BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1969, I am a self taught music and computer addict and I set off in pursuit of fame and fortune at the age of 16 when I first picked up a cheap Satellite guitar and 10 watt Badger amp! Playing my way through The Shadows to Bon Jovi, stopping at Dire Straits on the way, I soon joined my first band [Chil Factor].

This started a 10 year journey of Pop, Rock and Funk in various bands from ‘The Lenches’ to ‘Gentlemen’s Quarterly’ and the ‘Space Rats’ who can be found here.

With not much return and definitely no fame I became disillusioned with the whole band thing!

So, I turned to my cheap Tascam 4-track tape recorder where I crafted my composing and production skills until finally taking the plunge into the world of computers. Free from the constraints of four tracks, things moved on at a pace when I finally threw himself into a 2 ½ year writing project for the free to download Deus Ex: ZODIAC PC game, which was a huge benefit to my music writing.

The years of toil and freebies soon paid off when Big Finish Productions took a liking to my music. I then had my first journey into the world of Sound Design and Post Production with a short audition piece [complete with Daleks], which was well received.

Since then I have worked on numerous productions for Big Finish, from Doctor Who to Sapphire & Steel, and continue to do so. I have also worked on the excellent ‘Space 1889’ audio’s for Noise Monster Production run by the fabulous John Ainsworth, and a couple of projects for Megropolis 1 Productions including a short film.

On top of that, I continue to write music for pleasure when I can, including the soon to be available ‘The Nameless MOD’.

For your information, this site was established as Orak’s Music Emporium in August 2002 when a number of people asked for the music from ZODIAC to be made available for download. Since then it has grown in to what is now SF Sounds and is a centrepiece for my Music & Professional work.

Skills

 
• Writing Music, Soundtracks & Songs
• Playing Guitar
• Playing Keyboards
• Proficient use of editing software such as Adobe Audition & Sony Soundforge
• Proficient Use of Cubase & Related Virtual Instruments
• Audio Post Production e.g. Dialogue Editing & Sound Design [adding Environment & Sound FX]
• CD & Audio Mastering
• Advanced Computer Skills
• I have also been known to build PC's, Edit Video, Design Web Sites [e.g. this one!] and re-master & Clean up old recordings

Main Equipment & Software

• 1978 Les Paul Standard Guitar
• Yamaha APX-4A Acoustic Guitar
• Stratocaster copy with Roland GK-2 MIDI Pick-up
• Axon AX50 Guitar MIDI Interface
• Roland A-37 MIDI Keyboard Controller
• Frontier Alphatrack & Korg Kontrol
• Saffire LE Audio Interface
• Yamaha MSP3 Near-field Active Monitors
• Roland SH-201 Synth (and she’s a beauty!)
• BenQ 24” Widescreen Monitor + HP 24"” Widescreen TFT Monitor
• Cubase 5
• Adobe Audition 3
• Quite a number of Virtual Instruments, Effects & Software Samplers from the likes of Native Instruments, EastWest / Quantum Leap, Zero G and Spectrasonics.