Hello IRD!
My name is Kevin Davis, I’m based in the Twin Cities Metro in Minnesota. I am coming off of a music hiatus, and ready to come back to this world! I used to be on the recording review forums when I started, and made it here. I started in my parents garage. I received formal training at Minneapolis Media, in the old Flyte Time Studios (R.I.P.) facility. It had amazingly talented staff, miss you all!
I am sort of starting fresh from scratch per-say. I just obtained an M1 Mac mini, ready to be a beta tester with Pro Tools and Logic Pro (happy cringe!*). I will record, mix, edit bands and solo artists, and write and produce music for albums, singles, and for film scoring. I will do on-location sound, and live sound. I am hunting for gainful employment, preferably with studio or A/V work, or something music and sound-related, I am looking forward to everything opening up! Currently starting a project studio at home to compose. Looking forward to continuing, and being in a community again.
Welcome here! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts about the new Mac Mini. My house is full of Macs dating back to 2005. The M1 is still elusive in this household, but everything I hear about it tells me that it is a game changer!
Hi Kevin I have a daughter and grandkids in Minneapolis. Was there for Christmas for a couple of weeks. We go many times a year from Michigan.
I hope you put out some songs for a bash. Welcome
Welcome Kevin, from another RR veteran! (I was called fHumble fHingaz back then). Glad you found us! Things sure have changed quite a bit since then, even on the music and technology fronts. The affordability of good solid recording equipment seems to be quite good compared to what it was 15 or 20 years ago. The basics of good recording and mixing practice are still the same, of course.
Anyhow, welcome (back), and we look forward to talking about audio and music related stuff!
Welcome Kevin! I too was on RR for its last couple of years (joined in '13). Good to have you with us!
It’s always nice to see new members.
Looking forward to hearing your music and reading your posts!
Welcome. I am yet another RR ex-member. Can’t recall the year I joined. I’m thinking 2012 which is when the crazy 12 month mixing contest was run (still the best thing I ever did for my music/mixing development).
Look forward to seeing you around.
Hi Kevin. Thanks for the writeup. Thats an impressive amount of things you can do. Welcome aboard! My ears are perked up at film scores. Interested in hearing some of your productions!
Welcome! It will interesting to follow the journey of your musical rebirth. I seem to remember a “Special_K” member on RR, was that you? Everything seems like a lifetime ago at this point in history.
That could be a globally relevant New Year’s resolution to be sure. 
Yep, sounds about right. I’m pretty sure that 12 month mixathon was from March 2012 to February 2013. I know I have the mix contest submission files somewhere which would have the dates on them. I joined RR in May 2010 but didn’t really participate (for some reason) until the Reindeer Ruckus mix contest in late 2011. Do I have a good memory or what? 
Yeah that sounds right. We did renovations that took 6 months, in which my third child was born part way through when we lived in the rental. That made for testing times!
I recognized your user name immediately. We definitely were in the same boards. I wonder how Brandon is doing these days. I made sure to download all the content of Killer Home Recording, thought that was cool he made that public. I am looking forward to (and dreading) the converter interface shopping. I like affordable. If I can’t get my old gear to play nice, I am going to get some type of USB interface to hold me over until I can justify a Thunderbolt system. I need to get some new budget near-field monitors, back-up HDs, cables, some webspace, etc. At least this time around, I’m not completely clueless.
I wasn’t Special K, I don’t remember off the top what user name I was, I’ll remember. Loved the mixing contests! The holiday-themed ones were always fun to follow submissions.
Hi Kevin ,good to see you here .
I notice you have an M1 Mac, so that is a great start. Apogee hardware is probably the most rock-solid mate for the M1 at present, but it is pretty pricey. We are really spoiled when it comes to choice of relatively affordable monitors and interfaces these days. The quality available for the dollars spent is pretty decent compared with ye olden days.
You might find this thread on EarShutz to be useful when it comes to keeping up to date with M1 Compatibility:
I’m actually in the process of upgrading my interface/computer. I actually have a UA Apollo Twin X Quad thunderbolt interface, but I’m still waiting on delivery of my new M1 Macbook Pro before I can use it! Not looking forward to the inevitable software hassles with the changeover, but I am definitely looking forward to the upgrade in horsepower!
I actually just had contact with Brandon last week. I didn’t ask too many questions and wouldn’t pass any info on here without permission anyway, but he said he was doing well.
I’ll be doing the same this year, interface and PC. I am, however, looking forward to stripping back the number of plugins I have installed to just the ones I go to regularly.
Cool… yeah, I’ll definitely be stripping back on the plugins too. Since I’m changing platforms (PC to Mac OS) there will definitely be a need to simplify.
Good news on the job front. I have had 3 interviews with Mediacom for a Broadband specialist technician, and moving on to the background check. It’s not a studio job, but it’s good experience, and it’s a solid job. I still plan to work at this evenings and days off. We will see where things are this summer and fall. Might have a Halloween live sound gig already lined up.
Great to have another RR refuge with us!
This seems to be a smaller group of very talented and helpful folks who are very dedicated.
Keep us all posted on your exploits, and welcome to the party!
So quick update, I started a full-time position as a broadband technician, so I’ve been training on that. In my downtime I haven’t been on here very much, I have been reading Brandon’s Killer Home Recording. I must say it has been eye-opening, to say the least. As a side note, all of the links to the audio files are broken, so if anyone has these, could you link me to your server? I was offered an independent post-production job for a private investigator YouTube show that should be looking at summer to fall. I’m moving in 3 weeks and will start building a basement project studio. Trying to prioritize time with my wife, it’s going to be a busy time.