a PC, and also another Cubase (VST 32, I still use it). The Korg N364 unfortunately found its end of being playable in 2005/2006, some controller, buttons and also 2 keys didn't work anymore, it was a horrible trip for me not being able to actually play it anymore, on good days it's only programmable, so I had to quit for a while.
In the end of 2006 I had a new "baby", this is the Roland Juno-G :-) Also the Korg is still living here (^^), in case I have to re-record something (often I already had to). But for all fresh pieces from 2006 to now I only use the Roland. No samples, no other audio or midi, just my hands and the Roland (ok, sometimes my voice), track by track, edit in Cubase if necessary ;) Even f.e. the fast part/track that you can hear in the beginning from "Streicher" I played myself, but in contrast to older Korg/built-in-sequencer pieces I now create patterns after a while playing and repeat them ;-) I also love playing a kind of "flying hi-hat" (I named a piece after this also, because of this effect), when I set a specific time for the echos (using Korg I had to calculate it by myself, in Roland the right time setting comes automatically with the tempo) I play with and against the echo, this creates this "flying" effect. Melodies in pieces f.e. like "Juno" are improvised except in the end-part I repeated the part from the beginning. Also my voice track in "Ohne Worte" is one recording, I've tried it once before without recording just to find out if my voice could fit into this piece ;-) In "Space Ocean" and in "The Cosmo Groove RMX" I sang 5 voice tracks. A special Raygeemusic style are the pitched chords in some of my pieces.
The name "Raygee"/"Raygeemusic" I invented/created in 2002, but I'll keep the reason's secret. ;-)
Besides music I'm doing a lot of other things, like taking photos (landscapes, cities, close-ups, etc., but no people), creating videos (music videos and others), creating 2D and 3D computer graphics and animations, f.e. with Apophysis, Bryce, Terragen, FotoMorph, Corner-A Artstudio, XaoS, the old Photoshop Elements, and some more.
In 2011 I started modding for TES III: Morrowind. The island is bigger than Solstheim. I built some new places that don't look like original Morrowind places, I put tons of new stuff into this plugin so there're almost no original meshes or textures. There are 13 completely different places, a few ports/harbours, two big parks, some lakes within the island, some woods, of course a big castle, and so much more. I guess I'll finish it in another year or maybe later, it's really much to do, but it's worth it.
So, well, that's it for now. :-)
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