"Thinking back to my first 4 tracks a funny image comes to mind. Remember when you first learned to ride a bike and you had those darn plastic training wheels? Well with my first 2-wheeler BMX bike, those came standard. With the wobbly plastic wheels in place, I could definitely get going on that red and black bike, but you knew that there was something more. Do you remember that moment? Do you remember the moment when you rode on two wheels by yourself for the first time? I know I do. I can still picture my Dad running behind me giving me one final push off the back of my seat and then away I went. Free.

Once you're riding that two wheeler the way it was meant to, you always look back and remember those rickety training wheels. 'experience' worked the same way musically when I completed it. Up until this point, I had been piecing the puzzle together. Transmission 2 6 01 gave me the opportunity to track my first song. I tried a little compression and eq with Rave me as well as experimenting with Orion, and this continued into Mind Stopper. MainStreet synergized my working with my hardware and software as well as gave me the opportunity to write constructively. With 'experience' I just felt like the practice was over. It was time to ride and be free.

Just like my Dad helping to guide me while I tried to ride on two wheels for the first time, traveling to a more mature sound came with lots of help. That journey really was made possible by my mentor, Steve Pendulum (a.k.a. Dirty Bass, a.k.a. Hard Funk). This techno-based producer from the UK always liked my songs compositionally, but he really brought my production quality to a whole new level. 'experience' was the first track that I worked just as hard on the production as I did on the composition using his guidelines for mixing and mastering to generate that clean and professional sound. In the end, we were both very happy with the results, and I had learned so many valuable lessons that I still use in my productions today.

A good production is only as good as the composition that it reinforces, though, and this track was wholy inspired by 3 notes. Hear that lead synth that floats into the mix at 00:40 and descends down the keyboard with three fateful notes? Well from that, 'experience' was borne, and I'm not talking about just the song. I'm talking about experience on all levels of music production. That lead synth is an e-effect original patch created on the XP-30. Once I had tweaked the sound to its current form, I descended down the keyboard automatically with the first three notes that you hear. The remainder of the notes followed shortly thereafter. The pad really brought that lead synth sound out nicely and warmed the track up as well. I did want to maintain a groove with the track, though, so I pulled a baseline TB-303 patch off the XP-30's deck and got dirty with it. Add a 4-2-the-floor kick and moving hat rhythm to the mix and you're nearly experiencing the track.

Now I do say nearly because the interlude that starts at 02:09 really let me continue with my goal as maturing as an artist and producer. First off, it let me created the sound fx and percussion sounds that you hear before the track transitions back to the main in this section. This type of original sound creation from leads to percs to fx would become the norm for me on the rest of my tracks to date. It really became my style of producing since when I write music I hear both the notes and the sound that plays them.

When I listen to the track today, I always feel nostalgic. Floating through the ambience of the pad while still bouncing along with the lead synth and baseline just walks me through the memories and fondness of my first 4 tracks. I will always have those images to keep with me for sure, but in the end there's nothing like taking off the training wheels and letting experience shine through."

e-effect, 11/18/07 (1st edit on 11/24/07)