Oh Boy, I feel really weird introducing myself here. At least one person knows me (Hi Squids!!!)
In the daytime (and a lot of the night too), I am a research scientist/scientific programmer at a small San Diego biotech. In my freetime I am a 100% amateur keyboardist/computer-music guy. About 6 months ago, I started fulfilling a lifelong dream of setting up a home studio. Thanks to soft synths like Squids' SonicSynth, I have a passable studio now (good software, terrible hardware) where I am now trying to master the craft of composition, arranging and mixing.
Passable keyboard player. Taught myself harmonium when I was a kid (yep, from India here) and years later taught myself how to play chords. Have about 1 months worth of formal jazz piano training and am finally getting back to teaching myself theory and jazz piano. If I can fulfil even a third of my musical dreams, I can die a happy man. One dream where I have great hopes is mixing. In past, some of the most fun I had was being in charge of a mixing console of stage productions in college. Now if only I could get a drum mix to sound right
My musical styles (still trying to identify "my" voice) include Pink Floyd/Marillion-style prog rock, some Steely Dan style Jazz-Rock and in recent weeks I have been exposed to Bill Laswell's projects, leading to an interest in Indian-oriented D 'n B.
As I said my hardware is nothing to write home about, but on the software side I use
Host - Cubase 5.1 (sometimes Orion Pro)
Wave Editing/Mastering - Cooledit2000 w. Studio Plug-in
Soft Synths (in rough order of usage)
LinPlug RM III
SonicSynth
LinPlug daOrgan
and much less use
Speedsoft VSampler 2.75
Triangle I and II
JX16
Cheezemachine
Cheers
prog