EIT Artist, Ted Nicholas Bio

Ted Nicholas
I grew up in Flint, Michigan, in the 60s and 70s. I've been a musician and artist all of my life. Musically, I started out very young with piano, then in grade school I played Cello and Violin. I enjoyed learning and playing classical music in the school orchestra. In my teens I taught myself to play a 12 string guitar. In the 70s I was inspired by groups like Led Zeppelin, Moody Blues, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Yes, and many others.
I was born with a progressive eye disease "Retinitus Pigmentosa," my eyesight getting gradually worse every year. By my late teens I was legally blind and playing my music "by ear." I'm now approaching 50 years of age and I have very little eyesight left.
About 20 years ago, I started exploring computers. I began with an Apple II, 64k system that had to be connected to a black and white TV for a monitor. As technology progressed I upgraded whenever I could afford to, hoping to set up a system that would allow me to read and write after my eyesight was completely gone. I've gained much experience with both Mac and Windows systems in the process. Now-a-days, most people consider me to be a tech-geek. I've written tech-articles for several different publications in the technology and educational fields.
During my quest for the "Star Trek" computer of my dreams, I discovered "virtual instruments" and digital audio engineering. With today's current computers, I can set up a complete recording studio on my laptop. I now devote most of my time to writing lyrics, playing, composing, recording and mixing music on a Mac laptop computer. When I use virtual instruments, I don't go for the "computer generated" music, I compose every note and measure myself. I like to lay down a guitar track, then add in some drums and bass. This is usually enough to get me started on lyrics. After the vocals are recorded, I usually add any "fill" instruments, strings, additional guitars and synths. Using a multi-track software program, it is very easy to create my own songs. I play/compose every instrument, sing the main vocals and harmony tracks, I've even been known to be my own back-up singers. Doing all of this into a computer has allowed me to go way beyond what could be done in any "standard" recording studio. Plus, it's just down-right fun!
I spent 20+ years living in the ski areas of Colorado, hiking and gathering inspiration from the Rocky Mountains. I now live on Beaver Island in the middle of Lake Michigan, with my loving, very understanding wife, "Pam." We have a small cabin in the woods and love the remote island life-style.
A small group of friends and I are now setting up a local recording studio to expand our music capabilities and hopefully produce for other artists as well.