| About S.J. Karam | S.J. Karam (born Salim Karam, Lebanon, October 1965) started his connection with music when he began learning classical guitar while still 10 years old. He studied guitar for a total of 2 years, but was always interested in electronic music, inspired mostly by Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Kraftwerk, and others. So he started to learn keyboards using a small Casio PT-1 in 1979. Meanwhile, S.J. was playing English songs and singing on his guitar. In parallel, S.J. made upgrade and addition to his gear whenever he could, buying a Casio organ with auto-accompaniment, and started to compose simple electronic tunes, then a Gem keyboard with Oriental scales, which introduced him to Oriental music playing. S.J. studied Computers & Communication Engineering in the American University of Beirut, and still works as an IT professional, but his IT vocation coupled with his musical experimentation helped him to get acquainted with MIDI and computer music in 1992, when he got his first "real" synthesizer / music workstation, the Korg M1. The M1 was instrumental in some compositions that S.J. has made, and the first (released) album "Love Letter" that he composed in 1993 - 1994 was dedicated to his wife (then fiancee), Lilian, was fully done using the M1 with some external effects. The album was re-worked and re-recorded in 2012, using the soft version of the Korg M1 (courtesy of the Korg Legacy Collection). Over the years S.J. worked on many types of music. While "Love Letter" is a soft ambient instrumental album with clear electronica inspirations in many places, he composed a series of pop songs with his sister Lina as lyrics writer called "Into Your Heart" (not released yet). As of September 2013, S.J. released his second album "Infinite Loop", an Electronic music concept album, highly inspired by Jean Michel Jarre's style, in addition to other electronic music pioneers. In 2016, S.J. released his 3rd album "Simplicity", also an Electronic music album. Notably, this one was fully produced on mobile devices (iPhone / iPad) with the famous Korg Gadget application. Currently, S.J. works in his private home studio. His gear currently includes the following: -Krog Kronos 2 - 88 Keys -Korg PA800 Professional Arranger -Korg KingKorg Synth / Vocoder -Squier (by Fender) Stratocaster electric guitar -Boss GT-8 guitar digital effects processor pedal -Samik accoustic guitar -Yamaha spanish guitar -Cakewalk / Roland A800 Pro Midi Controller -Windows 7 PC (64-bit Core i7 processor) -Line 6 UX2 Audio Recording Interface -Cakewalk Sonar X2 Producer -Korg Legacy Collection Soft Synths (M1, Polysix, Mono/Poly, MS-20, Wavestation) -Arturia V Collection 3.0 & 6.0 (Jupiter 8V, Minimoog V, Prophet V, Oberheim SEM V, ARP 2600 V, Moog Modular V, Wurlitzer V, Spark V...) -Alchemy Player -Synapse Dune CM -IK Multimeida Sonik Synth 2 -LEM 8-track Mixer with DSP effects -Zoom R16 Digital Recorder / Mixer -Alesis Studio Monitors Mobile Studio Gear Include: -Apple Macbook Pro 15" -Logic Pro X -Arturia V Collection 6.0 -iPad 5th Gen (2017) 128 Gb -Korg microKEY2 AIR Wireless MIDI Controller -iRig Keys (IK Multimedia mobile MIDI controller for iPad / iPhone & even USB) -Steinber Cubasis DAW -Korg Gadget Mobile Synth Studio -Korg iM1 -Korg Module -Korg iPolysix -Korg iMS-20 -Korg iWavestation -Arturia iMini -Arturia iSEM -Alchemy Mobile Studio -NLog Synth Pro -Korg iKaossilator -Korg iElectribe -SampleTank Free... While music is still considered as a hobby for S.J., he wishes that one day it would become a full-time occupation because he loves it. But first things in his life come his worship then his family life... |
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