Undoubtedly an oft overlooked part of the video making process is the audio. It is common for it to be an afterthought and only a small percentage of effort is placed into it compared to the overall project.

It is also fair to say that one of the most satisfying parts of making a video is creating your own musical score; not using tools such as Sonicfire, ACID or other applications, but actually writing and recording a piece you have created.

My late older brother was a muso on the Australian scene of some note (pardon the pun) in the 70s and early 80s as a bass player, and was a regular on Channel 9 in the late 60s. My younger brother is a novelist, journalist and musician – he also writes and composes CD soundtracks to his books (www.graemhague.com.au) and is an accomplished sound engineer.

Moi? In earlier days, I wanted to learn to play guitar, but due to an impatient streak I have, I didn’t want to sit and learn chords and practice 3 hours a day for the rest of my life. I wanted to play like Steve Howe, or John McLaughlin or Neil Schon NOW!

As a consequence, I didn’t. Instead, I went down the path of live sound engineering and did that full time for 5 or 6 years. This was in the analogue era of Jeff St. John, Doug Parkinson, Sebastian Hardie and other famous bands at the time but mainly long forgotten now. Dials and meters I understand, but today’s systems utterly baffle me I confess.

A few years ago though, I decided to have another crack; I have a good mate at Casio and he suggested an appropriate keyboard to buy and practice with – a CTK800. Importantly, it had a USB interface that supported MIDI, and I figured this was my avenue to being another Rick Wakeman or Keith Emerson. I also purchased one of the myriad “Teach Yourself” books and set aside an hour a night for three weeks to see how far I would get. Amazingly (to me!), I was playing two handed with chords within ten days; this goes to prove anyone at any age (I am 55) can do it. As my brother later said, music is simply mathematics when all said and done.

The CASIO also has a multitude of built in instruments as well as a learning system via the on-board LCD plus a mixture of other features – including (ugh) a Karaoke setting! It is great value for money in my opinion. An optional – but I feel must have – is a stand for it, but at $20 or so from any music store, this should not be an issue.

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com